Luxury Food & Wine Vacations in France

Lyon has a fair claim to being the capital of French gastronomy, and it wears the title with a straight face rather than a fanfare. The city's bouchons, small, traditional restaurants built around slow-cooked, generous cooking, serve dishes like quenelles de brochet, tablier de sapeur, and salade lyonnaise much as they always have. Beyond the bouchons, Lyon holds one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in France, a legacy that runs back to Paul Bocuse and continues through the city's current generation of chefs. Les Halles de Lyon, the city's covered market, is worth a morning in its own right: cheesemongers, charcutiers, and pâtissiers laid out under one roof. Between meals, the Renaissance streets of Vieux Lyon and the Roman ruins above the city give the trip somewhere to walk it all off.

The South of France covers enough ground to justify a trip on its own, from the lavender and market towns of Provence to the seafood-driven cooking of the Mediterranean coast. Provençal markets, Aix-en-Provence and Uzès among the best, sell tapenade, olive oil, and herbs picked that morning, and form the backbone of a cuisine built on tomatoes, garlic, and whatever the sea has offered up. Provence's vineyards work almost entirely in rosé, pale, dry, and at its best drunk within sight of the vines that made it. Bandol and the Luberon are the names to know, home to family estates where a private tasting often means little more than a cool cellar, a view over the rows, and a glass poured at exactly the right temperature.

Along the coast, fishing towns such as Cassis and Saint Tropez turn lunch into the main event, tables laid steps from the water and menus that rarely stray from the boats moored alongside. Follow the les Calanques, a protected coastal landscape, from Cassis to Marseille where you can savor the bouillabaisse and other seafood inspired fare.

Paris and romance might be synonymous, but the French capital city is also surprisingly child-friendly. Hotels will welcome your kids with open arms. They are stocked with all the amenities you could need, ply little ones with gifts, and have carefully thought-out menus enfant. Games and rides can be found all around the city, whether that’s puppets and slides at the Jardin du Luxembourg, a vintage fairground in Jardin d’Acclimatation, or hopscotch and ping pong at the pedestrianized Parc Rives de Seine.

There are family-friendly tours and scavenger hunts at famous landmarks and galleries, creative workshops to join, immersive art exhibitions, and cookery lessons plenty. You could spend two to three days or a week on a family trip to Paris, depending on what you would like to see. And just forty minutes from the city center, Disneyland Paris makes an easy and magical addition to any Paris itinerary — a day or two among the rides and shows before returning to the capital or heading to the country for a quieter pace. Scott Dunn will put together a bespoke itinerary to strike the balance between you and your kids’ wishes.

Paris and romance might be synonymous, but the French capital city is also surprisingly child-friendly. Hotels will welcome your kids with open arms. They are stocked with all the amenities you could need, ply little ones with gifts, and have carefully thought-out menus enfant. Games and rides can be found all around the city, whether that’s puppets and slides at the Jardin du Luxembourg, a vintage fairground in Jardin d’Acclimatation, or hopscotch and ping pong at the pedestrianized Parc Rives de Seine.

There are family-friendly tours and scavenger hunts at famous landmarks and galleries, creative workshops to join, immersive art exhibitions, and cookery lessons plenty. You could spend two to three days or a week on a family trip to Paris, depending on what you would like to see. And just forty minutes from the city center, Disneyland Paris makes an easy and magical addition to any Paris itinerary — a day or two among the rides and shows before returning to the capital or heading to the country for a quieter pace. Scott Dunn will put together a bespoke itinerary to strike the balance between you and your kids’ wishes.