France and Spain gastronomy and wine!

France | Sep 28 - Oct 24, 2026

Paris - Mgallery Echiquier Paris Opera - paid ourselves ~$475 Euro/night)-4 nights. Nice, tiny, but just okay.

Seine River Dinner cruise - excellent first day tour, food was good, singer for entertainment. It would have been better to have had window table for better view.
Louvre - self guided with headphones was great
Versailles - Impressive tour, October was not great time of year for the gardens
Moulin Rouge - did not attend (poor reviews from others); attended Paradis Latin Show - was excellent and food was very good.
Pastry Tour - Fantastic!!
Side Car ride around Paris to Sacre Coeur Montmartre. Excellent.
Wine tasting at Louvre Cellars . Wine was not great for Paris.
Reims, Champagne (2 nights) - B&B Le Clos Corbier - very nice, large room. Lively and quiet. Too isolated and no restaurant/food within walking distance, uber was $60 euro into Reims for dinner! After a day of Champagne tasting, I did not wish to drive.

Champagne wine tour w/Thomas (3 wineries) - 1) Veuve Clicquot 5*, 2) Collard-Milesi w/ lunch 3.5* 3) Lancelot-Royer 4*

Strasbourg, Alsace (2 nights) - Hotel Du Dragon (good hotel, central). Great city! Great spatzle! Nice wine bar (Terres a Vin)

wine tour with Jerome (3 wineries) - 1) Wach winery - good wine, mediocre tour 4*, 2) Gilg- not great wine, poor tasting 3*, 3) Louis Sipp - good wine, good story

Beaune - (5 nights) (Ermitage de Corton, Chorey-Les-Beaune, Bourgogne, France - very nice B&B, large suite. Outskirts of Beaune (10km) and getting a taxi or Uber required a reservation or a potentially long wait. Other than the included breakfast, there was no food service other than full meal dinner and lunch. No coffee machine available in room.

Burgundy Wine Region Tour Operator: ( Emanuel ) France Intense tour company

Wineries: 1) Domaine Comte Senard Aloxe-Corton (8 tastings) 4*; 2) Maillard-Grivot (12 tastings) 5*;
Wine store - (5 tastings)
*** plus shared a bottle of wine at lunch and dinner
Great tour! A daunting number of wines tasted. Excellent quality!

Tours:
Hospices de Beaune - great private tour!
Mustard factory (on own) and could not gain access to the factory, only the store.

Side car tour - this was fun. Rode through the vineyards and had a glass of Kir Royal w/ gougeres!
Burgundy Cooking Experience - Fantastic day of cooking!! Made several dishes, then enjoyed a wonderful lunch. Great class! Highly recommend this class.

Dinner at La Table Du Square… Amazing!
Excellent Wine Bars: Le bout du monde (wine bar), L’arche des vins
Dinner at L’Ecrit Vin Beaune… great dinner.

Lyon (Le Phenix Hotel) 2 nights

Dinner at Le Boeuf d’Argent - great dinner and food presentation!
Beautiful historic centre
Secrets of Lyon’s Gastronomy food walking tour (good tour, just okay charcuterie, but excellent brioche dessert with red candy covered almonds), okay wine pairings

Bordeaux (Hotel Indigo Bordeaux) - 4 nights Oct 13-17
decent hotel, rooftop restaurant; awesome buffet breakfast!!

Discovered 2 great bars - Le Sobre, Bar de Vin

Chartrons, Bordeaux wine walking district food tour (3hrs) - tasted coffee, pastry, and something else; was not a great tour ☹️.
Saint-Emilion wine region tour 7 hr tour small group (incl picnic (mini van tour) - Ended up being a private tour! Went to 3 wineries, and had a lovely picnic lunch in the yard of one winery.
Day trip to Arcachon Bassin and Dune du Pilat. Was not a great tour. Sand dunes were pretty cool though . Went to an oyster restaurant and had disappointing wine ☹️.

River cruise - Would not recommend . Ambiance was rather cold (like a cafeteria), food was lousy, and the wine was just okay. The cruise in Paris was far better!

Madrid (Hotel Emperador) - 3 nights - very nice hotel, great lobby bar, nice rooftop bar/restaurant. Breakfast was included, and very good. A large hotel with some large tour groups which can make for morning elevator access waits and checkout chaos. Clearly they handle large groups frequently as it was very organized chaos at peak times.

Tapas Tour Oct 17 (really good, food was really good and plentiful); wine was just okay.
Private Madrid Winery tour (10-4pm) - Excellent tour, guide was amazing, winery tours were fantastic, and wine and snacks were great!
Royal Palace guided visit - great tour! Guide was excellent!
Flamenco and Tapas night - Great show!, but would not recommend the tapas.

Barcelona (4 nights) - Serras Barcelona Hotel - Magnificent in every way!!! The staff, the food, the bar, the restaurant, the service… all exceeding expectations! Very intimate hotel. The VERY best hotel!!!

Barcelona Market Tapas dinner Tour - Really good tour, food and wine were very good, food was plentiful.
Catamaran sunset dinner cruise - great cruise with live music ( guitar player) and very good food (intimate dinner on board)
Day trip to Montserrat and the Penedes region wine tasting region - Wonderful tour of Montserrat, and very nice winery Llopart Family Estates tour and tasting! Our tour guide was terrific! We were able to have lunch away from the crowds.

Transfers between airports and hotels were much appreciated. Drivers were competent and helpful with our luggage.

Alexia was instrumental in coordinating our travel and was attentive to our concerns and requests.