2 Weeks in England & French Wine Country

Fly overnight on British Airways Club World and land at Heathrow in the morning, stopping by the arrivals lounge. With early check-in requested, you can refresh before exploring London.

The Rosewood is the right base for this trip: it sits in Holborn but puts you within easy walking distance of Soho and Mayfair.

Spend your first afternoon doing exactly that. Walk to Mayfair, stop at Ducksoup for their lunch special, and let yourself get over the jet lag slowly.

Grab an early nightcap at Scarfe's Bar at The Rosewood, one of the best hotel bars, maybe in the world.

After a morning workout in the hotel gym and complimentary breakfast at Holborn Dining Room, walk the South Bank to the Tate Modern or London Eye.

Stop by the basement-level Black Book for a glass before dinner at Fonda in the evening. Owned by two Master Sommeliers, ask to see the handwritten menu in a black book. If you get lucky and the sun is out, you’ll see crowds spilling out of pubs for street pints.

An early-morning Blacklane car to Heathrow, a short train or flight (which may be necessary if its a bank holiday), and a TGV to Dijon gets you into Arbois by mid-afternoon. Check into the incredible La Closerie guest house.

The next three days are spent in the Jura, with its oxidative whites and village-scale producers who’ve been farming the same hillsides for generations. A visit to the Comte museum is a must-do!

I joined a small-group wine tour and came back with a full list of producers, restaurants, and villages that I’m now building into client itineraries. If wine is part of why you travel, this is worth the trip on its own.

After three days in the Jura, head to Burgundy, where a single appellation can change everything you thought you understood about Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. But this isn’t about big names—it’s about the people committed to making wine in sustainable ways and local relationships built on trust.

Highlights include a wine and cheese tasting with the French-American woman-owned Burgundy Cheese Experience.

Stop by Mon Millesme and head downstairs for a stellar old wine collection. They can ship wine home for you!

Lyon is the food capital of France by most accounts due to the density of serious restaurants, the traditional bouchons, the Halles Paul Bocuse. Sitting right in the center of France, it’s often the stopping point before heading south or to the mountains.

Upon arriving, take a silk painting class at one of the last few silk workshops left in Lyon. Then head to dinner at a proper bouchon on your first night. If they don’t serve andouillette or praline pie, skip it!

Use a day for the Beaujolais region, which is a short train ride north and consistently underestimated. The landscape is stunning and the wine is more than the Beaujolais Nouveau, you know.

On your last full day, do a food tour of the Halles Paul Bocuse in the morning to learn about the women who opened the bouchons and trained Chef Bocuse. Walk through the traboules of Old Lyon in the afternoon and end on Fourvière Hill with a stunning view over the city.

Of course, no trip to France is complete without a little time in Paris! Two nights in Paris at the end of a trip like this hits differently than Paris at the start. You’ve already had the wine, the countryside, the slower pace. If you are a return traveler, arriving in the city feels like coming home.

La Fantaisie is a beautifully restored 19th-century hotel in the ninth that feels personal in a way big luxury hotels rarely do. The neighborhood is walkable with three pharmacies within a few blocks for your skincare stock-up.

Soho House Paris is nearby and you can wander around with views of Sacré-Cœur on the horizon. At night, head up to the bar of La Fantaisie for Eiffel Tower views.