France: Paris, the Loire & Provence
The capital, the châteaux and the south in early summer. Ateliers, the great gardens and the markets of Provence.
France holds together best in early summer and again at the vintage. From May into June the gardens are full, the Loire is green and the Provençal light has arrived without the July heat and the August closures; September brings the harvest and the empty-cellar hospitality that goes with it. Either window suits this trip; the choice is gardens or grapes.
Fourteen nights, from the city to the south by way of the river. Paris to begin, then the château country of the Loire, then Provence and the Luberon, with the option of the Riviera to finish. It is a road trip in its best sense once you leave Paris, the point of the Loire and the Luberon being the driving between the villages, not the arriving.
Paris is what you make it privately: the Louvre or the Musée d'Orsay before opening, an afternoon with a couturier or a perfumer, and a chef's table that is hard to reach. In the Loire it is Chambord and Chenonceau, the gardens at Villandry and the wines of Sancerre and Vouvray. In Provence it is the hill villages of the Luberon, Roman Arles and the Pont du Gard, the markets, and the Châteauneuf-du-Pape cellars, with the lavender in flower if the timing is right in late June.
The flying is for the long jump and the car for everything after. Paris Le Bourget is the finest business-aviation airport in Europe and the natural arrival; Tours serves the Loire and Avignon or Marseille the south. From there it is a car and a driver, because the château and village country is the kind of place you stop when you feel like it.
Among our preferred hotel partners we use Le Bristol and Cheval Blanc in Paris, a Loire château of the Relais & Châteaux kind, and La Bastide de Gordes or Villa La Coste in Provence.
Ask your advisor about the Louvre or an atelier privately, a dinner inside a Loire château, and the lavender window if you want Provence in flower.