Priceless Paris: Rugby World Cup Finals

Bienvenue to Burgundy! It’s market day here in Beaune, so we join the locals coming from nearby villages to peruse foraged mushrooms, barrels of cured olives, sausages direct from the charcuterie farms, and even the odd table of antiques. Next is lunch at Château de Gilly, a former residence of Cistercian monks dating back to the 14th century.

After lunch, we venture into wine history at Clos de Vougeot, a 12th-century, monk-built chateau majestically situated in the country’s largest walled vineyard. It’s also home of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an 85-year-old fraternity of Burgundy wine lovers who award the best local wines with their seal of approval. We visit nearby Domaine Rion to see how a more modern family-run estate operates. On our tasting and tour, we’ll sample their precise, complex vintages—and finish off with some of their earthy, gourmet truffles. We’ll end our first day with dinner at the intimate Le Caveau des Arches, a Michelin-starred restaurant in a 15th-century wine cellar. This is a Beaune welcome as authentic as it gets.

We kick off the next part of our trip by taking it all in. Start the morning soaring over the Burgundy countryside and getting a preview of where we’re headed from a whole new perspective. Our hot-air balloon ride gives us panoramic views of historic vineyards, charming houses and vast, clear blue skies. As we gently touch back on the ground, we’ll cheers with a drink to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We return to Beaune where we can relax or explore the city for the rest of the morning.

This afternoon, we head to Hospices de Beaune, a 15th-century Gothic hospital-turned-museum. Its colorful, sparkling roof and mesmerizing architecture are symbols of Burgundy itself. We’ll enjoy a tour and tasting in its ancient wine cellars. Dinner tonight will be at 21 Boulevard, another unforgettable Michelin-starred experience tucked in another of Beaune’s stone-clad wine cellars.

We’ve seen it by air. Today we discover Burgundy’s countryside charm by land. We cruise Côte de Beaune on e-bikes, climbing up gentle hills and cycling on e-bikes between rows of grapevines and by hamlets of red-roofed stone cottages. We naturally finish with a luxurious countryside picnic featuring a full spread of regional delights. We then head to Joseph Drouhin, a fourth-generation estate known for its perfectly balanced, lusciously complex wines, for a private tour and tasting. Tonight we’ll be provided with a list of recommendations to explore and eat dinner on our own in Beaune.

Today we achieve the pinnacle of DIY gastronomy. We head by foot into hazel, hornbeam and black pine forests to root out the most special of fungus: the black truffle. Digging in the soft soil this morning—with an enthusiastic truffle-hunting dog in tow—will inspire plenty of laughter and connection to nature. After a lunch of fungi-inspired delights, we return to Beaune to taste the rich Burgundy flavors of six emblematic wines at Maison Jadot and get a private visit their barrel-filled cellars, Beaune’s most ancient.

Dinner will be another private—and grand—affair at the majestic Chateau Meursault. Its cellars date back to the 12th century and hold 800,000 bottles of wine! We finish with a low-key ramble around its beautiful, fountain-filled grounds.

We continue our grand tour of France by heading to Paris. On the way, we’ll stop in Giverny. This surreal Normandy village carpeted in greenery and flowers was home to Claude Monet for the majority of his life. If you’ve seen a Monet painting, you’ve already scratched the surface of Giverny. A studier of the Impressionist movement and lifelong fan of Claude himself, Bion will be sure to point out some hotspots along our tour of the famed artist’s home and gardens. After lunch at a local Giverny favorite, we’ll continue on to the City of Lights. We’ll have the evening to explore the city under a blanket of twinkling stars Van Gogh would be proud of.

Get ready for a full-day exploration of the exquisite Parisian city. From art to food to river cruising, we’ll cover it all! First, we’ll some of the sites that makes Paris lauded as one of the world’s premier art destinations. We’ll see more works from Impressionist and post-Impressionist masters wandering under the gargantuan arched skyline roof at Musee d’Orsay, stroll the streets of Montmartre, and discover why visitors fall in love with this city time and time again. We’ll have a traditional Parisian bistro lunch and, in the evening, set out on the Seine River for our unforgettable farewell dinner. Aboard our private yacht, we’ll toast under a setting sun, then have a glamorous dinner drifting by bridges lined in lights twinkling as bright as the stars.

We bid each other adieu today. After breakfast at the hotel, we pack up our wines and start the voyage home with our new friends and even more memories from this unreal week in Paris and Burgundy. Bon voyage!