Burgundy with Kosta Browne

Bienvenue to Lyon! We’ll meet at our hotel and kick off the adventure with a walk in the city guided by a local historian. We’ll trace the hidden traboules and ochre courtyards of Vieux Lyon, where Renaissance facades lean toward cobbled lanes polished by time. Along the way, we’ll pause for one of the city’s small obsessions: pink pralines folded into delicate pastries, their almond crunch giving way to caramelized sugar.

Back at the hotel, the evening begins in the very best way for a trip with Kosta Browne: with wine tasting curated just for our group. Dinner follows just downstairs at a table set with the kind of cooking Lyon built its reputation on. Imagine thoughtful sauces, seasonal produce from nearby farms, and wines that carry the earth of the Rhône Valley. It’s the perfect way to start an incredible week together.

After a traditional Lyonnaise breakfast, we’ll make our way to the world’s most storied gourmet market: Les Halles Paul Bocuse. It’s the perfect way to start an incredible week together. Named after Lyon’s revered chef, this hall is a foodie’s haven. We’ll mingle with locals as we peruse fresh cheeses, foraged mushrooms, and even the odd table of antiques, tasting our way through its fifty-odd stalls.

The afternoon continues with a private cheese and wine pairing workshop, where regional styles and subtle affinities come into focus—salt, fat, acidity, and time working quietly together. After a pause back at the hotel to rest or enjoy the property, we reconvene for dinner at a charming bouchon. Imagine slow-braised meats, quenelles folded with cream, and deep red wines poured generously into small glasses.

Today, we make our way from Lyon to Beaune, but not with a few stops along the way. Beaujolais is called the “little French Tuscany,” today is all about learning why. By midday, we’ll arrive at our first winery of the day, where we’ll enjoy a picnic lunch expertly paired with the estate’s wines.

Once our bellies are full, we’ll continue toward Beaune.

Upon our arrival in Beaune, we’ll hit the ground running with a tour of the medieval village, paying particular attention to the limestone ramparts that once protected its inhabitants. Our walking tour threads through medieval streets lined with wine merchants, hidden courtyards, and centuries-old cellars before arriving at the city’s architectural heart: the famed former hospital whose glazed geometric roof has become an emblem of Burgundy itself. Inside, Gothic halls and Flemish masterpieces tell the story of a city shaped equally by charity and wine.

The rest of the evening is yours to explore Beaune’s culinary scene as you wish.

Burgundy is renowned for the sheer number of individual vineyards in the region. Each grower imparts their own personality to their wine and the result has been some of the world’s best. Today, we’ll see it all with our own eyes, and tastebuds, with the world-class wines of Domaine Chanson. Once there, we’ll enjoy an exclusive tour and tasting before making out was to a 15th centuring fotress turned vinification tower on the grounds for a wine-paired lunch.

After, we’ll ramble a few minutes down the road back to the hotel for an afternoon on your own. Might we suggest another cellar dinner, perhaps, or simply a slow walk through the city’s streets. After taking some downtime for ourselves, an elegant affair at Maison Joseph Drouhin, a beacon of Burgundian winemaking tradition, awaits us for dinner. 

Burgundy is renowned for the sheer number of individual vineyards in the region. Each grower imparts their own personality to their wine; the result has been some of the world’s best Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Clos de Tart, Clos des Lambrays, Échezeaux, Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Musigny– and the list goes on. Today, we’ll see it all with our own eyes as we visit Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne Romanée, and Nuits-St-Georges, three of the region’s most celebrated villages.

We’ll immerse ourselves in the process of hand-stitched wines among the plots of the world’s most expensive vintages before enjoying a Michelin-starred lunch at La Rôtisserie du Chambertin. Our bellies full and hearts happy, we’ll ramble down the road and continue to meet local tastemakers as we stroll some of the most compelling terroir in all of France. 

The evening is yours to embellish.

We start the morning exploring Beaune’s vibrant market, famed for its bright produce, barrels of cured olives, and sausages direct from the charcuterie farms. After, we step into the kitchen, aprons on, as a local chef introduces the day’s lunch menu and the techniques that anchor it—sautéing, searing, and sauce-making refined through repetition and instinct. The class unfolds as a shared, tactile way of understanding French cooking.

In the afternoon, we visit Beaune’s 15th-century wine cellars of a Gothic hospital-turned museum, the Hospice de Beaune. The first plantings were in 1457; almost six centuries later, it remains one of Burgundy’s most esteemed names. We’ll enjoy rare access to the private cellars and an exclusive tasting with head winemaker Ludivine Griveaux.

We’ll reconvene in the evening to enjoy an elegant private wine tasting and then wander over to our farewell dinner—sublime French cuisine paired with wines so exquisite we may never want to leave. 

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We’ll bid adieu to each other and make our way to the airport.