Fall 2026 Bordeaux

You will arrive this morning in Paris! With flight schedule from MSP, you will leave the evening before and sleep on the plane. Then, by about 8:00h you will be departing your plane and queueing at customs.

Due to the train schedule from CDG, we have opted to have you take a taxi into Paris and go directly to one of the most quintessential brasseries in all of Paris. There will be a reservation there for you for lunch beginning at 12:00h, this is where you will meet some of the other travelers — with most of our group arriving between 8am–11am at the airport from various locations in the USA. This is sure to be a leisurely lunch with excellent people watching and a refresh from the flight before the train.

After lunch an Uber will be waiting for you at 14:30h (2:30pm) to bring you to Gare Montparnasse, where you will follow the signs for SNCF — the highspeed trains through Europe, where you will board an afternoon train (16:00h) directly to Bordeaux.

We will meet you just inside the great hall of Gare Saint-Jean once you arrive in Bordeaux (you will already be wearing an AirTag from us, part of our safety and security on the trips), we will connect and whisk you away from there.

We will take a walk through old Bordeaux to purge the travel from your bones. You can have a respite and refresh before dinner in a classic vieille ville apartment where you will be staying, selected specifically for this trip.

We will have an exceptional dinner at a Michelin-rated destination restaurant, when you will meet your whole group and your guides. This first day will be epic! Trust us, you will sleep very well this night.

After sleeping in and breakfast at the townhouse or at a local favorite cafe, we will spend the day exploring Bordeaux. We will dive in and take the tram to Le Cité du Vin to explore this adventureland for adults and get a primer on wine and Bordeaux's history with it. We'll enjoy a glass of wine mid-day with a view over the crescent harbor — bienvenue à Bordeaux!

From there, we'll take the tram back into the heart of the old town for an extended walk, to leave the fatigue of travel behind us and with our new found knowledge of Bordeaux have open eyes for all around us.

That night we will enjoy dinner together in the heart of Bordeaux with great wine and revelry to match. There are no menus, it is a blind tasting menu. This restaurant is a gastronomes delight.

We wake for a final morning in the city of Bordeaux. We will begin with the classic Marché in Bordeaux, have some oysters and after our visit have lunch at a classic and well done bistro, when we will meet up with Stéphane, our French guide and global wine professional for the trip.

After lunch we will take the tram to the Porte de Cailhau, the old door to Bordeaux where we will explore old Bordeaux and enjoy the city around us. Shopping, wine buying, strolling, people watching. By about 16:00h (4pm) it will be time for us to depart the city to head out to your residence in the countryside.

We will be just a few kilometers from Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Sauternes, world-famous villages, and surrounded by their vineyards. Settle in and enjoy dinner with your hosts — welcome to your countryside home for the next several days.

We begin our day with a wine tasting at 10:30h, just like the professionals do. We will spend a day in the vineyard, learning, touring, tasting. These visits are days of legend. This trip, we go south, into the heart of Graves to sample from the vines that create the rarest of the rare; Sauternes. We will learn all about botrytis, or the "Noble Rot" as our visit in October will be informative on the very nature of this latest of the harvest wines, as we will be surrounded by fall colors on the vines themselves.

Maybe there will still be dew in the morning, as we begin our tasting at this First Growth, Premier Cru Classé chateau. We will tour the premise, receive an education and a tasting. We will then retreat to the lawn for a few games in the gardens to enjoy our surroundings and "play" for a little while. Simply let any and all care fade away for the day. While still nimble from our tasting and after a round of lawn games, we will sit to enjoy a Michelin-starred dining experience on-premise at their legendary restaurant.

We travel to Libourne for the Marché! We will shop and nosh and generally enjoy a true marché experience.

That evening, we will prepare a meal together and our Meritage team will be highlighting some of the ingredients, inspirations and skills that have acquired so far — these trips are educational and interactive. We will eat our way into the evening, which will result after lawn games, cards, solitude, a walk in the countryside, a cycle or a stretch.

Today we take a break from the vineyards for a journey through time — 20,000 years back, to be exact. We'll drive east into the heart of the Dordogne Valley, one of the most beautiful river valleys in all of France. The October colors will be spectacular as we wind through countryside dotted with walnut groves, tobacco barns, and limestone cliffs.

Our morning destination: Lascaux IV, the stunning recreation of the famous prehistoric cave paintings near Montignac. This architectural marvel brings you face-to-face with the most important artistic achievement of the Upper Paleolithic — the original cave sealed since 1963 to preserve these 17,000-year-old masterpieces. The museum experience is immersive and deeply moving, a reminder of humanity's oldest creative impulse.

For lunch, we'll drive a short distance to L'Imaginaire in nearby Terrasson — a one-Michelin-star restaurant offering refined Périgord cuisine with creative flair. Chef Vianey Bourgoin transforms the region's legendary ingredients — duck, foie gras, truffle, walnut — into something transcendent. For those interested in wine and culinary history, this is the perfect pairing to our prehistoric morning.

After lunch, we continue south along the river to Domme — a bastide village perched dramatically on a cliff 150 meters above the Dordogne. We'll explore this fortified medieval town with its panoramic views of the river valley below. As sunset approaches (around 18:30h in late October), we'll settle in at L'Esplanade for an apéritif on the terrace — the most spectacular view in all of Périgord as the golden light fades over the valley.

We'll drive back to the château while there's still light in the sky, for a relaxed dinner at the residence with our hosts.

We'll venture early into Saint-Émilion to walk around this UNESCO Heritage Site; explore, shop, or simply sit and take it all in. Enjoy a fabulous lunch at an award winning and historic restaurant, then visit a wine shop for a tasting with some trusted educators on the area, and even *curate your own selections to ship home for your personal cellar, if you choose.

We will have an aperitif with a view for sunset, before we dine at one of our favorite Michelin starred restaurants. This one is a must-do in Saint-Émilion, which is sure to be one of the most memorable meals of the trip, possibly even a lifetime. It's that kind of place.

It's back to Paris we go — departing by 9:30/10:00am for Bordeaux to take a train to Paris. We'll check into a smart hotel with a great location for our time in Paris. There is a very solid restaurant and bar on premise, as well as rooftop vantage points. Once we arrive, we will drop our baggage off with the desk and lunch at a neighborhood favorite bistro.

After lunch, we will take a walk to the Tour Eiffel and explore Paris. Depending on time and weather, we may even hop on and off the Batobus, the water-taxi system on the Seine. Folks can get on or off as they desire, or stay with the Meritage team for a menu of fun stops along the way. We will get back to freshen up before dinner and we will make our way up to a bistro we love near Sacre Coeur, or if preferred another chance to catch a star from the Michelin options. Dinner options personalized at the time of booking.

Take a taxi to the airport for your flight home — or extend your stay in Paris!

With Halloween just days away, Paris becomes magical in its own right. We know how to get the most out of spending Halloween in Paris and we're happy to advise if you'd like to extend your trip. The City of Lights for the Night of the Dead — there's nothing quite like it.

Whichever path you choose, you'll leave with a heart full of connection, a deeper understanding of France, and a renewed sense of joie de vivre. Extend your stay with Pas Perdu →