Not France but you could drive to Aoste (Italy) via Gd-St-Bernard. Superbe views and hiking trails. After Gd-St-Bernard you will find small Italian towns with very nice restaurants, castels, hotels, etc. Aoste itself is a nice small city with plenty of options for a good weekend.

Good luck.

Check out Baune (Pays de la Loire region) which is 1.5 drive from Geneva. You will find good wine and rustic auberge in that area.

I mean Beaune, Burgundy.

Hi Lisa,

Good for you! Your parents coming to see you!

In fact, if your parents likes wines, why you wanna go to France? French wines are able to buy all over the world but not SWISS WINE! They consume domesticly so quite hard to find a swiss wines in over seas. It's best time to see vineyard this month.

It's maybe best event for your parents as you said they llike wines.

It's called 'Cornaline', I don't know that when your parents coming but it is on 19 Sep this year. I am acually going with my friends too. It's like a 'cave ouvert'. There is 15-20 cave owners making their stand and let you try as much as you want. What you  pay is about CHF20 at entrance. so you can try many different swiss wines

By the way, this is in Valais, so you need to drive 2-2.5hrs from Geneva.

There is Sion and Crans-Montana near by so you can show bit of historical in Sion and bit of swiss mountains in Montana! I do have a apartment in Montana for weekend but my friends are coming with me that weekend so I let them to stay there.

But there are many caves around in this area so if you interested on different weekend, pls have a look at pavia.srey.net.

My friends may cancel our plan last minute as they have a littele baby.

If that happen, I can let you know if you interest about our apartment.

Enjoy your time with your parents!

Regards,

Hello Lisa,

So a suggestion to concile great places and wine would be to go in a triangle between Annecy area, Belley area and Aiguebelette.

1) ANNECY: a must see: the Venice of the Alpes, old city, lake, good restaurants

Good and not expensive: Les terrasses du lac at 7, route du Semnoz 74000 Annecy

And if you want to surpise them: more expensive but state of the art and directly on the lake (former disciple of 3stars Marc Veyrat and some say he is as good... but Veyrat's price not cascaded): Yoann Conte - Bord du Lac d'Annecy. 13 Vieille Route des Pensières, 74290 Veyrier-du-Lac, France Phone:+33 4 50 09 97 49. Also an hotel.

2) more wild and authentic: AIX LES BAINS AREA 1h20 from Geneva.

Abbaye of Hautecombe, Canal de Saviere, Dent du Chat, lac d'Aiguebelette,

Old city of Belley (you will find a lot of restaurants there at cheap price) and now some wineries in the country side of Belley, all distant of 5 km from each other:

Cave Angelot in Marignieu (try the "Bulle des Anges", Maison Monin in Vongnes  (villages so cute...), - Roux père et fils in chatonod. have a swin in Lake Saint Champ. All these are excellent wine for daily drink and even events but the terroir is not prestigious, so prices are very reasonables, from 5 to 9€ / bottle.

Option: Dent du Chat and Aiguebelette Lake (and phone in advance to book some paragliding... contact a club via the net).

3) if you still have time, push to Chamonix for walks but it is more touristic although absolutely worth.

do not hesitate to ask me more info on Aix les Bains / Belley part.