“Go and ask for the brioche pépites de chocolat,” our guide Caroline Fazeli says, pointing to Pralus Pâtissier Chocolatier, a bakery in Vieux-Lyon, the most historic neighborhood in Lyon, France. The founder of Lyon Wine Tastings is leading my family of four on a custom tour that brings to life the city’s reputation as one of the culinary capitals of France.
We are here with Uniworld on the 158-passenger S.S. Catherine’s Burgundy & Provence itinerary, sailing from Arles, on the Rhône River, to Burgundy’s Mâconnais, on the Saône. Each destination charted on our tour brings new culinary delights, like the brioche, a buttery, yeasted bread dotted with chocolate chips that’s akin to pain au chocolat, but softer, which we enjoy later in our stateroom, in the downtime between lunch and dinner.
Uniworld’s 158-passenger S.S. Catherine.
Credit: Courtesy of Uniworld Boutique River Cruises
Uniworld puts significant focus on the quality of its food and wine offerings, and this particular ship works with approximately 60 to 70 local farmers to represent the region’s bounty. Those relationships pay off in dishes like an appetizer of rich quail breast, cooked sous-vide and garnished with grilled apple and grape chutney. Wines, notably, change throughout the trip, tracing the appellations accessed by the sailing. Guests can drink through ports in real time: Côtes du Rhône, Saint-Joseph, Mâcon, Beaujolais — an unfolding of the landscape as it clips by.
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Related: How to Find the Best Wines From Burgundy
Outside the town of Grignan, on one of Uniworld’s bespoke Masterpiece Collection tours, my family goes truffle hunting at Ayme Truffe, where we savor black truffles mandolined atop bread and watch Labrador retrievers scuffle in mud. Also included in our sail: a hike up the hills of wine appellation Saint-Joseph, in the Ardèche department, and back across the river into Hermitage, in the Drôme, where, in the vineyards, we sip wine and taste local Picodon goat cheese. Our guide, Pierre-Jean Plantier, a native of the Northern Rhône who also works as a teacher, leads a mini tasting in the vineyard, urging us to dip our noses into our glasses and to pay attention to the pebbles beneath our feet.
A hike through a vineyard in Saint-Joseph.
Credit: Courtesy of Uniworld Boutique River Cruises
On our final day, we board a bus from Mâcon to Beaune, the wine capital of southern Burgundy. Just before we reach the manicured town of Puligny-Montrachet, our bus pulls over. We file out and take in the magnificent gnarled Chardonnay vines of the 3.68-hectare Grand Cru Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, one of the world’s most famed vineyards.
The only moment more inspired is the lunch we find on our own in Beaune afterwards, at L’Air du Temps: fat white new-season asparagus beneath fried prawn; escargot cooked in its shell; and a strawberry tart with market berries. It’s a serendipitous ending to a voyage shaped entirely by great food and wine: a leisurely lunch, surrounded by the wines and ingredients we spent the week tracing along the rivers.
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