Beaujolais

The Beaujolais region of France is about 210 miles southeast of Paris. Where to stay Domaine Lagneau Huire 011-33-4-7469-2070 www.domainelagneau.com E-mail: jealagneau@wanadoo.fr Doubles from $65. Le Petit Nid de Pierres Lancié 011-33-4-7404-1039 www.bonadresse.com/rhone-alpes/gb_lancie_beaujolais.htm Four rooms, garden, and swimming pool. Doubles from $80. Chateau Lambert 011-33-4-7406-7774 www.chateau-lambert.com E-mail: contact@chateau-lambert.com Doubles $103-$160.

For Americans, France's Loire Valley is familiar as the source of the lively, mineral-inflected white wines of Sancerre and Muscadet. The region is also home to a broad, if less frequently encountered, range of red wines made from varietals such as cabernet franc, gamay (of Beaujolais fame), and the curious local antique pineau d'aunis. Although some are sturdy enough for long-keeping, most Loire reds - with their bright red berry fruit, crisp acidity, and modest alcohol - are designed to be consumed young, and cool.

PARIS -- Beaujolais Nouveau is getting an English makeover. The slogan "It's Beaujolais Nouveau time" replaced the time-honored cry of "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!" ("Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!") when revelers rang in the wine at midnight yesterday with a worldwide bacchanalian feast. The new slogan is part of a $1.17 million campaign by winegrowers to attract a hipper young clientele for their product, amid slumping wine sales in France.

While some wines sail carefree on a sea of feel-good associations generated by history, fashion, or really good marketing, others seem ever on the verge of sinking beneath waves of ignominy. Wines burdened with a low-rent aura don't always deserve their fate, however. Scratch some poor, cachet-bereft category and it's just possible you will find something authentic, honest, and appealing. Consider Lambrusco, the grapey, juicy, lightly-sparkling red wine with origins in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, where its place alongside the region's salumi (sopressata, prosciutto, capicola, and...

Driving along the rural French roads from Villefranche-sur-Saone to Macon is like browsing the Beaujolais aisle at your local wine shop. The familiar labels (that is, villages) pop up one after the other: Morgon, Brouilly, Chiroubles, Chenas, Fleurie, Julienas, Saint-Amour. You can zip through most of them as quickly as you can down a glass of cherry-colored Regnie and cover most of the area in the time it takes to finish a bottle. For better and worse, fast-forward has been the popular image of this storied region a half-hour's drive north of Lyon.

OCT. 28-30 LAROSE, La. French Food Festival: Don't expect croque monsieurs and tarte tatins at this 38th celebration of French food done Louisiana style. More than 30 food vendors set up under a big tent and serve up everything from alligator sauce piquant over rice to gumbo from a fifth-generation family recipe to fried shrimp boulettes. Experienced festivalgoers like to start the day with deep-fried rolls stuffed with crab, crawfish, and shrimp. For the indecisive, a seafood sampler hits all the highlights.

CHÂTILLON D’AZERGUES, France — A horse-drawn cart clatters into town through the north gate. From outside the old inn, a raucous hubbub streams through its open window. Across the way, a peasant woman haggles with the town weaver over the price of his cloth. I can almost hear the echoes of lives once lived along this narrow thoroughfare, the Ancienne Grande Rue. It’s the prospect of the region’s more tangible pleasures, its wines, that has brought me to Beaujolais. And Châtillon d’Azergues, at first glance a seemingly...

How to get there The lowest round-trip air fare between Boston and Paris at press time was $789 on Air France. High-speed trains leave the airport every hour or two for Lyon Part-Dieu station; first-class fare is about $115 one way. Several car rental agencies have counters at the station. What to do Beaujolais information www.beaujolais.com Village festivals are seasonal, most around harvest time in late summer and early autumn.

For Americans, France's Loire Valley is familiar as the source of the lively, mineral-inflected white wines of Sancerre and Muscadet. The region is also home to a broad, if less frequently encountered, range of red wines made from varietals such as cabernet franc, gamay (of Beaujolais fame), and the curious local antique pineau d'aunis. Although some are sturdy enough for long-keeping, most Loire reds - with their bright red berry fruit, crisp acidity, and modest alcohol - are designed to be consumed young, and cool.

While some wines sail carefree on a sea of feel-good associations generated by history, fashion, or really good marketing, others seem ever on the verge of sinking beneath waves of ignominy. Wines burdened with a low-rent aura don't always deserve their fate, however. Scratch some poor, cachet-bereft category and it's just possible you will find something authentic, honest, and appealing. Consider Lambrusco, the grapey, juicy, lightly-sparkling red wine with origins in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, where its place alongside the region's salumi...

OCT. 28-30 LAROSE, La. French Food Festival: Don't expect croque monsieurs and tarte tatins at this 38th celebration of French food done Louisiana style. More than 30 food vendors set up under a big tent and serve up everything from alligator sauce piquant over rice to gumbo from a fifth-generation family recipe to fried shrimp boulettes. Experienced festivalgoers like to start the day with deep-fried rolls stuffed with crab, crawfish, and shrimp. For the indecisive, a seafood sampler hits all the highlights.

Servio Garcia could have made a hell of a telemarketer. Or politician or con man or hostage-situation-breaker-upper. When he answers the phone at Bergamot, he broadcasts sincerity through the wires. It travels into your ear and warms you, leaving you flattered when you hang up, reservation written in black ink on a scrap of paper. “Hey, honey. I think that guy really wants us to come to dinner. I don’t think he’s putting it on.’’ His hospitality is convincing. When he says “We look forward to seeing you,’’ you believe it. When he says...

CHÂTILLON D’AZERGUES, France — A horse-drawn cart clatters into town through the north gate. From outside the old inn, a raucous hubbub streams through its open window. Across the way, a peasant woman haggles with the town weaver over the price of his cloth. I can almost hear the echoes of lives once lived along this narrow thoroughfare, the Ancienne Grande Rue. It’s the prospect of the region’s more tangible pleasures, its wines, that has brought me to Beaujolais. And Châtillon d’Azergues, at first glance a seemingly unremarkable French town with its...

PARIS -- Beaujolais Nouveau is getting an English makeover. The slogan "It's Beaujolais Nouveau time" replaced the time-honored cry of "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!" ("Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!") when revelers rang in the wine at midnight yesterday with a worldwide bacchanalian feast. The new slogan is part of a $1.17 million campaign by winegrowers to attract a hipper young clientele for their product, amid slumping wine sales in France.

HUIRE, France -- Bowls of salads, plates of sausages, and a tray of regional cheeses -- there was scant room for the enormous loaf of bread that Jeannine Lagneau carried to our table tucked into the rose-filled garden at Domaine Lagneau. "And now to drink? Vin? Beaujolais-Villages, of course. " A Gîtes de France website had led my husband and me to Domaine Lagneau, a bed-and-breakfast in the Beaujolais hills. Serenaded by the echo of a cuckoo in a distant forest, we were now happily sipping the product of the surrounding vines.

The Beaujolais region of France is about 210 miles southeast of Paris. Where to stay Domaine Lagneau Huire 011-33-4-7469-2070 www.domainelagneau.com E-mail: jealagneau@wanadoo.fr Doubles from $65. Le Petit Nid de Pierres Lancié 011-33-4-7404-1039 www.bonadresse.com/rhone-alpes/gb_lancie_beaujolais.htm Four rooms, garden, and swimming pool. Doubles from $80. Chateau Lambert 011-33-4-7406-7774 www.chateau-lambert.com E-mail: contact@chateau-lambert.com Doubles...

Servio Garcia could have made a hell of a telemarketer. Or politician or con man or hostage-situation-breaker-upper. When he answers the phone at Bergamot, he broadcasts sincerity through the wires. It travels into your ear and warms you, leaving you flattered when you hang up, reservation written in black ink on a scrap of paper. “Hey, honey. I think that guy really wants us to come to dinner. I don’t think he’s putting it on.’’ His hospitality is convincing. When he says “We look forward to seeing you,’’ you believe it. When he says “Welcome,’’ you feel welcomed.