France is the world's leading wine producer

As important a part of the French gastronomic experience as what's on the plate, is what's in the glass that accompanies it.

Proud of its history and status as the world's leading wine producer, France promotes wine tourism with the determination that you won't go home without a bottle or 10.

Hiring a car and following a sign-posted wine route gives visitors the chance to explore some of France's most beautiful rural heartland at leisure, stopping off in rustic villages to sample the fruits of the local people's labour.

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Alsace are perhaps the best-known of the wine regions, but also worth seeking at their source are the elegant whites of the Loire Valley and the sun-drenched, increasingly impressive southern reds of Languedoc-Roussillon.