Like Route 66 or Highway 61 in the U.S., the Nationale 7 has long held a special place in the French imagination. Conveying vacationers piled into old-school Renaults and Citroëns from Paris to Nice, the iconic N7 was dotted with farmhouses, hotels, and restaurants that were, by turns, humble, charming, or exquisite. The route provided so much joy and nostalgia that, like Nat King Cole with Route 66 or Bob Dylan with Highway 61, Charles Trenet memorialized it in his song “Nationale 7.”
     Like Route 66, the N7 no longer exists—at least not in its entirety. Whereas the northern part of the route used to reach Lyon by way of Sancerre and the Loire Valley, the most convenient path to le Sud now passes through Burgundy. But, if anything, there is an even greater abundance of delicious food and wine along this Paris-to-Nice corridor today. Is there a greater wine route anywhere in the world than the one that passes through all of Burgundy, the Beaujolais, the Rhône Valley, and Provence? In celebration of this iconic route, here are twelve selections from the regions surrounding the historic and contemporary routes des vacances!