Bordeaux and Burgundy: the very words have a rich and well-rounded ring to them. Partly, it’s those initial bulbous ‘B’s. Mainly, though, it’s that, for centuries, they have lent a civilised, even spiritual, texture to fleshly pleasures. Lots of places furnish good wine and food. None other does so in the presence of quite so many châteaux and world-class abbeys. Nowhere else is good living so stamped into the DNA, both a product and a locomotive of the past. Nowhere else do you feel that being plump is a duty imposed by history.

These days, Bordeaux (here we’re talking of the region, what the French call the “Bordelais”) retains aristocratic elements. Visit the line-up of châteaux in the Médoc...