Read 35 more of Peregrine's brilliant articles on France

You’ve been dithering about this year’s holiday. Understandably, what with the financial world in meltdown and terrible uncertainty hanging over Cristiano Ronaldo’s future. Now, though, it’s decision time. Do you stay in Britain or not?

Let me do two things: (a) give you the long-range weather forecast. “We’re certainly not expecting a particularly dry summer,” said a jolly Met Office chap last week. “It is expected to be wetter than average.” And (b) suggest France.

For a start, it’s not far. It involves no long-haul flights, jabs against disgusting diseases or being treated as terrorists by fat-bottomed customs officers. It has everything in one country: beaches, sun, mountains, forests, lakes, culture, wine, proper villages and the world’s best-looking presidential wife.

The smart guide to Gascony

Francophile Anthony Peregrine's six favourite regions - here he plots the perfect break in Gascony

• The smart guide to Var, Provence

The smart guide to Burgundy

Francophile Anthony Peregrine's six favourite regions - here he plots the perfect break in Burgundy

• Peregrine on the road in Burgundy

• Painting the town Burgundy

The smart guide to Normandy

Francophile Anthony Peregrine's six favourite regions - here he plots a perfect break in Normandy

Related Internet Links

• Peregrine's France: the Sunday Times francophile reveals all

Related Links

• Peregrine on the road in Burgundy

• Painting the town Burgundy

And, despite the plunging pound, it remains affordable. Not cheap – some of the prices below are a little eyewatering – but reasonable value for the standards involved.

Recently, I stayed in a decent three-star double room for £55 a night and had a very acceptable five-course lunch, with ample wine, for £30. The taxi back wasn’t overpriced, either. If I could remember exactly how much after all the wine, I’d tell you.

Here’s our guide to what we reckon to be the key French regions for summer 2008. All prices are for high season.

BURGUNDY

Feel the rich texture. Feel your expanding waistline. The Burgundy landscape remains sumptuous with memories of its years as a centre of Christendom (Cluny, Citeaux, Fontenay abbeys) and big-time European power (the Ducal Palace, in Dijon).

Soon enough, though, the region took early retirement from such wearying prominence to play to its real strengths – eating, drinking and growing a little stout. A sound decision, given the resources. Wines flow in from some of the planet’s finest vineyards. Pastures way off any beaten track provide the Charolais beef. Dijon has the mustard, Bresse the chickens. The Hautes Côtes hills are thick with soft fruit and there’s honey and cheese all over.

This isn’t gluttony. The distinguished past bathes Burgundian eating in a cultured glow. Fine dining is a duty imposed by a benevolent heritage. And then, well, the world is your lobster, from the traces of Thomas à Becket in Sens cathedral to the vine-stitched hills of Chablis and the Côtes-d’Or. Towns ripened by the wine trade – Mâcon and, especially, Beaune – cede to gentle, then tougher countrysides. To the west, the Morvan uplands remain a world apart, of water, woods and lives lived hard. And don’t miss Guédelon, where they’re recreating a 13th-century château using only medieval means. Near St-Fargeau, southwest of Auxerre, it’s among the most fascinating historical sites in France.

To stay: lush is a good way to do Burgundy, and life doesn’t come much lusher than at the British-owned Abbaye de la Bussière, at La Bussière-sur-Ouche, in an undiscovered valley southeast of Dijon (03 80 49 02 29, www.abbaye-de-la-bussiere.com; doubles from £174). Imagine time-matured space, cultured comfort and Michelin-starred food. The Château de Vault de Lugny, just outside Avallon (03 86 34 07 86, www.lugny.fr; doubles from £138), is in the same league of serenity.

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