I drove around Europe for a month+ 2 years ago.
If you love Cognac and are looking good food and great atmosphear. Cognac, France is the place to go.
Lots of grat B&B's/small hotels that have amazing food and an atmosphere that will blow you away. Screw going to the big Cognac distillers, go to the smaller Cognac farmers instead. They will treat you very well
Btw, every bigger city in France I visited were horrible. The people there were not very friendly. But as soon as you got out to smaller places, the people were very friendly even if I didn't know a word in French
