MaineGG

From our base in Beaune, we will have four full days to explore - Monday through Thursday. After searching the forum, tourist office sites and several books, I have come up with these four potential daytrips:

1) Day split between Dijon and Beaune.
I want to visit the Hospice in Beaune, and in Dijon would follow the Owl Trail walking tour. Thinking of doing this by train or bus since I've heard parking in Dijon is difficult.

2) Beaune - Autun - Vézelay - Avallon - Beaune.
Autun for Roman site(s), then back roads to Vézelay (possibly via Bazoches to see Vauban's chateau), then back to Beaune via Avallon and the autoroute. This would be a longish driving day, maybe too much? Could skip Bazoches.

3) Beaune - Auxerre - Chablis - Noyers - Semur-en-Auxois - Beaune
Autoroute to Auxerre, then back roads to Semur-en-Auxois. At that point we can decide to get back on the autoroute to return to Beaune, or continue, if time permits, on back roads.

4) Beaune - Dole - Besançon - ?? - Beaune
A day out in the Franche-Comté for a change of scene. Don't know much about Dole, but a good friend has recommended Besançon where he spent a sabbatical some years ago. Have even thought of going beyond Besançon to Montbéliard. Would welcome comments or suggestions for Dole and/or other towns, villages, or other points of interest in this area.

When we leave Beaune, we will drive to Reims via Troyes. My idea is to have lunch in Troyes, walk around for awhile, then go on to Reims arriving late afternoon. We plan to take the N71 between Dijon and Troyes since it is designated a scenic route in places. According to mappy.fr, it will take about 40 minutes longer to take this route, but if it is worth it for the scenery, we'll do it.

Hope some of you out there have comments or suggestions for us. We're so looking forward to this trip and really appreciate all of you who are so generous with your knowledge and expertise.

StuDudley

That's too much driving, IMO.

No Chateaux??? That area is loaded with them.

I would not visit Dole or Bescancon. We spent 3 weeks in the Franche Comte recently, and compared with Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre, Troyes, and Reims - I think you will be dissapointed with Dole. Bescancon is fine - but I would not go that far out of the way just to visit Bescancon. I think you have enough cities on yur itinerary. I would visit the Chateaux of Tanlay, Ancy le Franc, and Fontenay Abbey. Further south, Cormatin is a favorite of ours. We were underwhelmed with Autun and Semur-en-Auxois looks better from the outside than the inside.

We spent 2 weeks in Burgundy recently & 2 weeks in Beaujolais (2 weeks in Annecy too). A friend is heading to Burgundy soon (after Annecy) and here is the itinerary I suggested to her.

Saturday
Burgundy
Use map 328
Leave Annecy by heading north on the A41, then west on the A40 toward Nantua, then southwest on the A404 , and then north on the A40 towards Bourg en Bresse. Stay on the A40 as it turns west towards Macon.
Switch to map 320.
Head north towards Dijon on the A6. At exit # 27 near Tournas, get off the freeway & follow the roads to Cormatin. It is circled in red on my map. Visit the Chateau Cormatin** (pg 162) – this is one of our favorites. The interior & especially the gardens are fantastic. Look at the brochure titled “Route des Chateaux en Bourgogne du Sud”. Cormatin is in there. Note that there may be a lunch closing. Don’t miss this chateau.

Visit another chateau if you have the time – perhaps Couches or Sully (see the brochure). Or head to Beaune for a visit.

Visiting Cheateaux in the brochures:
Save your ticket for the first chateau, and you will get a discount on the second chateau. Save the ticket on the second chateau & you will get a discount on the third, etc, etc, etc. This was the case for the chateaux in the “Route des Ducs de Bourgogne”, and it may be the case for chateaux in the “sud” chateaux brochure

According to my calculation, you will arrive in Burgundy on Sept 17. If so, you are in luck!!!. This is Patrimonie weekend in France. This is a big deal in France. It is the celebration of their heritage, and almost all the cities & towns have something going on. Many public & private places that are normally closed, will be open on this weekend. We’ve visited Beaune, Dijon, and Rennes on Patrimonie weekend. By far, the best stuff was in Dijon (Beaune had the least going on). You probably won’t have much time remaining on Saturday to do anything, but first thing on Sunday, head into Dijon. Park near the train station, and walk east on Av Marechal Foch/R de la Liberte to the Place de la Liberation. Look around and you may see some activity. Most of the places open for tours will have something set-up outside – usually with a line to get in. You can probably pick up a brochure at one of these places, that designate the other sites that are open. If you don’t find anything, go to the tourist office at # 34 on pg 175 of my Green Guide. #34 is also a fabulous building. Plan to spend most of the day here – but besides the things open for Patromonie, the rest of Dijon will be ‘dead” so don’t let this be the only day you visit Dijon.

Sunday
Patrimonie in Dijon

Monday (remember, shops close in Dijon & Beaune).
Leave the Gite & take the D17 south to La Rochepot – this is a pretty drive. The town of Orches is quite cute (noted on my map). Continue on the D17 to La Rochepot or Nolay.

Market in Nolay. This is a very small market, but the town has several antique shops. If this interests you, go there. I think the shops are open on Monday because there is a market there on Monday

Vist Chateau Rochepot*. Pg 279 in my Green Guide. Note that it closes for lunch

Visit Chateau Sully* (pg 305 in GG) or Chateau Couches .

Tuesday
Visit Beaune*** in the AM. This is one of our “top 5” medium sized cities in France. Spend the better part of the morning there. The “popular” Hotel Dieu*** gets a lot of attention and it is quite elegant from the outside – but only OK on the inside. But it deserves a visit on the inside.

Afternoon – one of the chateaux you didn’t visit yesterday.

Wednesday.
Head out northwest on the A6. Get off the A6 at Exit # 21 and head towards Tanlay

Get the “Route des Ducs de Bourgogne” brochure. Remember about saving the entrance tickets.

Visit the Chateau de Tanlay**. This was our favorite chateau in the region. Tours start at 10 – so get there then . It is about a 1 ¾ drive from the gite (1 hr of freeway).

Next, drive to Noyers & explore this cute village. Note on villages in Burgundy - compared to Provence, Dordogne, and many other places you have visited in France – there are not as many “cute little villages” in Burgundy. This is one of them, but not in the “top 50%” in France.

Visit Chateau Ancy le Franc** Note that it closes for lunch – that’s why I have you visiting Noyers during lunch. If you can get to Ancy le Franc by 11:30 when their last tour of the morning departs – do that if you don’t mind back-to-back chateaux.

Visit Abbaye de Fontenay*** if you like abbeys.

Take the D980 south from the Abbey to Semur en Auxois*. See pg 296 in the GG. This village is more interesting from the outside than from the inside. As you take the R de Paris from the D980 toward Semur – there is a very nice view of the perched village. If you want to see the “scene” pictured on pg 298 of the GG. Circle clockwise around the exterior of the village to where I have marked “fantastic view” on the GG map of Semur. Next, drive toward the informatioin center (marked on map) & park your car outside the “gate” of town & explore the old section of Semur if you like.

Thursday
Visit Dijon*** This is our favorite city in France – after Paris. Find the “Dijon the Owl’s trail” brochure I sent you & follow this walk. The walk is fantastic. The “centerfold” has the route for the walk. This may be market day in Dijon at Les Halles – but only in the AM. Lots of interesting sites to visit.

Friday
Head out north on the A6. Take the exit #22 and find your way west to Vezelay** pg 314. We did not approach Vezelay from this direction – we visited Vezelay after Auxerre. But I figured that on your last day in the gite, you might only want to do a half-day – so I “cut out” Auxerre – which is too bad because we really enjoyed Auxerre.

After Vezelay, head south on the D958 on a pretty drive to Chateau Bazoches. I mentioned Vauban earlier – this is his chateau. There is a “self guided” tour, but note that it closes for lunch.

Stu Dudley

ira

Hi MGG,

I think that you want to spend no more than 4 hr on the road if you want to see anything that day.

Good advice from Stu.

jamikins

Agree - way too much driving. We drove from Beaune to Dijon and had no problem finding parking - there are tonnes of underground parkades and its affordable.

I would spend the whole day in Dijon. I think you would short change it just doing a 1/2 day. By the time you get there it will be early-mid afternoon. The owl tour is designed to take I think 2 hours if all you do is walk. But if you want to actually see some of the churches, squares, etc or have lunch/dinner and a glass of wine on a square it will take much longer!

cocofromdijon

I agree with Jamikins for the car park but Dijon is quite hard to navigate with the works and it should take a few more months to have nice streets, especially if you're coming from the South. The train would take 20min only and no hassle. If you ever come on a Tuesday don't miss our food hall designed by Gustave Eiffel a Dijon native.

MaineGG

Thank you all so much for your responses. You've given me much food for thought.

Jamikins & Coco, I will definitely plan to spend a full day in Dijon. It sounds like Tuesday would be a good day to plan to be there to see the food hall. Thanks for pointing that out, Coco. I think we will take the train or bus just to have a day off from driving.

StuDudley - Thanks for your very detailed itinerary. I need to spend some more time looking at it carefully, but I welcome your input. We may not visit a great many chateaux, but will definitely visit some. What did you do for three weeks in the Franche-Comté? As for Autun, I was especially interested in it for the Roman sites. Are they not worth a visit? Anyway, we will probably forgo the Dole/Besançon itinerary to get in a full day for Dijon.

Ira, Jamikins & StuDudley - About too much driving...
You all are probably right as I tend to want to try to fit everything in. I went to viamichelin for time/distances and itinerary 2 is the longest with an estimated time of 3h42. We could cut an hour by omitting Autun, which is probably the thing to do.

Itinerary 3 comes in at 3h09, which seems reasonable.

It looks like we will not do the Dole/Besançon itinerary, but that was actually the shortest at 2h30.

Perhaps we should plan one full day for Beaune and the area south of there to visit La Rochepot.

So now, I'm thinking the four days could be:

1) Full day in Dijon
2) Vézelay, (Bazoches?), Avallon
3) Auxerre, Chablis, Noyers, Semur-en-Auxois
4) Beaune and area south of there

Does this look better?

Thanks again for all your help.

StuDudley

Still no Chateaux?? Bazoches is only "OK", if you are a Vauban fan (my wife loves all things Vauban). Try to sneak in Tanlay - perhaps skip Chablis & visit Tanley instead - for some diversity.

Lots of interesting stuff in the Franch Comte - including day trips/overnight into Switzerland. But for us - this was after about 1 1/2 years (total) exploring other regions in France. It might be less interesting for you on your first couple of trips to France. We also spent 2 weeks in the Ardeche & 1 week in the Cantal dept - which seems to get no US tourists.

Stu Dudley

HappyTrvlr

The wine route through the villages between Beaune and Dijon is worth a day.

NanBug

I agree with all of the above. Too much driving.

And yes, do NOT miss Fontenay Abbey.

I also loved the little village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. They make their famous anise seed candies there and the whole town smells like anise. A quiet little place, but just lovely.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Plenty of good suggestions here. Don't have much to add on what to see but maybe a few tips on how to see it. Instead of making sure you get to everything on a day's itinerary I would suggest you take your time enjoying the places you are at and if you don't get to see everything on the agenda that day don't sweat it.

For day 1 in Dijon maybe you can get there first thing in the morning and do whatever it is you want to do there. If you've got time at the end of your Dijon visit to do something else there are plenty of things nearby that you can squeeze in. You might take the D122 out of Dijon back to Beane and visit all the wine villages along the way, plus see a few châteaux. I don't know when the grape harvesting will be happening but a few years ago when I was there in September we walked the villages of Fixin to Gevrey-Chamartin during harvest time and at least a dozen residents had their wine cellars (in their homes) open to the public and we just went from cellar to cellar tasting wines. Of course you should always buy a bottle or two if you do this and if you're driving only one person can do the tastings (unless you use the spit jar). Follow the D122 from Marsannay-la-Côte to Vougeot, just beyond is also the famous village of Vosne-Romanée. Make sure you also visit Nuits-Saint-Georges.

Day 2 you could start in Avallon and then head to Vézelay. Take your time at each place and if you've got time left over afterwards you could just take scenic drives. Plenty of them south of there. Or if you've got enough time you could visit Noyers or Semur. I'll agree Semur is more impressive from the outside than inside but it is certainly worth the stop to take a walk along the river outside the walls. You've seen my photos so you know what it looks like and I think you'll agree a walk around the walls by the river is quite lovely. Start at the western ramparts and work your way around the southern ramparts.

Day 3 looks like a busy day so I would prioritize and see what interests you most first thing. Don't rush to see it all if you don't have time.

Day 4 start with a Beaune visit. Instead of focusing on exploring south of Beaune you might want to use the rest of that day to see any sites you missed on your first three days. Or, you might have discovered something else during your first three days you'd like to see. Make the rest of that day your "potluck" day.

I am a fairly loose traveler and don't like planned itineraries so take my tips with a grain of salt if that's not your travel style. As opposed to being an intellectual traveler (though I do enjoy history, architecture, etc.) I would describe my travel style as more akin to "goofball on holiday". As much as I enjoy visiting châteaux and such I prefer to just stroll around beautiful cities/towns/villages and take scenic countryside drives, stopping in anonymous, unknown villages I find charming and walking around to see what the locals are up to. Everyone travels differently so you've got enough info now to spend your time the way that best suits you.

MaineGG

Stu- I became a Vauban fan some years ago after seeing his aqueducts on the Canal du Midi. One of the reasons I wanted to go to Besançon was to see his citadel fortifications. At one point I was even contemplating pushing ahead all the way to Belfort, but came to my senses. This trip is about Burgundy, though, so Vauban and the Franche-Comté will have to wait.

I think we will try to visit Cluny and the chateau at Cormatin, on our way to Beaune from Annecy. As far as visiting other chateaux, I think Ancy-le-Franc and Rochepot look like good choices. That gives us one medieval, one Renaissance and one from the 17th Century.

Now I'm thinking of changing the #3 itinerary to Auxerre - Noyers - Ancy-le-Franc - Abbey of Fontenay - Semur-en-Auxois. If we get an early start, we can get to Auxerre in 1h30 from Beaune, park, walk around some, have a coffee, then get back on the A6 to get to Noyers for lunch. Then on to Ancy-le-Franc for a visit, then, if time permits, see the Abbey of Fontenay before driving back to Beaune via Semur-en-Auxois. I realize this will be a very long day out, but we've done days like this before in Provence, Languedoc, Roussillon and even here in Maine.

Happy & NanBug - Thanks for your suggestions. I do plan a day wandering around the area close to Beaune, including the wine route. As I mentioned above, we'll try to see Fontenay, but may not make it to Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. Just too many wonderful sites to see and too little time.

MaineGG

FMT - I was writing while you were posting.

Even though our planning gets pretty detailed, we are always flexible and frequently tweak our plans as we go along if something tempts us to deviate from our route. It is always interesting after our trips to review how what we planned to do compares to what we actually did. Some of our best memories are of things we did impulsively.

Thanks for the info about walking between wine villages along the D122. That sounds like fun.

StuDudley

>>Noyers for lunch<<<

As I recall, there were not many lunch options in Noyers. You might do some "searching" before you commit to lunch there.

FWIW, we almost never have a sit-down lunch at a restaurant or cafe. Our lunch in Auxerre consisted of sandwiches we picked up from a vendor, which we ate sitting on a bench near an "arch" at the entrance to the old town (Burgundy Green Guide is on loan - so I can't find the specific location of the "arch" - I think it was near the tourist office).

Like Dijon, Auxerre has an owl-like trail walk that you can pick up at the tourist office. Stripes you can follow are painted on the streets - unless the stripes have been paved over recently. We were in Auxerre for most of the morning.

We enjoyed Ch Tanlay
http://travel.viamichelin.com/web/De...eau_de_Tanlay-

a little more than Ancy le Franc. We saw them both on the same day.
http://travel.viamichelin.com/web/De...rmont_Tonnerre

Stu Dudley

MaineGG

We sometimes take a picnic from our apartment when we hit the road touring, but sometimes we do a restaurant lunch since most evenings we dine chez nous.

The Auxerre TO sent me some brochures. It looks like a nice town. The walk, "In the Footsteps of Cadet Roussel" is their walking tour, but it's 3 miles long. Somehow I don't think we'll be doing that, but we do want to look around a bit.

Probably won't get to Tanlay this time, but it looks lovely.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

FrenchMystiqueTours

Have fund MaineGG. I should have my Annecy trip report up in a week or so so you can see what awaits you up on the Semnoz Plateau.

nytraveler

I guess everyone has a different pace. We stayed in Avallon (Moulin des Ruats, which is rustic but charming - and has a wonderful restaurant) and spent a full day exploring Vezelay. Admit we usually don;t get on the road until 10 am and we like to explore every corner and poke into a lot of shops (not buying, just seeing how people live). And we spend a couple of hours exploring the Abbey. (Seeing nuns is a real stunner for us - since in the US there are practically none left - and those all 75 and above.)

We didn;t have any more time to spend in the area and went on to Strasbourg form there - but will go back and explore the whole region in more depth - hopefully in the next couple of years. (We had to see Vezelay since it is a family name.)

Underhill

The Château de Tanlay is a fine example of a Renaissance château, complete with furnishings and art.

The cathedral at Autun is a do-not-miss; the medieval precincts around the cathedral are interesting as well.

For something different, take a drive from Beaune out through Savigny-lès-Baune (good winery) and into what's called Swiss Burgundy. There's an excellent restaurant in the hamlet of Bouilland, the Hostellerie du Vieux Moulin, and an 11th-century chapel along the way. It's a very pretty drive.

StuDudley

>>There's an excellent restaurant in the hamlet of Bouilland, the Hostellerie du Vieux Moulin,<<

Yep - Our dinner there in about '07:

Hostellerie du Vieux Moulin in Bouilland, just north of Beaune

www.le-moulin-de-bouilland.com
Michelin 1 star

Amuse Bouches
Skewered rolled duck breast slice, with mustard dollop
Homard tartare “confit”
Arugula sorbet with whipped cream top layer & balsamic drizzle (in a glass cylinder)
39E menu
-Seared tuna with fennel sorbet and a side of pickled vegetables
-Supreme de Pintade thinly sliced in a “spiral” presentation on a bed of herbed crushed potatoes, with vegetables in a side casserole
-Excellent cheese chariot
-Seasonal fresh fruit with pepper-flecked yoghurt ice cream

65E menu
-Daurade with vegetables a la Pistou
-Rougets with a confit of fennel and a bouillabaisse reduction with macadamia nuts
-Pigeon with polenta and zucchini “packet” stuffed with caviar d’aubergine and a rich reduction sauce
-Cheese chariot
-Poached plum with amaretto cream and puff pastry triangles

-Post dessert of Marc de Bourgogne ice and assorted sweets

Stu Dudley

flsd

bookmarking

Underhill

The primary Roman site in Autun is the outdoor theater. However, do not miss the great Gothic cathedral or the surrounding medieval precincts.