Dijon, Beaune, Montrachet
 

Planning on spending 2 days+nights in the area towards the end of August. I will be driving from Paris. Can't decide what to do and where to stay. Seems like so many good options - so I should just pick one right?

Love to get some consensus. Reading the forum, Le Cep in Beaune, Hotel Le Montrachet and the Sofitel La Cloche appear to be the general favorites. Is traffic so bad in Dijon?

I really want to lunch at Olivier Laflaive. Drinking and eating are at the top of the list of 'activities'.

I'd certainly appreciate your collective expert advice.

We spent 3 nights at Le Cep and thought it was wonderful....great location, helpful staff and large, comfortable room.
We also had the lunch tasting at Olivier Leflaive. It was a very enjoyable afternoon with good food, wine and company. We would definitely recommend it!

Traffic in Dijon is not bad at all, as is true in most of Burgundy. It's a fairly relaxing area to drive in, and
there are some lovely, scenic roads

Do you really need to drive from Paris? It's quite a long (3 1/2 hours) and boring ride, not to mention the price of toll and gas, and the extra traffic due to summer rush. The TGV is 1h40 mn, and you can rent a car on arrival.

If you are lunching at Leflaive, you better stay at Hotel le Montrachet two blocks away, because that's probably about as far as you will be able to go. Make a lunch reservation.

Thanks for the responses. Quick question, which I'm sure has been asked many times.

Can you ride the TGV direct from Charles de Gaulle? Looks like it goes from Gare de Lyon. How do you get from CDG to Gare to Lyon?

You can indeed take the TGV directly from CDG; look for Roissy on the SNCF site as your departure point.

The Gare de Lyon is the station you would leave from if you were in Paris.

Yes, you can ride the TGV direct from CDG. Unfortunately, Dijon has only got one daily TGV from CDG, and it's rather late, something around 19h00. Whereas there is virtually one train every hour out of Gare de Lyon. To go from CDG to Gare de Lyon, you can either take the RER train with one change in Les Halles or the direct Air France bus. The latter is of course more convenient, but it only leaves every 30 mn and... it's a bus, hence subject to traffic hold ups. What I would recommend, since trains are so frequent: unless you arrive on a heavy traffic week-end (14 July, 15 August or the lot), take the bus, and take the next train on arrival. You shouldn't wait more than one hour or so at worst.