Dijon or Beaune - which town for base?
 

Thank you to all who helped make our decision to stay in the Burgundy area for our first time in France. So do we choose Dijon or Beaune as our base? We like the feel of smaller towns and enjoy walking, food and wine. We are going in September and have about 3-4 days in the area because we decided to do justice to Paris and stay there for 9 days.

With your preferences I would choose Beaun, There is a local bus that runs frequently between the 2 cities, passing some vineyards and wineries if you feel like exploring those

I still think that Dijon is a better one to make it as a base. If you like to stay in an apartment, write to Coco. She can rec. you other apartments. There are several hotels not far from the train station, too. Oops, did I see that there is construction going on?

I think if you say you prefer smaller towns, that that chooses for you. That's all it really gets down to. I like bigger places so would not stay in Beaune myself because I didn't find it that interesting and I didn't like the fact that is was just so full of tourists shopping for wine and all the wine shops selling to them. If you're not interested in buying wine, which I wasn't, it didn't seem to fascinating. I like more things to do and more of an urban vibe, even though Dijon doesn't have the same sense as a real big city such as Paris, of course.

I would think Dijon much better for dining, also, but you can always find a decent place to eat for a couple days. You can walk anywhere, of course.

I asked this exact question here a couple of years back. The consensus was Dijon, and I doubt the advice has changed. See http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...e-or-dijon.cfm After my visit I was glad I had stayed in Dijon, where there was a lot more to do/see.

We have stayed in Beaune the two times we were in Burgundy and loved it. It is a small town and if you get a hotel/B&B in the centre you can walk everywhere at night. It is also easy to drive out of if you have a car.

If you dont have a car then I would opt for Dijon as there are many more options for food and things to do at night. You cant go wrong really!