The weekend
Four days in Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy, and the omission from the earlier list that most deserved fixing. The town is a ring of ramparts around a medieval core, and beneath it run kilometres of négociant cellars — Bouchard, Drouhin, Patriarche — carved out of old quarries and church crypts.
The riding is the Voie des Vignes, a 72km waymarked route from Dijon to Santenay through the entire Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. The best stretch runs south from Beaune through Pommard, Volnay, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet — quiet vineyard roads, mostly gentle, with a proper traffic-free greenway on an old railway line beyond Santenay. You are pedalling through the UNESCO-listed Climats de Bourgogne, which is to say the most valuable agricultural land in the world.
A little history
The Côte d'Or's vineyard map was drawn by monks: the Benedictines of Cluny and the Cistercians of Cîteaux spent the Middle Ages walling individual parcels and noting which produced better wine, creating the climats — around 1,250 named plots, each with its own boundaries and character. The Dukes of Burgundy made the wine famous across Europe; Philip the Bold banned the Gamay grape from the Côte in 1395 as 'disloyal', which is why it is Pinot Noir today. The Hospices de Beaune has funded its hospital by selling wine at auction every November since 1859.
What it costs
Per person for the whole weekend, priced for a party of four — two twin rooms, or one whole place between you. Everything but the bed is fixed, so where you sleep is the only row that moves and the only one shown as a range.
| Per person | |
|---|---|
| Getting there, both ways | £226 |
| Three nights | £75–180 |
| Bikes and getting about | £34 |
| Eating, drinking and tastings | £185 |
| The weekend, per person | ~£520–620 |
Where to sleep
| Option | Per person |
|---|---|
| Hotels — two twin rooms | |
| Vini Hotel or the Golf Hotel Colvert, both a short ride out | €30 a night £75 for three |
| voco Beaune – Cité des Vins, or the Château de Challanges | €70 a night £180 for three |
| Airbnb and self-catering — one whole place | |
| The typical Beaune listing | €29 a night £75 for three |
Beaune runs 67% occupancy, so book early rather than late.
Eating and drinking
| What | Each |
|---|---|
| A menu du jour | €16–28 |
| Dinner in Beaune with a bottle of village wine | €45–80 |
| Tastings on the Côte | €15–30 |
| A serious domaine visit | €30–60 |
The £185 above assumes the middle of this list: a cheap lunch, an ordinary dinner, one good one over the weekend, and wine throughout. It does not change with the room.
Day by day
Friday Arrive & the Hospices
- Morning flight and TGV; into Beaune by mid-afternoon.
- The Hôtel-Dieu — the Hospices de Beaune, founded in 1443 by Chancellor Nicolas Rolin as a hospital for the poor, with the famous polychrome glazed-tile roof and a ward that stayed in medical use into the 1970s.
- Late afternoon: cellars under the town. Patriarche has around 5km of galleries and pours a long tasting flight; Bouchard Père et Fils is in the old fortress.
- Dinner: Burgundian, and heavy. Œufs en meurette, jambon persillé, and a village Pinot.
Saturday South to Santenay and Nolay, and the train home
- 42.7km ridden, 342m of ascent, and no return leg. Ride out down the Côte, up the old railway to Nolay, back to Santenay — then the TER from Santenay-les-Bains to Beaune, 34 minutes with the change at Chagny. Bikes travel free on Mobigo services.
- It starts uphill. Out of Beaune the route lifts to nearly 300m by the seventh kilometre, over the shoulder above Bouze-lès-Beaune, before dropping into the vines. Get the legs going before you set off.
- Château de Meursault at 10km. Three and a half thousand square metres of vaulted cellars from the 12th, 14th and 16th centuries — one of the most visited properties on the Côte d'Or, which means it takes bookings properly and takes groups without fuss.
- Olivier Leflaive at Puligny-Montrachet, 15km. The best-timed stop of the weekend: cellar tours run Friday and Saturday at 11.00, from around €20, which is almost exactly when you will arrive. Book it and build the morning around it. Open 20 March to 19 December.
- On through Chassagne-Montrachet at 18km to Château de Santenay at 23km, a converted fortress at the southern end of the Côte and the point where the vineyards stop.
- Then the climb nobody expects. Beyond Santenay the greenway follows a former railway up through the Maranges into the Hautes-Côtes, topping out at 341m at the 33km mark — traffic-free the whole way, viaducts and cliffs, but 120 metres of steady gain. Nolay at the top is the turn: a medieval covered market, and lunch somewhere with no Grand Cru on the list.
- Freewheel back down to Santenay — ten kilometres, all of it downhill — and take the train. It saves twenty kilometres of flat riding across the plain at the end of the day, and it means lunch at Nolay need not be rushed.
- Beaune by mid-afternoon, with the cellars in town still open. A serious dinner; Beaune eats extremely well.
42.7 km · 342 m of ascent · 214–342 m
Sunday The Route des Grands Crus north to Dijon
- 47.5km ridden with 281m of ascent, finishing at Dijon-Ville and taking the TER home — 25 minutes, direct, bikes free. One way down the entire Côte de Nuits, with no obligation to ride any of it twice.
- North through Savigny-lès-Beaune at 7km and Aloxe-Corton at 10km, under the wooded hill of Corton — the only Grand Cru red of the Côte de Beaune.
- L'Imaginarium at Nuits-Saint-Georges, 23km. A sound-and-light show on Burgundian winegrowing followed by a guided tasting, €25. Faintly touristic and completely painless — it takes four people off the street without an appointment, which on a Sunday in Burgundy is worth a great deal.
- Vosne-Romanée at 26km, and the stone cross at the top of La Romanée-Conti. There is nothing to visit and nothing to buy. Stand at the wall, look at an acre and a half of the most expensive agricultural land on earth, and ride on.
- Château du Clos de Vougeot at 28km. Cistercian, twelfth century, built by the monks who worked out that these parcels tasted different from those ones and thereby invented the whole idea. Open daily 9.30 to 18.00, €9 self-guided or €15 for a guided tour by arrangement — English at 11.30 and 15.30.
- Château de Gevrey-Chambertin at 34km, a tenth-century fortress with a tasting at the end of the tour, then the high point of the day just beyond it at 298m.
- Château de Marsannay at 41km — tours at 11.00 and 15.00 from April to November — and the northern end of the Côte.
- Dijon at 47km. Lunch, the ducal palace if there is time, and then the station — the route finishes within a couple of hundred metres of it. Riding back would mean 38km down the same road you have just come up, which is the one stretch of this weekend with nothing new in it.
- Check the Sunday evening service before committing to a long lunch. Dijon–Beaune is a main line with plenty of trains, but the weekend timetable is thinner than the weekday one, and it is the only train that matters.
47.5 km · 281 m of ascent · 218–298 m
Monday Home
- Morning: the Saturday-and-Wednesday market if the day suits, otherwise the ramparts and a last cellar.
- TGV to Lyon or Paris; evening flight home.
When to go
Spring — March to May
7–18°C. The Côte is bare early, green by May, and the town is quiet enough to get a table. Grands Jours de Bourgogne, when it runs, fills every cellar in March.
Summer — June to August
15–27°C, warm and settled, with the vineyard road at its greenest and the Beaune festivals in full swing. Cellars stay cool whatever the weather does.
Autumn — September and October
9–18°C. Harvest through September, the Côte turning gold, and the run-up to the November auction. The best light of the year on those slopes.
When to go
September or June. September for the harvest and the colour; June for long evenings and easier tables.
Festivals
None of this weekend assumes a festival. The rides work on any weekend of the season. If your dates land on the Hospices auction in November, the town is the event: keep the Sunday ride and give the Saturday to Beaune. That weekend in particular needs booking a year out. The trade is worth stating plainly: on a festival weekend the growers are behind a stand in the square rather than showing visitors round a cellar, so book private tastings weeks ahead or accept that some will be shut, and expect beds to be scarcer, dearer and gone months in advance.
Spring
Grands Jours de Bourgogne — March, every other year
A week when the whole of Burgundy opens its cellars. Trade-oriented, but the town is electric.
Saint-Vincent Tournante — a winter weekend
The growers' patron saint paraded through a different village each year, with tastings in every cellar. The rota is published years ahead: Volnay in 2027, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Prémeaux-Prissey in 2028, Savigny-lès-Beaune in 2029 — all of them within a short ride of Beaune.
Summer
Festival International d'Opéra Baroque — July
Baroque opera in the courtyard of the Hospices and the Basilique Notre-Dame.
Autumn
Vente des Vins des Hospices de Beaune — third weekend of November
The most famous charity wine auction in the world, and the weekend the whole region turns out. Book a year ahead or stay away.
Getting there
From London, per person, assuming bikes are hired locally rather than flown. Fares checked September 2026 and converted at €1 to 86p.
| Leg | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| The flight | ||
| easyJet or BA, Gatwick to Lyon (LYS) | 2h 00 | £70 |
| Airport into Lyon | ||
| Rhônexpress tram to Lyon Part-Dieu (€16.90) | 0h 30 | £15 |
| Lyon to Beaune | ||
| TGV or TER, direct or one change at Dijon. Beaune station is in the middle of town | 1h 40 | £28 |
| Waiting and one change | 0h 55 | — |
| Door to door, one way | 5h 05 | £113 |
| Both ways | £226 | |
Eurostar plus the TGV from Gare de Lyon is barely slower and considerably more comfortable, if you would rather not fly.
Bike hire
Assumes hybrids.
| Shop | Rate |
|---|---|
| Bourgogne Randonnées, Beaune — taking cyclists since 1995, and delivers across Burgundy | €15 a day €35 e-bike |
| Bourgogne Evasion, Parc de la Bouzaise — 500 bikes and 150 e-bikes, so availability is rarely the problem | €15 a day €35 e-bike |
| Santenay and Chagny tourist offices — useful if you want to start at the far end of the Voie des Vignes | €15 a day |
Helmets, locks and repair kits are included at all of them.
Getting about
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bike hire, Saturday and Sunday | £26 |
| TER to Santenay or Chagny, allow | £8 |
| Getting about, whole weekend | £34 |
The wineries
Patriarche Père et Fils
Around 5km of galleries under the town in a former convent, with a self-guided tasting through a long flight. The best-value cellar visit in Beaune.
Bouchard Père et Fils
Cellars inside the old royal fortress, and holdings across many of the greatest climats.
Marché aux Vins
A deconsecrated 15th-century church where you taste through a list of appellations in the crypt. Walk-in, no appointment.
Château de Meursault
Three and a half thousand square metres of double-vaulted cellars under the château, an eight-hectare walled vineyard and a park. The most visited wine property on the Côte d'Or, which is a warning and a convenience in equal measure: it is polished, and it will take a booking for four without difficulty. 03 80 26 22 75.
Olivier Leflaive
The best-timed stop of the weekend, and the reason to leave Beaune at nine. Cellar visits run Friday and Saturday only, at 11.00, from around €20; vineyard tours Wednesday to Saturday at 9.30 from €35. There is also a bistro and a hotel, so it doubles as the lunch fallback. Open 20 March to 19 December. 03 80 21 95 27.
Château de Santenay
At the southern end of the Côte, where the vineyards give out and the greenway to Nolay starts. A useful last tasting before the climb into the Hautes-Côtes, and the obvious alternative lunch to Nolay if the legs have gone.
Château de Pommard
A walled monopole of seven distinct parcels on clay and limestone, farmed biodynamically — the one estate on the Côte where a single wall encloses the whole story. Tastings are generally morning appointments, and Pommard is a flat 5km from Beaune, so this is the Friday afternoon stop rather than something to fit into a riding day.
L'Imaginarium
Not a domaine but a visitor centre, and on a Sunday that is exactly the point. A sound-and-light show on the history of Burgundian winegrowing, cooperage and all, then a guided tasting. It takes walk-ins, which almost nothing else in the Côte de Nuits does on a Sunday.
Château du Clos de Vougeot
The place the whole idea of climats came from: monks farming fifty hectares in walled parcels and noticing that this bit of slope was not that bit. Open every day 9.30 to 18.00 from April to October, €9 self-guided with a leaflet and touchscreens, or €15 guided by prior arrangement — English at 11.30 and 15.30. The unmissable stop of the Sunday.
Château de Marsannay
The northern end of the Côte, in the appellation that has come furthest fastest. Guided cellar tour and a tasting facing the vines, daily April to November at 11.00 and 15.00. 03 80 51 71 11.
The wines
Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and a hierarchy that runs from regional Bourgogne through village wines to premier cru and the thirty-three grands crus. The names on the road signs — Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Montrachet — are the reference points the rest of the world measures itself against. Prices at the top are absurd; village wines and the Hautes-Côtes behind the slope are where sanity lives.
Eat & drink
| Friday | Œufs en meurette and a village Pinot |
| Saturday | Lunch in Meursault, on the ride |
| Sunday | Marché aux Vins, then a serious dinner in Beaune |
| Monday | Market and gougères before the TGV |
The food
Œufs en meurette, jambon persillé, coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon done properly, escargots, Époisses (which smells like a crime and tastes wonderful), and gougères with the aperitif. Dijon and its mustard are half an hour north.
Where to stay
Hôtel Le Cep
A 16th-century townhouse with a courtyard, the classic Beaune address.
Hostellerie Le Cèdre
A 19th-century villa in a garden, quiet and a short walk from everything.
Les Jardins de Loïs
A hôtel particulier with its own small vineyard behind the walls — charming and better value.
Practical
- France allows cyclists 0.5 g/l of blood alcohol, the same limit as drivers — so one glass with lunch is the practical ceiling if you are riding afterwards. See the country-by-country table.
- Both riding days are one-way, with the TER doing the return. Saturday finishes at Santenay-les-Bains (34 minutes to Beaune, changing at Chagny); Sunday finishes at Dijon (25 minutes, direct). Bikes go free on Mobigo services, subject to space — check the Sunday evening timetable before committing to a late lunch, because the weekend service is thinner than the weekday one.
- Chagny is the fallback station. If the Santenay connection is awkward it is a flat 8km east along the plain, and it sits on the main Dijon line with far more trains.
- The most famous vineyard road in the world, and it turns out to be a signposted cycle route with a greenway on the end of it.
- Book a grower, not just the négociants. The big cellars under Beaune are easy and good value; an hour with a Meursault domaine is the memory you keep.
- Avoid the third weekend of November unless you want the Hospices auction — the town is full and prices treble.
- Bike hire in Beaune includes e-bikes and there are several outfits; the Voie des Vignes starts from the town.
- Check sunset before you plan the last leg. Any day that finishes with a ride home wants an hour of light in hand, and that hour disappears fast either side of the equinoxes.
- Beaune Tourism — the Voie des Vignes — the official route description, stage by stage
- Bourgogne Wines (BIVB) — the official Burgundy wine board — appellations, climats, visits
- Hospices de Beaune — the Hôtel-Dieu and the November auction
- Climats de Bourgogne — UNESCO — the 1,250 named parcels and what makes them a World Heritage Site