We're driving from Paris on Sept 12 and will arrive in Beaune or nearby mid-afternoon. We'll have 3 days to enjoy the Burgundy region before driving to Avignon where we'll stay for a month. We have friends drifting in and out of Avignon but our brief stay in Burgundy is my wife and I only. Please offer suggestions/recommendations of where we might stay and places/wine/walks we might enjoy.
Thanks for your help.
You will want to spend at least 1/2 a day to a day in Beaune, the "capital" of the burgundy region and visits important sites like les Hospices de Beaune.
Outside of Beaune, the Fontenay Abbey is a Unesco site and a great visit. It is about 1h15 from Beaune north west of Beaune and Dijon
The wine road between south of Dijon(starts in Marsannay I think) and Beaune is gorgeous, and called la Côte d'or. Make sure to take the D974 road, not the highway E17. Much nicer
I didn't do the southern part below Beaune. You'll go thru all the big and prestigious names of burgundy wines such as Gevrey Chambertin, nuits St-Georges and so on.
We quickly visited Chateau de Corton-André, especially because of the castle itself.
I will let other people recommande wine visits as we didn't really do that.
I also didn't do Dijon and I know there's some important historical sites in this city. You might want to investigate a little bit.
Find a small town/village and stay there. I used Avallon as a base. I loved exploring . . . Noyers, Auxerre, Vezelay, Fontenay Abbey, Chateau de Bazoches, lots more. I agree, 1/2 day in Beaune.
There's so much to enjoy in Burgundy, you'll enjoy any part of it you choose.
We were in Burgundy last October. The villages we especially liked were Chateauneuf en Auxois and Noyers sur Serein. I've heard good things about the villages near Montreal also. We went to Flavigny- it's rather sleepy, but enjoyed the Flavigny candy factory. Beaune was pleasant but very touristed. We used the DK Eyewitness Guide Backroads France (borrowed a copy from our library) for good road trips in the area. We especiallt liked the backroad wine route starting near Beaune.
Some good advice here. For northern Burgundy, Avallon is a good place to stay, or Semur-en-Auxois. Noyers, Montreal and Chateauneuf are definitely worth a visit. There's a little bit about some of the towns in this area in my blog: http://mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/2013/04/more-from-burgundy.html
"I also didn't do Dijon and I know there's some important historical sites in this city. You might want to investigate a little bit."
Here are videos from Dijon TO to give you an idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5CojSGoJ4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AhaK1TFbS8&t=9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zih7Xss12XE
And don't forget to follow the Owl's trail so you don't miss any site. (well, there is a lot more to see beside that)
Welcome to France!
Thank you for all the suggestions. We have copied and pasted everything and will now begin to winnow. I'm not sure how to do it, since 3 days seems scarcely adequate, but we'll us the Rick Steves' axiom ":Assume you'll be back" That's a great rule to follow.
Thank you all for your suggestions and insights.
Carvil
Les Jardins de Lois..in Beaune and wonderful. The cleanest room I've ever stayed in, everything is perfectly decorated and the hosts are great. We stayed three days and rented bikes to tour the vineyards. We went three days on our last trip and are planning to go back for sure. Burgundy is the most tastefully beautiful French place I have seen. We just loved it.
I stayed in Semur-en-Auxois and Beaune. Beune is a little bigger with more to do but I preferred Semur, especially for seeing areas further to the north.
We have traveled through Burgundy several times staying in Beune, Auxerre, or in a little Inn called Mouilin des Ruats near Avalon; it is on the edge of the Morvan Forrest on a little stream and close to Vezelay. We also spent a week in Semur in Auxois having once stayed there overnight on a drive from Provence to Paris; we loved it and so went back and used it as a base for a week.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/burgundy/
From there we visited Fontenay Abbey, Chateauneuf en Auxois, Flavigny (town where Chocolate with Juliette Binoce was filmed) hiked in the Jura mountains etc. Semur is a stunningly beautiful town and has a couple of decent restaurants and a couple of bars as well as butcher and baker.
