Any particular route we should take from Amboise to Beaune by car?

Mid September we will be staying just south of Amboise and driving to Beaune as well! It's a pretty long drive so our plan is to stop just about halfway at the Guedelon Medieval Site. You can get there via secondary roads and avoid tolls - check out mappy.com for their routes (put in to avoid tolls in order to get off the highway).

Thanks so much for the advice.....that plan sounds great....will start working on it right away!!

If you haven't found it already, Via Michelin is a good route planning tool, though it may underestimate travel times somewhat. It shows three Amboise-Beaune routes. From what I know the most scenic is likely the middle one, via A85 and A6, through Bourges and Vezelay, both of which are worth stopping to see. I didn't find Guedelon near these routes but it probably isn't far. The route should take you through part of Morvan National Park, wooded hills and quite scenic though not rapid.

For estimating the needed time you can indeed like Dick suggests use Via Michelin.

The way I see it: Take the whole day, plan just a few places of interest for a visit and use the well detailed Michelin Departement France maps (Scale 1:150.000 / €8/ yellow cover) for following the scenic routes. Places of touristic interest are marked with (a) star(s) and there is a little section with proposed scenic itineraries, scenic routes are marked green. You can also use the lesser detailed Regional France maps (Scale 1:200.000 / 10€ / orange cover), however have no idea about the touristic info with these, likely a well equiped travelstore will have them to check before buying.

If you are not too much focused on the “exciting stuff”, not in a hurry and prepared leaving the beaten path, France has plenty of little cute places and surprises around the corner, just waiting to be discovered. So try to my opinion a few of those “green lined routes”, well that´s the way I like to drive around.

Guédelon is a bit in the middle of nowhere, you really need a GPS or a well-detailed map for not getting lost there.

Thanks everyone.....yes, we will have a GPS.....has anyone used Pocket Earth? We have heard good things about that app and how it worked when the GPS failed to get the driver to the appropriate destination.

Just did this last week. We did the toll roads for one simple reason- time. To be honest, outside of Amboise is pretty flat and boring.

We did the last of three rental car weeks in the Loire area last year, using the Michelin 1:200,000 map book. Most of our travel was on Departmental (D) roads, and we had a grand time. If you are not in a hurry, local roads are fine - and NO potholes. And I am very senior.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!