Beaune or Dijon?

Dijon has a beautiful "old town" city center (walking plan available from the TI) but Beaune is the town that better fits your parameters and has a great Saturday market or smaller one on Wednesday.

I prefer a medieval look to the later 17th/18th century. Because of that, I liked Dijon quite a bit more than Beaune. I stayed in Beaune and only visited Dijon. If I had to do it again, I'd reverse that.

If you do choose Beaune, I found the area around the tourist sights is in much better shape than across town (the other end inside the ring road). It's all from the same period but the area around the tourist sights seems recently restored and there are a lot more restaurants. Away from there seems run down. I did find, even in May, most decent restaurants needed reservations. I'd ask your lodging to make some reservations for you when you first arrive.

I enjoyed both cities but was happy with my choice to base in Dijon and day-trip to Beaune. It probably does come down to a city-size preference. I don't like a string of large cities, but I also prefer not to spend multiple nights in small places, and Dijon's historic area felt larger. (I've checked a map, and I believe that it actually is larger.) I'm just not a sit-at-a-café person; I like to wander, and Iike to have a good-sized area to wander in.

I just searched "Beaune or Dijon" in the archives of this forum and got many hits. There's likely a lot of good info there.

Great! Thanks