Driving from Beaune to Paris

It's a straight shot up the A6, not much more than three hours according to Via Michelin, which often underestimates time, and of course I don't know where in Paris you want to end up (and hopefully ditch the car). Anyway, on the map I see three very worthwhile places close to the autoroute. Semour-en-Auxois is a beautiful town with a fine church, intact gates, and some good views, also close to Alise-St-Reine (aka Alesia, Caesar vs. the Gauls) and Fontenay Abbey. Vezelay is one of the best Romanesque basilicas in Europe, in a small hilltop town. And Fontainebleau, closer to Paris, is one of the great chateaux, associated with both the Renaissance king Francois I and with Napoleon.

Dijon has a nice medieval center and fine art museum, and is a short train ride from Beaune if you have time for it, but I wouldn't take the time to drive in and out of that city when you have those other three easier-access destinations on your way northwest. Others will undoubtedly have other favorite stops on the way, and if you can do the trip in more than a day you'll have more to see, but Semour, Vezelay, and Fontainebleau would be my candidates. And, if you want to do the trip in just a day, I'd pick just one of those. Good problem to have.

I have tried to visit Cirey-sur-Blaise in June 5 years ago but it was closed as I made a mistake with the opening hours. In May and June the château itself is only open on Sunday afternoons and bank holidays. If you are interested in Voltaire, Enlightenment and history of science I think it is still interesting to visit. It´s a bit out of the way but I will try again if sometime I am in the neighbourhood. Instead of that I visited nearby Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, a kind of political pilgrimage place about Charles de Gaulle who lived and is buried there. His mansion La Boisserie is open to visit and there is a big museum near the monument (you can´t miss).

When we have made this trip we have stopped in Semur en Auxois (and liked it so much we later spent a week based there with much pleasure) https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/medieval-towns/ and have stopped in Vezelay and Auxerre. This is beautiful country with lots of great places to see. I'd pick one or two and plan to come back for more.

We were there last September and enjoyed driving some of the side roads, it is beautiful country. In his France tour book, Rick includes a scenic route north of Beaune. We stopped at Chateauneuf en Auxoise for lunch and enjoyed it very much, it is on the list of the most scenic villages in France and enough off the beaten path that it is not over run. Glad to see there is someone else out there who has found the pleasures of driving in beautiful country.

We had lunch in Chateneuf en Auxois one year on July 14. We were afraid we wouldn't find a place to eat and that the chateau would be closed. We had always seen the chateau from the highway driving by and wanted to check it out. Luckily there was a lovely little restaurant just inside the town wall that was open where we had a nice lunch and the chateau was open. Tiny town; nice quick medieval village fix; good parking.

I second the idea of visiting Semur-en-Auxois, where my wife and I had lunch and walked around for a bit on our 2010 France trip. Also Fontenay Abbey is very special. Closer to Paris, there are a couple of Chateau. We visited Fontianebleau, which was pretty good, since Vaux Le Vocmte was closed. Based upon my research I think the latter might be even better, but Fontainebleu was fine and set in a very nice town with easy parking (on our visit anyway). Never been there but based on my research, the city of Troyes seems to have a very nice old town, too.

We also like Chateauneuf- en- Auxois...it is above the Burgundy canal. There is a picnic table
right on the canal and it is a lovely place for a picnic...great to watch the boats go by. The village is lovely and one of our favorite places to eat in the village is a small creperie called Loree du Bois. We always go there on a cool fall day or night as they have a wonderful fireplace in the middle of the room.. Very cozy!