Our Blog - Burgundy, France

Burgundy - Part 1

Another short driving vacation in France with Lucy, this time to Burgundy (Bourgogne). The (former) region of Burgundy takes its name from the Burgundians, an East Germanic people who moved westwards beyond the Rhine during the late Roman period. I say "former" because the region was changed in 2016, merging with Franche-Comté to create the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. There really aren't many large cities in the region, with Dijon being about the only one most non-French-people would have heard of, and then only as it relates to mustard :-)

Burgundy is one of France's main wine-producing areas. It is well known for both its red and white wines, mostly made from Pinot Noir (red wine) and Chardonnay (white wine) grapes. There are various types of wine produced in the region, with some ranking among the most expensive wines in the world. In addition to wine, the region is also known for certain foods, such as Dijon mustard, Charolais beef, Bresse chicken, époisses cheese, and the dishes coq au vin and beef bourguignon.

We visited a set of villages in addition to wine tasting. The weather for the first few days was not exactly ideal, but we were able to see most of what we wanted to see. The first day, we drove a couple hours (in the rain) to the cliff-top village of Rocamadour. You can see from the pictures that we were in raincoats but the rain wasn't bad enough to keep us from walking around the little village and seeing the religious buildings that were open. We then headed to the little town of La Souterraine before stopping at a B&B for the night. We were lucky enough to be able to have dinner at the B&B, something that not all of them offer and even less offer it in the "times of COVID-19".

Day 2 started with a little bit of a long drive in the pouring rain and a quick lunch before heading to the a medieval construction site called Guédelon. A team of 50 master-builders are building a castle using medieval techniques and materials. It is a little village, with basket weavers, rope makers, stone cutters, and even a little vegetable garden.

We based ourselves for 3 nights at a B&B outside of Auxerre and did a few trips from there. One day, we did while tasting at a couple of vineyards that specialize in Chablis wines. We also did a quick walk through the town of Chablis while it wasn't raining. There are several impressive churches in Auxerre as well as an abbey in Vézelay.

Burgundy - Part 2

We left the Chablis area and headed South. Our first stop was at the Abbey de Fontenay and we were able to take Lucy through all of the Abbey. After finding a little town nearby for lunch, we then went to one of the Plus Beaux Villages, Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. The town itself was pretty dead ... and we were just about to give up and head home when we came across the factory for the Anis de Flavigny. If you don't know what these are (or even if you do), you can see the details of the one-and-only-factory for these candies on the Flavigny-sur-Ozerain page. A final stop at Château de Bussy-Rabutin before heading to our B&B for the night. Only 1 night here, and we again had dinner at the B&B.

The next day, we headed South again. Since the château that we were going to visit first didn't allow dogs, we found a lake nearby that we could walk around, giving Lucy a little bit of exercise. Then a stop at the Plus Beau Village of Châteauneuf en Auxois. This is actually the town that has the château that was first on our agenda for today and we had almost decided to skip the whole village, but then the owner of the B&B the night before said it was a nice little village, and he was right. It was a quaint little medieval village that actually had a couple places open for lunch. We walked around and saw the various buildings. The village did a good job (in my opinion) of having little information panels at the various buildings. Last stop, this time at the Château de Clos de Vougeot for a tour (this time with Lucy in the puppy backpack again). Then on to the town (small city I guess) of Beaune, which is in the heart of the Burgundy wine region.

During our time in the town of Beaune, we did a little wine tasting, a walking tour of Beaune inside of the old city walls including the Hotel Dieu, and a tour of the mustard factory of La Moutarderie Edmond Fallot.

One day was spent walking around the town of Autun including several sites that date back to the Roman period.

Then we headed home, stopping first at the town of Cluny. We did *NOT* go to the famous Cluny Abbey because they did not allow dogs within the Abbey walls, even in a backpack. Since we were in-route back home, Lucy was with us and we weren't going to go without her. We'll just plan another trip through the area where we plan so that she can stay in her niche at the B&B while we visit the Abbey.

On the way to our overnight stop in Besse, we made an unscheduled detour to the hilltop medieval village of Montaigut-le-Haut.

And a few lovely rainbows along the way!