Beaune was kind of a last-minute addition to our Europe trip. Really glad we came to this medieval walled city and got to pedal out to the vineyards and villages.
A circular walled city
Beaune is one of the few towns in France that still has nearly its entire ring of medieval walls. The ramparts make a rough circle about 2 km (1.3 miles) around the old town, with round towers, bastions and the old château built right into them. Much of what’s still standing dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The town has a self-guided Promenade des Remparts that follows the walls all the way around, so we grabbed the map and walked it. Parts of the old moat are now gardens and little streams, and some of the towers have been turned into wine cellars (of course). The grand stone arch is the Porte Saint-Nicolas, an 18th-century gate on the north side of town.
Wandering Beaune
Inside the walls, Beaune is all cobblestone streets, bakeries, restaurants and wine shops. Seriously, there’s a wine shop every 20 feet. The Collégiale Notre-Dame, a Romanesque church started in the 12th century, is worth a stop, and Place Carnot has an old-fashioned carousel and a giant bronze bull (beef bourguignon!) that make for great photo ops. We also spotted a couple of classic Citroëns, which seem to be required equipment in every French town.
Beaune sits on top of miles of old wine cellars. We did a cellar tour and tasting at Patriarche Père et Fils. Their cellars run under a 17th-century former convent, and there are 3.1 miles (5 km) of them, the largest in Burgundy. We started in the old convent chapel, then descended into a maze of vaulted stone tunnels stacked floor to ceiling with dusty bottles, some of them decades old, and finished with a tasting at the end. We selected three bottles of pinot noir to go from the cellar.
Home base was an AirBnb apartment in a classic old Beaune building with high ceilings and antique furniture. A plate of charcuterie, cheese and the headliner bottle of Patriarche Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru back at the apartment was the perfect way to end the day.
Biking the Côte de Beaune
The highlight of our stay was a half-day wine bike tour with Rue des Vignerons. Our guide Théo led us out of Beaune on e-bikes through the vineyards to the villages of Pommard and Volnay, stopping along the way to explain the Climats de Bourgogne, the patchwork of tiny vineyard plots that UNESCO lists as a World Heritage Site.
Halfway through, we stopped right in the middle of the vines for a tasting, then finished at Domaine Bernard Delagrange a small family winery for a tour of the cellar and vat room and a tasting of four or five of their wines. Their premiere cru was tasty and seemed like a bargain at less than 40 euros. We bought a bottle and would have liked to buy more to take home but are limited by our carry on bags. The ride back to Beaune after that was… fun.
Here’s the reel from the ride:
Out to the villages
The next day we got back on the bikes to explore more of the wine villages. Every few kilometers another stone church steeple pokes up out of the vines, and every village is a name you’ve seen on a wine label. Here’s a little video from the ride:
We almost skipped Beaune, and I’m so glad we didn’t. If you love wine, walkable old towns, or just riding a bike through postcard scenery, put it on your list. The company we did the wine tour with also offers multiday tours along the Burgundy route and handles all the details including luggage transfer.