Burgundy is the reason wine is described the way it is: the Côte d'Or's climats — 1,247 named plots between Dijon and Santenay — are a UNESCO site precisely because they proved that a few metres of slope changes what is in the glass. Around them sits a region of Romanesque abbeys (Vézelay, Fontenay, what is left of Cluny), Beaune's polychrome-tiled Hôtel-Dieu, and the Canal de Bourgogne. East of it, Franche-Comté is a different country altogether — the Jura, all pine and limestone gorges, comté cheese, vin jaune, and the two royal salt works that Ledoux built as a utopian factory town.
- The Côte d'Or climats — Gevrey-Chambertin to Meursault
- Beaune and the Hospices
- Dijon's ducal palace and the Owl's Trail
- Vézelay's basilica and the Way of St James
- The Abbey of Fontenay
- The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans and the Loue valley
- Best time to go
- September for the vendanges and the Jura's first colour; November for the Hospices de Beaune wine auction. May–June is quieter and the countryside is at its greenest.
- Getting there
- TGV Paris–Dijon 1h35, Paris–Besançon 2h05. Lyon and Geneva airports serve the south and the Jura. The vineyards and the Jura both really want a car.
Headline places
What france.fr leads with in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
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Hospices de Beaune A fifteenth-century charity hospital under a polychrome tiled roof - The Côte de Nuits Gevrey-Chambertin to Vosne-Romanée — the most valuable vines on earth
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Vézelay A Romanesque hilltop basilica and a starting point of the Camino -
Abbey of Fontenay The oldest complete Cistercian abbey in the world, in its own valley -
Cluny Abbey The largest church in Christendom until St Peter's — and mostly gone -
Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Ledoux's unfinished utopian factory town, half-built in 1779 -
Baume-les-Messieurs An abbey at the foot of a blind valley ending in a 200 m cliff -
Château-Chalon Vin jaune country — six years in barrels nobody tops up -
Citadelle de Besançon Vauban's masterpiece, 100 m above a loop of the Doubs -
Guédelon Castle A castle being built from scratch with thirteenth-century tools -
Rock of Solutré A limestone prow over the Mâconnais vines, and a prehistoric site
Tourism areas
The names people actually use for this part of France — some of them cross into the next region.
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
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Dijon The ducal palace, the Owl's Trail and the top of the Côte d'Or -
Beaune Burgundy's wine capital and the Hospices' polychrome roof -
Besançon A Vauban citadel inside a loop of the Doubs -
Auxerre Yonne riverfront, Chablis vineyards and a Romanesque crypt -
Arbois The Jura's wine town — vin jaune, and Pasteur's house
Our guides
Full destination guides we already publish in this region.
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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Culture & heritage 53 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the cathedrals that invented Gothic - Food & wine Seventeen wine regions, 1,600 cheeses, and the gastronomic meal on the UNESCO list
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Nature & outdoors Glaciers, gorges, volcanoes and 180,000 km of waymarked footpath - Mountains Six massifs — the Alps, Pyrenees, Jura, Vosges, Massif Central and Corsica
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Cities Paris, and eleven more cities that would headline any other country -
Villages & countryside The 180-odd villages on the official 'most beautiful in France' list -
National & regional parks Eleven national parks and 58 regional ones — about a fifth of the country -
Cycling Over 25,000 km of signed cycle route, most of it flat and away from traffic -
Pilgrimage & spirituality Four Camino routes, Lourdes, Mont-Saint-Michel and the Romanesque abbeys
