I wanted to give you a taste of what it is like to visit Burgundy. The cities, towns and medieval villages, the countryside and of course the vineyards. This is not an ultimate guide to Burgundy, nor a guide of the ten best vineyards to visit. Instead it is a taster, a glimpse into what a 2 or 3 day visit to one of the best wine regions in France might look like.
For more information about Burgundy you can read my review of the Hotel Le Cep in Beaune, listen to my podcast on Burgundy food, and read my article on whether Beaune is worth visiting.
From the medieval streets of Avallon to the wine auction that sets the price of the most expensive wines on earth, this video covers the essential highlights of one of France’s most extraordinary regions.
We visit Avallon, a largely unspoilt medieval town in northern Burgundy and an ideal base for the UNESCO site of Vézelay. Then on to Dijon, the regional capital, where highlights include the Jardin Darcy, the Porte Guillaume, the Belle Époque post office building, the market hall inspired by Gustave Eiffel (who was born here), the Church of Notre-Dame with its extraordinary Jacquemart automaton clock and 51 gargoyles, and the medieval streets of the historic centre. The Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy houses the Fine Arts Museum and the remarkable ducal tombs. We then follow the Route des Grands Crus south through Nuits-Saint-Georges, a town so celebrated that Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater on the moon after it, to Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy. Here we visit the Hospices de Beaune, a 15th-century hospital whose donated vineyards have made it possibly the most valuable wine estate in the world, and explore the underground caves of négociant Patriarche et Fils, home to 2 million bottles beneath the city streets.