THE TOUR OF BURGUNDY by BIKE

LE TOUR DE BOURGOGNE à VÉLO

From May 4 to May 12, 2025

INTRO (with some CONCLUSIONS already):

• The official Tour de Bourgogne (tour of Burgundy) takes you in a loop of about 700 kilometres around the heart of the BURGUNDY REGION (Cote d’Or) where once the patriarchs who labelled us (ie Flanders and the Netherlands) as “Low Countries” came from. Or more prosaically: in a large circle it goes around the Morvan and the following geographical phenomena are followed:

• From Migennes to Dijon : Le Canal de Bourgogne
  • From Dijon to Santenay, entering la COTE-D’OR doing La Route des Grands Crus (Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune) or the Route of the Great Burgundy wines
  • From Santenay to Digoin : Le Canal du Centre
  • From Digoin to Decize : Le Canal Latéral de La Loire
  • From Decize to Auxerre : Canal du Nivernais (between Clamecy and Migennes, the river Yonne and the canal sometimes run together, sometimes along and sometimes into each other.)

• We took Migennes as a starting point because it is the closest to our home in Belgium and it offers – in retrospect – a leisurely start of the Tour along the Canal de Bourgogne with only highlights in beauty and cycling pleasure thereafter. Migennes is not attractive, but it forms a practical start if coming from the North; and it is also easily reachable by train, even directly by TER from Paris-Gare de Bercy! (bicycles are therefore allowed on the train!)

• A second conclusion: the route follows canals for most of the time, but this does not mean that you get smooth sailing all the way: sometimes a canal must be left because no good “chemin de halage” or “towpaths” (haulage roads)  have been built or could be built. Because of this, the route often goes through the hinterland and often seriously undulating. In between some places, short successive locks cause a considerable difference in height; and lastly the route brings you across the vineyards of Burgundy on traffic-calm backroads and therefore involves quite some climbing ….! So, with traditional and packed bikes (like our Koga Worldtraveller) every evening you do well deserve a three-course dinner! In total we did a positive elevation of about 3000m over the 700 kilometers. (France Vélo Tourisme quotes 1400 meters….)

• The route is very well marked (see logo); according to the French Cyclist Network, the route is sometimes also referred to as EV 51. The GPX can be downloaded on Le Tour de Bourgogne à vélo or  The Tour of Burgundy by bike (note: we didn’t do the loop around Tournus and Macon). The road surface is good to very good, but we would always opt for a bit fatter tires for the rougher work than those of a racing bike…!

• So we started in Migennes; we parked our car safely on the unpaved part of la Place François Mitterrand next to the canal. The night before we slept in the adjacent Hotel Le Mitigana (98€). Good!

On the way driving to Migennes, we visited the abbey of Pontigny and also made a walk through Chablis. Both interesting. After our bike tour we visited (again) Vézelay and the Abbey of Fontenay, both very worthwhile, or “vaut le detour” in Michelin terms. We had visited Dijon and Beaune before…

Press underneath file for our stats:

ROUTE

Day 1: From MIGENNES TO ANCY-LE-FRANC: 81 km, 4h23 by bike, 248m of ascent, 157m  descent

Le Canal de Bourgogne starts here. The purpose of the canal was to ensure a connection between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea by connecting the Seine and the Yonne with the Saône and the Rhône. Now it only serves for the water management of Paris and the Burgundy region and is welcomes by all pleasure boating.

You quickly cycle out of the city and into the great tranquillity.  Today is almost flat and on well-running towpaths bordered with Canadian poplars; the heights you do only come from the ascending lock banks. The canal and herons on the lookout in a rolling landscape will accompany your first days…!

St-Florentin is a small harbour and offers most probably a cosy café when the weather is better and a little later in the year when more tourists… Tonnerre did not leave an overwhelming impression, but it does have everything for a picnic or overnight stay. The villages between Tonnerre and Ancy-Le-Franc seem a bit desolate; certainly not what you associate with Burgundy. But Tanlay and Ancy do have beautiful Renaissance castles, away from the Canal (some climbing involved for the one in Tanlay) and a beautiful Gîte along the canal in Ancy: Le Moulin Neuf (quite pricey at 120€ and only open from May 15, we think…).

The Tourist Office in Ancy called a gîte for us, located at 22 Rue de l’Eglise, for 60 €… Good!

Dinner in « à Vos Papilles », the only joint open on a Sunday evening… Ok…

Day 2: ANCY-LE-FRANC to POUILLY-EN-AUXOIS: 86km, 4:32, 437 climbing, 231 descending

Between Venarey-Les-Laumes and Pouilly (ascending) and Pouilly and Dijon (descending), 56 locks were built to bridge the differences in altitude in the landscape…! This shows how complex this gigantic work – and certainly at that time (started in 1777) – was.

These are also the only height differences that you will do on your bike today and they come so gradually that you wonder where that hunger feeling in the evening comes from…

And… the differences in altitude come more gradually than those for the pleasure boats on the canal! They have to wait and watch locks filling up or emptying every few hundred meters! But this is apparently well accepted by all passengers, also of the luxury versions with 5 crew members on board, including their own cook.  

We liked the stretch between Venarey and Pouilly the most of Le Canal de Bourgogne because of the beautiful rolling landscape and being far from traffic! From Ancy, you also notice that Burgundy is getting “richer”.

Buffon is an interesting place with “La Forge” along the route and possibly nice sleeping possibilities a little further in Le Maronnier or in La Petite Forge. Montbard offers all amenities and certainly coffee!

Meanwhile, the canal starts to cut deeper into the landscape, so the hills get higher. Just after Montbard there is also a turnoff to Fontenay, an abbey restored by one of Montgolfier’s descendants who had once started a paper mill in it. Very worthwhile to visit! The abbey is a 5 km from the route and the road lightly undulating (we noticed afterwards by car!)

Again: in our opinion, the most beautiful cycling happens on Le Canal de Bourgogne between Venarey and Pouilly! The harbor in Venarey looks inviting, but a bicycle rental is the only “enterprise” as the owner calls herself (a coffee house apparently does not fall under the same heading…)

At La Maison du Canal in Le Pont Royal, across the canal, you can celebrate your enthusiasm on the bike with coffee and other goodies. La Maison is run by a diligent brother and sister, all year round, and comes with 5 rooms!

25 km further on, the canal runs through a ridge and the route through Pouilly-En-Auxois, which is also the highest point of the Canal… Pouilly is a commercial crossroads in le pays des Auxois.

We stayed and had dinner in Hotel Du Commerce (78€ for the room). Good! Alternative: Hotel de la Poste. Both hotels alternate availability (as such there must be communication between them, you would think; not always evident in France…!)

Day 3: From POUILLY-EN-AUXOIS to NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES: 86Km, 4H40, 363m up, 521 down.

 According to many, this is the most beautiful stretch; It is indeed nice but too many roads with traffic close to the route. A lot of downhill as well but the wind meant that we still had to pedal quite hard!

However, the closer you get to Dijon, the smoother the road surface gets!

A few kilometres after Pouilly you arrive in the charming little harbor of Vandenesse after which you can spot on your left the magnificent location of the castle of Chateauneuf.   (We have been there by car during a former passage of the region; the village is classified as “un des plus beaux villages…”, worth visiting! By bike apparently a 2km of the route but coming with a steep climb).

Note that there are about 38 villages called “Chateauneuf” in the whole of France; this one is officially known as Chateauneuf (Côte-d’Or), locally as “… En-Auxois”.

You keep on going “downhill” along places carrying as suffix “… En-Auxois” first and then “… Sur-Ouche” but with the A6 highway as an annoying presence in the scenery and this until Pont-d’Ouche. But the closer you get to Dijon, the more the countryside has to make way for the city.

You don’t enter the capital of Burgundy: Le Lac Kir leads you around the city towards Chenove where the first vines of the COTE-D’OR welcome you to “La Voie des Vignes” (in the past) or now -majestically – “La Route des Grands Crus” or wines that take a big chunk out of the average family budget. 

The locals who work in the vineyards find you annoying biking through their habitat! So, it’s best to avoid the route during lunch hours and just after 17.00…

Nevertheless, the route builders deserve full praise: you now mainly follow low-traffic backroads through the various “appellations” and grands crus; but you do need more effort now to negotiate the undulations of the (this time of year) busily tended vineyards!

World famous wines often carry the name of an unremarkable village as their origin. Gevrey-Chambertin is an exception; it would even be attractive if the D122 didn’t run through it!

Nuits-Saint-Georges knew how to do it: they laid the local main road around the now traffic-free village centre!

We stayed in Hostellerie Saint-Joseph (a Logis Hotel) for 110 € with breakfast. Very good. And we had a wonderful menu for 18.5€ (3 courses!) in Café du Centre; not the cosiest of places but best price/quality of the whole Tour! And you can accompany your meal with a whole range of roaring Burgundy names available by the glass!

Day 4: NUITS-SAINT-GEORGES to SANTENAY: 46 km 2:54 434 ascent and 452m descent.

We chose a short stage allowing us to visit Beaune and Meursault; So, we did a little more distance than what the route would require.

The most beautiful part through the vineyards comes today: especially from Corton to Savigny-Lés-Beaune because you climb higher in the valley, which completely muffles the sound of the big roads down in the valley!

As warmup, a sharp climb takes you to “les domaines” de Corton.

This time of the year vineyards are tilled with manned tractors, unmanned robot tractors and sometimes also with horses! The latter would be described and required in the “terroir” or the “Appellation” ie how certain plots should be cultivated to obtain or keep their AOC…  Anyway, the horses allegedly are a great benefit to the fauna and flora in the soil and above the ground…!

Dispersed in the valley you will also find resting places with placards giving an overview of the “Côtes” and where the Crus, Premier Crus and Grand Crus are located. You may also expect your stop that evening to produce more affordable Pinot Noirs as Santenay is just outside the borders of the “Côte-de -Beaune”.

To visit Beaune, you have to leave the route, but both getting in and getting back onto the route is well signposted! Beaune is worth a visit and even an overnight stay! The route does take you through Meursault, though! If you want to enjoy the wine-tasting in le Chateau de Meursault, you’d better also stay there overnight….

In Santenay we stayed in L’Etappe, renovated and very good as lodging (78€). However, their restaurant is very basic, large portions but rather tasteless. Here you take the French standard form for “was it tasty?”: “tout c’est bien passé?” very literally: “we did indeed finish the food “. When tasty, we praise with: “c’était bon” or even “délicieux”.  This time we agreed with just “bien passé”. The message that it was “so and so” probably didn’t arrive….

Restaurant Le Terroir is closed on Wednesdays as well as Hotel/Restaurant L’Ouillette.

Santenay is not worth a stay; we wouldn’t choose it next time as a stop.

Day 5: From SANTENAY to PARAY-LE-MONIAL: 93km, 4:55, 669m ascent, 648 descent.

Today and tomorrow are quite tough.

Gradually you leave the vineyards with the more affordable wines. Via Le Canal du Centre (which runs together with the EV6 for a while) you pass Blanzy where the route is now indicated going straight ahead (the GPX turns left towards the hills!) until just before Montceau-Les-Mines where you will still go for those hills! (Note: don’t follow “Centre Ville” but stay left, going up until after 500 meters where there is suddenly a sign going right; Here you start with a seriously steep climb as a prelude to more sloping work…!).

The next 30 km go up and down, through beautiful landscapes and with mainly white Charolais cattle as spectators. Palinges has a camping which for a change welcomes you for a coffee…! At about 6 km before Paray-le-Monial and having arrived again along the canal, the hard work for today is finished.

Lush parks and gardens along La Bourbince and the canal guide you beautifully into the city.

“… Le-Monial” indicates a monastic history. The town exudes religiosity: it is known as a place of pilgrimage with the Romanesque Basilica du Sacré Cœur as its center, which John Paul II once visited. An ideal overnighting place also for cyclists: after the laundry “une belle promenade explorative”, after dinner “une petite promenade digestive”…

We slept in the beautiful Hotel La Prieuré which was still quite affordable at this time of the year (110 € with breakfast). Their restaurant is also recommended, but you have to point out to the hyperkinetic waitress on Duracell batteries that you don’t want to gulp the excellent 3-course menu (28 €) in 22 minutes while still finishing your aperitif with dessert…. 

Day 6: From PARAY-LE-MONIAL to DECIZE: 94 km, 4h41, 357m ascent and 402 descents

You will catch a glimpse of the Loire 3 times today, but never really cycle along it.

The day starts leisurely along the canal and after rather industrial Digoin you cross the Loire on one of the earliest built “Pont-Canals” in France. The canal with a length of 246 meters takes you to Le Canal Literal à La Loire.

You will pass through Pierrevitte-sur-Loire where you will notice Hotel La Péniche on the other side of the canal. In Dieu, you cross the Loire again from where the smooth asphalt of the Voie Verte takes you past Bourbon-Lancy.

The medieval centre of Bourbon is well preserved and is about 2 km from the route (along a busy road!) BUT is quite worth a visit! We once stayed there on our GTMC route (see webpage).

From Bourbon-Lancy the fun begins: seriously rolling through the Burgundian hinterland to Cronat. After bumping onto the Loire again and a little further in Charrin you can finally find something to eat or a coffee in “Le petit Monde de Sylvie”. Right across is an accueil Vélo.

You can celebrate this with a final climb until you get back on a canal, this time Le Canal du Nivernais. This one will keep your company for the next 200 km.

If you choose to stay in Decize, you follow that direction…. So the next day you will have to backpedal 4 kilometers along the canal to continue the route. If you want to continue directly on Le Tour de Bourgogne, follow Champvert.

We had chosen to stay in Decize. After 94 km we had earned our dinner! Decize is an amalgam of waterways, but the city has little to offer…

We had booked Hotel Port de Decize in advance (102 € with breakfast). This is on the other side of the city (west, and therefore over a few bridges) and not badly situated in a cozy pleasure boat harbour. Its restaurant has quite tasty menus to finish another wonderful day.

 Day 7: from DECIZE to CORBIGNY: 85.24 km. 4H26, 275 climbing, 254 descending.

Today we can offer you a beautiful ride along the canal du Nivernais, perhaps the most beautiful part of the entire Tour de Bourgogne!  An effortless ride in lovely scenery with some inviting stops.

You first cycle back to Champvert. Along the water Cercy-La-Tour has a butcher’s shop with coffee machine, especially for passing cyclists! Paneçot has an attractive Plan d’Eau with an idyllic-looking restaurant on the other side of the canal.

But Chatillon-En-Bazois has it all: meadows along the canal for picnic and/or a siesta and La Guingette if you want more substantial intake. All this with an imposing castle, high in the background.  From here on it is not always clear whether you are cycling along the Yonne or along Le Canal; Sometimes they literally run next to each other, sometimes they form the same waterway…

In Baye, you have to stop at the lake. The campsite is beautifully situated and restaurant La Marine looks very inviting…!! (Open all year round!). There is an underground canal – above which you regularly cycle – between the lakes and Port-Brulé that guarantees enough water to Le Canal du Nivernais. Here you will also arrive at the highest point of the canal du Nivernais with “l’Echelle des 16 Ecluses”: the “staircase of 16 locks”. Impressive!

Our plan was to spend the night in Clamecy, but hotels were fully booked (May 8 is an official holiday in France! Shops are closed but the French go on holiday!). However, the campsite south of the city looked excellent!

(Note that Vézelay – a must see! – is located 22 km east of Clamecy and requires a serious ride with quite some climbing; so, it takes more than just making a detour! Spending the night there is then a good option! As such you can explore and discover all nooks of the town, early in the morning when the crowds are still away. Hotel Le Compostelle is a good option there, 84€.  See also our GTMC page with an introduction to Vézelay!)

Back to our trip: just to be sure, we had booked in Corbigny, Hotel La Buissonière (104 € with breakfast. Good).  Although the receptionist had assured us that we were lucky because that day the annual La Grande Foire du Terroir was just being held… we wished we had added the extra 25 km to Clamecy and stayed at the campsite…

Day 8: From CORBIGNY to AUXERRE: 100 km, 4h57, 212 up, 297m down

The ride remains exciting with an additional bonus that the road surface from Crain becomes even better! The day also comes with quite a few attractive stops for lunch or coffee…! (At least more than what you will encounter on the other side of the Tour during the first few days!)

In Tannay there is an Acceuil Vélo.

Clamecy looks like an ideal stop, with a high level of conviviality and all amenities. The town was also known as a launching site for tree trunk rafts to Paris and this is still celebrated exuberantly every year….

From here on you mainly follow the Yonne river which meanders ebulliently, often on asphalts that you share with other traffic to cut the bends of the river.

You cycle past Châtel-Censoir, a postcard perfect village; restaurant l’Etape des Gourmets was closed…

White cliffs announce the “Appellations Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre”; affordable Pinot Noirs and Chardonnay’s this time! At les Rochers du Saussois, 5 km before Mailly-Le-Château, you can see climbers hanging on the rocks. Mailly looks at you impressively from above and asks for a longer stop!

From Cravant you can see the main vineyards of the Côte d’Auxerre appear at the top right of the panorama. The terrain looks as challenging as the Côte de Beaune and Meursault and one day there may also be a cycle route running through it; but that will require substantial marketing budgets to put those wines on the world map first.

Anyway, you can taste Irancy, Chitry and Saint-Bris-Le-Vinieux without remorse that evening …. Together with Vaux and Vincelottes, these are also places that you could probably visit afterwards by car…

The entry into Auxerre is just as beautiful but even grander as entering Paray-Le-Monial: landscaped parks around waterways that give the city a green lung and offer its inhabitants pleasant moments away from the city hustle and bustle!

Le Quai is the highlight of the city in terms of conviviality; the city is therefore also worth an overnight stay (Ibis Centre, 104€ with breakfast). Here also an exploratory walk after the laundry and a digestion-promoting walk after dinner are recommended. Must go restaurant:  Chez Max ! (32 Euro/menu)

 Day 9: from AUXERRE to MIGENNES: 27km, 78 m ascent.

A nice formality ride! 

Note: in Migennes, follow the direction of “centre” if your car is on the Place Mitterand! (not “gare”: this means you arrive to the south of railway and canal and makes you carry the bike up the stairs or make a long detour ..)

We arrived at noontime giving us the possibility of excursions to Chablis, Pontigny, Vezelay, etc…

CONCLUSIONS

Main conclusion: a WONDERFUL cycling loop with a lot more than just blissful cycling!

If we were to plan this trip again, we would divide the Tour according to the stops that seemed worthwhile to us (and often also because only these stops have enough facilities) with the aim of doing 60 to 80 km per day… And we would include also the loop around Tournus!

Clockwise:

• We would still start again in Migennes and leave the car there. But maybe sleep in either Chablis or Saint Florentin (Hotel Les Tilleuls) (alternatively, you can also leave your car there…!)
• Tonnerre
• Ancy-Le-Franc : Le Moulin Neuf
• Buffon : Le Maronnier
• Montbard with an excursion  (6 km) to the Abbey of Fontenay (very worthwhile)
• Le Pont Royal and stay at La maison du Canal
• Pouilly-en-Auxois. Alternative : cycle a bit further and stay in Vandenesse or even Chateuneuf (Côte d’Or), 2 km of the route with a serious climb!
• Chevrey-Chambertin
• Nuits-Saint-Georges
• Beaune (is actually a must! We stayed once as a stopping point on a trip to the South of France; Hotel Best Western)
• Meursault
• Find a place to stay between Chalon-Sur-Saône and Montchanin
• Paray-Le-Monial : Hotel La Prieuré
• Bourbon-Lancy : Logis La Tourelle du Beffroi
• Chatillon-en-Bazois or Baye
• Clamecy
• Mailly-le-Château
• Auxerre

ENJOY!!!

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