Museum visits · Beaune · France
The Cité des Climats in Beaune, Burgundy wine explained to young people too
the route through the climats and the wines of the Côte, with the vineyard huts for children, grape juice at the end and the free terrace over the Côte de Beaune
The Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne opened in Beaune on 17 June 2023, at the southern entrance to the town: a white building with a spiral that rises like the tendril of a vine, and inside, the story of Burgundy wines. The route explains the region, the climats, the vineyard plots with a name of their own that UNESCO has protected since 2015, and how you get from the bunch of grapes to the wine, with multimedia stations and aromas to smell; at the end you taste the wines. For children, within the same route, there are seven cabottes, the stone huts of the vineyards, and grape juice at the end. Above, on the fifth floor, the terrace over the Côte de Beaune is open to all and free. It is indoors, and in autumn and winter it is Beaune's rainy day outing.
Getting there
- The Cité is at motorway exit 24.1 Beaune Centre, next to the Novotel and the Ibis Budget of Beaune Sud: the website warns that the address is new and some satnavs go to the wrong place
- The Cité's car park is free and open during the Cité's opening hours; whether it takes motorhomes is not stated
- From the motorhome stopover on avenue Charles de Gaulle the Cité is a kilometre and a half away, about twenty minutes on foot along the avenue
- Buses 2 and 5 run in town; the shuttle from the centre runs only in summer
Practical information
Duration from 45 minutes upwards for the route; two or three hours with the Expérience ticket, which adds the exhibition, a tasting workshop and the day's short guided tours
Price 14.50 euros, from 6 to 17 years 7.50; family 37
When to go all year, in the rain too
Suitable for everyone; children with their own route within the adults' one, and with activity booklets to solve going round the rooms, at Christmas too. The building is fully accessible, with a lift, baby changing tables and a free cloakroom. Animals are not allowed in, except guide dogs
Booking not needed for the route, and the ticket can also be bought online; needed for the workshops
Contacts
Where it is
Beaune · Borgogna
Notes
- Opening hours: from 1 October to 31 December 2026 every day from 10:00 to 18:00 except 25 December, from 1 June to 30 September until 19:00. It is closed on 1 January. You can enter the route until an hour before closing. There is no winter closure
- Prices: 14.50 euros, reduced 11; from 6 to 17 years 7.50; free under 6. The family pass for two adults and two young people 37 euros, each extra young person 6. The Expérience ticket 29.50 euros. With a train ticket to Beaune less than 48 hours old you pay the reduced price. The price list does not give the year
- The route is in three parts: the region, the Climats, the grape and the wine. One space is devoted to the Climats on the UNESCO list, and the Cité presents itself as the largest account of their history. At the end there is the tasting of wines from the cellar, with all the grape varieties of Burgundy; how many wines you taste is not stated
- The children's seven cabottes deal with fossils, the cycle of the vine, the grape and the animals of the vineyards
- The family workshops, from 15:00 to 17:00, cost 16 euros for one adult and one child: on 21 October fossils, on 28 October Halloween, on Saturday 19 December Christmas decorations, for children from 5 to 12 years
- The website gives different figures: the building 21 metres high, the terrace at 20 metres on one page and at 21 on another, the pale spirals rising to 24
- The Les Accords bar and restaurant is open every day from 10:00 to 18:00, and the shop and the discovery bar are also free to enter
- The other two Cités are in Chablis, in the centre of the village, and in Mâcon, on the Saône
Photo: Olivier.plm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Lantus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Benoît Prieur, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
