the wine capital of Burgundy, with the coloured roofs of the Hôtel-Dieu, the cellars under the streets, the ramparts and the Côte de Beaune to ride by bicycle, and in November the Hospices wine auction
Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy, a small town enclosed in its walls halfway along the Route des Grands Crus, between the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. Its monument is the Hôtel-Dieu, the hospital for the poor that Nicolas Rolin, the duke's chancellor, founded in 1443: a courtyard with roofs of glazed tiles in diamond patterns, the great ward of the sick with its canopied beds, and Rogier van der Weyden's Last Judgement. The hospital lives off its vineyards, sixty hectares, and the wine is sold at auction every year on the third Sunday of November, the oldest charity wine auction in the world: that weekend the town celebrates. Under the streets run kilometres of négociants' cellars, many of them in the towers and bastions of the walls. From here you tour the Côte de Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, down to Santenay, by bicycle too, on the Voie des Vignes. For those travelling by motorhome there is a municipal stopover five hundred metres from the Hôtel-Dieu, open all year.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
In Beaune you sleep at the municipal stopover on avenue Charles de Gaulle, five minutes on foot from the centre, open all year, or at the town campsite, which closes after the November auction. On the Côte de Beaune in winter the Savigny-lès-Beaune stopover stays open; the campsites of Meursault and Santenay run from spring to autumn.
Area camper di Beaune
avenue Charles de Gaulle, 21200 Beaune
the municipal car park with a barrier, shared with cars and coaches, south of the centre: you enter with a ticket from avenue Charles de Gaulle and leave by rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques. It has 85 places for motorhomes, five of them for disabled people. Note: the rate is for 20 hours, not 24. You walk to the Hôtel-Dieu in five minutes. On the weekend of the Hospices auction it is the most sought-after place in town, and it cannot be booked
85 motorhome pitches
ElectricityWaterGrey water
The first 4 hours are free, then 11.70 euros for 20 hours, 21.40 for 48 hours, 32.90 for three days. Electricity costs 4.70 euros every four hours, water and emptying 4.70 euros every twenty minutes, with tokens. The tourist office does not give the year of the price list and does not say whether the tourist tax is included; Bourgogne Tourisme still publishes 8.70 euros for 20 hours, an older price list · +33 3 80 24 57 50 · beaune-tourisme.fr
the municipal campsite, four stars, north of the town: 116 pitches, 102 with electricity, and 42 grand confort with water and emptying at the pitch. There is a laundry, a restaurant and a small shop. You enter with a pass card at the barrier, arrive from 12:00 and leave between 7:00 and 11:00. In 2026 it closes on Monday 16 November at noon: it covers the night before and the night of the auction, and in December it is closed. The operator says that by train you get to Dijon in less than twenty minutes
116 pitches in all
ElectricityWaterGrey waterToiletsShowerWi-Fi
With the operator's price list, in mid season, from 1 October to closing, the pitch with the vehicle costs 7.80 euros, each adult 6.10 and electricity 8 euros: two adults spend 28 euros a night. The tourist tax is not published, and the operator does not give the year of the price list · +33 3 80 22 03 91 · campinglescentvignes.fr
in the middle of the winegrowers' village of Savigny, six kilometres from Beaune. In summer it is the Les Premières Vignes campsite, from 3 April to 27 September 2026; in winter it becomes a motorhome stopover, and it has been one since 27 September 2026. There are no toilets or showers. The operator does not publish the date when it becomes a campsite again in spring
22 motorhome pitches
ElectricityWaterGrey water
12 euros for 24 hours, from noon to noon, plus the tourist tax, which the operator's page leaves blank. Electricity and water with emptying are paid with a 3 euro token, four hours of electricity or twenty minutes of water. Card payment only · onlypark.fr
the Meursault campsite, at the foot of the village of the great whites, six kilometres from Beaune, on the road to Volnay. It is halfway along the Voie des Vignes, and Meursault has a station, on the same line as Beaune. In November and December it is closed
ElectricityWaterGrey water
In 2026, two people with the motorhome from 19.90 to 33.70 euros a night on a pitch without electricity, from 25.60 to 51.10 with electricity, depending on the period; the tourist tax is not published. Those not staying overnight can empty for 7 euros; water and electricity are for guests only · +33 3 80 21 22 48 · europe.huttopia.com
the Santenay campsite, also called Camping des Sources, two hundred metres from the thermal baths, at the far end of the Côte de Beaune and the end of the Voie des Vignes. It has 136 pitches and a service point for motorhomes, and welcomes those travelling by bicycle. The tourist office and the map still give an old telephone number, 03 80 20 66 55. In November and December it is closed
WaterGrey waterWi-Fi
From 12 euros a night, according to the operator, who does not say for how many people or the year; the tourist tax is not published · +33 7 81 38 14 61 · terracamps.com
Beaune is seen on foot, and the motorhome stays at the stopover. For the Côte de Beaune you take the bicycle or the motorhome; for Dijon and the Côte de Nuits the train.
From Italy you arrive as for Dijon, by the Fréjus or Mont Blanc and then on the A40 and A39, or from Switzerland via Besançon. The APRR stretch from Bellegarde to Beaune Nord costs a class 2 motorhome 34.20 euros, from Besançon Est to Beaune Nord 15.20 euros (February 2026 rates). From Dijon to Beaune on the motorway it is 6.40 euros
The low emission zone: Beaune does not have one
By day with the motorhome: the only car park in Beaune with places for motorhomes is the stopover's, on avenue Charles de Gaulle; the town's other free car parks are for cars, and nobody says whether a motorhome fits. The municipality writes that parking of vehicles people sleep in is "strictly regulated", without publishing the order
The train: the station is ten minutes on foot from the Hôtel-Dieu. Dijon is less than twenty minutes away, and the same line stops at Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vougeot and Gevrey-Chambertin; to the south Meursault, and at Chagny you change for Santenay
The Côte de Beaune runs south through the vineyards, on the D974 and the little roads of the villages: Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Santenay. Between Beaune and Santenay runs the Voie des Vignes, 22 kilometres signposted for bicycles on small roads and chemins de vigne
Bicycle hire: Bourgogne Evasion is at the entrance to the Bouzaize park, where the Voie des Vignes starts: bicycle 20 euros a day, electric 45, child's bicycle 15, trailer 15, child seat 10. Bourgogne Randonnées, near the station, rents the electric bicycle at 39 euros and the bicycle at 19, and in 2026 it is open until 1 November. Neither price list gives the year
Seeing
Sights
The centre is a ring inside the walls that you can walk round in half a day: from the Hôtel-Dieu to les Halles, then north to the collegiate church and the Porte Saint-Nicolas, and from there outside, on the rampart walk, to the Bouzaize park and back along the bastions. The Moutarderie Fallot and the fine arts museum are on the way back. The wine museum, in the Hôtel des Ducs, and the beffroi, the clock tower, are closed and are seen from outside. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
Hôtel-Dieu, the Hospices de Beaune
Museum · paid entry · 47.02215, 4.83662
2 rue de l'Hôtel-Dieu, 21200 Beaune
the "palace of the poor" that Nicolas Rolin and Guigone de Salins founded in 1443 for the sick without means. It was a hospital until 1971, and entirely a museum since 1988. From the street it is grey and austere; inside, the courtyard has roofs of glazed tiles in four colours, redone between 1902 and 1907. The great hall of the poor is 50 metres long, with a wooden vault shaped like an upturned ship's hull, the beams coming out of dragons' mouths and the canopied beds, two patients to a bed. Then the kitchen with the spit turned by an automaton of 1698 and the pharmacy with its majolica jars. Rogier van der Weyden's Last Judgement, fifteen oak panels painted between 1443 and 1451, is in a room of its own; in the chapel there is a copy. The Hospices announced that from September 2026 the polyptych would go to Paris for restoration; at the beginning of October it was still in place. There is an audio guide for children too, pushchairs are allowed, animals are not.
Opening hours open every day of the year. Until 15 November 9:00-19:30; from 16 November to 31 March 9:00-12:30 and 14:00-18:30. On 25 December and 1 January only 14:00-18:30. The ticket office closes an hour earlier, and the visit takes about an hour · in 2026 12.50 euros, reduced 9.50, from 6 to 17 years 6.25; free under 6 years, but children must be registered. Pass Tribu, two adults and two young people, 30 euros. With the one hour guided tour 19 euros · +33 3 80 24 47 00 · hoteldieu.hospices-de-beaune.com · hospices.hoteldieu@ch-beaune.fr
the covered market opposite the Hôtel-Dieu. On Saturday the stalls of fruit, vegetables, cheeses and spices, the butchers under the halles and the rotisseries on place Fleury; on Wednesday twenty-five food stalls. Under these halles the Hospices wine auction is held, on the third Sunday of November: the afternoon of 15 November 2026, and whether the market on the Saturday before stays as it is nobody says.
Opening hours the market on Saturday morning until 13:00, and on Wednesday from 7:00 to 12:30, food only · +33 3 80 24 56 78 · beaune.fr · beaune@mairie-beaune.fr
one of the last great Romanesque churches of Burgundy, modelled on Cluny, begun in the middle of the twelfth century and finished at the beginning of the thirteenth. After the fire of 1272 the apse was given Gothic windows and flying buttresses; the bell tower has the imperial roof of 1580-1588. In the choir, five fifteenth century tapestries of the life of the Virgin, donated in 1500, which cannot be seen in November and December, and a twelfth century Black Madonna.
Opening hours the church is open all year, with no published opening hours. The choir tapestries can be seen only from 12 April to 31 October, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 14:30 to 17:30
a classical triumphal arch in place of the old fortified Bourgneuf gate, designed by Nicolas Lenoir and commissioned by the mayor Maufoux: work began in 1762 and ended in 1770. The walls on either side were pulled down in 1866, and the arch was left in the middle of the road to Dijon. It is stop 13 of the ramparts trail.
the thirteenth and fifteenth century walls, eight metres thick, run round the centre, and three quarters of them remain. After the revolt of 1478 Louis XI had the castle built, finished in 1527, and between 1513 and 1524 four great towers were added; the Prince of Condé, in 1636-1637, four bastions. After the Revolution towers and bastions were sold, many to the négociants, who turned them into cellars: that is why they are seen from outside and cannot be visited. The signposted trail has 17 stops with signs in French and English. On the Saint-Martin bastion is the Square des Lions, of 1760-1764, with its two stone lions; to the south the Saint-Jacques wash house of 1887, where the Bouzaize comes back into the open after passing under the Hôtel-Dieu. The guided tours of the ramparts association, 8 euros and free for children, ended on 4 October 2026.
Opening hours the walk is in the open air. The municipal gardens, the Square des Lions included, are open from 1 November to 31 December from 8:00 to 17:00, and close in strong wind · +33 3 80 24 11 28 · remparts-beaune.fr · contact@remparts-beaune.fr
five hectares of nineteenth century English-style garden around the source of the Bouzaize and a pond, protected since 1949. There is a cedar of Lebanon at the entrance, two sequoias, a playground for children from 5 to 12 years, an aviary and a small farm with sheep and an alpaca. At the entrance there is bicycle hire, and from here the Voie des Vignes starts for Santenay.
Opening hours from 1 November to 31 December every day from 8:00 to 17:00; it closes in strong wind or thunderstorms. The carousel, the kiosk and the boats only from spring to summer
Point of interest · paid entry · 47.02102, 4.83230
31 rue du Faubourg Bretonnière, 21200 Beaune
Beaune's mustard, a family business since 1840, taken over by Edmond Fallot in 1928, and the last independent one in Burgundy. It still grinds the seeds with a millstone. There are two visits: the mustard museum, the first in France, and the working factory, with a tasting at the end. In the shop there is mustard from the pump and mustard with cassis and with Burgundy truffle. The visit is booked on the website; whether booking is compulsory for those going on their own is not stated. The tourist office gives another telephone number, 03 80 22 10 10.
Opening hours every day of the year in 2026. The museum visit, about an hour and a quarter, at 10:00, 11:30, 15:00 and 16:30; the factory visit, about an hour, from 10:00 to 16:30, in French. The shop Monday to Saturday 9:30-18:00 and Sunday 9:30-17:00. The hours for 24, 25 and 31 December are not published · 12 euros, from 10 to 18 years 9; free under 10 years. The price list on the website is the 2025 one; the tourist office confirms the same prices for 2026 · +33 3 80 22 10 02 · fallot.com
in the Porte Marie de Bourgogne, next to the tourist office, reopened with a new route through six thousand years: Neolithic finds, ancient Egypt in tribute to Gaspard Monge, the Beaune scientist who left with Bonaparte, Flemish painting, and a room for Félix Ziem, the painter of Venice born in Beaune in 1821, which ends with a projection built on one of his Venetian sketchbooks of 1872. For families, in December, the workshops on the 19th and 23rd and the tours on the 24th, 30th and 31st.
Opening hours reopened on 19 September 2026, every day except Tuesday, 10:00-13:00 and 14:00-18:00, with last entry half an hour earlier. Closed on 25 December · 6 euros, from 10 to 17 years 4; free under 10 years. The municipality writes that the rates are "coming soon" · +33 3 80 24 98 70 · beaune.fr · culture@mairie-beaune.fr
Beaune's calendar is the wine calendar. The third weekend of November is the Hospices auction and the town's festival; at the end of January the Saint-Vincent moves to a different village every year, and in 2027 it is Volnay's turn; in July, in the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu, Baroque opera. In December the town is quiet, with the boogie-woogie festival and a small Christmas.
Next: Vente des Vins des Hospices de Beaune · 13-15 Nov
13-15Nov
Vente des Vins des Hospices de Beaune
the third weekend of November
the charity auction of the wines of the Hospices estate, the oldest in the world, since 1859: on Sunday afternoon, under les Halles, Sotheby's auctions the 228 litre barrels of the new wine. One barrel, the pièce des Présidents, goes each year to a charity, and in 2026 to rare diseases. The auction is for professionals, but from Friday to Sunday the town celebrates for everyone: the funfair on place Madeleine, the gourmet market with snails and bœuf bourguignon, bands and folk groups in the streets, tastings in the cellars. On Saturday evening, at the Clos de Vougeot, the dinner of the Chevaliers du Tastevin, and on Monday at noon the Paulée de Meursault: these are the Trois Glorieuses, by invitation
3Dec
Beaune Blues Boogie Festival
in early December
since 2006 the blues and boogie-woogie pianists in Beaune: the big evening at the theatre, with the final jam session, and around it lunches with the musicians, tastings and concerts in bars and cellars. In 2026 it is the twentieth edition, and the evening at the theatre is on Thursday 3 December, from 20:30, from 10 to 25 euros
30-31Jan
Saint-Vincent Tournante
the last weekend of January
the feast of St Vincent, the patron saint of winegrowers, which moves to a different village every year: in 2027, the eighty-third, it is in Volnay, ten minutes from Beaune, for the third time after 1957 and 1986. For two days the winegrowers open their courtyards and cellars and the village becomes a tasting trail, with the procession of the brotherhoods. The kit with the glass and eight vouchers costs 20 euros in advance and 25 on the spot, the children's kit 6, and is bought on the festival website
This year's dates are not out yet
Christmas in Beaune
in December, at weekends
a small Christmas: the children's lantern parade, the arrival of Father Christmas on the square of les Halles, free shows and workshops on place Carnot, and the craft market at the Porte Marie de Bourgogne. In the villages around, Meursault and Savigny, the village markets
Festival international d'opéra baroque et romantique
in July
four weekends of Baroque opera, with the great ensembles, in the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu, in the collegiate church and at the theatre. 2026 was the forty-fourth edition, from 3 to 26 July, with tickets from 15 to 140 euros and 10 euros under 18; the programme comes out at the end of February
Remember
Useful tips
The auction weekend, 14 and 15 November 2026, Beaune is full: the avenue Charles de Gaulle stopover cannot be booked, and the Les Cent Vignes campsite closes on the Monday after at noon. Those who arrive on Friday find more room, and the Savigny stopover is six kilometres away
In December the municipal stopover in Beaune is open; on the Côte the Savigny-lès-Beaune stopover stays open. The campsites of Meursault and Santenay close at the end of October and on 1 November
Before going to the Hôtel-Dieu for van der Weyden's Last Judgement, phone: the polyptych is due to leave for restoration in Paris, and the date is not published. A copy remains in the chapel
The tapestries of the collegiate church can be seen only until 31 October
The wine museum and the clock tower are closed with no reopening date. For the cellars there is the Caves Patriarche experience, and for wine explained to young people the Cité des Climats, at the southern entrance to the town, with grape juice at the end of the route
The Côte de Beaune by bicycle: the Voie des Vignes starts from the Bouzaize park, and from Meursault you come back by train. In winter the hire shops cut their hours or close: book ahead
The Saint-Vincent in Volnay, on 30 and 31 January 2027, brings thousands of people to a village of winegrowers: car parks and shuttles are usually announced in December, and the kit is bought beforehand, online
For the Côte de Nuits and Dijon you take the train: Nuits, Vougeot and Gevrey are on the same line, and Dijon is less than twenty minutes away
Beaune · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Experiences from here
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
In Beaune you eat and drink the Côte. The wines are those of the Côte de Beaune: the Pinot Noir reds of Pommard, Volnay and Beaune, and the great Chardonnay whites of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne. Under the town lie the négociants' cellars, starting with the first, Champy, of 1720. Mustard is still made at the Moutarderie Fallot, with the millstone, and Moutarde de Bourgogne requires the region's white wine. On the table there is jambon persillé, ham in parsley jelly, the Easter dish that in Burgundy every family made with the ham kept in salt all winter, and which since 2007 has also had a Label Rouge; snails in garlic and parsley butter; Époisses, the washed-rind cheese with marc de Bourgogne, protected since 1991; and gougères, the cheese puffs, with a glass.
put the shoulder in a large container of cold water and leave it to soak for 30 minutes
cook it in the white wine and vinegar with the onion studded with the clove, the carrot, the peppercorns and the bay leaves, over a low heat for 4 hours, until tender
while the meat cools, soak the gelatine in cold water and finely chop the garlic and the parsley
strain the stock, reduce it by half and dissolve the gelatine in it
pull the meat apart, removing the bone, mix it with the garlic and parsley and pour the stock over it; adjust the salt and pepper
pour everything into a terrine and leave it to set in the fridge for at least 12 hours before serving
the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu, with its roofs of glazed tiles in diamond patterns and its wooden galleriesPhoto: Benjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the wooden dormer windows on the glazed roofs of the Hôtel-DieuPhoto: Benjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the wrought iron well in the courtyard, in front of the galleriesPhoto: FrDr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the great hall of the poor, with its wooden vault and red canopied bedsPhoto: Benjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Rogier van der Weyden's Last Judgement, open in its roomPhoto: Zairon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the copy of the Last Judgement above the chapel altar, among the red hangings with Rolin's mottoPhoto: Benjamin Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the square in front of les Halles on the day of the auction, full of peoplePhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the Hospices wine auction under les Halles, with the auctioneer and the rows of red chairsPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the evening of the auction, with the crowd in front of the Hôtel-Dieu and the television vansPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0a band in red jackets in the streets, on the evening of the auction festivalPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the façade of the collegiate church lit in blue, on the evening of the auctionPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the apse of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame with the bell towerPhoto: Chatsam, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Porte Saint-Nicolas, the arch in the middle of the road to DijonPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the round bastion of Louis XI's castle on the wallsPhoto: Elliott Brown, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0the Tour Blondeau above the green moat of the wallsPhoto: Elliott Brown, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0the Saint-Jacques wash house on the Bouzaize, at the foot of the wallsPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the yellow façade of the Moutarderie FallotPhoto: Florian Hoffmann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the jars of Edmond Fallot mustardPhoto: Arnaud 25, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
