Via Jerusalem. Day 1. Dijon – Beaune
Having reached Rome in 2010 by bike my future plans were to take it up from Rome and head towards Brindisi. However Ian Brodrick persuaded me to have a look at the new route across France and help with marking.
As luck would have it, my French IGN Maps never arrived in the post – even though they were ordered 3 weeks prior to departure. So I would be winging it if I couldn’t get replacements in Dijon. And I didn’t.
I arrived into Lyon and took the Rhone Express into city and hooked up with the train to Dijon. That was good craic. The train was packed and the conductor had little English but was sound as a pound. We had a bit of banter over rugby and ground football and Theirry Henri’s hand ball.
Dijon was stunning. It’s a beautiful city, well worth a visit in it’s own right. I figured roughly where I needed to be headed, from the tourist display map in the centre of Dijon, and it worked out grand.
Ian Brodrick reccied some of the new route earlier in the summer, unluckily for him, in a downpour; now the sun was beaming over head so it was full steam ahead.
Didn’t realise it beforehand but I was travelling through the famous Burgogne wine region – and the road I was following turned out to be the Route Des Grand Crus. This was a minor road, perfect for cycling or walking and it meandered in and around vineyards all the way to Beaune.
Plenty of small villages en route to stop and refresh. Lots to see and visit and just after the Romanesque Church of Fixey I was surprised to find way markers for the Camino Frances. Unfortunately bikes weren’t allowed up through the forest.
Now marked with a Jerusalem Way sticker and Camino Frances Badge! Fixey.
Here’s a link to Day 1 on the Via Jerusalem from Dijon. Being so close to Cluny, I decided it would be great to visit it and so I head south west rather than south east.
But it was worth it.
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