Rothar Routes

Beaune to Cluny Route Map

Beaune was a great stop over; charming old city centre full of interesting sites and busy in a nice way. Not too rushed.

Decision time. Head direct towards Lyon meant using the busy N6 to Chalons Sur-Saone, totally unsuitable for cycling, or finding a parallel route on the eastern side of that road. This would take me through what looked like pretty unintersting scenery on the train journey up.

I always wanted to start my Camino cycles in Le Puy or Cluny so I figured going there would at least mean I got to fulfil my desire to visit Cluny. and the land west looked more interesting as it rose towards the Massif Central.

Getting out of big towns and cities is always challenging on a bike. For luck I found a quiet road, D18, to Blingy les-Beaune and onward to Demigny along the D19. This as it happens is the ‘proper route’ towards Lyon. Terrain is very flat, road is reasonably quiet and there is  a walking path for about half the distance.

While this was a rather long diversion when heading towards Cluny, it was perfect foe cycling and I left the proper route here and took the D62 west to Chagny.

Chagny to Givry was a straight run on the D981, a main road but thankfully it wasn’t too busy and it held out the promise of better routes ahead. Soon enough I was in Boxy and a little bit of climbing broke the boredom of the road.

Not having done much preparation for this cycle meant every rise was hurting and Cluny seemed a long way off. After I passed through the sráidbhaile, St Boil, I noticed a sign indicating a Voie Verte – a greenway.

Unbelievable it was going all the way to Cluny. It was laid over a disused rail line and consequently it had some very long straight stretches but it was heaven on a bike! Much of it was shaded as it was tree lined most of the way and provided great shelter from the heat of the midday sun.

Long straight roads are the enemy of cyclists and walkers alike, but at least there were villages to break the journey if desired. The Voie Verte certainly improved my kms per hour although the long straight stretches made it seem like it was taking forever to reach my destination.

A great surprise was that the Voie Verte took me into Taize, the great spiritual retreat centre that has attracted thousands of young people since the 1940’s. Worth a stop over but it was so close to Cluny I kept moving.

I was really looking forward to Cluny. At it’s height it was the wealthiest monastery in Europe and the Church was the largest in Christendom until St Peter’s Basilica was built. Only a tiny portion of the Abbe remains and it is still impressive.

It now houses the national stud and is a major tourist attraction. Surprisingly enquiries about the Camino Frances were met with shrugs and lack of information – even in the Tourist Office. I could see no makers for the route around Town; given the popularity of the Camino Frances and Le Puy which isn’t that far away it was disappointing.

There was little sense of pilgrimage about the Town and certainly there were no pilgrims about.

 Dijon to Beaune Route Map 

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.