Burgundy-Franche-Comté region
Departments: Côte d'Or, Doubs, Jura, Nièvre, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne, Territoire de Belfort
Population: 2.8 million
Prefecture: Dijon
Area: 47,784 km²
Specialities: Burgundy and Maconnais wines, Jura wines, cheeses (Comté, Mont d'Or, Morbier, Bleu de Gex, Cancoillotte), beef bourguignon, Bresse poultry, kir.
Sports clubs: FGC Sochaux, AJ Auxerre, FC Gueugnon (football), Elan Sportif Chalonnais, JDA Dijon (basketball), Jeanne d'Arc Dijon (handball)
Competitions: motor racing at the Dijon-Prenois circuit, Franck Pineau cycle race in Auxerre
Economy: automotive (Peugeot-Montbéliard), Alstom, General Electric (rail), steel, mining, parachemistry, pharmaceuticals, electronics, plastics, paper, mechanical and automotive industries, agriculture (cereals, beet, cattle farming, cheese). Forestry. Watchmaking. Tourism.
Festivals: Eurockéennes in Belfort, Beaune Hospices Charity Auction, Grandes Heures de Cluny, Rencontres Musicales of Vézelay, Ecrans de l'Aventure (Adventure Screens) in Dijon, Dijon International and Gastronomic Fair, Fenêtres sur Courts in Dijon. Courbet Bicentennial. Besançon Early Music Festival.
Tourist attractions: Fontenay Abbey, Vézelay Basilica, Notre-Dame-du-Haut Chapel in Ronchamp, Burgundy vineyards, Besançon Citadel, Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon, Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, Autun Cathedral, Guédelon Castle, Hospices de Beaune, Citadel and Lion of Belfort, Cluny Abbey, Ballon d'Alsace, Solutré Rock.
Websites and social media: www.bourgognefranchecomte.fr
Km 2.1
Km 2.1 – Brochon (Pop. 660)
The Brochon vineyard is one of the most prestigious in Burgundy. Located between Fixin and Gevrey-Chambertin, its vineyards are divided into three areas: 51 hectares in the south with the AOC Gevrey-Chambertin appellation, 42 hectares in the north with the AOC Côte de Nuits Villages appellation, not to mention the 1er Cru Clos de la Perriére, covering approximately 1 hectare in the Fixin appellation in the commune of Brochon. and finally, at the bottom of the village, are the regional appellations Bourgogne blanc and Bourgogne rouge.
Château de BrochonConstruction: 19th century.
History: born from the dreams of poet Stéphen Liégeard and built between 1895 and 1898 on the model of the châteaux of the Loire Valley, it is the last great château in Burgundy. Stéphen Liégeard (1830-1925), a former politician, had inherited the land from his grandfather. He decided to give the village of Brochon a Renaissance-inspired monument. Begun in 1895 shortly after the serious phylloxera crisis, the project also had a philanthropic purpose: Liégeard wanted to give work back to small winegrowers who had been ruined.
Characteristics: the architects were Albert Leprince and Louis Perreau. The architecture is neo-Renaissance, strongly influenced by the châteaux of the Loire Valley (Azay-le-Rideau for the east façade, Chenonceau for its large arcades, Blois and Chambord for the chimneys and dormer windows). The interior decoration, on the other hand, is inspired by the 18th century. It was entrusted to renowned artists: Xavier Schanosky for some of the sculptures and panelling, Achille Cesbron for the paintings, and Paul Gasq for other sculptures.
Current use: the château now houses the Lycée Stéphen Liégeard (high school), named in honour of the poet and sub-prefect who coined the expression "la Côte d'Azur" (the French Riviera).
Listed as: historic monument in 1984.
Combe Lavaux-Jean Roland National Nature Reserve
The nature reserve is located in the Dijon hills, on the limestone edge of the Saône plain, in the communes of Gevrey-Chambertin and Brochon. The Combe Lavaux resembles a steep rocky cirque, at the top of which stand gigantic monoliths, and whose scree slopes are covered with forest vegetation and boxwood. The nature reserve includes the Grandes Moissonières woods, the Combe Saint Martin, the Plain des Essoyottes, the Combe Chaudron, the Grande Bossière, the Combe du Moine, the wasteland and the Combe de Brochon. The nature reserve owes its name to the naturalist from Dijon who was director of the association from 1992 to 2004, which has since become "Réserves naturelles de France" (Nature Reserves of France).
Km 2.7
Km 2.7 – Fixin (Pop. 700)
This wine-growing village gave its name to a red or white AOC produced in part of its commune and that of Brochon. It is one of the communal appellations of the Côte de Nuits vineyard, between the Marsannay production area to the north and Gevrey-Chambertin to the south. Red wine production dominates, accounting for 93.5 pc of the volume, compared with 6.5 pc for white wine. The appellation has six climats (vineyards) rated as premier cru, which account for approximately 10 pc of red wine production.
Among the local celebrities are Cloude Loisot, a loyal soldier of Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom a museum is dedicated, as well as actor and director Arnaud Viard (I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere) and his sister Virginie, former artistic director of Chanel. Former minister Arnaud Montebourg also spent his childhood in Fixin. Fixin is home to two remarkable churches, Saint-Antoine in Fixey (listed in 1912) and Saint-Martin in Fixin (listed as a historic monument in 1947).
Saint-Antoine Church in Fixey
Construction: 12th and 15th centuries.
Style: Romanesque.
History: a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture with its lava roof and bell tower covered in glazed Burgundy tiles, it is located in the hamlet of Fixey, in the commune of Fixin. Fixey originally belonged to Saint-Bénigne Abbey in Dijon. In 902, a Romanesque oratory dedicated to Saint Anthony was built on this site, which was later enlarged into a church. It is the oldest Romanesque building in the Dijon region.
Listed as: historic monument since 1912.
Noisot Museum and ParkOpened: 1847.
History: in 1835, upon retiring to Fixin, Captain Claude Noisot (1787-1861), a former soldier and loyal admirer of Emperor Napoleon I, whom he had followed into exile on Elba, had the Noisot Park laid out between 1830 and 1840 with Corsican pine trees on a 5-hectare plot of land he had purchased on the heights of Fixin. He created the Napoleon I Museum dedicated to the emperor in the crenelated bastion of his park (a replica of the residence where the emperor lived in exile on Elba). He exhibited souvenirs from the Napoleonic Wars, statues, paintings, objects, documents, etc. The museum was inaugurated on 19 September 1847 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, then future President of the French Republic and future Emperor Napoleon III.
Special feature: Claude Noisot commissioned his friend, Dijon sculptor François Rude, to create a bronze statue called Napoleon Awakening to Immortality in homage to the emperor. It depicts Napoleon I chained to his rock on Saint Helena, coming back to life to free himself.
Trivia: in 1840, Noisot had a hundred steps carved into the rock of the cliffs in his park to commemorate the Hundred Days, the period when Napoleon I returned to power from 1 March to 18 June 1815 between the first Restoration and the second Restoration.
Classification: park listed as a Historic Monument since 2024. Musée de France.
Km 4.5
Km 4.5 – Couchey (Pop. 1,100)
This wine-growing village is located in the Marsannay AOC area. Its inhabitants were nicknamed "the wolves" because, according to legend, they attacked a food convoy during a famine. Its medieval-style castle (13th to 17th century) is flanked by two round towers and pierced by a central gate tower with a side door. Dismantled and sold in three lots during the Revolution, it is now privately owned and not open to visitors.
Km 5.7
Km 5.7 – Marsannay-la-Côte (Pop. 5,430)
Marsannay-la-Côte is a renowned wine-growing village in Burgundy. The Marsannay AOC is the northernmost communal appellation in the Côte de Nuits wine region. It is unique in that it produces three colours of wine: red (the majority, 76 pc of production in 2023), white (18 pc) and rosé (the latter being rare, accounting for 6 pc of production). To date, the Marsannay appellation does not include any premier cru wines. A request has been submitted to the INAO for several of its climats (vineyards) to be granted this status.
Born in Marsannay-la-Côte, Jean Colotte was a promising cyclo-cross rider who died accidentally in 1936. In his honour, a 95-km time trial was organised from 1937 to 1947 around the commune, followed by a cyclo-cross race in the early 1950s.
Café du RocherEstablished: 1830.
History: Established in 1830, it is one of the oldest cafés in France. It is said to be the third oldest French café still in existence after the famous Procope in Paris (1686) and the Café de la Table Ronde in Grenoble (1789). It was originally called Relais du soldat de Napoléon (Napoleon's Soldier's Inn) in reference to the tavern keeper who ran it at the time. It was awarded the title of European Historic Café in 2002.
A distinctive feature is its collection of four animated landscapes painted in the 1830s by a soldier who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.
Current use: it is now called La Table du Rocher.
Listed as: historic monument in 2017.
Km 11.4
Km 11.4 – Corcelles-les-Monts (Pop. 680)
The commune, which borders Dijon, is located at the foot of Mont Afrique. This 600-metre-high table-top mountain may have taken its name from a Roman garrison made up of African troops: a Roman camp was indeed set up at the summit. A defensive redoubt, the Redoubt Lambert, is located at the summit. Designed to accommodate 600 men, it was built in 1878 and 1879. Today, it is occupied by the Dijon public security canine brigade. Mont Afrique is also home to the first land-based lighthouse for air navigation, inaugurated in 1925. The commune is home to an elegant 17th-century private château, Château de Gouville, which is not open to visitors.