My Burgundy Cycling Adventure is Now Finie

It’s over … 11 rides and 452 miles through Burgundy from Beaune and Tournus.

 I didn’t know what to expect of Burgundy in terms of cycling. All I knew about this region was wine, wine, wine. Expensive wine. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Everything here revolves around the production of wine.

What I didn’t know was … the ridges!

This place is filled with ridges and when you combine the vineyard-filled valleys and the paths along the canals and rivers with the climbs up and down the ridges and the views from the top of these crests, well, you get a spectacular and popular cycling region. I highly recommend cycling in Burgundy and am working on my eBook on Biking in Burgundy. It’s pretty high up on my list of best regions for cycling in France.

Another thing I noticed is that e-bikes have become really popular. Five or six years ago, it was rare to see one over here, and now … at least half the cyclists on the Voie des Vignes (Route of Wine) were on e-bikes. I’ve gotten over my initial snobbery of e-bikes and the people who ride them and have embraced how they’re expanding the playing field for all of us. More people on e-bikes leads to more bike routes, bike lanes and a bigger and better cycling culture. Plus, it’s not like me and my legs are getting any younger. I see one in my future.

On my final ride, I did the climb up to the Cirque du Bout du Monde again, as it’s my favorite spot in Burgundy.

At the tourist office in Beaune, I had gotten a pretty extensive cycling-map pamphlet that included numerous routes, but didn’t include this ride. The suggested rides stuck to the Voie des Vignes from Dijon to Santenay, from Beaune to Dijon and along several canals and the Saone River. For me, one of my favorite parts of these cycling adventures is figuring out and planning my own routes and rides, using the info from the tourist office, my Michelin map and a little bit of cycling intuition. The thought of blindly following a route suggested by the pamphlet from the tourist office, or being part of a tour-group ride and riding the routes they tell me to ride would be a bit tortuous. But that’s just me. And, I have been doing this since 1985 (almost 40 years!), so I can understand why people on their first French cycling adventure would want the structure of a group ride and planned route.

I met a couple from California (on e-bikes) on the Voie des Vignes who were part of some sort of organized tour and had an app on their phone telling them where to ride. We chatted and I asked them where they were headed. They didn’t know. They thought it was a town that started with a C. I looked at my Michelin map and guessed Chagny, which wasn’t too far away.

“Maybe,” they said.

They asked where I was headed, and I told them about the amazing views from the Cirque du Bout du Monde. They seemed interested and thought maybe they could do the climb on their e-bikes. “I think you could,” I said and showed them where it was on my Michelin map and explained how to get there … and … their eyes sort of glazed over. A paper map! They seemed confused, as if I was someone from the past showing them something long-ago relegated to the dust bin of travel equipment. I doubt made it to the Cirque, which is a shame. I don’t mean to pick on these perfectly nice cyclists, who just might have been having the adventure of their lives. But, it’s kind of sad they didn’t get to see these views …