Circular loop starting from Bussy-La-Pesle

From Sombernon, take the D7 towards Saint-Seine l’Abbaye. After crossing the forest, turn left, staying on the D7, to reach the hamlet of Savranges. Shortly after passing through it, turn left onto the D114c to reach Bussy-La-Pesle. Park in the cemetery car park; take the first path up to the right after the church.

(S/E) From the Bussy-La-Pesle cemetery car park, head downhill to reach Rue de l’Église. Turn right towards Saint-Hélier. Pass the crossroads by the castle, then, at the next one, just before leaving the village, turn right onto Rue de La Montagne. A tarmac road leading uphill.

(1) After the first right-hand bend, leave this road and turn left onto a woodland path. Further on, at the end of the path, it rejoins the original road. It turns into a stony track as it emerges from the woods after a right-hand bend. Continue straight ahead across the fields.

(2) At the entrance to the Come Berge woods, keep to the right to skirt them on the left. The path enters the undergrowth. At the next four-way junction, turn right. A gentle descent through the Roulot and Pison woods. Meadows on the left. At the edge of the woods, there is a panoramic view of the Oze valley, the surrounding hills and Blaisy-Bas. You can enjoy the view from an easily accessible meadow on the right.

(3) Continue along the path until you reach the outskirts of Blaisy-Bas.

(4) Just after a sharp left-hand bend, leave Rue du Presbytère and turn right onto a grassy path (children’s playground). At the end of this, join Rue Cordier and turn left until you reach Place du Jet d’Eau or Place d’Undenheim. The fountain is still in use.

(5) Continue to the right and follow Rue Durant (the main street) for a few metres. At Place du Monument, turn right into Rue de Bussy. At the next three-way junction, keep to the right, then turn right shortly afterwards onto a fairly steep and long slope heading towards the woods. Once at the top of the slope, keep to the left (plot 39).

(6) Further on, at a crossroads of tracks, turn left. Follow the ridge line continuously until you reach the first electricity pylon (LEHT).

(7) Head up to the right, following this line. Just before a second pylon, turn left to enter the woodland. This path rejoins the ridge trail. Continue straight ahead before descending and then crossing the D7 to reach, a few metres further on, the Fontaine Saint-Julien (almost dry on 31/07/2022).

(8) Retrace your steps to the crossroads of tracks just beyond the D7. Turn left and continue straight ahead until the clear path is overgrown with brambles, near a rubbish dump (garden furniture). Then turn right into a path that is more or less visible, heading up into the woods. Shortly afterwards, at a five-way junction (not all branches are obvious), turn right heading north. Continue uphill to reach a path that widens. Head straight ahead to the far left to reach the D114c.

(9) Cross the road and take the path opposite, slightly to the left. At the end of this, turn right onto a dirt track. You’ll emerge onto fields at the edge of the woods. Turn left onto a white track. Follow it for a long way across the fields. Ignore the first path branching off to the left at the edge of the woods.

(10) Turn left at the next junction. Go straight ahead at a crossroads to reach another T-junction. Turn left. You will arrive at a wide, open crossroads.

(11) Turn right and continue along this path until you reach another T-junction. Turn right. The path leads out into the fields and passes under a high-voltage power line.

(12) Turn left at the next junction. Follow this route until you come to a tarmac road that slopes gently downwards. At the next junction, where you can see beehives, turn left.

(13) This will take you to the village of Drée. Arrive at Rue Haute and turn right.

(14) Immediately afterwards, head down to the left onto Rue Chaillot, then turn right onto Rue Basse, which runs alongside the Ruisseau de Ladrée and is lined with old houses. Head back up to the right via Rue de l’Église to return to Rue Haute.
Turn right to reach the entrance to Drée.

(14) Follow the route back to the crossroads by the apiaries.

(13) Turn left, then keep to the right.

(15) When you reach a crossroads of tracks in the middle of fields, continue straight ahead towards the woods. At the entrance to the woods, keep left to take a wide dirt track which later becomes tarmac. It winds downwards in an S-shape between hedges to reach Bussy-La-Pesle and is called Rue de Sombernon as it enters the village.

(16) Turn left to follow Rue Haute, which leads to Étang du Drevin. Turn right onto Rue du Château to go round it on the left. Reach the junction with the D114c, the starting point, before turning right towards Sombernon, finishing shortly afterwards at the cemetery car park (S/E).

Non-potable water sources at Blaisy-Bas (fountain) and Drée (stream).

Picnics are possible on the grass at (3) – near the Fontaine Saint-Julien (8) – near the church in Drée.

Good walking shoes are recommended, as are walking poles for the ascents and descents.

(13) Option to take a shortcut by avoiding the route through the village of Drée. In this case, once you reach (13), keep to the right as you climb towards the Chatrés and Fourneaux fields until you reach (15), then continue as before. Circular route reduced to 16.23 km – 408 m elevation gain/loss – duration 5 hours 50 minutes.

Bussy-La-Pesle:
18th-century Church of Notre-Dame and Saint Blaise.
Castle dating from 1242 – the current castle was built between the 12th and 19th centuries. The first castle at Bussy was built by the Sombernon family at the dawn of the 13th century. This family owned woodland there and forged alliances with local lineages, such as the de Drée family, who, a few kilometres away, owned a castle bearing great similarities to that of Bussy. The Hundred Years’ War left its mark on the village, and the castle was captured on two occasions: in January 1363 by Arnaud de Cervole, and in June 1421 by mercenaries in the pay of an impostor posing as the lord of the manor.
The villagers were freed at the end of the 16th century, whilst the village lay in ruins due to the Wars of Religion, famines and outbreaks of the plague and other diseases still ravaging the Burgundian countryside. In 1767, Marie de la Toison inherited the castle and commissioned the construction of the village’s present-day church. She appears to have weathered the Revolutionary period with no concerns other than having the coats of arms removed from the boundary markers of her property at the request of the municipality of Bussy. She left the castle to her cousin Antoine Tanneguy le Compasseur de Courtivron, who would go on to become mayor of Dijon and later of Bussy.

Blaisy-Bas:
Blaisy-Bas or Blaisy-la-Ville; both names were used in times gone by. The name is thought to derive from the Celtic word ‘Blays’, meaning ‘wolf’ (a place frequented by…). Whilst the name is mentioned in historical records from the 9th century, by the 14th century half the village belonged to the Crecey family and the other half to the Blaisy family.

Drée:
The Dictionnaire de la noblesse (by de la Chenaye-Desbois and Badier, Paris, 1865) provides the following details regarding the “House of Drée”:
“A house that took its name from an ancient castle, now almost demolished, and from the Land of Drée in the bailiwick of Semur-en-Auxois, provostship of Pouilly. This land, now fragmented and perhaps reduced to very little, has not belonged to the House of Drée for a long time.
However, by letters patent of March 1767, registered at the Parliament of Paris on the following 1st of September, the land, seigneury and county of La Bazolle and its dependencies in the Mâconnais were elevated to a marquisate under the name of Drée in favour of Étienne, Count of Drée, and his descendants.”