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Start: Central Tourist Office (Pays Beaune) in the main square.
The official RDGC is actually a little way west of Meursault centre but we start our walk in the centre because of good free parking, facilities and recognisable buildings. To access the RDGC start from the central Tourist Office (Pays Beaune) in the main square. There is free parking near the centre of Meursault in the Citeaux car park in Rue de Citeaux, or if you take the train walk from the station along rue de la Gare and then up Rue de Citeaux past the chateau to the centre (albeit a long walk in from the outskirts).
From the Tourist Office in Meursault centre two options are detailed below to reach the RDGC proper - either pick up the Route des Grand Crus at Walk 1 waypoint 9, exactly where you left it on the first walk of this series; or take a direct route from the centre up to Auxey-Duresses, along a pleasant quiet footpath which follows the Ruisseau des Cloux, (marked on the map and App) thereby missing a fraction of the RDGC.
So the first option is to simply continue the Route des Grands Crus from where you left off on Walk 1: retrace your steps from Meursault centre Tourist Office back south down Rue des Ecoles to the Meursault turning at waymark points 10 then up to the triangle and yellow arrows at junction 9 on Walk 1. Then continue following the signs northwards on the RDGC Variante towards Auxey Duresses: after 200 m the road turns left then you turn sharp right at a triangle and after 100m fork left and follow the road down to join Waymark 1 of our walk 2 below.
Or for variety, the second option, which our map shows, to avoid perhaps retracing steps, is to take the route North West out of Meursault centre and re-join the Route des Grands Crus fractionally further on.
(S) Starting in the Tourist Office in Meursault turn right, away from the Church, and walk down Rue de la Lattre de Tassigny onto Rudesheim and towards Rue du 11 Novembre . At a fork with many road signs fork left to pick up the D17 to Auxey and soon turn second left into Rue du Pont de Plantes then cross the stream "Ruisseau des Cloux", and turn right into Rue des Plantes to run slightly North-West and left of the D17.
Follow close to the stream on this quieter road until it becomes Chemin de Meursault. Then join the official RDGC again in Auxey- Duresses at Chemin des Fontaines at the bridge near the Church across the stream.
(Near here are several yellow arrows close to where Option one above would have emerged as well as the alternative route from Gamay of Walk 1) So you will now begin to see marker RDGC arrows or the regular Yellow Red Line (YR) signs.
(1) Cross the stream then turn 1st left on Rue de l'Eglise in Auxey-Duresses, follow the road round the side of church into the churchyard then turn right along a main street passing several yellow red (YR) signs. Then turn left up Rue Traversière to the memorial and turn right. Take next left up the hill out of village – it is a long steep walk upwards, passing a "bandstand" on the way then soon following the road naturally round to the right, to eventually reach the top of the hill where the road turns to a track. There is a view of Monthelie on the right in the valley.
(2) From the top follow this now flat path for about 1 Km Northward to a marker post.
(3) From the marker post proceed by turning right and continue to a road. Cross the road and walk steeply uphill to a cross roads. Follow the sign post to Pommard through woodland all the way round the Paux Buis loop round the plateau above Volnay (don't go down to it) until you eventually emerge from the woods where the track becomes a road and you'll see yellow Chemin RDGC arrows. Take the Beaune one straight forward to very soon follow the road round to reach a multi-junction pleasant open area, with a group of houses on the left and on the right an information sign for Elégance de Volnay.
(4) Continue through the open area on this road following YR signs as usual until you reach a junction with a bench with views down to Pommard. Ignore the downhill road and continue straight ahead for about 500 m then at a cross roads turn right at the yellow way mark sign to Pommard. Follow the road down into the village where there is a delightful central church square.
At the end either sit and have lunch on the bench in the square or walk on towards the main road D973 where you will find cafés and wine tasting, and a bus stop (though buses are infrequent).
If you need return to Meursault follow the cycle route sign round the back of the church and walk to Volnay on a small vineyard road. From there walk down Rue de la Chapelle, cross the D973 and continue the walk back to Meursault all the while following the spire in the distance - its a quick flat return. (E)
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