Santenay to Meursault - Route des Grands Crus

Start: Santenay Les Bains station (train or car park)

Waymarker : Yellow and Red (YR) painted markers Route des Grands Crus. Route des Grand Crus is sign posted (RDGC)

(S) Start the walk at Santenay station (train or car park) and with the Tourist Information office behind you, go up the steps turn and left along Route de la Gare following the Yellow sign Route des Grands Crus for the first time. You will come towards the town square which includes a Chemist and turn right up Rue du Rognier, up the hill (don't follow the Road Route des Grands Crus directions, rather take the smaller road with the sign toward the Moulin on our walking route).

You will begin to see the frequent and helpful Yellow and Red (YR) painted markers – follow these uphill. At the top of the hill turn right then left and follow YR signs painted on the road. When you reach a fork, take the right turn following the way marker to vineyards on the right. Walk straight on towards St Aubin – the Route des Grand Crus is sign posted (RDGC). You will eventually leave the road onto a vineyard track and begin to see signs to Chassagne Montrachet which gradually count down the km to the village. You will start to see the actual Moulin windmill up above you on the left. Continue straight on (North-East) and to follow YR signs to reach a junction when you are just past the windmill.

(1) At the 3-way junction you will see a sign back uphill to the windmill. Surely their wine would be Moulin Rouge?! In fact you don’t visit the Moulin on this route (unless you’d like to explore it) – instead you ignore the sign uphill and proceed downhill to the next junctions at a Chassagne Montrachet sign turning right then left as the road curves right.

(2) At the end of a potentially muddy track turn with a sign for Clos de la Chapelle in view. Turn left towards the house with the golden roof, near Morgeot, sign posted to Chassagne Montrachet (1.7 Km). Then turn right round the house, and eventually right again when you join the D113 road for a short stretch, and then walk up to Les Masseurs.

(3) Turn left off the main road then soon you have a choice to turn right on Rue des Champgains into Chassagne Montrachet (a pleasant deviation to sit by the village church for lunch on the bench and rejoin RDGC by retracing your steps, or with a shortcut through the village up Rue du Parc)

Alternatively continue straight on to continue on the RDGC up into the woods and vineyards into woodlands called les Bois de Chassagne and proceed on the forest path, zig zagging round the south west of the village of Chassagne Montrachet, sometimes steeply uphill, until you reach a junction.

(4) You now reach a straight flatter path going about 1 Km Northwards on the RDGC footpath above the village. Keep on the footpath until you reach a cross roads – on the right is a road up from the village but you cross over towards St Aubin. Keep left at the next fork and finally leave the woodland into a very big open field. After walking through that field carry on down and reach a memorial. Cross and then zig zag following the path downhill, winding towards the village of St Aubin. Cross over the main road carefully walking towards the village in St Aubin.

(5) At the end of the road turn right toward Auxey-Duresses. After 200 m turn left at the fork by the war memorial, towards Gamay. When you reach Gamay walk straight over cross roads on Route du Chateau and turn right at the Chateau. Stay on the Rue du Chateau and turn right at the Chapulot memorial then after 50m on left into Rue de la Fontaine following the road then to a junction.

(6) It is important you reach this point because there is an important choice of two marked official Route des Grands Crus routes. The path to the left is slightly longer and through forest and favours the direct route to Auxey- Duresses; whereas right is slightly shorter and goes to Blagny and favours the eastern route nearer to Meursault . (This description will now describe the Eastern Meursault route).

Soon at a fork in the road turn left into Route de Blagny following up a gentle slope towards Blagny, with good views back down to St Aubin. Continue to the top and walk down the road to reach the tiny village of Blagny.

(7) When you reach Blagny follow the road round to the right and almost immediately left there is a sign posted to Auxey but actually going more towards Meursault. Take this.

(8) At this junction follow the signs and after walking on for about 500 m, during which you join the road, continue on the route to Auxey/Meursault until you reach a triangle junction where you see yellow waymarker signs.

(9) Then here there is an optional alternative to either keep going straight on to Auxey-Duresses on the RDGC or turn right and then down towards Meursault, if you want to visit Meursault (highly recommended). Follow the road downhill through the vineyards, towards Meursault and cross one crossroads till you reach another crossroads.

(10) Then turn left at the crossroads and go straight towards the distinctive church spire eventually reaching Rue d'Ecoles and the centre.

To finish the walk go to the delightful Mersault square near the church, the Marie, the Tourist Office, hotels and restaurants. If you need to reach the station for transport logistics, look for Rue de Citeaux round the corner from the Tourist Office and essentially keep walking straight - but it's a long walk as it lies outside the village.(E)

Start: Santenay station (train or car park)

End : Church of St Nicolas Meursault

Parking : Santenay train station at the start

Local transport: End to end, a train service enables return to start. To access the start point either take the local train service to Santenay from Chagny. If you need to return to Santenay at the end of the walk you can take a train to Chagny from Meursault with a connection on to Santenay. Meursault station is about a 25 minute walk from the centre.

Terrain: Moderate difficulty with a bit of climbing, dog friendly via countryside and vineyards.

Dog policy: Dog friendly via countryside and vineyards.

For this specific Walk Number 1 the Vineyards are the obvious attraction with Chassagne-Montrachet being one of the most famous in the world., as is Puligny - Montrachet, just off-route - both Grand Crus. Some charming villages along the way like Gamay and St Aubin lead to the lovely historic Meursault with restaurants, hotels and an ancient church but still with a village feel.

Off the route of Walk 1, just south of Santenay, are the Maranges vineyards, home to a very pleasant reasonably priced wine which we tasted. This a Cote de Beaune wine, just inside it's southern tip , but Maranges does not count as Cote d'Or, partly for administrative reasons, but also because it has a Premier Cru but not a Grand Cru. To clarify: Burgundy wines cover the whole area from Chablis in the North, down through our Cote d'Or, then down through Chalon to Macon. So our Route de Grands Crus, essentially the Cote d'Or, is a very specific part of Burgundy, containing almost all (32) of its 33 Grand Crus - the remaining one being Chablis. Around 1/3 of the Grand Crus are in the Cote de Beaune where we start and 2/3 in the Cote de Nuit to where our walk eventually progresses. Just west of these Cotes are the Haute regions - nice to visit if time and source of more reasonably priced Burgundies.

Note: This walk can be done individually or as part of the whole Route des Grands Crus: here is a guide for the whole 8-walk programme:

The multi-stage walk covers the whole of the Côte d’Or which consists of two halves, the Cote de Beaune at the south end (mainly white wines) and the Côte de Nuits at the North end (mostly red wines). We've divided the route into eight comfortable walks each of around 7.5 – 15 km (5-10 miles) , designed to provide a linear end to end route, each starting and finishing in towns or villages small enough to be quaint but large enough for car parking and transport links back to your start each day. Some are short enough to circle back on foot ; most contain overnight stay options to simply keep going. Note the buses are highly dependent on season and time of day – check with the tourist office. Following directions is easy with this map and signs - see photos and Comments below. The wines and associated villages and vineyards are some of the most famous in the world with an unprecedented number of Grand Cru and Premier Cru marques, such as Chassagne-Montrachet in the south and Gevrey-Chambertin in the North (even the names of the villages sound enticing!). You will see that some of the vineyards are tiny - hence the exclusivity! - and indeed often divided up historically between many owners.

When to go? The choice of which seasons to go has pros and cons. In Spring, the walking temperature is ideal and although the vines are bare the countryside is still hugely attractive with the yellows of daisy-like plants contrasting with green grass. And for dog-walkers there are no potentially harmful grapes on the ground. In Summer the temperature is potentially very hot for humans and pets alike, but the vines are in full leaf and the grapes are often a gorgeous deep red - almost black. Also in Summer all of the facilities like museums and restaurants are fully open. In Autumn it’s a bit cooler and the leaf-colours are stunning: red, yellow and orange but discarded grapes after the harvest might be a temptation for dogs. Most of photos in this walk and the whole series are in Spring but to show you Summer here I have included a Summer photo from our previous visit. There are a few more Summer photos in Walks 7 and 8

Navigating the route: the walking is generally fairly easy and flat through the vineyards; in total around 80km (50 miles), but with occasional steep trips up into the woods and combes. Especially in the North you have wonderful views from the route up into the higher vineyards and woods and down across the lower vineyards and plains to see the parallel roads of the motorists' Route des Grands Crus, the main D974 and the motorway and train line in the distance so you never lose your bearings. Note that our walking Route des Grand Crus (RDGC from now) is almost always separate from the road version even though near and parallel so don’t get confused.
Directions are well posted. Yellow and red parallel lines (YR from now) indicate the way very frequently and if you make a mistake generally they warn you with a cross painted on a tree or on the ground! Occasionally you will have a definitive way marker arrow, usually yellow.

The wines: if you are wine tasting on a budget as many Visorando walkers may be, our advice is to find a cave or cellar with free tastings where even if you taste one expensive wine from a named village you might perhaps buy that one but also two cheaper but still great wines like the generic Bourgogne or Haute Côtes de Beaune or Nuits. Or try wine by the glass with your evening meal in the restaurant and then buy your emerging favourite from the supermarket! If you can afford a bit more, try a paid for tour of a Cave and perhaps a Premier Cru (but the Grand Cru may be out of reach!)
For food of course you can visit cafes in the towns but for on-route picnic lunches we recommend buying their lovely baguette sandwiches, quiches or fruit tarts at the patisseries before setting off. Remember the concept of the village country pub doesn't really exist in France! Note : take lots of water and sun-protection.