Loire Valley & Central France - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 424

Information
Tourist office ( 03 80 26 21 30; www.beaune-tourisme.fr ) ; branch (1 rue de l'Hôtel-Dieu;
10am-1pm & 2-6pm); main office (6 bd Perpreuil; 9am-7pm Mon-Sat, 9am-6pm Sun) Sells

Pass Beaune ticket combos.

Getting There & Away
BUS Transco ( 08 00 10 20 04) bus 44 links Beaune with Dijon (€1.50, 1½
hours, two to seven daily), stopping at Côte d'Or villages such as Vougeot, Nuits-St-
Georges and Aloxe-Corton.
TRAIN Trains connect the following places:
Dijon €11, 25 minutes, 40 daily.
Nuits-St-Georges €11, 10 minutes, 40 daily.
Paris Gare de Lyon €64-118, 2¼ hours by TGV (non-TGV 4½ hours), 20 daily, two direct
TGVs daily.
Lyon-Part Dieu €31-46, 1¾ hours, 16 daily.

Abbaye de Fontenay
Founded in 1118 and restored to its medieval glory a century ago, Abbaye de Fon-
tenay (Fontenay Abbey; 03 80 92 15 00; www.abbayedefontenay.com ; adult/child
€9.50/5.50; 10am-6pm Apr-11 Nov, 10am-noon & 2-5pm 12 Nov-Mar) offers a fas-
cinating glimpse of the austere, serene surroundings in which Cistercian monks
lived lives of contemplation, prayer and manual labour. Set in a bucolic wooded val-
ley along a stream called Ru de Fontenay, the abbey, a Unesco World Heritage
Site, includes an unadorned Romanesque church, a barrel-vaulted monks' dormit-
ory, landscaped gardens and the first metallurgical factory in Europe, which has a
forge from 1220.
Fontenay is 25km north of Semur-en-Auxois.