France has a network of hiking trails, known as Grand Randonnees (GR), that criss-country the country. Other long-distance walkers have written and posted photographs from their experiences in various countries, including France. I am fortunate enough to have a chance to visit France for several weeks in 2009 and hope to share of my experiences. What follows developed out of an overly-simple plan to "walk across France." That is, I initially thought I would set off from Geneva (Switzerland) and head west to the Atlantic Ocean ending somewhere near La Rochelle or Royan. That thought was very naive and failed to take into consideration the terrain, unpopulated areas, and the routes of existing trails (Grand Randonnee).
Consequently, my plan changed. My hiking plan started in Dijon and followed the old Grand Crus trail south-southwest through the Burgundy country. More precisely, it started in a suburb on the south side of Dijon called Chenove. Four days later, the trail ended in Beaune. There I switched from a hiking vacation to one of a more a touring variety. I want to provide the you with technical data (maps, GPS info) as well as photographs from the trail.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Below is a day-by-day summary of that week in Burgundy, known as Bourgogne by the French.
| Description | From | To | Distance |
| Day-1 | Dijon | Givrey-Chambertin | ~ 9miles |
| Day-2 | Givrey-Chambertin | Nuits-St. Georges | ~ 10.2 miles |
| Day-3 | Nuits-St. Georges | Aloxe-Corton | 13+ miles |
| Day-4 | Aloxe-Corton | Beaune | 7.7 miles |
The Institut Geographique National (IGN) publishes very good topographic maps that also illustrate the hiking routes. There are almost 1800 maps that provide coverage of France. I found three of them were particularly helpful for this hike. They were the maps of Dijon (#3123 O), Nuits-St Georges (#3023 OT), and Beaune Chagny (# 3025 OT). The maps are available via the Internet. The French often refer to them as "Top-25" which loosely means, Topographic at 1:25,000 scale. Don't be fooled into thinking the reference has anything to do with popularity.