Tour guides France > Burgundy Franche-Comté

5 ideas for guided tours in Bourgogne Franche Comté

• The Hérisson (Hedgehog) waterfalls

  

  At the edge of the Haut-Jura, two lakes—Ilay and Bonlieu—let go. Their waters meet, then fall. Not all at once, but step by step. Cascades layered like pages turning. A 7.4-kilometer trail follows the flow. You walk beside it, sometimes behind the sound. Saut de l’Eventail comes first, a 65-meter drop that seems to carve silence. Then Grand Saut—wider, lower, but just as stilling. The site had closed after a landslide in 2017. For a time, it disappeared. Now, open again, it doesn’t rush to be seen. It waits. And if you take your time, let the mist touch your face, it feels like something returning.

• Chalon-sur-Saône

  

  Set along the Saône, Chalon-sur-Saône reveals itself without effort. Not in grand gestures, but in details—the slant of timber-framed homes near the market square, the quiet stance of St Vincent’s Cathedral, just a few steps away. Wander into the pedestrian streets. It’s not just cafés or stores—it’s what surrounds them. Old façades weathered by time, a kind of calm beneath the surface. Nothing feels arranged, yet everything fits. The Nicéphore Niépce Museum stands nearby. A tribute to the man who first caught light on film—long before photography became habit. Inside, rows upon rows of cameras, nearly 6,000 in all. Then cross toward St. Lawrence Island. The river moves gently here. From its docks, the town looks different. Softer. As if it had something to say, but quietly.

• La voie verte (the Green Way)

  

  Down in southern Burgundy, somewhere between Givry and Cluny, the Green Way stretches—120 kilometers of quiet. Not built for speed, but for noticing. Pedals turning, feet moving, wind carrying the smell of vines. Once a railway. Now a path where stories drift across the landscape. Vineyards swaying. Villages that feel lived-in, not arranged. Abbeys silhouetted just before the sun lifts. The road doesn’t insist. It offers. A glimpse of the castle of Berzé-le-Châtel, rising from the hill like it always belonged. The abbey of Cluny, massive, hushed. The Rock of Solutré, older than memory, familiar in a way you can’t name. Three days. Maybe four. With a Burgundy tour guide, each moment stretches a little. Not just cycling. Moving through something that asks you to slow down—and listen.

• Baume-les-Messieurs

  

  Tucked within Jura’s three valleys, Baume-les-Messieurs catches the eye—and then holds it. A long valley ends suddenly, a limestone wall rising where land once ran. Below, the Dard River slips from underground caverns. A waterfall, quiet but insistent, marks its return to light. Follow the trail. It winds into shadowy caves, over pools, under ceilings laced with stalactites. And then, the abbey. Imperial, aged, still standing from the 9th century. It doesn’t demand reverence—it earns it slowly, as the light shifts across the stones.

• La Charité-sur-Loire

  

  Wrapped in medieval walls and set beside the Loire River, this town in Nièvre keeps history close. The priory, a Clunisian masterpiece from 1059, anchors the old district. UNESCO didn’t miss it. Neither will you. Wander the cobbled lanes. Churches open into small squares. Time moves slower here. There’s something else, too—books. Writers, calligraphers, old volumes, new ink. The city hosts festivals, markets, even nights dedicated to words. A quiet reverence for the written and the printed. Along the walls, you’ll find quotes painted like secrets left behind. And when you leave, the Bertranges forest appears—broad, rooted, filled with oaks and trails that ask only to be walked.