The author
I was born in Dijon. I still live here, and I know this department inside out, not from a tourist guide but from within. My mother ran a guest house in Côte-d'Or; my grandmother, before her, ran hers. Two generations welcoming travellers, answering the same questions asked differently, correcting the same misconceptions about the region.
I grew up observing what people really need when arriving somewhere they don't know: exact prices rather than optimistic ranges, an itinerary that accounts for fatigue not just distance, an honest warning about what disappoints. This guide is the extension of that.
"I was taught to host before writing. A guide is the same hospitality, written for those who won't pass through our home."
Statement of intent, 2024
The guide is personal work, no agency, no advertiser: 100% free, no ads, nothing to sell. What I would have liked to find preparing my own trips, I make available as-is.
Why this guide
Côte-d'Or is an over-documented yet poorly told department. The same clichés circulate about Dijon, the same list of winemakers on travel blogs, the same photos recycled every October. I started this guide because I was looking, for people asking me for advice, for verified information, and I found it nowhere but in my own experience of the territory.
No sponsored list, no tourist office copy-paste, no paid ranking. Every recommendation comes from a real visit or a verifiable source, cited at the bottom of the page.
The method
Four simple rules, applied to every published guide:
- Every address is visited before being recommended.
- Every price is recorded at source, with its date.
- Every historical claim cites an institutional source (INSEE, town halls, DRAC, BIVB).
- Corrections reported by readers are published, with date.
What I still don't know
A guide written by one person has blind spots. I know Dijon, Auxois and the Route des Grands Crus well; I cover Châtillonnais more slowly, less often visited. Some guides are still incomplete, and I say so rather than filling with an invented anecdote. If you spot an error or a gap, report it: the correction is published with its date on the charter.