After the Marathon des Grands Crus: Burgundy Wine Villages

The Route: Dijon → Beaune (2 nights, with organised day tours to the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune) → Dijon → Paris → Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport Logistics: SNCF TER to Beaune, 18 minutes, as a base for two half-day wine-village circuits by car or minibus. Return via Dijon and a direct TGV to Paris for onward flights. Marathon Month: October Duration: 2 nights

Dijon-Ville ──(18 mins TER)──> Beaune (base, 2 nights)
                                  │  day 1: Côte de Beaune tour
                                  │  day 2: Côte de Nuits tour
                                  │
Dijon-Ville ◄──(18 mins TER)──────┘──(1h36 TGV)──> Paris Gare de Lyon ──(RER B, ~50 mins)──> Roissy CDG

The Marathon des Grands Crus spends its middle kilometres in the Côte de Nuits, on foot, at race pace, which is not the way to actually see Gevrey-Chambertin or Chambolle-Musigny. Two nights based in Beaune afterward gives you both halves of the Route des Grands Crus properly, the corridor you ran through and the one further south you didn't, without a bike or a bag on your back doing the work your legs just finished doing on Sunday.

October in Burgundy's wine villages means the working year has mostly wound down by the time the race falls. Grape harvest is usually well finished by early-to-mid October, so treat any mention of picking in the rows as a summer memory rather than something to plan around this trip; what October offers instead is a wine region between harvest and winter, cellars settling into tasting season proper, and vine leaves turning colour along roads that are far easier to enjoy from a car seat than a saddle two days after a marathon. The SNCF TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté line runs the 18 minutes from Dijon-Ville to Beaune roughly every half hour to hour through the day; check the current timetable at ter.sncf.com before booking anything else.

Nights One and Two: Beaune

Base yourself inside Beaune's walls for both nights. The town itself rewards a full day on its own merits, built around the Hospices de Beaune, the Hôtel-Dieu whose diamond-patterned courtyard roof and Great Hall of the Poor date to its 1443 founding by ducal chancellor Nicolas Rolin. Entry runs approximately €13 (£11), and the audio guide adds real depth to what would otherwise be a fast walk through the rooms. Beaune's ramparts, a flat, largely intact loop of medieval fortification around the old town, make the gentlest possible recovery walk on the morning after arrival: packed gravel and paved path throughout, roughly 2 km end to end, with benches along the way.

Day one, Côte de Beaune. A half-day organised tour, by car or minibus rather than bike, is the sensible way to see Pommard, Volnay and Meursault on legs still recovering from Sunday. Several Beaune-based operators run this circuit with cellar visits and tastings included; book a day or two ahead where possible, since Beaune stays a popular base for exactly this kind of trip through October. This is not a day for walking between villages; let the driver do that part.

Day two, Côte de Nuits. A second organised tour, or a private driver, can retrace the marathon's own corridor at a human pace: Marsannay-la-Côte, Fixin, Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny, the same villages the race passed through at speed on Sunday, now with time to actually stop in each one. The Château du Clos de Vougeot, just off the main corridor near Vougeot, is worth building the day around if it features on the tour: a fifteenth-century wine estate and, since 1944, the ceremonial headquarters of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, with its original medieval wine press still on display inside. Cellar visits generally need booking a day or more ahead in October, so arrange this alongside the Côte de Beaune tour rather than as an afterthought once you arrive.

Both evenings are worth ending back inside Beaune's walls rather than out in the villages. The Marché aux Vins, near the Collégiale Notre-Dame in the old town, runs self-guided tastings through a run of cellar rooms and stays open into the early evening, a low-key way to close a day of organised touring without booking anything further in advance.

Where to stay: ibis Beaune Centre keeps logistics simple within walking distance of the old town, a reasonable choice when a car or tour minibus is collecting you each morning regardless. Hostellerie de Bretonnière, a Logis property with more period character, suits a two-night stay better than a one-night stop, since there is time to actually enjoy the building rather than just sleep in it.

Where to eat: Piqu'Boeuf, in central Beaune, runs a Burgundian menu built around beef, the reliable choice for a straightforward boeuf bourguignon on either night. Le Caveau des Arches, in genuine old cellar space near the ramparts, is worth saving for the second night once the legs have settled, since the setting rewards lingering rather than a quick meal between activities.

Getting to Paris and Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport

Return to Dijon-Ville first on the same 18-minute TER before connecting onto a direct TGV to Paris Gare de Lyon, which takes as little as 1 hour 36 minutes on the fastest services. Book this leg through SNCF Connect once your departure date is fixed, since prices on this route rise closer to travel the way most SNCF inOui fares do. From Gare de Lyon, the RER B reaches Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) in around 45 to 60 minutes, changing at Châtelet–Les Halles or Gare du Nord depending on the service; build in extra time for the connection, particularly with two nights of luggage and any wine bought along the way.