Hotel-Dieu, Beaune and Baume-les-Messieurs, France

Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st September 2025

Our journey south-eastwards continues. The rolling countryside reminding us of the fact that France is big! You seem to travel for ages and not get very far on the map. It is however, beautiful, varied and interesting.

Saturday, Hotel-Dieu, Beaune:

This visit required a detour from our original plans as it is south west of Dijon and our route would have ideally bypassed this city.

Beaune is another medieval city with wonky buildings and a large cathedral, but on this occasion we did not explore further than the medieval hospice of Hotel Dieu.

A Hotel-Dieu is a hospital run by the Roman Catholic Church for the poor and needy. This institution was set up in 1443, by the Chancellor of Burgundy, Nicholas Rolin. It really makes a statement in terms of its decoration and facilities. It finally closed as a hospital in 1971.

The weather was so hot, that after visiting the museum, we chose to drive on further, with the benefit of in-cab air con, rather than melt in the heat.

Sunday, Baume-les-Messieurs:

We arrived at the camp site, in the early evening, but being quite tired, we chose to chill by the van and watch the sun go down, rather than explore. We had booked the site for two nights, so we would have the day to explore tomorrow.

Baume-les-Messieurs is a recognised “Medieval or beautiful village/town”, situated in a blind, deep valley, with high cliffs on each side. There are several things to see: the cascade (or waterfall), Les grottes (or caves) and the Abbaye.

The weather forecast promised rain in the afternoon, so in the morning, we cycled up through the village, passing the abbey to the head of the valley, where we found both the waterfall and the caves.

Grottes de Baume:

Access to the cave is only via a guided tour, which unfortunately is wholly in French. The caves were interesting and there were many amazing rock formations, but the main attractions are the numerous huge caverns, each seemingly able to accommodate a sizeable building. There were also many bats flying around and roosting on the ceiling.

Sadly, the guide was able to talk at length, even bursting into song at one point to illustrate the acoustic properties of the chambers. She had a good voice and was quite the entertainer as the (mostly French) crowd, appeared to appreciate.

What a difference a day makes, weather-wise. When we emerged from the caves, it was raining and we got quite wet on our return to the van for lunch.

Cascade des Tufs:

The waterfall was quite impressive in a delicate sort of way, despite the sparsity of rainfall in recent times. We saw some pictures of it when it was in spate, which were very impressive indeed.

Abbaye, Baume-les-Messieurs:

The first mention of a Benedictine Abbey in this valley was in the year 869, but it is probably much older with evidence suggesting a monastic community well before this.

The abbey church is the finest building. It is Romanesque in style and has an amazing Flemish altarpiece, made in the 16th century.

That is all for today. TTFN and See-u-Later.