The Saône valley is prosperous and modern, nourished by the autoroute, tourism, industry and the wine trade. But turn your back on the river and head west and at once you enter a different Burgundy: hilly pasture and woodland, utterly rural and more populated by cattle than people. This is the hinterland – the Deep South – of Burgundy, where every village clusters under the tower of a Romanesque church, spawned by the influence of Cluny in the 1000s and 1100s. It is only when you reach the Loire and encounter the main traffic routes again that you re-enter the modern world.It's beautiful country for cycling, though there are few places actually to rent a bike. There are, however, plenty of bus and train connections, and all these are very conveniently listed in the Guide des Transports Régionaux available from any railway station in Burgundy.
Pages in section ‘Saone valley’: Chalon-sur-Saône, Tournus, Mâcon, Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse.
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