Chablis Bound: A Wine-Lover’s Itinerary by Bike (Because Wine Not?)

Aaron and I decided to take a wine-centered bike trip to Chablis in early August this year. A couple years ago, I passed through the Chablis city center with a couple friends and remembered it being cute and full of delicious wine shops that let us taste anything we wanted. When researching the area, I found a cute château, about 15 km outside of the city center and realized we could take our bikes and make our own tour through the vineyards.

Fun fact: Chablis is in the Bourgogne region which is NOT flat! I did not realize this until two days before leaving. Better yet, it was hot, sunny, and with no clouds in the sky. While Aaron is very used to this, it turned it into a bit of a cycling challenge for me. But it was fun and it was absolutely worth it!

A map of all our routes

For those of you who want to get a quick itinerary and ideas, here's the condensed version:

• 3 nights at Château de la Resle in the Vezelay loft room (includes small kitchen, A/C, access to pool, morning breakfast, and restaurant is open for dinner Friday - Tuesday

• Epicerie re-stock in St. Bris for snacks and cooking dinner at the hotel

• 1st Tasting at Domain Bersan tasting room - made reservation ahead of time

• Lunch at Le Belle Croix - reserved ahead of time

• Second tasting at Domaine Elodie Chalmeau - reserved ahead of time

• 1 day in the Chablis city center

  • Lunch at Wine Not - reserved ahead of time

  • Tasting at Maison Camu Fils - no reservation needed

  • Tasting at Domaine Antoinne et Laura Robin - no reservation needed, but we called ahead to make sure they were back from lunch

  • Tasting at Clotilde Davenne - no reservation needed, they are VERY generous with tastings

• Dinner at Château de la Resle

• 1/2 day in Auxerre to walk by the river, the cathedral and the clock, before taking the afternoon train back to Paris

We left on a Thursday afternoon and our first stop was the train station, Gare Bercy, in Paris. We biked the couple kilometers from our apartment and hopped on the direct TER train to Auxerre St. Gervais. We've been careful recently to buy our bike spot tickets, but to be honest, no one checked them. There were a number of other cyclists on the train with us so it was helpful to have the tickets in order to explain that we reserved our spots, because they filled up and the travelers were being respectful towards those who had bike spot tickets. For more specifics bringing your bike on trains check out our full post on that. The train was an easy, direct, two hour long train ride. Once we arrived in Auxerre, we started riding to the Chatêau and immediately started with a long uphill climb. It was Bourgogne's funny way of welcoming us. But no matter, it was a beautiful and scenic ride. It took us only 45 minutes to arrive at the hotel from Auxerre, where a refreshing pool and A/C awaited us. Here's the route we took, the first 15 minutes of it felt like busier roads but then once we got into the countryside, there weren't many cars.

I booked our room at Château de la Resle, located in Montigny-la-Resle, Bourgogne (Burgundy). I chose this hotel because of its peaceful location, elegance, and modern rooms with A/C and kitchens. We specifically stayed in one of the Vezelay rooms which ended up being very comfortable and a well designed loft. Before we arrived at the hotel, I spoke with one of their concierge team members, Laurine, who was amazing and helped me make reservations in advance at some wineries for a tasting as well as a lunch spot with a vineyard view in Saint-Bris. There's not really any close food options around the Château, so we brought Tuna wrap makings with us from Paris and made use of the kitchen on the first night. Aaron of course carried most of our clothes, toiletries, and supplies, I just focus on biking and carry a small backpack. If you're curious how he packs, you can checkout his post on what he brings and how he packs on rides here.

On our first day, we had a lovely breakfast at the Château then biked to an épicerie in Saint-Bris to get some pasta and sauce for dinner that evening. Then we went to Le Belle Croix for lunch. We were actually supposed to do a tasting before lunch, but they decided to close early for their own lunch (despite us having reservations) so we decided we'd try again after lunch. The food at Le Belle Croix was fresh and the wine of course was crips and delightful. We ordered a Saint-Bris, which is actually a Sauvignon Blanc. In case you aren't familiar with Bourgogne appellations and wines, they mostly grow Chardonnay grapes for white. But Saint-Bris is a Bourgogne appellation that's dedicated to growing Sauvignon blanc and gris grapes.

After lunch we tried to go back to the wine tasting cave and unexpectedly ended up crashing an English tour coming from Paris, with a guide who partners with the winery. It was unofficial and the guide took pity on us to let us join since again, we were ghosted and no one showed up for our tasting. But it worked out well because we had a fun time tasting Chablis wine with some Californians and an Australian. An unexpected delight, but I can't say I'd recommend setting up a tasting with this winery since we tried to go twice and both times no one showed up. Our server at lunch had even called ahead to confirm they were open, since he felt bad for us that we had biked all the way here and got stood up for our tasting. Anyway, it was no big deal, it's all part of the fun of France!

We moved onto our second tasting just 5km away and luckily enough, the woman was waiting for us and we had an excellent tasting! She taught us a bit about the wine region, specifically how Petit Chablis is located at the top of the hills and that the premier cru wines come from grapes grown on the slant of the hills in the direct sun. We bought two bottles and she was bewildered as to how we'll carry them on our bikes, but Aaron is resourceful and he was able to put both bottles in his attached bike bag without even noticing for the 15km ride back. We ended the day by taking a swim in the pool and making dinner.

Lunch at Wine Not

On our second full day, we biked into the Chablis city center and spent our day taking in the vibes, having a nice walk, and experiencing the different tasting rooms. Our day in the city center felt much more chill in comparison to the first day of reservations we had. In the city center, you can jus stop into the tasting rooms and they'll accommodate you without reservation. The pours are quite generous! We had a lunch reservation at a spot called Wine Not and it gave us a place to cool off and have a break after our bike ride in.

Tasting in the Chablis city center is very easy because they don't require reservations. The only thing you need to consider is their lunch hours. We went to three different tasting rooms and they all let us taste many wines without any pressure to purchase or pay. Now, of course we ended up buying a few bottles because we really enjoyed them, but that was our own decision. Chablis is known for their white wines, but the tasting rooms also carry some delicious reds from the Bourgogne appellation of Irancy. We purchased an Irancy, a sparkling crémant, and of course a true white Chablis, which is 100% chardonnay. My favorite tasting was at the Clotilde Davenne tasting room. They have a wide selection, including some cremant (word for French sparkling wine that's not from Champagne), and they will keep letting you taste until you tell them to stop. Once we explored enough of the city center (it's pretty small), we biked back to the Château and jumped in the pool. We reserved dinner at the hotel for our last evening. We enjoyed the relaxation and taking in the countryside vibes. The dinner at the hotel consisted of a set tasting menu and it all tasted fresh and delicious, no complaints.

Auxerre

On our last morning, we ate our last hotel breakfast and then checked out to start our ride back to Auxerre. We got to Auxerre a few hours before our train so we could park our bikes and walk around, and wow! I didn't realize it was such a pretty town! The view from the river to the cathedral and city buildings is absolutely stunning. The photo honestly doesn't do it justice. We walked up to the cathedral on a very steep road and then continued to walk around the town, taking in the views of the large old clock (kind of like the Gros Horloge in Rouen) as well as walking along the river and stopping for a quick lunch. Once it was time, we biked right to the train station to head back home to Paris.