The weekend
Four days in Chablis: a village of about two thousand people, a bridge over the Serein, and one south-west-facing slope behind it carrying all seven Grands Crus. It is small enough to walk across in ten minutes and famous enough that the name is on wine lists in every country on earth, which is a strange combination to stand in the middle of.
The riding works because the appellation is compact and the roads through it are empty. Two days will cover the Grand Cru slope, the Serein valley south to a walled medieval town, and the Grand Auxerrois villages to the west — Saint-Bris with the only Sauvignon Blanc in Burgundy, and Irancy with its Pinot Noir amphitheatre. The catch is getting there: this is the fiddliest journey on the list, though it needs no airport.
A little history
Cistercian monks from Pontigny Abbey planted and organised these vineyards from the 12th century, and the Petit Pontigny cellar in the village still stands. Chablis owed its early fortune to the river: the Serein and the Yonne carried its wine to Paris, and by the 19th century the vineyard covered some 40,000 hectares. Then came phylloxera, the railways bringing cheaper wine from the south, and the frost of 1957 which left barely 500 hectares in production. What exists today — around 5,500 hectares — is a deliberate reconstruction of something nearly lost.
What it costs
Per person for the whole weekend, priced for a party of four — two twin rooms, or one whole place between you. Everything but the bed is fixed, so where you sleep is the only row that moves and the only one shown as a range.
| Per person | |
|---|---|
| Getting there, both ways | £172 |
| Three nights | £90–155 |
| Bikes and getting about | £41 |
| Eating, drinking and tastings | £175 |
| The weekend, per person | ~£480–540 |
Where to sleep
| Option | Per person |
|---|---|
| Hotels — two twin rooms | |
| Chambres d’hôtes in the village and the hamlets round it | €35 a night £90 for three |
| Hostellerie des Clos — four-star on the Serein, 400 local wines on the list | €60 a night £155 for three |
| Airbnb and self-catering — one whole place | |
| The typical Chablis listing — 93 of them in a very small village | €38 a night £100 for three |
Eating and drinking
| What | Each |
|---|---|
| A menu du jour | €16–28 |
| Dinner at the Bistrot des Grands Crus | €35–55 |
| Tastings in the village | €10–20 |
The £175 above assumes the middle of this list: a cheap lunch, an ordinary dinner, one good one over the weekend, and wine throughout. It does not change with the room.
Day by day
Friday Arrive & the village
- Eurostar to Paris, TER to Auxerre, then the last 20km east across the plateau — by taxi, by the regional bus, or best of all on the hired bikes — 19km east across the plateau through Beine, or 25km by the prettier line through Saint-Bris and Chitry.
- Chablis is small: a bridge over the Serein, a church, a handful of streets, and the Grand Cru slope rising immediately behind.
- Friday is the day for the two cellars that shut at the weekend. Domaine Laroche is open Monday to Saturday, in the Obédiencerie — a 9th-century monastic building where the relics of Saint Martin were hidden from the Vikings. Domaine William Fèvre is weekdays only, and holds more Grand Cru than anyone. Arrive in time for one of them.
- Dinner at the Hostellerie des Clos, which has the serious kitchen in town — and the list on which to drink Raveneau or Dauvissat, since you will never get into their cellars.
Saturday The Grand Cru slope and the Serein to Noyers
- 59.6km with 453m of ascent — longer and hillier than the Serein valley suggests, because the route rides the shoulder above the river rather than the valley floor.
- It starts with the climb. Straight up out of the village through Bougros, Preuses, Vaudésir and Les Clos — 91 metres in the first five kilometres, from 135m at the bridge to around 250m on the plateau. Vineyard tracks in places, loose in others; the paved alternative is the D91 up to Fyé, which reaches the same ridge.
- Down into the Serein and south-east past Chemilly, climbing gently the whole way — 138m at 8km, 177m at 20km, 201m at 26km. It never feels like a climb and it never stops being one.
- The sting is at 31km: a pull over the shoulder to 273m, the high point of the day, immediately before the descent into the town.
- Noyers-sur-Serein at 35km. A walled medieval town inside a loop of the river, half-timbered, barely altered since the fifteenth century, and one of the plus beaux villages de France. Lunch here; it is the reason for the distance.
- Back the same way, which is easier than it sounds: the return is a net descent of a hundred metres.
- Tasting when the bikes are away. La Chablisienne is in the village, open all week, and handles about a quarter of the appellation — the one place you can taste every tier from Petit Chablis to Grand Cru in a single sitting.
59.6 km · 454 m of ascent · 133–274 m
Sunday West across the plateau to Saint-Bris
- 39.9km with 588m of ascent — short, and by some distance the hardest day of the weekend. The plateau between Chablis and the Yonne is cut by half a dozen little valleys and the route crosses all of them, sawing between 150m and 310m the whole way round.
- Out through Milly at 4km and Beine at 10km, across Petit Chablis country.
- Saint-Bris-le-Vineux at 23km is the point of the day: the only place in Burgundy permitted to grow Sauvignon Blanc, with an appellation of its own and a warren of stone cellars running under the village. After two days of Chardonnay it is a genuine change of gear.
- Back east through Chitry-le-Fort at 29km — a fortified church with a watchtower and arrow slits, standing in open vines — and over the day's high point of 325m at Courgis, after which it is downhill to the village.
- Two worthwhile detours sit just off this loop. Irancy, the Pinot Noir amphitheatre and the only serious red in the Auxerrois, is 3.5km off the line from the 24km mark. Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard at Préhy — beside the lone chapel of Saint-Claude — is 2.7km off it near Courgis. Either is a short spur on quiet roads; both together make it 50km.
- Final dinner in the village: oysters and Chablis, which is a real pairing rather than a marketing invention — the fossil oyster beds under the vineyards are the same creature.
39.9 km · 589 m of ascent · 133–325 m
Monday Home
- Morning: the Petit Pontigny cellar in the village, or a walk up into the vines for the view back over the roofs.
- If Friday was too tight for it, William Fèvre reopens on the Monday — a last hour before the train.
- Bus or taxi to Auxerre, train to Paris, Eurostar home. A long travel day: start early.
When to go
Spring — March to May
6–17°C and genuinely chilly early on — this is the coldest, most northern vineyard on the list, and spring frost is the growers' great fear. May is lovely; March is not.
Summer — June to August
14–26°C, green and quiet, with long evenings and almost no tourism. The Serein valley is at its prettiest, and the grand cru slope is a wall of leaves.
Autumn — September and October
8–17°C, harvest in September, and the town's own festival in late October. Mornings are misty and the afternoons can be glorious.
When to go
September or June. September gives you warm days, empty roads and growers who have finished picking; June gives long light and full green vines. Late October adds the Fête des Vins if the dates happen to line up. Avoid early spring — it is cold, and half the growers are watching frost forecasts.
Festivals
None of this weekend assumes a festival. The rides work on any weekend of the season. If your dates land on the Fête des Vins on the fourth weekend of October, give the Saturday to the festival and move the Serein ride to the Sunday. The trade is worth stating plainly: on a festival weekend the growers are behind a stand in the square rather than showing visitors round a cellar, so book private tastings weeks ahead or accept that some will be shut, and expect beds to be scarcer, dearer and gone months in advance.
Spring
Saint-Vincent Tournante — a winter weekend, elsewhere for now
Burgundy's roving growers' festival moves village every year and turns wherever it lands into one enormous tasting. It is not scheduled for Chablis in the foreseeable future — Volnay takes it in 2027, Nuits-Saint-Georges and Prémeaux-Prissey in 2028, Savigny-lès-Beaune in 2029 — so treat it as a reason to go somewhere else in Burgundy in January rather than a reason to come here.
Summer
Chablis en Fête and village events — summer weekends
Smaller affairs, but the growers are far more available in summer than during the harvest.
Autumn
Fête des Vins de Chablis — fourth weekend of October
Around forty Chablis and Grand Auxerrois houses pouring in the streets, the Piliers Chablisiens conducting inductions in full ceremonial robes, food stands and vineyard walks. If your weekend lands on it, give the Saturday to the festival and move the Serein ride to the Sunday — it is the one weekend of the year when the growers who never open their doors are standing behind a table in the square.
Getting there
From London, per person, assuming bikes are hired locally rather than flown. Fares checked September 2026 and converted at €1 to 86p.
| Leg | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| London to Paris | ||
| Eurostar, St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord | 2h 20 | £60 |
| Across Paris | ||
| Gare du Nord to Gare de Bercy, métro line 4 then line 14 (€2.15). Allow a comfortable hour between trains | 0h 30 | £2 |
| Into the Yonne | ||
| Paris-Bercy to Auxerre-Saint-Gervais, direct TER or Intercités, roughly a dozen a day, from €15 booked ahead | 1h 50 | £15 |
| Auxerre to Chablis, the last 20km — taxi €40 for the car, or the regional bus. Better: hire bikes in Auxerre and ride it | 0h 30 | £9 |
| Waiting and two changes | 0h 50 | — |
| Door to door, one way | 6h 00 | £86 |
| Both ways | £172 | |
Six hours, and no faster by air — flying to Paris means the same trains plus an airport transfer at the far end.
Bike hire
Assumes hybrids.
| Shop | Rate |
|---|---|
| Chablis tourist office, 1 rue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny — by the hour, half-day, day or longer, in the village itself | rates on request |
| La Maison du Vélo, Auxerre — 300m from the station and on the Nivernais canal route, so you can ride the last 20km in | €15–65 a day |
| France à Vélo, 7 rue de l’Horloge, Auxerre — hybrids, e-bikes and children’s bikes | rates on request |
Getting about
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Bike hire, Saturday and Sunday | £26 |
| Auxerre to Chablis by taxi or bus, shared | £9 |
| TER to Tonnerre and back, allow | £6 |
| Getting about, whole weekend | £41 |
The wineries
Domaine William Fèvre
Impeccable, precise Chablis across the whole range, with a proper tasting room in the village and reliable visitor hours.
La Chablisienne
Around a quarter of the entire appellation, sold at fair prices, with a big modern tasting shop open all week. The dependable option.
Domaine Laroche
Historic cellars around a 9th-century monastic building where the relics of Saint Martin were once hidden. Visits by arrangement.
Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard
Eight kilometres out of Chablis beside the lone chapel of Saint-Claude, which stands alone in the vines with no village attached — the photograph everyone takes of Chablis. A short detour off the Sunday loop near Courgis, and worth making. A vaulted cellar cut to show the Kimmeridgian subsoil in section, a vat room, vineyard tours and a table d'hôte. Book ahead. There is also a caveau on Place de Gaulle in Chablis if the ride runs late.
The great small growers
Essentially unvisitable, with waiting lists rather than tasting rooms. Drink them at the Hostellerie des Clos instead — that is the realistic way in.
The wines
Chardonnay, unoaked or lightly oaked, grown on Kimmeridgian limestone full of tiny fossil oysters — which is the usual explanation for the flinty, saline quality that makes Chablis unlike Chardonnay from anywhere else. Four tiers: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru and the seven Grands Crus on one south-west-facing slope above the village.
Eat & drink
| Friday | Hostellerie des Clos — jambon persillé and Premier Cru |
| Saturday | Festival gastronomy stands in the village |
| Sunday | Vineyard picnic; oysters and Chablis at dinner |
| Monday | Gougères for the train |
The food
Burgundian and hearty against the cold: jambon persillé, andouillette, gougères, escargots, Époisses and Soumaintrain cheeses — and oysters with Chablis, the pairing that made the region's name and still the best argument for the wine.
Where to stay
Hostellerie des Clos
The serious address in Chablis, with a well-regarded restaurant. Book early — the village has very few beds and the festival weekend fills them.
Hôtel du Vieux Moulin
Small, comfortable, run by the Laroche family, right on the Serein.
Auxerre
A handsome cathedral town on the Yonne with far more rooms, more restaurants and the railway station. Treat Chablis as a day's ride or a short bus hop.
Practical
- France allows cyclists 0.5 g/l of blood alcohol, the same limit as drivers — so one glass with lunch is the practical ceiling if you are riding afterwards. See the country-by-country table.
- This is the second destination here that needs no aeroplane. Eurostar to Paris, a métro ride across the city and a direct regional train to Auxerre gets you within 20km of Chablis in about six hours. Book the Eurostar early — the price difference between a three-month advance and a fortnight is substantial.
- Give yourself an hour at Paris. Gare du Nord to Gare de Bercy is two métro lines and a walk, and the Auxerre trains are not frequent enough to make a missed connection painless.
- Hire the bikes in Auxerre rather than Chablis. It turns the last 20km from a taxi fare into the first ride of the weekend, down the Serein valley into the village.
- Book accommodation immediately if this is the choice. Chablis has a handful of hotels and the Fête des Vins fills them — Auxerre is the fallback, 20km away with far more rooms.
- The journey is the drawback: roughly 6 hours door to door with two changes. Eurostar plus the same onward train is slower but far more comfortable, and avoids an airport entirely.
- E-bikes are worth it here — the grand cru slope is short but steep, and it is the whole point of the ride.
- Dress warmer than the other eleven. This is the most northerly option and late October in the Serein valley is genuinely cold in the mornings.
- Check sunset before you plan the last leg. Any day that finishes with a ride home wants an hour of light in hand, and that hour disappears fast either side of the equinoxes.
- Fête des Vins de Chablis — official — the festival, its history and each year's programme
- Chablis Wines — official appellation site — the four appellations, the growers and visiting information
- Chablis & Tonnerrois Tourist Office — local tourist office — accommodation, the festival, vineyard walks
- Bourgogne Wines — events calendar — the whole Burgundy events programme