Heart of gold
Living France|February 2020
If you love fine wine, impressive history and vibrant café culture, Côted’Or has them all, finds Peter Stewart.
Peter Stewart
Heart of gold

Occupying the northern part of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, the Côte-d’Or department is an enticing mix of gently rolling hills, picture-perfect towns and villages with an architectural heritage dating back to the Renaissance, the Middle Ages and even Gallo-Roman times, not to mention vine-clad slopes that produce some of France’s finest wines.

House prices are slightly higher here than in other parts of the region, but that does not mean that property is unaffordable. The good news is that in the Côte-d’Or department there are properties to suit all tastes and budgets; traditional one-storey dwellings start from as little as €101,000, while attractive townhouses are on the market from €210,000, with beautiful manor homes complete with a sizeable plot of land and vineyard vistas starting from €400,000.

RICH HISTORY

Nestled in the heart of Côte-d’Or is the departmental capital Dijon. This beguiling city boasts a rich history stretching back as far as the Neolithic period.

In Roman times it was an important settlement known as Divio and served as the home of the Dukes of Burgundy from the 11th to the 15th centuries which resulted in Dijon becoming a place of immense power and wealth and one of Europe’s great centres of art, learning and science.

A stroll through the incredibly attractive, pedestrian-friendly centre reveals a city that oozes elegance; here limestone-clad medieval and Renaissance buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with café-lined squares and clusters of fine food shops, independent wine sellers and outstanding museums.

This story is from the February 2020 edition of Living France.

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This story is from the February 2020 edition of Living France.

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