Héricourt

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Héricourt (Burgundian Gate) → Beaune (Hôtel-Dieu)
• Length: 251.5 km
• Stages: 11 as divided by the trail association (14–32 km)
• Duration: 10–12 days
• Regions: Burgundy-Franche-Comté — Haute-Saône, Ognon valley, Saône plain, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune
• Elevation range: 175–406 m — hardly any inclines, easy to moderate
• Waymarking: European scallop, yellow on a blue background — in use continuously since 2004
• Organisation: Association Franc-Comtoise du Chemin de Compostelle (Belfort, founded in 2000) with the Burgundian Brotherhood
• Connection: From Beaune via Chagny and Cluny to Le Puy-en-Velay—that's where the Via Podiensis begins

Overview

The Jakobsweg Héricourt–Beaune is the central section of the Burgunderweg from Basel to Le Puy—and the 251.5 kilometers along which Franche-Comté gives way to Burgundy: from the Burgundian Gate through quiet limestone hills and five “Petites Cités Comtoises de Caractère,” passing by the Cistercian abbey Acey and the pilgrimage hill Mont-Roland, down to the Saône — and then, past Cîteaux, through the Grand Cru vineyards of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, all the way to the city walls of Beaune. First the forests and pastures of Comtois, then Burgundian wine: two landscapes, one journey.

Historically, this path has a bitter twist: It begins on the field where, on 13 November 1474, the first battle of the Burgundian Wars was lost, and ends in the city that in 1477 ceased to be a Burgundian residence. The pilgrimage route itself, on the other hand, is relatively new and is honestly designated as such: The Association Franc-Comtoise, founded in 2000 in Belfort, calls it a “chemin de liaison”—a connecting path—marked since 2004 with the European scallop shell and maintained by volunteers. Around 500 pilgrims walk it each year. On the Camino Francés, that's half a morning.

Lost near Héricourt in 1474, French-held in Beaune in 1477, waymarked again in 2004

Anyone walking from Héricourt to Beaune is walking through the last three years of a state. On 13 November 1474, Swiss and Alsatian troops defeat the army of Charles the Bold near Héricourt—the prelude to the Burgundian Wars. Three years later, Charles falls at Nancy, the troops of Louis XI ravage the abbey of Acey along the way, and Beaune ceases to be a city of the Dukes of Burgundy: in 1477 it passes to the French crown. 251.5 kilometers, from the lost battle to the lost residence—no other Way of St. James recounts the downfall of Burgundy so literally, step by step.

The counterpoint is the destination, and it is the true climax of the pilgrimage: Just 31 years before the downfall, on 4 August 1443, Chancellor Nicolas Rolin and his wife Guigone de Salins found, in Beaune, the Hôtel-Dieu — a “palace for the poor” with glazed-tile roofs, which served as a hospital well into the 1960s. The building you’re walking 251.5 kilometers toward is neither a castle nor a cathedral: it’s a shelter for those who had nothing. And the story of violence and hospitality along this path begins much earlier—in 843, near Dampierre-sur-Linotte, the Irish pilgrim to Rome Maimbœuf is killed at a spring; for centuries, the neighboring villages called the inhabitants “Tue-saint,” or “saint-killers,” and it is precisely this derogatory nickname that is seen as evidence that there is a grain of truth to the story. In 1636, in Saint-Jean-de-Losne, about 650 defenders held out against Matthias Gallas's 30,000-strong army—and the city has been known as “Belle Défense” ever since.

And what about the revival? It’s younger than the Internet, and its proponents don’t take credit for what isn’t theirs: it’s not a rediscovered “Codex Way,” but rather a “chemin de liaison,” founded in 2000 by the Association Franc-Comtoise in Belfort, marked throughout in 2004, extended in 2009 with the Besançon feeder trail, and re-marked by volunteers to this day. The most beautiful miniature along the trail is located in Acey: Founded in 1136, auctioned off as state property in 1791, and a Trappist monastery again since 1872—in 2023, 13 monks lived there, making it the only inhabited Cistercian abbey in Franche-Comté. They have been earning their living since 1962 with an electroplating shop, about four million euros in revenue: choral prayer and surface finishing under one roof. You can stay overnight there. Incidentally, this corridor lacks a named medieval pilgrim to Santiago—let’s be honest about that, too. Instead, it has a pilgrim to Rome, complete with a spring, a statue, and a feast day.

Other Names

In German, this path is called Burgunderweg — that's how it's listed on German websites and in the pilgrim's guide by Berthold Burkhardt and Hans-Jörg Bahmüller, which describes the entire route from Thann to Taizé/Cluny. In French, you'll find it simply as chemin de Compostelle en Franche-Comté, in its full form as voie de la Franche-Comté et de la Bourgogne. There is no historical proper name, and that’s no coincidence: The Association Franc-Comtoise originally referred to its trail as a “chemin de liaison”—a connecting route between Alsace and Burgundy that didn’t take on its own identity until it was marked in 2004. This page describes its central section from Héricourt to Beaune. And it’s worth clearing up a common misconception: The GR 145 is the Via Francigena—it runs through Besançon to Pontarlier and heads toward Rome, not Santiago.

Who It's Ideal For—and Who It's Not So Ideal For

Ideal if you really want peace and quiet—and aren't just saying you do: About 500 people walk the Franche-Comté route each year, and there will be days when you don’t encounter a single pilgrim—a German pilgrim noted exactly that in 2016 and instead met a mushroom hunter and a club member who treated him to a meal. It’s also ideal if you like history you can touch: five “Petites Cités Comtoises de Caractère” along the route, an inhabited Cistercian abbey with pilgrim lodging, a pilgrimage site with a papal charter from 1089, and, at the end, the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune.

To be honest, though, it’s not for you if you need a dense network of lodging options or can’t stand paved roads. The figures vary widely: On the Gy–Marnay leg, 54 percent of the route is on natural trails; between Mont-Roland and Saint-Jean-de-Losne, 52 percent is on asphalt; and beyond Beaune, the proportion of asphalt increases even further. The trail markings are maintained by volunteers—in February 2022, the club president and her volunteers set out to refresh the scallop shell markers, and the re-marking south of the Saône is an ongoing project. Expect some gaps in the markings, download the GPS tracks in advance, and book your lodging ahead of time: The accommodations are unique, and it’s best to plan around such gaps before you set out, not while you’re on the trail.

Route & Landscape

You'll start in Héricourt at the Burgundian Gate, the wide passage between the Vosges and the Jura, and walk westward into the Haute-Saône. The first five stages are a gentle up-and-down journey between 250 and 400 meters: hills, meadows, villages built of light-colored limestone, and in some places the Ognon as a companion, with a disused railroad embankment near Villersexel serving as the route. Fondremand, Gy and Marnay line up as “Petites Cités Comtoises”—a keep, an archbishop’s palace, and a castle tower with a pilgrims’ hostel.

From Marnay on, the landscape shifts: the path drops down to the abbey of Acey, climbs over the pilgrimage hill of Mont-Roland high above Dole and reaches the Saône at Saint-Jean-de-Losne — flat, wide, canalized; the lowest point of the route is around 175 meters. Then comes the change that everything is building up to: Behind the Saône, the Côte begins to rise. You walk past Cîteaux, the mother house of the Cistercian Order, into the Clos de Vougeot — and from there along the Grand Cru line of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune until the fully preserved city wall of Beaune stands before you. First, forests and pastures; then vineyards: The path doesn’t skimp on the best, but it saves it for the end.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

The trail association’s division sets 11 stages—an average of 23 kilometers, featuring a true “queen stage” (Saint-Jean-de-Losne–Vougeot, just over 32 km) and two half-days to ease into the walk and catch your breath. Elevation gain isn’t an issue: The route ranges from 175 to 406 meters, and the daily climbs remain moderate. The challenge isn’t the terrain, but the logistics—stage locations with lodging and shops aren’t always where you happen to be tired, and the surface varies between 21 and 67 percent asphalt per stage. The stage distances come from the Camino Ninja map and are calibrated exactly to the total length of 251.5 km.

1. Héricourt → Villers-sur-Saulnot (approx. 15.1 km) — a short start via Couthenans, ideal as an arrival day by train.
2. Villers-sur-Saulnot → Villersexel (approx. 29.0 km) — via Saulnot, Granges-le-Bourg, Secenans, and Villers-la-Ville; the first leg with shops and places to stop for refreshments.
3. Villersexel → Filain (approx. 25.1 km) — along the Ognon River toward the west, through Moimay, Marast, and Dampierre-sur-Linotte, partly along the “Châteaux et Villages de Haute-Saône” greenway.
4. Filain → Fondremand (approx. 19.6 km) — a short leg to a Petite Cité Comtoise featuring an 11th-century keep and the source of the Romaine.
5. Fondremand → Gy (approx. 26.3 km) — a long day in Haute-Saône, via Bucey-lès-Gy to the castle of the Archbishops of Besançon.
6. Gy → Marnay (approx. 17.1 km) — the most beautiful leg: 54% on natural trails through Autoreille, Mont Varin, and the Bois des Prêtres.
7. Marnay → Abbaye d'Acey (approx. 13.8 km) — a half-day trip to the only inhabited Cistercian abbey in Franche-Comté; overnight stay at the hostellerie.
8. Abbaye d'Acey → Mont-Roland (approx. 26.7 km) — a long stage to the pilgrimage site, first mentioned in historical records in 1089.
9. Mont-Roland → Saint-Jean-de-Losne (approx. 22.6 km) — via Sampans and Saint-Seine-en-Bâche along the left bank of the Saône; flat, mostly paved.
10. Saint-Jean-de-Losne → Vougeot (approx. 32.1 km) — the queen stage: from the Saône Valley, past Cîteaux, to the Clos de Vougeot.
11. Vougeot → Beaune (approx. 24.1 km) — through the Grand Cru vineyards of the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, ending just in front of the Hôtel-Dieu.

If you start from Besançon, you take the dedicated 23-kilometer feeder route—marked since 2009—which only meets the main trail at Marnay—and thus skip half of the Haute-Saône. Dole lies just off Stage 8 and is worth the detour; the Burgundian Brotherhood also maintains a Dole–Saint-Jean-de-Losne variant.

Highlights Along the Way

• Héricourt — A battlefield twice over: On November 13, 1474, Charles the Bold lost the first battle of the Burgundian Wars here; in 1871, the Battle of the Lisaine raged here.
• Dampierre-sur-Linotte — The spring and the statue in the rock niche of the Irish pilgrim Maimbœuf, who was killed in 843 while on his way to Rome; the neighboring villages called the inhabitants “Tue-saint.”
• Fondremand — An 11th-century keep and curtain wall, the Romaine Spring beneath a pavilion, and a restored oil mill.
• Gy — the summer residence of the archbishops of Besançon for about 700 years; in 1380, Archbishop Guillaume de Vergy minted coins here without authorization — the Duke of Burgundy laid siege to him as a result.
• Charcenne (Side Trip) — Oratoire Saint-Jacques at the “Corne Jacques” site, featuring an 88-centimeter-tall 16th-century pilgrim statue; above the door is the partially weathered inscription “1847: Érigée par Jacques …”.
• Marnay — A statue of St. James by a sculptor from Le Puy-en-Velay, featuring a German-French pilgrim’s prayer; a pilgrim hostel in the castle tower; and the 2008 mural “En chemin vers la lumière.”
• Notre-Dame d'Acey Abbey — Founded in 1136, auctioned off in 1791, and a Trappist monastery again since 1872: the only inhabited Cistercian abbey in Franche-Comté, with a guesthouse for pilgrims—and an electroplating workshop to support the community.
• Mont-Roland — A pilgrimage site above Dole, mentioned in a papal bull issued by Urban II in 1089, featuring the oldest known depiction of the Virgin Mary in the Jura region.
• Saint-Jean-de-Losne — “Belle Défense”: From October 25 to November 3, 1636, some 650 defenders held out against Matthias Gallas’s 30,000-strong army; in return, Louis XIII exempted the city from taxes.
• Clos de Vougeot and Beaune — the walled vineyard of the monks of Cîteaux, with its Renaissance house dating from 1551, and the Climats, which have been designated a World Heritage Site since 2015 — and, at the end of the route, Beaune’s entire city wall, the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame, modeled after Cluny, and the Hôtel-Dieu from 1443.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

Héricourt is not a starting point, but a convergence—three marked trails meet here: the path from Alsace, which comes down as the Voie d'Alsace via Thann and Belfort, the branch from Basel via Oltingue and Delle, and the Swiss Jura branch from Delémont. Pilgrims coming from Germany, Austria or Switzerland are almost certainly on one of two routes: the Jakobsweg Rottenburg–Freiburg–Héricourt or the Jakobsweg Lindau–Héricourt — both end right here, and this path is their continuation.

The second classic option is to take the train: Héricourt is located on the Belfort–Montbéliard–Besançon regional line, so you can hop on in the middle of your trip. From Besançon, a dedicated 23-kilometer feeder—marked since 2009—also leads onto the trail, though only at Marnay; anyone starting there skips half of the Haute-Saône. Another feeder route from Montbéliard was recently under review.

Continue the pilgrimage?

Beaune is a stop along the way, not a destination: The marked trail continues through Chagny, Moroges, and Saint-Gengoux to Cluny and from there through the Beaujolais region to Le Puy-en-Velay — a good 480 more kilometers. In Le Puy, you'll find yourself at France's most famous starting point: that's where the Via Podiensis begins, taking you through Conques and Moissac to the Pyrenees, and from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on, the Camino Francés takes over to Santiago.

And what about the Vézelay variant? It does exist—but it branches off much earlier: in Gy, 115 kilometers past Héricourt and 136 kilometers before Beaune. From there, a branch of the road leads westward via Gray to Vézelay, the starting point of the Via Lemovicensis. By the time you arrive in Beaune, you’ve already made this decision: Your route leads to Cluny and Le Puy. If you want to visit both, you’ll have to choose in Gy—not in Beaune.

Preparation & Practical Information

The best time is April through October — in the height of summer, the Saône Plain is hot and devoid of shade; in winter, many accommodations in the Haute-Saône are closed. September and October are particularly beautiful because you can experience the grape harvest in the Côte. Bring shoes with good cushioning: With asphalt sections ranging from 21 to 67 percent, it’s not the tread that matters, but the sole. The German pilgrim guide by Burkhardt/Bahmüller (“Der Jakobsweg von Thann bis Taizé/Cluny,” 2025 edition) covers the entire route—complete with free GPS tracks.

Make a reservation. This isn’t about convenience here, but a must: The accommodations are one-of-a-kind—the hostellerie of Acey Abbey, a gîte in the castle tower of Marnay, and private hosts in villages with 200 residents. The pilgrim passport (Credencial) is issued by the Association Franc-Comtoise in Belfort, which also maintains the list of hosts and holds monthly information sessions in Besançon, Belfort, and Dole; its set of values is based on the 1987 Council of Europe Declaration—“tolérance, hospitalité et solidarité.” Order the passport online in advance so that it reaches you in time for your start.

Download the GPS tracks before you start—the route markers are maintained by volunteers and may have gaps. With the Camino Ninja App, you're on the safe side—it has the entire route on board, and you can put together your own itinerary and plan suitable accommodations right away.

What the journey will cost you

France is more expensive than Spain, and this route doesn't have any municipal two-euro hostels. Expect 40 to 60 euros per day if you stay at gîtes d'étape and with private hosts and put together a meal at the village store at lunchtime (estimate as of August 2026). A bed in a gîte usually costs between 15 and 25 euros; the “accueil jacquaire” arranged by the association is often cheaper or donation-based; chambres d’hôtes with breakfast are significantly more expensive—and in villages with 200 residents, half-board isn’t a luxury, but rather the only hot meal available. Plan for two additional expenses: the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune, which costs money to enter—and you won't save on that if you've walked 251.5 kilometers to get there—and the wine: You're traveling through the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, and what's in the bottles here isn't exactly within a pilgrim's budget. A glass at a local spot is the sensible compromise.

Getting Here

Héricourt is located on the Belfort–Montbéliard–Besançon regional line; from Germany, take a train via Basel or Strasbourg to Belfort or Mulhouse and transfer to the TER. The Belfort-Montbéliard TGV station on the Rhine–Rhône high-speed line connects you to Paris, Lyon, and Strasbourg; the nearest airport is Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg.

Beaune has its own train station on the Dijon–Chalon-sur-Saône–Lyon line; Dijon is the nearest TGV hub with direct connections to Paris and Strasbourg. If you’re not heading home but continuing on, you don’t need to book anything: The marked trail leads directly from Beaune to Chagny.

• Getting to the starting point: Via Basel or Strasbourg to Belfort/Mulhouse, then continue by TER to Héricourt; timetables are available at [bahn.de](https://www.bahn.de) and [sncf-connect.com](https://www.sncf-connect.com).
• Joining or leaving along the way: Besançon feeder line to Marnay (23 km, marked since 2009); stations in Héricourt and Beaune, among others.
• Return trip: From Beaune via Dijon (TGV hub) toward Paris, Strasbourg, or Frankfurt.
• Trail association: Credentials, list of hosts, and route updates are available at [af-ccc.fr](https://www.af-ccc.fr).