Stage 6 Tour de France 2024

Food and Drink to Accompany Stage 6 Tour de France 2024

There are plenty of local food and drink specialities on the route of Stage 6.

The Burgundian finish town, Dijon, is particularly well-known for making mustard.

Mustard seeds were used to make mustard from as early as Roman times, by combining them with grape must left over from wine making.

Dijon has been famous for making high-quality mustard since the 1200s or 1300s. The key ingredient in Dijon mustard (and French mustard generally) is the brown mustard seed, as opposed to white mustard seeds used elsewhere.

The Dukes of Burgundy made local mustard a prominent feature on their dinner tables. Guilds of mustard-makers formed in Dijon in the 1500s.

Jean Naigeon of Dijon was a well-known mustard maker in the 1700s, and he stressed the importance of using the acidic juice of unripe grapes in his recipe, not vinegar. This was 'the Dijon way', he claimed.

Up until World War II, mustard was grown in charcoal burner clearings in the local area, but thereafter mustard seeds were largely grown in Canada and imported into France.

Wine is made in the start town, Mâcon, and in Burgundy where the stage finishes. I'm suggesting Mâcon wine to accompany this stage.

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Mâcon

Mâcon is home to around 34,000 people. It's on the western bank of the river Saône.

Celts of the Aedui tribe established an oppidum here. The town then developed under the Roman Empire - demonstrated by the discovery of a hoard known as the Mâcon Treasure. (It's in the British Museum, obviously).

In the Middle Ages, Mâcon belonged to the Dukes of Burgundy.

During World War II, Mâcon was the northernmost town in the unoccupied zone libre. The Résistance were present.

The town was liberated by Operation Dragoon troops arriving from the south having landed in Provence.

Mâcon has a Cathedral, a theatre, and a museum of fine arts.

The Maison des Vins showcases Mâcon's wines, which are made with the Chardonnay grape. The best-known wine is Pouilly-Fuissé.

The Eté Frappé festival in Summer features music, open air film shows and plays, and sporting events.

A meringue-based cake filled with butter cream is a local speciality, known as l'Idéal Mâconnais.

Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) was a writer, poet and politician from Mâcon.

Mâcon is twined with Crewe and Nantwich in the UK, and with Macon, USA.

Cluny

Cluny is a town on the river Grosne which grew up around its Benedictine Abbey, founded in 910 by Duke William I of Aquitaine.

The Abbey answered directly to the Pope, which gave it a good deal of independence.

Cluny was very influential from the 950s to the early 1100s, being regarded as the leader of western monasticism. This was partly due to the Abbey's strict adherence to the Rule of St Benedict. The Cluniac Reforms involved a return to traditional monastic life, with an emphasis on art and caring for the poor.

The monks prayed constantly, while hired workers and managers did the farming and manual labour.

Cluny received bequests from around Europe, as the rich and powerful wanted to be remembered in Cluny's prayers.

Soon Cluny became the central Abbey in a network of 314 others under its authority. This included some in England, such as Lewes Priory and Lenton Priory. The Abbots of Cluny became leaders on the international stage.

The third church at Cluny, Cluny III, was begun in 1088, and was the largest church in Europe at the time. It was eventually trumped by St Peter's in Rome in the 1500s.

The Abbey was sacked by Huguenots in 1562, and at that time many of its valuable manuscripts were destroyed or removed.

Catholic monasteries were suppressed at the time of the French Revolution too, and at this time Cluny Abbey was sold for use as a quarry, its archives burnt and its library ransacked.

By 1810 Cluny was almost totally demolished. Only one of the original eight towers remains.

The remaining abbey buildings house an engineering school.

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Cîteaux Abbey

Cîteaux Abbey was founded on St Benedict's Day (21st March) 1098. It was the first Cistercian Abbey.

The first Abbot was Robert de Molesme, later a saint. The site he and the first monks chose was wooded, swampy and sparsely populated.

The great church of Cîteaux Abbey was completed in 1193. It became the dynastic burial place of the Dukes of Burgundy.

By the beginning of the 1200s, there were more than 500 Cistercian houses, and Cîteaux Abbey became an important centre of Christianity.

Cistercians follow the Rule of St Benedict and the Latin Rule, written by Bernard of Clairveaux. At Cîteaux Abbey the monks did agricultural work and manual labour.

They wear white choir robes over their habits, and are known as White Monks, as opposed to Benedictines who wear black.

In 1791, during the French Revolution, the Abbey was seized and its property sold off.

From 1898, the remains of the Abbey were bought back and repopulated by Trappists (also called Cistercians of the Strict Observance).

Dijon

The Stage 6 finish town is Dijon, on the river Ouche. It has a population of 157,000.

It has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. It was a Roman settlement called Divio.

Under the Dukes of Burgundy, who were based here from the 1000s to the 1400s, Dijon prospered and became a centre of art, learning and science.

The Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy now houses the Town Hall and an art museum. Many of the half-timbered houses from this period survive.

The local architecture is distinguised by toits bourguinons - Burgundian polychrome roofs.

Dijon holds a Gastronomic Fair every Autumn, which doubtless features Dijon mustard. As noted above, Dijon mustard uses sour grape juice rather than vinegar.

If you visit Dijon's Notre Dame church, you're supposed to touch a stone owl sculpture with your left hand, for good luck and to make a wish. (It isn't all that lucky for the owl, whose head has been so worn away that it doesn't look much like an owl.

Dijon is twinned with York.