Musée des Beaux-Arts de Beaune

Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy, and most visitors come for the Hospices de Beaune, the cellars and the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune, but the town also has a fine arts museum that rewards a short visit. It is installed in the buildings of a former convent in the centre of town, which also house the town hall, and it presents a collection of paintings, sculpture and archaeology assembled over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As a small municipal museum, it offers a quieter experience than the town's wine attractions.

One of its main strengths is the work of local figures. Étienne-Jules Marey, born in Beaune in 1830, was a physiologist who developed chronophotography, a method of recording movement in a series of images, and his work was a forerunner of cinema. Beaune honours him with a collection of his instruments and photographs. The museum also holds paintings by Félix Ziem, a nineteenth-century artist best known for his views of Venice, who gave the town many of his works. Other rooms contain Flemish, Dutch, French and Italian paintings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries and objects from local excavations, including Gallo-Roman items found around Beaune.

The museum is sometimes confused with the Musée du Vin de Bourgogne, a separate institution housed in the former residence of the dukes of Burgundy, the Hôtel des Ducs de Bourgogne, which is devoted to the history of vine growing and wine making. Both are in the old town and can easily be combined in one visit, so that a morning can cover wine history in one place and fine arts in the other. Hours and arrangements change, and exhibition preparation can mean temporary closures, so check the current status before heading there.

Beaune itself invites exploration. The Hospices de Beaune, also known as the Hôtel-Dieu, is the town's star, a medieval charity hospital with a colourful glazed tile roof and a celebrated altarpiece, the Last Judgment by Rogier van der Weyden. Each November the Hospices hold a famous wine auction, which draws buyers from around the world. The Église Notre-Dame, a Romanesque and Gothic church with a notable series of tapestries, is nearby, and the ramparts that encircle the old town are partly open for walks. Merchants' cellars, among them the Cave de l'Abbaye, offer tastings, and the Clos de Vougeot, a historic walled vineyard and château, lies a short drive north.

The museum suits visitors interested in the cultural side of the town, those who enjoy small collections and families looking for an indoor stop on a wet day. A visit takes about an hour. It is a good option to pair with a wine tasting, giving a day that mixes art and history with the pleasures of the table.