Trail du Beaujolais

The Trail du Beaujolais is a generous 55-kilometer race with 2,200 meters of elevation gain, starting from Beaujeu, the historic capital of Beaujolais. This race crosses one of France's most beautiful vineyards, home to the Beaujolais crus, where hills covered with gamay grapes produce wines that have conquered tables worldwide. The Beaujolais territory, wedged between the Saône river and the Beaujolais hills, offers rolling, technical, and visually enchanting trail terrain.

The course winds between hillside vineyards and ridge-top forests overlooking the vineyard. Runners cross the legendary Beaujolais appellations: Morgon with its decomposed schist soils producing powerful wines, Fleurie with its granitic soils yielding the most elegant wines, Moulin-à-Vent with its iconic windmill perched on a wind-battered hill, and Juliénas with its tasting cellar in a former church. The trails link villages built from pierre dorée — golden limestone with ochre and honey reflections that earns Beaujolais its nickname of "Little Tuscany."

The 2,200 meters of elevation gain are built through straightforward climbs from the wine valleys to the wooded crests of the Beaujolais hills, peaking at Mont Saint-Rigaud at 1,012 meters. The contrast is striking between sun-drenched hillsides covered with vines, shady valleys where crystal-clear streams flow, and forested summits of beech and fir that evoke the Massif Central more than the Rhône valley. The terrain alternates between stony vineyard tracks, leaf-carpeted forest single tracks, and ridge trails exposed to the prevailing wind.

Beaujeu, the race starting point, is a small character town that served for centuries as the capital of the Beaujolais lordship. The Church of Saint-Nicolas, the Hospices du Beaujolais temple, and the cobbled lanes bear witness to its prestigious past. The town is the birthplace of the famous Sarmentelles festival, which celebrates the arrival of Beaujolais nouveau each November in an atmosphere of popular revelry. Tasting cellars, open year-round, offer the chance to discover the diversity of the ten Beaujolais crus — gamay wines of a finesse and complexity that are often underestimated.

For international runners, the Trail du Beaujolais is a unique opportunity to discover a living, accessible vineyard, far from the sometimes intimidating solemnity of neighboring Burgundy. Lyon, the world capital of gastronomy, is just forty-five minutes away and offers an ideal base for a stay combining trail running and culinary discovery. Running between rows of gamay, passing at the foot of windmills and châteaux, encountering winemakers working in the vines, and finishing with a convivial tasting: the Trail du Beaujolais celebrates trail running as an art of living.