The Château de Besseuil is situated along the wine route in the village of Clessé, in a region celebrated for its Romanesque churches, not far from the magnificent Abbey of Cluny, the ecumenical village of Taizé and La Roche de Solutré.

The village of Clessé is located 82 km from Lyon, near major motorways and the Mâcon Loché TGV station (21 km), 90 minutes from Paris and Geneva and 30 minutes from Lyon St. Exupéry International Airport.

The intense cultural life in the nearby cities of Tournus, Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Dijon adds to the many leisure activities and pleasures available locally.
 
There are numerous opportunities for sports: the Voie Verte (“Green Road”) is ideal for bicycle rides or a walk in the country; an 18-hole golf course lies immediately adjacent to the domain; horseriding is available at a number of stud farms in the area; a boat tour along the Saône River is sure to delight open-air enthusiasts.

The name “Clessé” is derived from its Latin name “Classiacus”, which in turn was derived from Classius, the first recorded owner of the domain.
Many vestiges have been identified in the area, testifying to the importance of this period: fragments of overlapping Roman tiles found in “Sandines” in what is known as the “Claude Berthoud wall”; vestiges of wells and semi-circular foundations in the “Lacroze” vineyards on the “Berthoud” crest; box sepulchres oriented towards the east and covered with stone slabs; skulls and bones excavated in Teppes-Malmont near the Roman road, which is still quite visible in Clessé at a site bearing the place name “les Justices” where the paving stones are intact...

The rustic church in the village of Clessé, a favourite stop in the Romanesque church circuit, is crowned with a beautifully proportioned octagonal belfry and adorned with glazed tiles typical of the rooftops in the region.
The façade and the interior date from the 11th century and the belfry from the early 12th century. The façade is decorated with Lombard blind arcades. Naïve sculpted heads can be distinguished on the corbels supporting the edges of the lava roof. On the south side, a snake is sculpted in stone right above one of the belfry windows. The church, a model of Norman architecture inspired by Cluny, is a classified historical monument.

The majestic limestone cliff overlooking the village of Solutré Pouilly, 10 kilomètres west of Mâcon and 28 kilometres from the château, is one of France’s greatest prehistoric sites, in the heart of the celebrated Chardonnay Pouilly Fuissé vineyards.

Here in this spot, during the second half of the 19th century, archeologists excavating at the foot of La Roche uncovered prehistoric vestiges including silex tools, spearheads, silex heads carved in the shape of bay leaves and scrapers, as well as a colossal heap of reindeer, horse, elephant, wolf and cave tiger bones…
The Departmental Museum of Prehistory, located at the site, displays these discoveries along with reconstructions of hunting scenes.

La Roche de Solutré acquired renewed fame starting in 1981 when President François Mitterrand climbed the mountain every year on Pentecost Sunday, followed by some of his relatives, friends and supporters. The path up to the mountain is open to the general public and it takes about an hour to reach the top. From the summit, visitors can contemplate the breathtaking landscape extending from the plains of the Saône River all the way to Mont-Blanc.