Burgundy has much to recommend it, but its contemporary art scene is hardly world-renowned. Nevertheless, there are local artists producing truly exciting works, as I discovered in Beaune and, quite by accident, in Dole.

Galerie de l’Hôtel de Saulx

This appealing gallery around the corner from the Hospices de Beaune displays a range of contemporary paintings with everything from sunny landscapes to portraits resembling a collision of Klimt and the “Book of Kells.” I particularly loved the unusual Bosch-inspired surrealist paintings of Gérard Willemenot. He works in tempera, not oil, giving the paintings a luminous, liquid aesthetic that enhances the precision of their execution.

Galerie de l’Hôtel de Saulx
13 Place Fleury, Beaune. Tel. (33) 3-80-24-68-34.