Mâcon Christmas Market

Halfway between Burgundy and the South, Mâcon has the year-round feel of a Saône riverside town, where ochre façades and tiled roofs already hint at the Midi. In December, the Mâcon Christmas market sets out its chalets on Place Saint-Pierre and Place Saint-Nizier, at the foot of the large neo-Gothic church, a few streets from the quays and the Saint-Laurent bridge. An ice rink sits in the middle, wooden chalets surround it, and the whole thing is part of a wider festival, “Contes et Lumières” (Tales and Lights), which lights up the town centre all month. You can taste Mâconnais wines, meet Santa and ride an enchanted train led by a storyteller: plenty to fill a late afternoon between two sessions on the ice.

The chalets of Place Saint-Pierre and Place Saint-Nizier

The market takes place right in the pedestrianised town centre, on Place Saint-Pierre and Place Saint-Nizier, redecorated from top to bottom for the occasion. Expect eighteen wooden chalets set around an ice rink, a compact format that favours a friendly atmosphere over sheer size. You go from a producer to a craftsperson in a few steps, you chat with makers about what they create, and the ice in the middle keeps families busy for much of the day. In 2025, the market celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with an enchanted forest theme, with fir trees, garlands and characters that gave the streets a fairy-tale look. The number of chalets barely changes from year to year, which keeps the event at neighbourhood scale: you can go round without getting lost, and happily return to the stall you spotted on the way in.

The large Église Saint-Pierre, seventy-five metres long with its two neo-Gothic spires, closes off the square and serves as a glowing landmark. Much of Mâcon’s charm comes from the river: two minutes from the chalets, the Saône quays show off their colourful, almost southern façades, and the Saint-Laurent bridge has spanned the river since the Middle Ages. The “Contes et Lumières” festival dresses the whole area with decorations and light installations, from early December to the very start of January. Walk up to the Maison de Bois, a medieval timber-framed façade carved with grotesque figures, one of the few of its kind in Mâcon, before heading back down to the ice rink after dark. This mix of old stone, lights and the scent of mulled wine gives the centre a character that owes as much to Burgundy as to the southern flair the town likes to claim.

Mâconnais treats at the Mâcon Christmas market

Here, mulled wine faces serious competition: the Mâconnais is wine country first and foremost. Local winegrowers pour their whites, and what whites they are, with Pouilly-Fuissé topping the bill, followed by Saint-Véran, Viré-Clessé and the Mâcon-Villages that have carried the vineyard’s reputation far and wide. At the food chalets you’ll also find the local goat’s cheese, Mâconnais PDO, a small cheese with a frank taste that goes well with a glass of dry white. Burgundy cooking completes the picture: oeufs en meurette, snails, chicken cooked in wine, and poultry from nearby Bresse, still the star of festive meals in the region. To finish on a sweet note, galette bressane, a rich, sugary brioche, slips easily into your bag. The food chalets go beyond strictly local produce: waffles, roasted chestnuts and melted raclette also hold their own, enough to fill a gap before a last lap on the ice.

If the cold bites along the quays, a cup of spiced mulled wine soon sorts things out. You can carry the mood home with a good mulled wine recipe with cinnamon and orange, and replay the scene by the fire.

• White wines of the Mâconnais: Pouilly-Fuissé, Saint-Véran, Viré-Clessé and Mâcon-Villages, to taste by the glass or take home for the holidays.
• Mâconnais PDO, a local goat’s cheese shaped like a small truncated cone, frank on the palate.
• Bresse poultry and chicken cooked in wine, pillars of the Burgundy table for December meals.
• Oeufs en meurette and snails, bistro classics you’ll find on menus around the centre.
• Spiced mulled wine, served piping hot at the chalets, your best ally on evenings by the Saône.

Ice rink, enchanted train and market hours

Entry to the market is free: you only pay for what you eat, drink or take home. The 2025 edition ran from 10 to 24 December, open Sunday to Thursday 11.30am-7.30pm and Fridays and Saturdays until 8.30pm, with a late opening on 19 December and a 4pm close on Christmas Eve. For winter 2026, exact dates are still to be confirmed by the town of Mâcon and the Mâcon Sud Bourgogne tourist office, which usually publish the programme in the autumn. The ice rink in the middle of the chalets runs throughout, with skates provided on site, and draws beginners as well as regulars keen to trace a few figures. The little enchanted train, led by a storyteller, takes children on a magical tour of the centre. Add the bubble village, a themed space open from late November to early January, family craft workshops and visits from Santa, and there’s plenty to keep younger children spellbound.

To get there, Mâcon-Ville station is about ten minutes’ walk from the market squares, with direct trains to Lyon, Dijon and Chalon. The Mâcon-Loché TGV station, a little out of town, reaches Paris in under two hours and is served by bus or taxi. By car, several car parks ring the pedestrian centre, but aim to arrive early on Saturdays, as spaces near the quays fill up fast in December. The town centre is flat and largely pedestrianised, which makes it pleasant with a pushchair, even if a few cobbles call for some care. Allow a good hour to go round the chalets, more if you add the ice rink and a food break. Late Saturday afternoon is the liveliest time, when the lights come on and families gather on the ice; on weekdays it’s quieter and you can wander at your own pace.

What to see around the Mâcon Christmas market

Mâcon tells its story through Alphonse de Lamartine, the Romantic poet born in Mâcon in 1790. The town pays tribute to him all over: a statue by the Saône, the Hôtel Senecé, home to the museum that bears his name, and a Lamartine trail through the surrounding vineyards, following the places that inspired “Le Lac”. A visit to the museum makes a nice warm break between two rounds of the market. On the quays, Lamartine’s statue watches the Saône flow by, and café terraces give the town that gateway-to-the-South feel that sets it apart from its Burgundian neighbours. The Musée des Ursulines, set in a former convent, completes the heritage picture, with archaeology and fine art collections to explore when the cold puts you off a riverside walk.

About twenty minutes’ drive away, the Roche de Solutré rises as a limestone spur above the Pouilly-Fuissé vines. The prehistoric site, famous for its excavations and made popular by François Mitterrand’s traditional climb every Whitsun, offers a panorama over the Saône valley, the Jura and, on a clear day, Mont Blanc. A winter walk to the top works up an appetite before you head back down to taste the local wine, and the wine villages around it, Fuissé, Vergisson and Solutré-Pouilly, are worth the detour for a tasting at a winegrower’s cellar. To keep the market season going, the Chalon-sur-Saône Christmas market is just under an hour to the north, the Beaune Christmas market and its Hospices add a stop in the heart of the Côte, and the Bourg-en-Bresse Christmas market is less than forty minutes away, in Bresse, home of the famous poultry.