La Foulée Clunisoise 2027

Piaf saw life in pink, Cluny runs it! 💕

In 910, Benedictine monks laid the first stone of the Abbey of Cluny, which long housed the largest church in Christendom 🏛️. Eleven centuries later, a new brotherhood takes over the town right in the middle of Pink October: runners who swap the bure, a rather coarse textile made of wool, for a bib. Les Foulées Clunisoises set the scene in Cluny, in the south of Saône-et-Loire, a half-hour drive from Mâcon, in the heart of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. See you in mid-October, when the autumn sun often ends up breaking through above the vineyards of the neighboring Mâconnais, without any guarantees. Slip an extra layer into your bag, even if you end up tying it around your waist from the first climb 😅.

The setting? A nature run carved into the hills of the Clunisois, between pastures of Charolais cows—supporters who will watch you go by while chewing their cud, without ever shouting "go, go!" 🐮 The two trails set off from the station, along the greenway built in 1997 on a former railway line, the very first in France 🛤️. Careful—the flat doesn’t last. Between singletrack, paths, and short stretches of road, you’ll quickly tackle the hills overlooking the town before dropping back down toward the Grosne Valley. With 185 mD+ on the 7 km and 314 mD+ on the 18 km, the profile remains rolling: a trail that’s leg-breaking in places, runnable elsewhere—designed to sample the paths without destroying your calves 🦵. When you reach the heights, keep an eye on the abbey’s bell towers, which reveal themselves at times between two hedgerows.

At the helm of the event is the association Le Ruban Rose du Clunisois, created in Cluny in 2025 by people affected, directly or indirectly, by breast cancer 🎀. For once, seeing life in pink is more about commitment than optimism 🌸. Your registration takes the form of a donation, with a portion donated to breast cancer research. Near the finish arch, the Pink Village sets up at the La Marelle leisure center. Activities supervised by healthcare professionals with a self-examination bust, a hair prosthesis stand, cosmetic makeup, physios and massage therapists ready to unknot your quadriceps 💆. A group warm-up with music precedes each start, enough to warm up the muscles before taking off at full throttle. The dance entertainment by Passion Danse makes the village pulse, while the "Create your sign" stand gives your supporters what they need to push you up every climb 🪧. No kids’ races on the program: the hike, open to the youngest, brings the whole tribe onto the trails, with no timing and no pressure 👟.

After the effort, Cluny is best explored at recovery pace 🚶. Climb the Tour des Fromages, an ideal lookout over the abbey rooftops, then head to the National Stud of Cluny, founded under Napoleon in 1806: other athletes, on four legs, have been training there for more than two centuries 🐎. At the table, Charolles beef honors the local terroir, while the Mâconnais, a small PDO goat cheese, can be nibbled with a glass of Pouilly-Fuissé (the only refreshment missing from the rules—enjoy in moderation, of course) 🍷. Still have legs the next day? The Rock of Solutré lies about thirty minutes to the south. The rock awaits you for a François Mitterrand-style ascent—he climbed it every Pentecost 🧗.

At Les Foulées Clunisoises, ribbon tied and bib pinned, victory is sung in Gregorian chorus and run in pink! 🩷