Route nationale 5

The Route nationale 5, or RN 5, is a trunk road (nationale) in France now connecting Dijon with the frontier of Switzerland. It is also numbered the European route E21.

The RN 5 originally ran to Paris following the route now numbered RN 6 to Sens. Thereafter the road has been mostly been detrunked, with control and maintenance handed to local départments. A short section of road between Poligny and Les Rousses is still trunk.

Sens-Dijon-Dole-Geneva-Thonon-Switzerland

The road branches east from Sens as the N 60 along the Vanne valley. After 8 km the D 905 turns south east over rolling wooded countryside. The TGV line runs parallel. The road crosses the ridge of the Forêt d'Othe. The road continues through Saint-Florentin where there is a junction with the RN 77. The road then runs southeast along the valley of the Armançon, following the Canal de Bourgogne, as far as Tonnerre where it crosses to the south of both canal and river and then through Lézinnes and Ancy-le-Franc. The road continues through the Bois de la Ville eventually leaving the valley at Montbard and the nearby Abbaye de Fontenay.

The road now follows the River Brenne and leaves the Canal de Bourgogne which it has been following for almost 100 km. The road passes the Auxois to Vitteaux and then below the Forêt de Boutas et Charmot (542 m) and then along the northern shore of the Reservoir de Grosbois and then east passing over a ridge where the road meets Sombernon and the A 38. The road now enters the valley of the River Ouche Eastward through the Forêt de Plombières and becomes the RN 5 as the road enters Dijon.

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Wikipedia