France Guide
Burgundy
Peaceful, rural Burgundy is one of the most prosperous regions in modern France, but for centuries its powerful dukes remained independent of the French crown. During the Hundred Years War, they even sided with the English, selling them the captured Joan of Arc. By the fifteenth century their power extended over all of Franche-Comté, Alsace and Lorraine, Belgium, Holland, Picardy and Flanders, and their state was the best organized and richest in Europe, its revenues equalled only by Venice. It finally fell to the French kings only when Duke Charles le Téméraire (the Bold) was killed besieging Nancy in 1477.
Because of its monastic foundations, Burgundy became – along with Poitou and Provence – one of the great church-building areas in the Middle Ages. Practically every village has its Romanesque church, especially in the country around Cluny and Paray-le-Monial, and where the Catholic Church built, so had the Romans before, with their legacy visible in the substantial Roman remains at Autun. For voluptuaries, wine is, of course, the region's most obvious attraction, and devotees head straight for the great vineyards, whose produce has played the key role in the local economy since Louis XIV's doctor prescribed wine as a palliative for the royal dyspepsia. If you lack the funds to indulge your taste for expensive drink, go in September or October when the vignerons are recruiting harvesters.
Highlights
1 Noyers-sur-Serein Buried in beautiful countryside east of Auxerre, this stunningly unspoilt medieval town has the added bonuses of an impressive museum and a great place to sleep and dine.
2 Château d'Ancy-le-Franc Utterly refined, still sumptuous; a textbook Renaissance villa designed by the great theorist Sebastiano Serlio.
3 Fontenay Abbey Stunningly simple, serene and austere Fontenay perfectly evokes the stark atmosphere of a Cistercian community.
4 Autun cathedral The striking exterior serves as a mere appetizer before the magnificent beauty of the capitals inside, all sculpted by the renowned Romanesque craftsman Gislebertus.
5 Beaune's Hôtel-Dieu Topped by a myriad of glazed, multicoloured tiles, the medieval hospice at Beaune also houses Rogier van der Weyden's Last Judgement.
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