Book your individual trip , stress-free with local travel experts. Select Month. During the Middle Ages, Burgundy — along with Poitou and Provence — became one of the great church-building areas in France. 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.
Thinking about a French holiday? Start planning your trip by finding out how to get there. Crafted with by local experts. Most travellers to Burgundy arrive in Auxerre , the chief population and industrial centre in the north of Burgundy — and with good reason.
A very pretty and historic town of narrow lanes and lovely open squares, it looks its best from Pont Paul-Bert over the river Yonne and the riverside quays. From here you get a lovely view of moored houseboats and barges, with churches soaring dramatically and harmoniously above the surrounding rooftops. The crypt is one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture, with its plain barrel vaults still resting on their thousand-year-old oak beams.
Its wonderfully vivid and expressive ochre frescoes are the oldest in France, dating back to around AD. It was restored in the early s to its original form, while the gardens were re-landscaped in in full harmony with its Romanesque structure.
Julius Caesar himself commanded the Roman army, which surrounded the final Gallic stronghold and starved the Gauls out, bloodily defeating all attempts at escape. The battle was a fundamental turning point in the fortunes of the region, as Gaul remained under Roman rule for four hundred years.
