Approaching AVALLON along the N6 from the north, you wouldn't give the place a second look. But the southern aspect is altogether more promising, as the town stands high on a ridge above the wooded valley of the River Cousin, looking out over the hilly, sparsely populated country of the Morvan regional park. If you want to stay in a Avallon hotel, check this website. Once a staging post on the Romans' Via Agrippa from Lyon to Boulogne, it's a small and ancient town of stone facades and comatose cobbled streets, bisected north-south by the narrow Grande-Rue-Aristide-Briand. Under the straddling arch of the fifteenth-century Tour de l'Horloge, the spire of which dominates the town, this street brings you to the pilgrim church of St Lazare, on whose battered Romanesque facade you can still decipher the graceful carvings of signs of the zodiac, labours of the months and the old musicians of the Apocalypse. Almost opposite, in a fifteenth-century house, is the tourist office, with the municipal museum (daily except Tues May–Oct 2–6pm; 3) behind it; exhibits include a room of modern silverware, designed by local boy Jean Despres, and a second-century mosaic from a Gallo-Roman villa. There is also the Musée du Costume at 6 rue Belgrand (April–Nov daily 10.30am–12.30pm & 1.30–5.30pm; 4), just off Grande-Rue, with a collection of regional dress. Continuing from St-Lazare down the street, now called rue Bocquillot, brings you to the lime-shaded Promenade de la Petite Porte, with precipitous views across the plunging valley of the Cousin. You can walk from here around the outside of the walls. From the Parc des Chaumes, on the east side of town, there's a great view back to the old quarter, snug within its walls, with garden terraces descending on the slope beneath. You can't miss the statue of Vauban, standing guard over the place Vauban – the great military architect was born in the Morvan in 1633.
Pages in section ‘Avallon’: Practicalities.
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