The Cathedral itself (daily except Sun morning: July-Sept 9am-6pm; rest of year 9am-noon & 2-5/6pm) still remains unfinished, despite the fact that its construction was drawn out over more than three centuries from 1215 to 1560: the southernmost of the two west front towers has never been completed. Compensation for this lies in the richly detailed sculpture of the porches and in the glorious colours of the original thirteenth-century glass that still fills the windows of the choir, despite the savagery of the Wars of Religion and the Revolution. There has been a church on the site since about 400 AD, though nothing visible survives earlier than the eleventh-century crypt (10F/€1.52). Among its frescoes is a unique depiction of a warrior Christ mounted on a white charger, accompanied by four mounted angels.

From in front of the cathedral, rue Fourier leads to place du Marche and off left to the Hotel de Ville and the old city gateway known as the Tour de l'Horloge , with its fifteenth-century coloured clock face. The whole quarter, from place Surugue through rue Joubert and down to the river, is full of attractive old houses. Of somewhat recondite interest, the Musee Leblanc-Duvernoy , in an eighteenth-century hotel at 9 rue Egleny, contains a collection of faience and china of local provenance, furniture and tapestries (daily except Tues 2-6pm; 12F/€1.83, free Wed).

If you're finding the narrow streets a bit confining, then take a stroll to the Clos de Chainette , off to the northeast, the only vineyard in Auxerre to be spared in the phylloxera disaster of the nineteenth century.