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Avallon
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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. Once a staging post on the Romans'
Via Agrippa
from Lyon to Boulogne on the Channel coast, it is a small and ancient town of stone facades and comatose cobbled streets, bisected north to south by the narrow
Grande-Rue-Aristide-Briand
. Under the straddling arch of the fifteenth-century
Tour de l'Horloge
, whose spire 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 Easter-Nov 10am-12.30pm & 2-6.30pm; 20F/€3.04) 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
Musee du Costume
at 6 rue de Belgrand (April-Nov 10am-6pm; 25F/€3.81), 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 is 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
, almost like a statue of Vercingetorix, standing guard over the place Vauban - the great military architect was born in the Morvan in 1633. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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France,
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