Travel France: Yonne
Waking to the peal of the Angelus bell in the village of Nitry, I gazed out of my window over the soft, green rolling landscape which lay before me. The Angelus bell sounds three times a day here, at 7am, midday and again at 7pm, and has called the locals to prayer for centuries. For me it served as a handy alarm clock, waking me to my first full day in Yonne where, it seems, the past and the present are very much linked.
One of the four departments that make up the region of Burgundy, Yonne sits in the northwestern corner of the region. The landscape takes different forms as you move through the department, from sloping hillsides of vines and rolling meadows of golden-yellow rape seed crops to forested areas and marshland.
Our journey started at the Auberge de la Beursaudière in Nitry, a pretty village with a large lavoir, or communal washhouse. The auberge was once a large farmhouse and retains its rustic charm. Throughout the hotel and its popular restaurant, souvenirs of the Yonne’s rich rural heritage are in abundance, from the long-retired farm tools suspended from the thick-beamed ceilings to the delicate pieces of lacework on the walls of my room, which was dedicated to the tradition of la dentellière, the lacemaker. The auberge’s busy restaurant serves local dishes such as gougères, a sort of cheesy profiterole. Cheese is very important in this part of the world and the restaurant’s cheeseboard boasted an incredible seven local cheeses from the pungent Époisses to Pierre qui Vire, produced by Benedictine monks.
The Plus Beaux Village of Noyers-sur-Serein developed in a meander of the Serein river, which was the boundary between the Dukes of Burgundy and their rivals, the Dukes of Champagne. To defend this strategic location, a series of 32 stout, round towers were built along the city walls, which curled around the town. Twenty-three of them still stand, some crumbling while others have been incorporated into the dwellings that have sprung up in more peaceful times. It is believed that during the Middle Ages a staggering 10,000 people lived here and evidence of this village’s former prosperity is revealed by wandering through the little squares and narrow alleés lined with fine half-timbered, gothic and Renaissance houses. Pop into the tourist office for a leaflet to guide you into squares such as the Place du Marché du Blé – where the grain market was held – as well as past the Gothic church, the tall tower of which was used as a lookout. If you are visiting during the summer months try to catch one of the music concerts in the church, which is followed by a wine tasting.
Northeast of Noyers lies Chablis, site of some of the oldest vineyards in France and famous for its white wine made entirely from the Chardonnay grape. This pretty town of timber and stone houses with russet-brown roofs is surrounded by hillsides of Chablis vines. The Serein river flows right through the heart of the vineyards, and all seven of the prized grand crus appellations are clustered together on the right bank. As you’d expect, the town is full of wine shops as well as caveaus where you can stop for a tasting and maybe pick up a bottle or two.
Anxious times
In early spring the town was still quiet, however out on the hillsides there was work to be done, and every so often an enjambeur, one of the long-legged tractors that work among the vines, rumbled past and off to the slopes. Being situated quite far north, the months of April and May are anxious times for the Chablis vignerons, as a harsh spring frost can destroy the entire year’s crop in a few short hours. Although it was an exceptionally warm spring day, I spied chaufrettes among the vines. These heaters are lit if the thermometer dips dangerously and during a crucial few weeks, all winemakers are on standby at night, ready to light the chaufrettes if their precious crop is in jeopardy.
To find out more about Chablis wine we called at La Chablissienne, a large cooperative of winegrowers in the town, where you can taste the different appellations and find out more about this world-famous wine. Yonne has five routes for discovering the vineyards by car – around Chablis, Auxerre, Tonnerre, Vélezay and Joigny – as well as eleven circuits for those who prefer to go by foot. For wine tasting with a troglodyte twist, visit the subterranean Caves de Bailly outside Auxerre. Around five million bottles of local wine are stored here, in four hectares of a former quarry with a year-round temperature of 12-13ºC. Drive right in to the hillside, park up near the bar which is carved out of stone and sip some sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne, I guarantee you’ll be whistling the theme tune to The Flintstones by the time you leave.
Modest in size, the village of Vézelay attracts a staggering 800,000 tourists a year and is by far the biggest tourist attraction not only in Yonne but throughout the entire region of Burgundy. Despite this, Vézelay retains its character and remains relatively unspoilt, making it a peaceful place to spend the day. Amazingly, the principal reason to visit this village has barely changed in the last 1,000 years. The big attraction is the Basilique Ste-Marie-Madeleine, built at the top of the town and accessed by the steep cobbled Grande-Rue. In the ninth century, a monastery was founded in Vézelay and dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It proved to be such a crowd pleaser that eventually a larger church was necessary to accommodate the packs of pilgrims that flocked to the site. It was built in the eleventh century and slowly added to. At the same time a village sprang up around the abbey church and tumbled down the hill. By 1215 work was finally completed on the church but, during the thirteenth century, the fascination with Mary Magdalene waned and the Pope decided to take the spotlight off Vézelay. The pilgrims stopped coming in huge numbers and the town, which had previously hosted markets and fairs, became a sleepy village.
During the French Revolution, the abbey was spared from destruction as locals had to vote on which of Vézelay’s three churches they wanted to save and in 1920 the church was elevated to a basilica. In 1993, after a long absence, monks and nuns returned to the Basilica, and as you walk around the town you’ll see them quietly going about their duties.
Historic village
Leaving our car at the car park in the Place du Champ Foire, we ascended the steep Grand-Rue, past shops with cellars still visible from the pavement but now covered over. These caverns, some four stories deep, used to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who stayed here, many on their way to Santiago de Compostella. About one third of the houses in Vézelay date from the Middle Ages and many are now second homes for artists and writers who are attracted to this historic village overlooking the lush Burgundy countryside.
At the Musée Zervos on the Grand-Rue, art and literature come together in the former home of writer and pacifist Romain Rolland. The house is now home to a collection of art once owned by Parisian couple Christian and Yvonne Zervos and contains works by modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Piet Mondrian. In1929 Christian Zervos founded an art journal, Les Cahiers d’Art, which ran until his death in 1970. A passionate champion of modern art but a terrible businessman, Christian Zervos was forced to sell many of the works given to him by artists grateful for his support to fund his magazine. In 1937 the couple bought a farmhouse in a rural hamlet outside Vézelay and upon their death in 1970, the town of Vézelay inherited the Zervos’ collection.
Walking around the traditional maison bourgeoise, stark sculptures and linear paintings sit above original fireplaces and by windows with views out to the timeless Cure Valley. Vézelay, with all its heritage, is even richer for this museum, which is trying to buy back many of the works Zervos was forced to sell in order to finance Les Cahiers des Art, his labour of love.
The River Yonne flows from the south to the north of the department, where it meets the Seine in the neighbouring department of Seine-et-Marne. The name of the river has changed several times the over centuries. Known in the second century as Icauni after Icauna, a Roman goddess of water, the name of the river evolved to Yona and eventually to Yonne. The river gave its name to the department in 1790 but the name for Yonne’s inhabitants, who are known as the Icaunais, harks back to the past.
During the Middle Ages, wood was in short supply in Paris, so timber from the Morvan forest in the heart of Burgundy was sent to the capital by river. Huge rafts of logs, known as trains, were floated from the port of Clamecy through Auxerre, the capital of Yonne, to Paris, the journey taking ten days in total.
Today the river is still put to good use in Auxerre, albeit for more leisurely purposes: the towpaths, once used by horses to pull the barges that eventually replaced the rafts, are now frequented by rollerbladers and Auxerre itself is a harbour for pleasure craft. You can hire a boat from here to navigate the river or the neighbouring Nivernais canal. Some of the wood transported by the trains was sold here and consequently the old town has a wealth of half-timbered buildings. Many have been restored and are gaily painted, housing chic shops, so a stroll round the old town is a must. Another stylish feature, on Rue de l’Horloge, is the Tour de l’Horloge, an impressive clock tower funded by fifteenth-century merchants eager to show off their wealth. At the end of Rue de l’Horloge, the Place Charles-Surugue hosts a collection of pretty medieval houses as well as a statue of Cadet Roussel, an infamous court official made famous in a French song.
Alongside the stalls selling charcuterie, cheeses and fresh-from-the-farm fruit and veg, at the Saturday market in Toucy, farmers wives wearing floral housecoats line the street selling live chickens, geese and ducks, which, once sold, are packed into cardboard boxes with tiny holes or, in the case of one plump hen, simply carried away by the feet. For some it might come as a shock, but this how life has been here for centuries, and so it continues. In the market, stallholders call out to tempt passersby, while women shop wisely, filling their baskets with the freshest bread. In the square old men in berets huddle in twos and threes, hands in pockets, catching up on the latest news. Time moves slowly in Yonne and it is all the better for it.
Fact file
Getting there:
Eleanor O’Kane travelled to Joigny in Yonne by Eurostar and regional train. Fares from London to Joigny start at £89 return. For more information contact Rail Europe www.raileurope.com or call 08708 304862