Booking Codes G108 & G113 Historic Bourgogne Wednesday 29th June Wednesday 7th September 9 days staying full board at the 4* Mercure Appoigny £1,825 Single room supplement only £275 The Natalia negotiates the aqueduct at St-Florentin on the Canal de Bourgogne A history-themed cruise into the “Gateway to Burgundy” as we follow the remote and scenic Canal de Bourgogne between St-Florentin and Montbard, with visits along the way to some of the great regional attractions, including the renaissance châteaux of Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc, and the great Cistercian Abbeys of Fontenay and Pontigny. In this 9-day package we cruise for 4 days, with our intervening time then spent in relaxed exploration by coach. We connect from the UK by Eurostar into Paris, then a bus transfer to Paris Bercy and a regional train taking us to destination with scenic views of the Yonne Valley along the way. We stay at the excellent 4* Mercure hotel just outside Auxerre, where we include a full day of sightseeing as part of our programme. Other highlights of our week include lunches alongside the River Yonne in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and in Époisses, famed for its soft cheese; a visit to mediaeval Joigny for market day; a visit to the Fosse Dionne in Tonnerre and the Forges de Buffon near Montbard; free time in the city of Sens; and a guided tour of the Caves d’Arcy, where some of the world’s oldest cave drawings are to be seen. Over these few days our cruise will cover around 85km of this historic waterway accompanied throughout by the pretty River Armançon. The original canal project, started in 1775 as a collaboration between Louis XV and the Dukes of Burgundy, was halted by the French Revolution in 1795 and then resumed in 1808 by a Napoleonic decree allowing construction to be privatised. It was only in 1832 that the canal was finally opened to through navigation. Our cruising may be in either direction. Here we describe the daily cruises as they will be in the Booking Codes G108 & G113 eastbound direction starting in St-Florentin, but the same content applies in reverse for cruising westwards from Montbard. St-Florentin to Tonnerre Our cruise begins against the scenic backdrop of St-Florentin, whose imposing 16th century church dominates the skyline from some distance. As we depart St-Florentin we are immediately into mostly arable farmland, with the cruise corridor often tree-lined. There are 42 locks to encounter over the week and 11 of them on this first day as we follow the Armançon upstream, providing opportunity for a towpath stroll where locks are closely-spaced. We pass a succession of villages through the day, Flogny-la-Chapelle the most substantial of them, but there is little to disturb the rural idyll and every prospect of bird and wildlife sightings. As we approach Tonnerre we enter the wine production domains of Épineuil and Tonnerre itself, reminding us that we are now in Burgundy wine country with Chablis only a few miles away to our south. Tonnerre is well- known too for the Fosse Dionne – a karst spring around which the town developed in Roman times and a registered Monument Historique not just for the great natural spring but also for the historic lavoir (wash house) built around it in the 18th century. The Fosse Dionne in Tonnerre – photo courtesy Wikipedia and author Ibex 73 Tonnerre to Lézinnes Today we continue eastwards from Tonnerre through quiet countryside, with more chances to enjoy a walk along the towpath between locks. As lunchtime approaches we reach the small town of Tanlay, and here we pause for guests to enjoy a guided visit to the 16th/17th century Château. This is one of Burgundy’s most beautiful Renaissance-style buildings, augmented by its walled garden, moat, and magnificent avenue of lime trees. The Château is only a 400m stroll from the canal mooring but we will have transport at hand in case needed. As the canal continues out of Tanlay it starts to meander more extravagantly with the contours, passing the small villages of St-Vinnemer and Ancy-le-Libre as we close-in on our moorings for the day in the small town of Lézinnes. Booking Codes G108 & G113 Lézinnes to Ravières More delightful scenery awaits today as we track the winding course of the Armançon through to the old fortified town of Ravières. This morning we glimpse the pretty villages of Pacy-sur-Armançon and Argenteuil- sur-Armançon before a lunchtime pause at Ancy-le-Franc allowing us a guided visit to another of the great Châteaux of Burgundy. The Renaissance Château of Ancy-le-Franc is unique in its layout of four matching wings and is greatly celebrated for its adornment of renaissance mural paintings and for the stunning formal gardens. As with Tanlay, the château is close to the waterway but we will have a bus available to shuttle guests as the connecting road can be rather busy. Château Ancy-le-Franc Resuming our cruising later in the afternoon, we pass two more sleepy villages at Chassingnelles and Fulvy before we conclude for the day in Ravières, notable for its ancient fortifications and white stone quarries. Ravières to Montbard There’s a distinct change of setting for our final cruise leg as the Armançon valley becomes increasingly forested and, here & there, diverted by rocky outcrops which are the haunt of peregrine falcons. We pass more small villages so typical of this unspoiled area, including Cry, Perrigny, Aisy and Rougemont. In the village of Buffon we pause for a guided visit to the restored Les Forges de Buffon, constructed in 1768 and one of the foundations of the European industrial revolution. Buffon takes its name from George Louis Buffon of Montbard, great naturalist of his time and advisor to the Kings of France. Buffon constructed his forge by damming the Armançon to feed water mills which powered the airflow feeding this pioneering blast-furnace. From Buffon the canal winds its way onwards past the village of St-Remy and into Montbard, where there is more evidence of the heritage of George Buffon, including the park, chapel, hotel and two museums proudly bearing his name. Three excursion days then complement our programme. The first of them takes us close to our cruise route as we head just beyond Montbard for an audio-guided visit to the UNESCO-listed Abbaye de Fontenay. Founded in Booking Codes G108 & G113 1118, this is one of the oldest and most complete Cistercian Abbeys in Europe – of the original complex the church, dormitory, cloister, bath house, dovecote and forge are all still intact – only the refectory has been lost. Fontenay Abbey – picture courtesy Marc Ryckaert From the Abbey our coach takes us on a scenic half-hour cross-country ride to the village of Époisses, famous for its distinctive soft cheese. We will enjoy lunch here, including a sampling of the village’s wonderful cheese accompanied by wine from nearby Chablis. After lunch there is more scenery to savour as we skirt the northern edge of the Morvan Regional Park, past the town of Avallon, and onwards to Arcy-sur-Cure. Here we have a guided visit to the spectacular limestone Caves d’Arcy, an amazing warren of geological history and home to the second-oldest known cave paintings in all of Europe. [there are about 100 steps along the guided pathways and some places where it is necessary to stoop – it is well-lit and guided throughout and quite even underfoot aside from the steps, but not advised for anyone of impaired mobility]. From Arcy it’s a scenic drive back to hotel via Auxerre, but we pause briefly en route in the village of Cravant where there is Hundred Years’ War history to be recounted. The Battle of Cravant in 1423 was fought between on the one side English freebooters in alliance with the Dukes of Burgundy, opposed by Royal French forces backed by their Scottish allies. A forerunner of Brexit perhaps. Booking Codes G108 & G113 As we leave Cravant we will cross the River Yonne and glimpse its companion the Canal du Nivernais, well known as one of the “canal journeys” of Prunella Scales and Timothy West. Our second excursion day sees more of the lovely River Yonne but first we make just east of Auxerre to visit the great Cathedral-Abbey of Pontigny. Built in the 12th century, this is the largest of all Cistercian churches, 108 metres long with a 4,000 m² floor area. The abbey rests in an estate of 10 hectares planted with century-old trees, and reflects the transition between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Pontigny welcomed two exiled archbishops of Canterbury: Thomas Becket and Stephen Langton. One of their successors, Edmund of Abingdon, canonised in 1246 and known in France as St. Edme, was laid to rest in the sanctuary. This plaque on the abbey interior explains some of the remarkable history of the cathedral organ. Booking Codes G108 & G113 From Pontigny we pause briefly in Migennes where we find the Canal de Bourgogne’s junction with the River Yonne, and from here we track the Yonne downstream as far as the historic gated town of Villeneuve-sur- Yonne. Here we set-down alongside the river to take lunch at the Auberge La Lucarne aux Chouettes, always a highlight of our Yonne cruises. Either side of lunch there should be a little time to explore the town, which is circuited by a partly intact 12th century wall, built when Villeneuve was one of the residences of the French kings.