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A pretty old town of narrow lanes and unexpected open squares, AUXERRE stands on a hill a further 15km up the Yonne from Joigny. It looks its best seen from Pont Paul-Bert and the riverside quais , where houseboats and barges moor, its churches soaring dramatically and harmoniously above the surrounding rooftops. The most interesting of the churches is the disused abbey church of St Germain, now a museum (daily except Tues: May-Sept 9.45am-6.30pm; Oct-April 9.45am-noon & 2-6pm; 22F/?3.35), at the opposite end of rue Cauchois from the cathedral. Partial demolition has left its belfry detached from the body of the building, but what gives it special interest is the crypt, one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture, with its plain barrel vaults still resting on their thousand-year-old oak beams. Deep inside, the faded ochre frescoes of St Stephen (St Étienne) are among the most ancient in France, dating back to around 850 AD.
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 colors 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 Marché and off left to the Hôtel de Ville and the old city gateway known as the Tour de l'Horloge , with its fifteenth-century colored 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 Musée Leblanc-Duvernoy , in an eighteenth-century hôtel at 9 rue Egleny, contains a collection of faïence 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 Chaînette, off to the northeast, the only vineyard in Auxerre to be spared in the phylloxera disaster of the nineteenth century.
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