In short
- What’s there: a Gothic cathedral with only one tower (the second was never built), a ninth-century Carolingian crypt with the oldest wall paintings in France, an entire neighborhood of timber-framed houses, and riverside docks that were, for centuries, the real livelihood of the place.
- Status: holds the “City of Art and History” label since 1995, the protected historic center spans sixty-seven hectares, and it’s all done on foot.
- Getting there: about two hours by direct TER train from Paris-Bercy station, or an hour and forty minutes by car from Paris on the A6 highway.
- How much time: a full day for the essentials, two days with the museums and cellars, three if you add Chablis too.
- When: spring and fall. In October the light on the Yonne and the color of the surrounding vineyards are something else entirely, and the lines are short.
- And by the way: it’s also the gateway to Chablis and the vineyards of the Auxerrois. If you’re doing the Burgundy wine route anyway, there’s no reason on earth to stay anywhere else.
Last October, on a trip through Burgundy, I set down my bags in Auxerre for a few days (at the Hôtel Les Maréchaux, you’ll find all the details in the accommodations section) and made it my base. It’s a decision I highly recommend, and also one that led me to discover a city I had no idea was so packed with stories. Because Auxerre, which most travelers speed past on the A6 highway on their way to Lyon or Provence without stopping, is no mere pit stop. It’s a city where things happened.
And before anything else, since most of you are practical people, let me start with everything you need to get there, plan your days, and avoid standing in front of a closed door. Then the sights themselves, and at the end, hotels in every price range.
How to Get to Auxerre, and What You Should Know Beforehand
By train from Paris. A TER train leaves directly from Paris-Bercy station to Auxerre-Saint-Gervais station, about two hours. Keep in mind this is the end of the line, meaning there are no trains passing through. From the station, the historic center is all walkable. It’s easiest to book tickets in advance through Omio, which brings together the train operators on one screen and saves you the hassle of dealing with the French website.
By car. According to the local tourism office, it’s a one hour and forty minute drive from Paris. If you’re already driving the A6 highway heading south, this is a tiny detour off your route.
By boat. Yes, really. Auxerre is the northern starting point of the Canal du Nivernais, which stretches to Decize and overcomes the elevation difference with more than a hundred lock gates. Along the canal there are companies that rent houseboats, and in most cases no boating license is required for the smaller boats. If you have a free week and you’re looking for something other than yet another road trip, this is one of the most beautiful ways in France to see Burgundy from the water.
How much time. A full day covers the essentials at a reasonable pace. Two days also allow for the museums, the Maison Marie Noël, and the cellars outside the city. Three days and you can fit in Chablis too.
When. Spring and fall. In October the light on the Yonne and the color of the surrounding vineyards are something else entirely, and the lines are short too.
And by the way, two small things that will save you some aggravation. The first: the X in the middle of the name is silent. It’s pronounced “oh-SAIR,” not “ock-SAIR,” and certainly not “ock-ZAIR” (the French forgive a lot of things, but not this). The second: a lot of what’s closed in Auxerre is closed on non-intuitive days. The cathedral’s crypt is closed on Sundays, the abbey is closed specifically on Tuesdays during the low season and all through January, and the Musée Leblanc-Duvernoy is open to the public only from April through the end of September. Plan around this, because it determines which day you dedicate to what.
A Brief History (and I mean brief)
Auxerre wasn’t founded, it split off. In the third century the Romans decided to separate the southern part of the Senones’ territory and establish it as an independent city called Autessiodurum, and that’s how the region’s second city was born, the one that Sens always outranked. What turned it into a real city were two lines that crossed here: the Yonne river, navigable all the way to Paris, and the Via Agrippa, the Roman road that connected Lyon to the north. And in the summer of 2025, archaeologists discovered a Gallo-Roman villa with baths, marble and mosaics three kilometers south of the city, uncovered during the construction of a bypass road.
From here the story continues along three threads worth remembering as you walk around the city.
The church. Auxerre was a bishopric city from the fourth century, and for centuries its bishop was the real ruler. The Huguenots looted the cathedral in 1567, the Revolution abolished the bishopric in 1790, and Auxerre never got it back.
The river. For three hundred years, massive log rafts from the Morvan floated through here on their way to heat Paris, and Auxerre was the transfer point. Then, in 1849, the train from Paris stopped at Laroche-Migennes and never entered the city. Auxerre got a branch line and a terminus station, which is exactly why its historic center still stands today.
The vine. In the mid-19th century, the Yonne was Burgundy’s great wine department, with forty thousand hectares of vineyards. Phylloxera and the train that brought cheap wine from the south nearly wiped it out entirely, and official recognition for Auxerre’s wine didn’t return until 1992.
And two anecdotes I can’t resist including even in the short version. The first: until 1538 the cathedral held an Easter ceremony in which the clergy danced around the labyrinth on the floor and played with a large yellow ball (yes, inside the church). The second: on March 18, 1815, Marshal Michel Ney (1769-1815) met Napoleon here, after promising the king he’d bring him back in an iron cage, and according to witnesses he stood in the waiting room with tears in his eyes (the night before, Napoleon had slept at the Hôtel de la Poste in Avallon, 50 kilometers to the south, and I wrote a separate article about that).
I told both of these anecdotes, and everything in between, in full in the article The History of Auxerre: From a Roman Villa to the French Championship. If you’re the type who reads the plaques, start there and come back here.
What not to miss in Auxerre (and all the practical information)
Cathédrale Saint-Étienne and the Romanesque crypt
The Gothic cathedral you see today is the fifth building to stand on this spot since the fifth century (the first three burned down, one after another). Construction began in 1215 at the initiative of Bishop Guillaume de Seignelay (c. 1164-1223) and continued for nearly three hundred years. Look closely at the facade: there’s only one tower. The second one was never finished, which is what gives the cathedral the asymmetrical silhouette you see from the other side of the river.
The portals tell the story of the Old and New Testaments, and the 13th-century stained glass in the choir’s ambulatory is among the finest in France. But the real reason to go inside is under the floor.
The crypt is all that remains of the 11th-century Romanesque cathedral. It runs about 37 meters long, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) restored it in the 19th century. In the central chapel, on the vault ceiling, you’ll find the wall painting known as “Christ on Horseback”: Jesus riding a white horse, surrounded by four mounted angels, around a large bejeweled cross. It’s a scene from the Book of Revelation, and it’s the only representation of its kind known in France. Scholars still argue over its origin. Stand under it for a quiet minute. It works.
The same ticket also gets you into the treasury. The cathedral’s original treasury was scattered three times in history: in 1359 when the English took the city during the Hundred Years’ War, in 1567 by the Protestants, and in 1790 during the Revolution. What you see today is a collection of about four hundred pieces bequeathed by a local collector named Germain Diry in 1869, including 13th-century Limoges enamels, carved ivories and illuminated manuscripts.
- Admission to the cathedral itself: free.
- Crypt and treasury: separate ticket, between 2 and 4 euros per person.
- Hours: the crypt and treasury keep their own hours, mostly in the afternoon, with extra morning hours during high season. Closed on Sundays and holidays. I recommend calling ahead on the day of your visit, since religious ceremonies can suspend visits.
- Address: Place Saint-Étienne.
Abbaye Saint-Germain and the Carolingian crypts
Five hundred meters north, along the riverbank, is the place I actually came to this city for in the first place.
This abbey complex is almost complete, and it reads like a geological cross-section of fifteen hundred years: ninth-century Carolingian crypts, the 12th-century Romanesque Tour Saint-Jean with its octagonal stone spire, a chapter house from the same century, a 14th-century Gothic cellar, and a cloister with residential wings from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The crypt itself, built between 841 and 859, is the reason people make a special trip here. It has carved column capitals, two original ninth-century oak beams still bearing the weight above, and the oldest surviving wall paintings in France. The bishops of Auxerre are buried here, and this is where you’ll find the sarcophagus of Saint Germanus.
Important to know: you can only enter the crypt on a guided tour. There’s no free visit there.
- Hours for the complex: April 1 to October 31, every day, 10:00-13:00 and 14:00-18:00. February-March and November-December, every day except Tuesday, 10:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00.
- Closed: May 1, December 25, and all of January.
- Free visit to the complex and museum: free of charge.
- Guided tour of the crypt: 8 euros per person, about 40 minutes.
- Extended tour “Paroles de moines”: 10 euros, an hour and a half, including the monastic spaces and the crypt.
- Address: 2 bis Place Saint-Germain. Book ahead through the abbey’s website or by phone.
My tip: if you only have one day in Auxerre, this is the place you have to visit. Book the crypt tour in advance, because the number of participants is limited.
The clock tower and the old quarter
The Tour de l’Horloge was built in the 15th century on the base of a tower from the old Gallo-Roman wall. It started out as a prison for the count, and in 1483 it and its bells were converted into a clock tower and belfry for the city, a symbol of municipal autonomy. A fire damaged it in 1825, and it was largely restored at the end of the 19th century.
The mechanism has been running since 1483 and has two hands. One is solar, completing a full turn each day, and the other is lunar, lagging behind it. The two align exactly at noon on the new moon and at midnight on the full moon. In other words, this clock shows both the time and the phase of the moon.
Important before you plan your visit: according to Auxerre’s tourist office, you can’t go inside the tower. It’s viewed from the outside only.
Around it you’ll find everything that makes Auxerre beautiful. Cobblestone lanes, timber-framed houses with upper floors jutting out over the street, and, along the pedestrian streets, three wooden statues by the sculptor François Brochet (1925-2001). One of them, depicting Cadet Rousselle (1743-1807), stands above the fountain in place Charles Surugue. Another, of Restif de La Bretonne (1734-1806), is on rue de l’Horloge. Cadet Rousselle’s own house leans against the old gate next to the tower.
A suggestion: come here once during the day and once in the evening. It’s the same quarter, but two different cities.
The “In the footsteps of Cadet Rousselle” route, and the right way to wander
Here’s another way to get to know Auxerre, and it’s free too.
Set into the paving stones of the historic center are bronze markers tracing a five-kilometer walking route with sixty-seven points of interest. The tourist office hands out a free explanatory booklet for the route, in French, English, German, Italian and Dutch. You just follow the bronzes at your own pace.
For those who want a voice in their ear too, the tourist office offers an audio guide with a detailed map and twelve explained stops, from pont Paul-Bert to Abbaye Saint-Germain, passing through rue du Temple, the Cadet Rousselle statue and the clock tower. Five euros per person, with a fifty-euro deposit, available in French or English. There’s no time limit; you set the pace.
And for those traveling with kids: there’s a version just for them called “Cadet’Chou”, a booklet of riddles that follows the same route. It turns two hours of stones and dates into a game, and I know enough parents to know that’s worth its weight in gold.
The tourist office itself is located on the town hall square, at number 7, and it’s a good place to start.
The marina quarter, the quays and the river
From place Saint-Nicolas, by the river, Auxerre managed its real livelihood for centuries: boat traffic and trade on the Yonne. The statue of Saint Nicholas, patron of boatmen, sits in a niche on the corner of a 16th-century house, and a small fountain once supplied water to the quarter.
The statue was put here by the confrérie de Saint-Nicolas, the boatmen’s guild. Notice what stands on either side of it: a boat on the right, and a tub with children on the left, referring to the legend in which Saint Nicholas brought back to life three children murdered by a butcher and salted away in a barrel.
The basin of the fountain in the middle of the square was brought here in 1909 from place Charles Surugue, where the Cadet Rousselle statue now stands. Around the fountain spreads the terrace of Le Quai, a nice restaurant you’ll read about in the restaurants chapter.
This is also where the quays begin. Walk along the water after five in the afternoon, when the light is low and the cathedral stands above you on the cliff. The barges are moored, and anyone with two free days can set off from here up the canal.
And if you’re in Auxerre on a day when you just don’t have it in you for a museum: get a coffee at one of the quays and look at the bridge. It’s the experience I remember best from this city, and it didn’t cost me a thing.
Attractions for the extra mile
If you have an extra day or two in Auxerre, it’s definitely worth considering at least some of these attractions:
The churches nobody sends you to
After the cathedral and the abbey, most people stop looking. That’s a shame.
The Église Saint-Pierre, at the southern edge of the center, was built on the grounds of the Abbaye Saint-Pierre-en-Vallée, and its construction was funded by the wine growers of Auxerre. This was their neighborhood, and it stayed that way until phylloxera destroyed the city’s vineyards.
The bell tower, in the late Gothic style (gothique flamboyant), was built in the 16th century, and it’s one of three towers that stand out on Auxerre’s skyline, alongside the cathedral and the Abbaye Saint-Germain.
The facade was built in the 17th century in a classical style, so in a single building you’ll find Gothic, Renaissance, and classical elements side by side. Standing on it are statues of the patron saints of the neighborhood’s two most important guilds, the wine growers and the butchers.
Inside, the church is built as a basilica with a central nave and two side aisles, with round arches resting on columns. The windows on the north side have 17th-century stained glass depicting saints. Don’t forget to look up: around the keystones, where the ribs of the vault meet, you’ll find colorful painted decorations.
Attached to one of the columns is a wooden pulpit, carved with ornate detail. Its staircase winds around the column, and above it hangs a carved canopy meant to project the preacher’s voice back to the congregation (today, just to be safe, there’s a speaker next to it too).
When you step out, it’s worth stopping by rue Joubert, where the old abbey gate still stands today. It was built, most likely, between 1530 and 1540, clearly inspired by the entrance gate of the Castel Nuovo in Naples. Among the statues on it you’ll find Cérès, the Roman goddess of grain, and Noah, who according to the Book of Genesis planted a vineyard after the flood. The abbey’s chapter hall (salle capitulaire), from the late 13th century, also survives.
- Admission: Free.
- Address: 5 Place Saint-Pierre.
The second church is Saint-Eusèbe, which by the time of the Revolution had already become a prison and later a center for worship of the republican decadi. It regained its religious status with the Concordat of 1801, and in the summer of 1944 its windows were damaged by bombing.
Neither of these is an attraction in the usual sense. They just stand there, and most visitors walk right past them on their way somewhere else. To me, that’s exactly the point.
Musée Leblanc-Duvernoy
An 18th-century townhouse that was given to the city as a gift in the 1920s, and it’s worth visiting mainly for two things. The first is the music salon, which has kept its original decor of tapestries from the Manufacture de Beauvais depicting episodes from the life of the Chinese emperor Kangxi (emperor 1661-1722). The ensemble was declared a heritage site in 1951. The second is the ceramics collection: revolutionary-era faience, regional faience, and stoneware from the Puisaye region.
- Hours: April 1 through September 30, Wednesday through Sunday, 2:00-6:00 p.m.
- Outside the season: visits by appointment only.
- Price: Free admission.
- Address: 9 bis rue d’Egleny.
The Natural History Museum and its park
Auxerre’s pleasant surprise, especially if you’re traveling with kids.
The bourgeois house from the late 19th century on boulevard Vauban houses a museum that carries the label “Musée de France” and holds one hundred sixty thousand natural history items, telling the story of the biology of the Yonne region, past and present. Admission is free.
Around it is a park in the French garden style, with trimmed boxwood hedges, designed in the late 19th century. It has local trees alongside trees brought from Asia and North America, including a ginkgo biloba that’s gorgeous in the fall (its fruit, full disclosure, smells terrible), giant thuja trees, and magnolias that bloom in March and April.
- The park: Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sundays 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 2:00-5:30 p.m. Closed on holidays.
- Admission: Free.
- Address: 5 boulevard Vauban.
- The indoor exhibit hours vary depending on what’s on display, so it’s worth calling ahead.
Maison Marie Noël
Marie Noël (1883-1967), who was born and died in Auxerre, was a poet whom her contemporaries considered great. Henry de Montherlant (1895-1972) called her the greatest living poet in France, and Colette (1873-1954), Louis Aragon (1897-1982), and Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) corresponded with her. The public called her “the recluse of Auxerre.”
She remained unmarried and nearly reclusive in the city her whole life. Her younger brother was found dead in his bed the day after Christmas, and that’s where her pen name came from. She spent the rest of her life writing work that moved between childhood poems and a difficult, tormented struggle with faith.
The 18th-century family home, in the center of town, now carries the label “Maison des Illustres.” Her apartment on the first floor has been preserved, including her bedroom, which remains exactly as it was on the day she died.
- Visit: By guided tour only, by appointment, about an hour.
- Usually Tuesday through Saturday, at 10:30 a.m. or 3:00 p.m., groups of up to 15 people.
- Address: 1 rue Marie-Noël.
Stade Abbé-Deschamps, for those who get it
Not everyone will understand why this is here, but whoever does will understand right away.
In 1905, Father Ernest Deschamps (1868-1949), a vicar at the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne, founded a sports association for the community’s young people. From that association grew the football club of a city of thirty-five thousand people, which spent thirty-two consecutive seasons in France’s top division, won the French championship in 1996 along with the Coupe de France in a double, and reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in 1997. The stadium is named after its founder, and it sits on rue de Vaux, a short distance from the center.
I’m not much of a football person myself, but there’s something about a city whose team is bigger than the city itself.
The Bailly-Lapierre cellars, ten kilometers from the city
And if you’ve already come this far, this might be the most worthwhile detour in the whole region.
In Saint-Bris-le-Vineux there’s an underground quarry that’s been mined since the 12th century, and it’s the source of the stone that built churches and châteaux all across the region (the river, which flowed at its foot, did the hard work of hauling it). Between 1927 and 1972, mushrooms were grown in the tunnels. And since 1972, they’ve been used to produce Crémant de Bourgogne, and this is exactly the place where the appellation was born.
Four hectares of tunnels, more than fifty meters underground, a constant temperature of 12 degrees Celsius, and millions of bottles lying in the dark, quietly making their own bubbles. If you’re in the area anyway, it’s worth pairing this with the Burgundy wine route.
- The tour: an hour in total. About forty-five minutes of guided walking, and fifteen minutes tasting two crémants. You take the Champagne glass home with you.
- Important: tours for individuals only take place in the afternoon, according to a schedule published on their website. Book ahead.
- And bring a sweater. I’m serious. Twelve degrees Celsius in August is a lot colder than it sounds.
The markets, and where to buy food
This is the part most guides skip, and to me it’s half the point of a small French city. According to the town hall, Auxerre’s market schedule looks like this:
- Tuesday and Friday, place de l’Arquebuse, 7:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. This is the main, biggest market.
- Wednesday, in the center of town, 8:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- Saturday, place de l’Hôtel de Ville, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. A market of local producers.
- Sunday, place du Marché in the Sainte-Geneviève neighborhood, 7:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., plus a smaller market on rue du Pont during the same hours.
The Saturday market at place de l’Hôtel de Ville is the one I’d go to. Local producers, in the historic center, and at a time that still lets you head out for a walk afterward.
Where to eat in Auxerre
I’m not going to run a restaurant list here that goes stale in six months, so here’s the principle instead: the town has a genuinely respectable choice for its size, and the Michelin guide lists a few addresses here.
On my first evening in Auxerre I ate at Le Sarment, a Bib Gourmand restaurant where two chefs cook a modern menu built on local ingredients (even though the dishes themselves aren’t classic Burgundian fare).
The food was very good and the service excellent, and two dishes stood out in particular: the octopus in pepper and grapefruit sauce, and the veal sweetbreads in a cream sauce with polenta. The duck was juicy too, and I really loved the carrot puree that came with it.
Address: 37 rue du Pont. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday, for lunch 12:00-14:00 and dinner 19:30-21:30, and closed on Sundays and Mondays. Phone: +33 3 86 51 46 36. You can book a table on the restaurant’s website.
A restaurant I highly recommend is Au Grandgousier, run since 2008 by a lovely couple, with food that’s simply wonderful: local and seasonal. The restaurant takes its name from Grandgousier, father of the giant Gargantua in the book by François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553). The dishes I loved most were the snail mille-feuille and the venison roast in red wine sauce you see in the photo (yes, Zvi ate deer, and enjoyed every bite).
Address: 45 rue de Paris. The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays, and on Sundays it’s open only for lunch. I highly recommend booking ahead by phone: +33 3 86 51 04 80.
Another restaurant with a Bib Gourmand is L’Aspérule. It sits at the foot of Saint-Pierre church, in a historic townhouse, with a minimalist dining room. The chef is Japanese, and the kitchen pairs local produce with precise execution (Michelin describes, for example, trout in beurre blanc with celery root and nori seaweed, and pork ribs in a charcutière sauce). The lunch market menu is reasonably priced, and the evening menu is more ambitious. Worth calling ahead for a reservation.
Besides these two Bib Gourmand restaurants, Michelin lists a few more addresses in Auxerre itself serving modern and traditional cuisine, and in the villages around it, in Chevannes and Coulanges-la-Vineuse, there are traditional restaurants in the same selection. And in Chablis, twenty kilometers from here, there are quite a few. If you’re planning one big meal for your trip, consider having it in Chablis rather than in town.
If you find yourself in Auxerre on a Monday evening, when a good chunk of the restaurants are closed, it’s worth knowing about Le Quai on Place Saint-Nicolas. There are no culinary heights here and they’re probably not winning a Michelin star, but the food is decent and the service is warm. For dessert I had cassis and apricot ice cream there, and it was very good.
Address: Place Saint-Nicolas. The restaurant is open daily, for lunch from 11:00 and dinner from 18:00. Phone: +33 3 86 51 66 67. You can book a table by phone or on the restaurant’s website.
And a tip that isn’t a restaurant at all: buy cheese, sausage and a baguette at the Saturday market, and eat them by the riverside. In a town like this, that’s not a compromise, it’s the right choice.
What’s around Auxerre
Auxerre works great as a base, and that’s really my main recommendation in this article. Here’s what’s easily reachable from it:
- Chablis, twenty kilometers east. The famous capital of dry white wine, and also a lovely small town in its own right.
- Saint-Bris-le-Vineux, about ten kilometers southeast. A wine village with a view over the vineyards, the Bailly Lapierre cellars, and also the region’s rare wine, Saint-Bris, made from Sauvignon.
- Coulanges-la-Vineuse and Irancy, to the south. This is the part of the Auxerrois that produces reds, and it’s a part far fewer people know about.
- Escolives-Sainte-Camille, to the south. The village where the second-century grape relief was found, the oldest evidence of vines in the region.
All of these require a car. I really wouldn’t recommend trying public transportation to reach the vineyards. If you haven’t sorted out a car yet, now’s the time.
Where to sleep in Auxerre: four hotels, four budgets
I chose four places in entirely different ranges, and all of them meet one condition: a rating of 8 or above on Booking.com (the ratings are accurate as of my last check, and naturally they shift a bit).
Hôtel Le Maxime
Four stars, on Quai de la Marine right across from the river, in a historic salt warehouse converted into a hotel. Twenty-five rooms and a suite, some with a view of the river and some of the old town, plus a tasting cellar inside the hotel. Guests mention the location more than anything else, and rightly so: you’re right on the water, and a short walk up through the lanes takes you straight to the cathedral and the clock tower. Booking.com rating: 8.2. Address: 2 Quai de la Marine. Note that you need to arrange parking in advance across from the hotel.
Hôtel Les Maréchaux
This is where I stayed during my time in Auxerre, and I highly recommend it. It’s an intimate three-star hotel run by a couple (he’s French, she’s Russian). The hotel is housed in a townhouse built in 1854 in the Napoleon III style, on a lovely avenue a short walk from the center.
The 25 rooms are fairly spacious, comfortable and decorated in Empire style, and each one is named after one of Napoleon’s marshals. Around the house there’s a beautiful garden where you can have breakfast, a pool heated in season, a bar and even a parrot.
This adorable parrot belongs to the hotel’s owners. He’s here every day, and in the evening he goes home with them, to their house on the hotel grounds, and sleeps there with them.
The couple takes the Napoleon theme quite seriously. When I asked the hotel’s owner where to get breakfast, she told me “march toward the smell of the croissants” (for those who don’t know it, this is a parody of Napoleon’s famous line, “march toward the sound of the cannons”).
The hotel also tells its guests that Napoleon’s forces camped in 1815 on the exact ground it now stands on, near the Porte d’Égleny, in those very days when Marshal Michel Ney (1769-1815) wept behind a closed door. If you read the history article, you understand why I enjoyed this place so much.
Booking.com rating: 8.3. Address: 6 Avenue Foch.
B&B Le Relais des Saints Pères
A 17th-century coaching inn renovated into a small guesthouse, in the heart of the old town, about two hundred meters from the clock tower. Large rooms, exposed wooden beams on the upper floor, a homemade breakfast with jams and fresh bread, and hosts that every other guest says made them feel like family.
This is my pick if you’re a couple, if you want to head out in the morning without hunting for where you parked the car, and if it matters to you to sleep inside the stone rather than next to it.
ibis budget Auxerre Centre, for a tight budget
Two stars, on the right bank of the Yonne, right across from the old town. Cross a pedestrian bridge and you’re there. Small, simple rooms, but clean and air-conditioned, a decent breakfast, and free parking nearby. Some rooms have a view of the cathedral sitting above the river, and that’s a view worth far more than what you pay for it.
FAQ
How much time do you need for Auxerre?
A full day covers the essentials at a reasonable pace: the old town, the cathedral with its crypt, the abbey, and the riverside promenade in good light. Two days also let you fit in the museums, the Maison Marie-Noël and the Bailly Lapierre cellars. I spent a few days there and never got bored for a moment, but then again, I’m the type who stops at every information panel.
Does Auxerre work as a day trip from Paris?
Definitely. Two hours on a direct train from Paris-Bercy and you’re there, and everything is reachable on foot from the station. Still, in my opinion that would be a shame. Auxerre is beautiful in the evening and early morning, and that’s exactly what you’d miss on a day trip.
When is the best time to visit Auxerre?
Spring and fall. In October the light on the Yonne and the color of the vineyards around town are something else entirely, and the lines are short too. Note that the abbey is completely closed in January, and the Leblanc-Duvernoy museum is open to the public only from April to September.
Do you need a car in Auxerre?
Not for the town itself. Yes if you want to reach Chablis, the vineyards and the Bailly Lapierre cellars, which are ten to twenty kilometers away and not convenient by public transportation.
Can you go up the clock tower in Auxerre?
No. According to the local tourist office there’s no visiting the inside of the tower, and it’s only viewed from outside. Don’t plan around it, and don’t trust websites that say otherwise.
What’s closed in Auxerre on Sundays?
The cathedral’s crypt and treasury are closed on Sundays and holidays. The abbey, on the other hand, is open on Sundays (and in low season it’s actually closed on Tuesdays). This is a point worth planning around, since it determines which day you set aside for what.
What can you do in Auxerre with kids?
Three things that work well. The “Cadet’Chou” riddle booklet from the tourist office, which turns the bronze trail into a game. The park and the natural history museum, which have free admission. And the riverside promenade, which is simply a good place to run around. The crypts might impress young children, and that’s usually also what they’ll remember.
How much does a day in Auxerre cost?
Less than you’d think. Admission to the cathedral is free, to the abbey grounds is free, to the Leblanc-Duvernoy museum is free, and to the natural history museum is free. The bronze trail and its booklet are free. The only expenses you can’t avoid are the abbey crypt tour, the cathedral crypt, and food.