Autun is the Roman heart of Burgundy, wedged in between the famous wine fields and the beautiful hills of the Morvan Natural Regional Park. With deep roots in its Celtic past, the highlands of the Morvan are an area of natural beauty with great scope for the outdoor life, a little paradise for nature lovers. This is renoun for its lakes, forests and beautiful valleys.
Price and accessibility
The area is attractive for both French and Foreign tourists. Outside Autun there are still good deals to get. Prospective buyers seeking old stone built property in a beautiful region of France would be exceptionally well advised to take a look to this area. The buildings are solid, with granite barns, just crying out to be renovated. You certainly won’t find a housing estate being built on your doorstep in this location – being in a protected regional park. Of course around the market towns like Vézelay, Avallon, Saulieu, Luzy, St Honoré les Bains and Château-Chinon, the prices are higher due to increased accessibility to services.
Accessibility
Autun is at about six hours from the Channel ports. You can avoid Paris traffic if you drive down via Reims. From le creusot/montchanin station just 20 minutes south east of Autun you are in Paris (1 hour 20) and Lyon (35mins).
Dijon airport is at 60 minutes. Most people leave the motorway at Beaune where they top up their Wine cellar on their way home.
Autun
The town of Autun, is a place positively bursting with history and charm, with a clear regional function. The old streets wind a crooked path around the old town, as it tumbles down a hillside and looks out onto the delightful artificial lake of Plan D’Eau du Vallon. On this lake many water sports are offered, sailing, swimming and windsurfing. There are many Roman remains still visible in and around the town, including the largest Roman theatre in ancient Gaul. Here, in July and August, local people re-enact the history of the town in spectacular costumed performances, which are well worth attending! Autun is loved with second home owners with children, as they visit on market days, and enjoy drink on the many terraces, or have a game of Golf on the 9 hole in Autun, or the 18 hole near to Montchanin.
To the north of Autun
Here you find lovely undulating valleys, with streams and small villages such as Lucenay l’Eveque and Curgy. Worth a visit is the Chateaux de Sully: The largest Renaissance Château in Southern Burgundy.
To the east of Autun
Forests and beautiful equestrian country side, with towns like Broye and Auxy on hill tops surrounded by Forests. Touching the wine area you find Couches with its famous Medieval Castle. The mining towns of le Creusot and Montchanin, lack a bit of charm, but are important to the region in economic terms and with the TGV station, making it possible to be in Paris within 80 minutes and Lyon in 30 minutes.
The Arroux Valley to the south
Several village are joined by the wide and shallow Arroux river, meandering in the valley formed by the Uchon and the Beauvray ridges. The Buddhist temple, Dashang Kagyu Ling, recognized as the centre of Bhuddism in France can be visited. Also de Greek Orthodox church in La Chapelle-sous-Uchon makes this a true religious area.
The Morvan regional park to the West
The Morvan is a Natural Park covering nearly 226,000 hectares standing tall and proud in the middle of Burgundy. And what a contrast it is to the surrounding limestone terrain – the enduring granite has been used to build the houses and farms nestling in the verdant valleys, surrounded by forest and brush covered heath. White Charolais cattle and horses graze in the pasture.The economy of the area depends on livestock and forestry, as it always has. Country life goes on, little changed over the last two hundred years and thanks to the national park regulations, this will remain a preserved area.
La Grande Verriere, Saint Leger sur Beauvray and St Prix are examples of these villages nestled in deep valleys, specially for those looking for nature and that peace and quiet, still only 15 minutes from Autun and all its facilities. Famous is Museum Bibracte, with its permanent exposition the Celtic civilization in Europe and the excavations of this old Gaulish capital of the Iron ages.
Culture and tourism outside Autun
The Morvan was particularly active in the Resistance Movement during World War II. The countryside provided an ideal hiding place for the underground movement, the maquis. You will find memorials and an interesting museum at Maison du Parc at St. Brisson which is also the tourist centre and headquarters of the park. Over the years folklore has grown up and myths and legends abound in the forest. In a tranquil spot, hidden in the forest at St-Léger-Vauban is the Abbey of Pierre qui Vire, where 60 monks of the Benedictine order run a farm, pottery and retreat with a surprisingly sophisticated shop, open to the public.
