The only château in France built on a pentagonal plan, and buttressed by five towers, the Renaissance-era Château de Maulnes, 24km east of Tonnerre, is a fascinating sight, though fans of interior decoration may find it disappointing: the rooms are entirely bare, and parts of the structure are obscured by scaffolding due to ongoing restoration work.
Château de Maulnes
Yonne
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
28.86 MILES
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire…
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28.97 MILES
Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop’s palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste…
19.12 MILES
Founded in 1118 and enshrined as a Unesco World Heritage site, Fontenay Abbey offers a fascinating glimpse of the austere, serene surroundings in which…
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Musée du Pays Châtillonnais Trésor de Vix
16.88 MILES
Châtillon’s main claim to fame is the Trésor de Vix (Vix Treasure), a collection of Celtic, Etruscan and Greek objects from the 6th century BC on display…
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Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul
29.01 MILES
All at once imposing and delicate with its filigree stonework, Troyes' cathedral is a stellar example of champenoise Gothic architecture. The flamboyant…
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Maison de l’Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière
28.71 MILES
Worn to a sensuous lustre by generations of skilled hands, the 11,000 hand tools on display here – each designed to perform a single, specialised task…
23.28 MILES
Founded in 1114, Abbaye de Pontigny rises from the lush mustard fields 15km north of Chablis. The spectacular abbatiale (abbey church) is one of the last…
11.58 MILES
Some 200L of water per second gushes from Fosse Dionne, a natural spring near the centre of Tonnerre that was sacred to the Celts and whose vivid blue…
Nearby Yonne attractions
6.64 MILES
Dominating the northern edge of the tranquil riverside village of Tanlay, the elegant French Renaissance-style Château de Tanlay is surrounded by a wide…
8.39 MILES
The Italian Renaissance makes a cameo appearance at this imposing château, built in the 1540s by celebrated Italian architect Serlio. The richly painted…
11.26 MILES
Tonnerre's newest attraction is this house-museum, once home to the colourful Chevalier d'Éon, a gender-bending 18th-century diplomat and spy. The…
11.38 MILES
This charity hospital, founded in 1293 by Marguerite de Bourgogne (wife of Charles d’Anjou), is most famous for its vast, barrel-vaulted patients' hall…
11.58 MILES
Some 200L of water per second gushes from Fosse Dionne, a natural spring near the centre of Tonnerre that was sacred to the Celts and whose vivid blue…
16.8 MILES
The beautiful Grand Forge de Buffon sits 23km north of Semur-en-Auxois on the pastoral banks of the Brenne Canal. One of the first fully integrated…
7. Musée du Pays Châtillonnais Trésor de Vix
16.88 MILES
Châtillon’s main claim to fame is the Trésor de Vix (Vix Treasure), a collection of Celtic, Etruscan and Greek objects from the 6th century BC on display…
17.08 MILES
The idyllic Source de la Douix (pronounced 'dwee'), a 600L-per-second artesian spring, flows from a 30m cliff in a city park on the Seine's eastern bank…