Mâcon Overview

The following daytrips are accessible via nearby Mâcon, an unimpressive town that’s useful as a base for exploring.

Trains and buses run from Beaune to rue Bigonnet in Mâcon (55min., 5 per day, €15). Check schedules at the station. (Ticket window open M-F 5:05am-7:50pm, Sa 5:40am-7:40pm, Su 6:10am-8pm.) For a taxi, call ☎06 09 34 08 07. Car rental is available at Avis, 23 av. Édouard Herriot (☎03 85 38 68 75).

The tourist office is located in the vieille ville. (☎03 85 21 07 07; www.macon-tourism.com. Open M-Sa 9:30am-12:30pm and 2-6:30pm.) Internet access is available at the tourist office and at Café le Bon Accuiel, 35 pl. la Poissonnerie. (☎03 85 38 07 61. Open 8am-2am.)

Accommodations And Food

The Hôtel de Geneve , 1 rue Bigonnet, offers clean rooms in a great location just down the hill from the train station and a few blocks from the centre-ville. (☎03 85 38 18 10; www.hotel-de-geneve.com. Singles €48-58; doubles €63-65; triples €78; quads €96.) The streets of the vieille ville are filled with brasseries and bars. La Maison de Bois , 37 pl. Gérard Genevès, serves delicious pizza (€7-10) and salads. (☎03 85 39 19 22.)

Sights

Although Mâcon best serves as a base town for the surrounding countryside, the city itself boasts several attractions, including the Musée Lamartine (open Tu-Sa 10am-noon and 2-6pm, Su 2-6pm) and the Église Saint-Pierre, a stone Romanesque Revival cathedral. Both are great ways to pass the time while waiting for the bus to Cluny or Val Lamartinien.

Daytrips From Mâcon

Cluny

It can be challenging to reach Cluny, which has no train station and infrequent buses. Transdev RSL bus #7 runs to Cluny from Mâcon (40min., 6 per day, €4.30). The schedule is at the Mâcon tourist office and the train station. Biking from Mâcon is possible for those up for the 23km trip; take the scenic, car-free Voie Verte path, a stretch of road that covers most of the rolling countryside near Cluny. The path begins at Charnay-les-Mâcon, a 15min. ride from Mâcon; purchase a Voie Verte guide from the Mâcon, Cluny, or Cormatin tourist offices (€1.50). To get from the Cluny bus stop to the tourist office, 6 rue Mercière, walk against traffic on rue Porte de Paris, turn right at pl. du Commerce, and continue for 5min. The office gives out a map and Guide Pratique. (☎03 85 59 05 34. Open July-Aug. daily 10am-6:45pm; Sept. and Apr. M-Sa 10am-12:30pm and 2:30-6:45pm; Oct. M 2-6:30pm, Tu-Sa 10am-12:30pm and 2:30-6pm; Jan.-Mar. M 2:30-5pm, Tu-Sa 10am-12:30pm and 2:30-5pm; May-June daily 10am-12:30pm and 2:30-6:45pm.)

Founded in AD 910 by 12 monks, the Abbey of Cluny (kloon-ee) became the most influential church organization in medieval Europe, controlling a network of daughter abbeys. At its height, Cluny and its omnipotent abbots escaped control of local bishops and secular powers and answered only to the pope—nearly a dozen of whom came out of the abbey. A Romanesque building as tall as most Gothic cathedrals, the abbey and its church were looted and used as a quarry during the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution. One-tenth of the complex remains today, giving guests a good idea of its former grandeur. Visitors are aided by several impressive models that reconstruct Cluny’s former glory and an excellent 3D video in French that creates the illusion of being inside the completed church. Guided tours take groups past the remaining transept, the ornately decorated Gothic Pope Gelasius facade, and numerous chapels. The central cloister is now home to the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, an engineering school whose students live in the old monk’s quarters. Tickets for the abbey are sold at the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie. Entrance to the museum, which provides a good introduction to the abbey, is included in the ticket price. To get to the museum from the tourist office, follow rue 11 Août 1944 to pl. de l’Abbaye. Turn left on pl. du Marché; the ticket office and museum are in the Palais Jean de Bourbon up the stairs on the right and past the school. This area, particularly rue d’Avril and rue Lamartine, is home to the best of the medieval houses that dot the city. (☎03 85 59 15 93; fax 59 82 00. Open daily May-Aug. 9:30am-6:30pm; Sept.-Apr. 9:30am-noon and 1:30-5pm. Abbey tours in French daily. English tours July-Aug. daily; Sept.-June by reservation. Call for schedule. €6.50, ages 18-25 €4.50, under 18 free. MC/V.)

Val Lamartinien

The Val Lamartinien area is accessible by the same routes as Cluny. The Transdev RSL bus #7 from Cluny (20min., 8 per day 5:20am-7:54pm, €3) or Mâcon (1hr., 6 per day 8am-7:15pm, €6.40) stops next to the Château de Cormatin in Val Lamartinien.

The namesake of lush Val Lamartinien (vahl lah-mar-tin-ee-en), Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), drew inspiration from this bucolic paradise of gently rolling farmlands. The fertile valley is filled with châteaux, most notably the privately owned   Château de Cormatin, complete with a moat, aviary, maze, and beautiful formal gardens perfect for a stroll. Located in the north wing, the grand staircase was the height of sophisticated Italian style and engineering at the time of its construction (1605-16); in an unadorned display of structure and form, it embodies the Renaissance Neo-Platonic belief in the harmony of universal order. Tours immerse visitors in early-17th-century life, relating architectural and artistic elements of the building to their symbolism and practical functions at the time. (☎03 85 50 16 55, fax 50 72 06. Open daily from mid-July to mid-Aug. 10am-6:30pm; from mid-Aug. to mid-Sept. and from mid-June to mid-July 10am-noon and 2-6:30pm; from late Mar. to mid-June 10am-noon and 2-5:30pm. Tours in French with written English translations every 30min; tours in English available by reservation. €9, students and ages 18-26 €5.50, ages 8-17 €4. Gardens €4, under 8 free.)