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The Area and things to do and see.

Courotte.
Courotte is a beautiful and quiet hamlet to enable you to relax and
wind down from all of the stresses in life, but it is close enough
to larger towns for shopping and sightseeing.

Marigny L'Eglise.
Marigny L'Eglise is a small town with restaurant and bar which are
run by your hosts and serve excellent food and a boulangerie for
your fresh bread. On a sadder note if you visit the communal
cemetery you will find the graves of the crew of a Halifax which
collided with a B-24 bomber very close to the town on the 19th July
1944. Six of the crew were British volunteer reserves and one
Canadian Flying Officer all are buried in collective graves one and
two.

Quarré-les-Tombs.
Quarré-les-Tombs, gets its name from a ring of prehistoric burial
stones that circle the Saint Georges Church and are occupied, so
the story goes, by the ghosts of fallen Gauls.
The area has seen continuous habitation since the dawn of time.
People from every stage of human development from Cro Magnon to Homo
Sapiens - have lived in the valley of the Cure.

Avallon.
The walled, hilltop town of Avallon overlooks the River Cousin and
the Parc Naturel Régional du Morvan to the south. The sleepy,
cobbled town is enlivened by the Saturday morning market. It was a
stopover point for the Romans on their route from Lyon to Boulogne.

The old town is split in two by the Grand-Rue-Aristide-Briand, the
main commercial street in the old town. The tourist office is
situated at 4 rue Bocquillot (03 86 34 14 19) in a 15th-century
house between the church and the clock tower. The Tour de l'Horloge
(clock tower) was built in the 15th century and it dominates the
skyline. A walk around the city walls will give you some idea of its
geography and development. There are towers and bastions built
during the 15th to 18th centuries and inside the walls (intra-muros)
you can find Medieval and Renaissance houses. At 6 rue Belgrand is
the Musée du Costume (€4) with one hundred regional costumes from
the 18th to 20th centuries.

The Église St-Lazare has a Romanesque façade carved with the signs
of the zodiac and musicians of the Apocalypse. It was completed in
the 12th century and then needed to be extended because too many
pilgrims were coming to witness the fragment of Saint Lazare's
skull, which is said to fend off leprosy. At the bottom of the road
from the church is the Promenade de la Petite Porte with good views
over the Cousin valley.
Avallon is practically in the centre of Burgundy and was an
important Celtic Aeduan settlement with its own mint. There are
coins dating back to pre-Christian times. These have a long-haired
warrior on one side with the word ABALLO, and a horse on the other.
It is widely recognised that the warriors from Avallon joined forces
with Vercingetorix and the other Celtic tribes in the final battle
against Caesar close by, at Alesia. Avallon is also a gateway town
to The Morvan which is a wild, mountainous granite lakeland in the
heart of Burgundy. In Roman times Avallon and the surrounding area
was a known summer resort for wealthy Romans and their families. The
countryside is verdant and fertile, with cherry and apple orchards
in the valleys, and vineyards on the chalky escarpment. The
immediate environs, known as the Avallonnais, are steeped in history.

The Rivers

River Cure
The river Cure is only a short walk from the cottage and is so
picturesque and varied, that you could plan a whole touring holiday
around it. Châteaux, the medieval town of Vézelay, lakes,
waterfalls
and mineral springs are just some of the treasures en route. The
countryside goes through forests, limestone cliffs and caves, and
finally vineyards over the river’s 80 km course.

The source of the Cure is near Anost deep in the granite highlands
of the Morvan Forest and it flows right through this National Park
on a south east to north west axis. This is the famous lakes
district of Burgundy. As well as the ‘big five’ lakes
(Pannecière,
Settons, St.Agnan, Chaumeçon, Crescent) there are smaller lakes
dotted throughout the wooded landscape, each one being rich in fish
and birdlife. Gouloux with its waterfall is a particularly pretty
area to take a walk through the forest, alive in springtime with an
abundance of wild flowers and ferns. On a sunny day, the rays of
light bursting through the branches make you catch your breath.
The Cure drops in, and out, of Lac-les-Settons where water sports of
all description turn it into a tourist attraction during the summer
months.

Then it travels on, close to St-Brisson where the Musée de la
Résistance is based. Being right in the habitat, soaking up the
atmosphere where the freedom fighters were in hiding, brings the
museum to life (commentary is also in English). The villages around
such as Montsauche-les-Settons and Dun-les-Places, suffered terribly
during the Second World War,.

The river now flows in, and out, of Lac du Crescent near Quarre les
Tombes, a reservoir completed in 1933, to supply hydro electricity.

Ahead, the fairytale castle of Chastellux-sur-Cure rises out of the
forest. Oak, beech and chestnut trees thrive, along with large
conifer plantations with pine trees and more recently, the lucrative
Christmas trees. The Cure was part of the transport system in times
gone by, taking the logs from the Morvan forests to Paris to keep
the capital warm.

There is canoe-kayaking along several stretches of the river such as
at Dun-les-Places, and for more gentle approach, the whole family
can go canoe-kayaking, down the Cure a distance of 8km from Malassis
to St-Père, or 18km from Malassis to Semizelles, accompanied or on
your own, by arrangement with AB Loisirs at St-Père (special life
jackets for children provided).

River Chalaux
The European Championship in canoe-kayaking were held on the River
Chalaux in July - one of the best rivers in France for this
sport. When the Barrage de Chaumeçon is opened, 5 cu.m/s of water
pours out. AB Loisir, based at St-Père-sous-Vézelay organise white
water rafting here (accompanied trips, minimum age 16). They can
supply the dates of the dam barrier opening.

River Yonne
In summer, AB Loisirs open their base at Armes and offer canoe-
kayaking along 8km from Villiers-sur-Yonne to Armes and 18km from
Bréves to Armes. This beautiful valley meanders along unspoilt
countryside.