On the south side of the place Darcy-church
of St-Michel axis, and especially in the
quartier behind place de la
Libération, there is a concentration of
magnificent
hôtels from the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
These were built for the most part by
men who had bought themselves offices
and privileges with the Parliament of
Burgundy, established by Louis XI in
1477 after the death of Duke Charles le
Téméraire (the Bold) as a concession
designed to win the compliance of this
newly acquired frontier province. One of
them, 4 rue des Bons-Enfants, houses the
Musée Magnin (Tues-Sun: summer
10am-6pm; winter 10am-noon & 2-6pm;
free): the building, a seventeenth-century
hôtel particulier , complete with
its original furnishings, is more
interesting than the exhibition of
paintings by good but lesser-known
artists, which constituted the personal
collection of Maurice Magnin, and which
were donated to the state in 1938. Other
noteworthy houses are to be found nearby
in rue Vauban, some showing the marks of
Hugues Sambin's influence in their
decorative details (lions' heads,
garlands of fruit, tendrils of ivy and
his famous
chou bourguignon , or
"Burgundy cabbage"): notably, nos. 3,
12, 21 and 23. Also worth a look for its
elaborate west front is the
church of
St-Michel , a ten-minute walk to the
east behind place du Théâtre.
In the same area, in rue Ste-Anne
near place des Cordeliers, are two
museums. The Musée de la Vie
Bourguignonne , 17 rue Ste-Anne (daily
except Tues 9am-noon & 2-6pm; 18F/¬2.74,
ticket includes the Musée d'Art Sacré,
Sun free), housed in a stark, well-designed
modern setting within a former convent,
is all about nineteenth-century
Burgundian life, featuring costumes,
furniture, domestic industries like
butter, cheese- and bread-making, along
with a reconstructed kitchen.
Practically next door at no. 15, the
Musée d'Art Sacré (same hours and
ticket as Vie Bourguignonne) contains an
important collection of church treasures,
including a seventeenth-century statue
of St Paul, the first in the world to be
treated with gamma rays - carried out in
Grenoble as part of the Nucle-art
project. Formerly crumbling to dust, it
is now solid. There's a free guided
visit that really perks up these special-interest
exhibits.
A little further to the west, at the
end of rue du Dr-Maret in the direction
of place Darcy, the Cathedral -
the once great abbey church of St-Bénigne
- is no longer of very great interest,
although its garish tiled roof and
nineteenth-century spire dominate the
skyline impressively enough. Its
circular crypt is the original tenth-century
Romanesque church. A little historical
curiosity, however, is the fact that
Raoul Glaber was a monk here: Glaber is
famed as the historian who described the
great burgeoning of Romanesque churches
across France once the apocalyptic
dangers of the first millennium were
safely past and the earth began "clothing
herself in a white garment of churches".
In a chestnut-shaded garden next to
the cathedral, the Musée
Archéologique , 5 rue du Dr-Maret (daily
except Tues: June-Sept 9.30am-6.30pm;
Oct-May 9am-noon & 2-6pm; 14F/¬2.13, Sun
free), has some extremely interesting
finds from the Gallo-Roman period,
especially funerary bas-reliefs
depicting the perennial Gallic
preoccupation with food and wine, and a
collection of ex votos from the
source of the Seine, among them the
little bronze of the goddess Sequana
(Seine) upright in her bird-prowed boat.
Also on show is Sluter's bust of Christ
from the Chartreuse.
The neighbouring streets - especially
rue Monge and rue Berbisey
- are very active at night with lots of
bars and restaurants. The latter ends in
a curious postmodern perspective joke: a
sort of parody of a medieval housing
estate. In place Bossuet at the start of
rue Monge is the Théâtre du Parvis St-Jean
(Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 2-6pm; tel
03.80.30.63.53), whose daring and
innovative programmes of dance, theatre
and performance art are worth keeping an
eye on.
