Vézelay, Arcy and Bazoches: The Basilica, the Painted Caves and Vauban's Château

Required Activities

• Stand under the inner narthex tympanum at Vézelay with its Christ in glory, then walk narthex to nave to choir and watch the building go from near-dark to full light — and if you are there around the summer solstice, look for the line of light spots the south windows throw down the middle of the nave at midday

• Walk the first stage of the Via Lemovicensis out of Vézelay, the Compostela road whose gathering point is the basilica itself, down to Saint-Père or Asquins where pilgrims once decided between the Bourges road and the Nevers road — take the Nevers branch through Pierre-Perthuis, where they heard mass in the old castle chapel, towards Bazoches

• In the Grande Grotte at Arcy, the only one of the caves open to visitors, find the 46 cm ibex with its two heavy horns — spotted in April 1990 under the film of calcite that had shielded it when the cave was hosed with acid in 1976, and the oldest cave painting in France you can actually go and look at, since Chauvet is closed to the public

• At the Château de Bazoches, which Vauban bought in February 1675 with the money Louis XIV gave him for taking Maastricht, find the long gallery he had built to house his military engineers, where the plans of his fortresses were drawn, and his bedroom, library and armour, still kept by his descendants

• From the terrace at Bazoches, pick out the hill of Vézelay on the skyline beyond the village of Saint-Père, and trace back the line the pilgrim road takes between the two