We will be in Paris in May and would like to plan a day trip to Essoyes. Anyone have information on how to get there by train or bus?

It seems that this is not feasible:

Take the train from Paris (Est ?) to Troyes, arriving at 11h15. Bus line 42 leaves Troyes station at 12h25 and arrives in Essoyes at 13h45

Going back to Troyes is at 12h18 !!!

Thank you, parisian, for your response. Obviously, Essoyes is not a day trip from Paris! The more I read about the village and the Renoir museum, the more I want to visit. So I think we will plan to rent a car and spend a night there.

If you find that you have extra time either on your way to or from Essoyes you might consider driving a bit in the countryside and through some small villages in the area to get a taste of the French countryside. If you get a Michelin map of the scale 1:200,000 you will notice some designated scenic roads right around Essoyes, mostly to the north, that go through lots of small villages. There are no attractions or sites in these villages. The villages and the countryside are the attractions. In the small town of Chacenay just north of Essoyes there is a medieval château (not open to the public) you can drive by. Or you could visit the city of Troyes further north which has a great medieval center and cathedral. Just a thought.

Thank you, FrenchMystiqueTours, for your excellent suggestions. Sounds like just the sort of driving around that we enjoy doing. We have decided to spend two days/ nights in Essoyes, now looking for a B and B.

Hi Roamer,

I like your travel style. It sounds very similar to mine. I'm intrigued by the fact that you decided to visit Essoyes and that you like the idea of just roaming around and getting lost. I am somewhat of a master at getting lost when I travel since I am a notorious non-planner when it comes to making travel plans. Doing what I call "get lost" driving is my favorite vacation activity in France, although I live here and my wife is French so I already have a bit of acquired knowledge about France and its various regions. Although I think it is a good idea for people coming to France to get guidebooks and study up on where they are going I must admit I rarely use them myself. Pretty much my sole reference material is the Michelin map, of the scale 1:200,000 as I've already mentioned.

The Michelin maps have icons for all kinds of historically/touristically interesting things such as châteaux, ruins, churches, abbeys, scenic view points, caves, Roman sites, designated scenic roads and many other things. Usually when I'm exploring various regions in France I just look at the map and I am able to plan interesting drives just reading the map. For instance, I usually look for a designated scenic road, which are highlighted in green, and I especially look for towns with the historic church and/or château icon. I also try to make sure the route goes through as many small villages as possible. Usually putting all these things together I find interesting and scenic drives without even knowing where I am going and with no assistance from a guide book. Often these places are never mentioned in guidebooks and remain completely unknown to many tourists.

And speaking of Michelin, you can go to the website viamichelin.com and get info on drive times and distances, toll and fuel costs and suggested routes (i.e. scenic routes). The drive times given do not consider stops (fuel, food, bathrooms) nor do they consider bad weather and traffic. You may or may not need this website to assist you.

I have never been to the area where you are visiting so I have no idea what there is to see and do there but I'm going to see if I can make some suggestions for you that you may find useful, or not. I've got my Michelin map of Burgundy in front of me and I'm going to mention a bunch of towns that once you have your map you will be able to see what I'm talking about. You should google some of the town/tourist office websites for some of the towns I will mention. You will find loads of info on these websites that I am merely summarizing here, including possibly hotel and restaurant info as well as what to see and do in the area. Occasionally the websites have English versions, although since you will be in a rather non-touristy area I would tend to doubt it. In doing a google search enter the name of your town followed by the words "site officiel" or "office de tourisme" and this will bring the town to the top of your search. However, many of the smaller towns may not even have a website or a tourist office. Another thing I like to do to see if a town may be worth visiting is enter the town name in a google search followed by the word "photos". Sometimes I visit a town if I find it looks charming/interesting in photos.

So I've just given you a lot of general useful info for planning your drive now let me see if I can be a bit more specific in making some suggestions for you. I notice southeast of Essoyes is a town called Montigny-sur-Aube which has a château. I just googled it and here is the website for the château:

http://www.chateaudemontigny.com/index.html

I'm not sure if it's open for visits and I'm not suggesting you do an interior visit even if it is. Usually when I'm just driving around I don't visit the interior of châteaux. I just enjoy admiring them from the outside and then move on to the next attraction. The website says it has an English version but it is not fully operational yet.

Northeast of Essoyes my eye caught a town with two historic churches called Bar-sur-Aube. Here is a link to the Bar-sur-Aube tourist office website which also lists some other regional attractions.

http://www.tourisme.barsuraube.org/medievale.html

On the website I noticed that it is a medieval village so perhaps it has some nice old buildings there. Also noted on the website is the small town of Bayel just south of here which is renowned for its crystal glass production, dating back to 1300. A little further south from here is a 12th century abbey founded by Bernard of Clairvaux for cistercian monks. Here is a link to the abbey website:

http://www.abbayedeclairvaux.com/index.php

Heading west of Essoyes I noticed the town of Bar-sur-Seine has a historic church so I googled the tourist office website. Here it is:

http://www.ot-barsurseine.fr/

It looks nice in the pictures and apparently has some 16th century half-timbered buildings and a church with "remarkable" stained glass windows.

Just south of Bar-sur-Seine I noticed the twin villages of Les Riceys have historic church icons. Here is a link to their tourist website:

http://www.ot-barsurseine.fr/

Just south of Les Riceys I notice there are some Gallo-Roman ruins in a town called Vertault, although I don't know that there may be much to see based on a brief google search. Maybe you'll find out more.

Further southwest of Les Riceys are three somewhat known places that people familiar with Burgundy might visit. They are Tonnerre, Tanlay and Ancy-le-Franc. The latter two have châteaux. Here are the links to the tourist office website for Tonnerre and the châteaux for the other two towns:

http://www.ville-tonnerre.com/office.htm#

http://www.chateaux-france.com/tanlay

http://www.chateau-ancy.com/

West and slightly north of Les Riceys I noticed the town of Chaource had the historic church icon and here is the tourist website, actually in English. Looks like it has a nice church and some old half-timbered buildings. It also has some info for places nearby:

http://www.tourisme-en-chaourcois.com/

On these touist office websites I give you make sure to play around with them and click on the various links. Sometimes the info is a bit hidden through various links and sub-links.

I am not suggesting you visit any of the towns or places I mentioned, although some of them certainly interest me. Rather, I am just giving you some examples of how to use the methods I described earlier to find interesting places to visit and things to do in regions that are completely unknown to me and without need a guidebook. Everything I just described to you was done with nothing more than a Michelin map and some google seaches. There are many other places near Essoyes that I left for you to research and once you get your map you'll be free to do so.

Another piece of advice you might consider is that instead of spending two nights in Essoyes perhaps you might want to spend one night there and explore nearby and then on your second day choose another place to stay and on your way from Essoyes explore the towns on villages on the way to your next destination. Again, you may be perfectly happy with two nights in Essoyes but I thought I'd make a suggestion anyway. A few weeks ago I spent a weekend in an area about a 1-1/2 hour drive south of Essoyes in the totally awesome medieval town of Semur-en-Auxois and explored the countryside around there. I wrote a trip report about my weekend there that is full of pictures of that region so you can see what there is to see. You will also get a firsthand view of how my "get lost" travel plans often work out for me. Here is the link to my report.

http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...ad=4774&page=1

Hopefully you'll come back to the thread and find the info I've left for you. Let me know if you need further help. I hope you have a great time in Essoyes and getting lost near there.

I gave you a link twice by accident. Here is the link for Les Riceys:

http://www.lesriceys-champagne.com/

FrenchMystiqueTours,
Your response to my request is awesome - I can't thank you enough! I am familiar with Michelin maps, but I didn't know about the benefits of the 1:200,00 variety. I will go on line and search - is the one I need for the Essoyes area the map of Burgundy? Also, the week before Essoyes, we will be at a gite in the Loire valley - near Bournan. Can you tell me which map would provide similar information for that area? We have done most of the "must sees" in the Loire, so I look forward to our shared travel style - getting lost!
Just a side note - our trip this year begins with two weeks in Venice, where we are experts at getting lost - on foot - and consider that experience one of the best in that magical city.
I've checked out the websites you provided - such a wealthe of information! I'm thinking that two nights in the Essoyes area will not be enough - but there is always next year - we try to get to France at least once a year. Bar-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Seine look particularyly interesting.
And I thoroughly enjoyed your trip report on your visit to Semur-en-Auxois. Now that village is on the must list, also.
Once again, many, many thanks for the time and effort you have taken to help enrich our trip. Should you ever think of visitint the Hawaiian Islands - where I live - I would hope to offer similar assistance.

Hi Roamer,

Well, once again for your visit to the Loire you have chosen to stay in a village that I am sure no one else ever visits so my hat goes off to you. You intrigue me.

As much as I love to get lost just using a Michelin map I certainly wouldn't want to discourage you from getting guidebooks. I live here so it's easy for me to go back to a place if I feel I've missed something but if you're coming all the way from Hawaii you won't have that luxury. Once again I'll recommend Michelin and suggest you get The Michelin Green Guides for Burgundy and The Loire and if you want restaurant suggestions then get The Red Guide.

Here are the links to the Michelin website for each of the maps you'll want to purchase. For Essoyes all you will need is the Burgundy map. For the Loire you might want to buy two maps as some of the sights people visit in that area jump across map boundaries. I think the map of Centre should suffice but I gave you the other one just in case.

Here is a link to the map for Burgundy:
http://tinyurl.com/4b9wol3

Here are the links for the 2 maps for the Loire area:
http://tinyurl.com/5twgnal
http://tinyurl.com/4zo2zsa

Here is the link to the main page showing all the Michelin maps of France: http://tinyurl.com/4bt96ev

Once you get the maps you can study them and look for some of the icons I pointed out (i.e. - designated scenic roads, châteaux, historic churches, ruins, abbeys, etc.) and get some ideas about routes. Then you can google tourist offices for towns with some of these icons or google the names of the châteaux or other attractions that may interest you and you'll find loads of info, such as what I provided in my last post.

One map icon I haven't mentioned so far is the megalith icon. The icon somewhat resembles the mathematical symbol for pi. A megalith is a pre-historic stone construction (usually over 4,000 years old) that had some sort of ceremonial/sacred function. There aren't many of them in Burgundy but there are several scattered throughout the Loire region. I noticed on the map that there are 2 about 10 kilometers west of Bournan and 2 more about 10-15km north of Loches. There are several others in the region as well. Sometimes they can be quite impressive and other times they can resemble a pile of large rocks. Often there are no signs pointing to their location and you just have to guess where they are by looking at the map. I mention these because I have a particular interest in them and since they are a site to see in the Loire. I am quite sure I am the only person who would ever go to the Loire and spend time looking for these things. They interest practically nobody else but me. But since you travel like I do perhaps this is something that might interest you that you wouldn't have known about otherwise. I wrote a report about megaliths if you'd like to learn more about them. Here is a link to that report:

http://tinyurl.com/3597brp

And if you liked that then maybe you'd like to read my trip report about visiting Brittany this summer, as this region has the densest concentration of these features on the planet:

http://tinyurl.com/2555vaf

Here are a couple of website links to get you started in researching the the Loire:

http://www.westernloire.com/

http://www.chateaux-de-la-loire.fr/c..._the_loire.htm

http://www.locationdevelos.com/en/locations.php

http://www.ligeris.com/index_en.php

http://www.bloispaysdechambord.com/en

http://www.chinon-valdeloire.com/

http://www.loches-tourainecotesud.com/en

I like your get lost attitude and I hope you have many wonderful getting lost experiences on your next trip to France. Let me know if you need any further help. And I live just outside Paris so if you need any help in Paris drop me a line and I'd be happy to meet you and show you how I get lost in Paris.

Here are a couple more links that might interest you. The first is for a site that can show you by region where there are villages that have the designation of being among the most beautiful villages in France. You can search the Loire and perhaps find some near you:

http://www.les-plus-beaux-villages-de-france.org/en

The second is for villages that go overboard decorating with flowers. Doesn't always mean the village will be beautiful but you never know.

http://www.villes-et-villages-fleuris.com/

Thank you so much, FrenchMystiqueTours. In the day-dreaming stage of planning to catch the Normandy D-Day Beaches, an overnight stay (only) at Le Mont St Michele, and megaliths, etc at Carnac. Your trip reports will keep me busy for a while.

Best of luck in your employment status.

Thanks again.
Steve

Thanks Steve,

Let me know if I can help you with anything. Always happy to help those who suffer through my trip reports!

FMT

FMY,
I'm checking out the websites you sent, and find that each one makes me want to learn more!I am overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of YOUR knowledge about France!
I especially enjoyed your report about megaliths, and your Brittany visit. I had no idea that there are so many of these interesting structures. We will certainly search for the ones in the Loire area. One more question - we will be in Carlux - near Sarlat - before we go to the Loire. Which Michelin map is best for that area? We've visited the well-known sites in that area - Lascaux, Troglodyte dwellings, Rocamadour, etc. - so we will be ready to get lost!
Again, many thanks (mahalo in Hawaiian) for your most informative responses.

Hi Roamer,

The link I gave you to the Michelin map site lists France by regions (some regions are combined on one map). Where you will be near Sarlat is the Aquitaine region. But since you may be wandering around you might cross regions. To be safe I would also buy the maps for Auvergne/Limousin and Poitou/Charentes. This will be more than you need but at least you'll be covered. Since you visit France once a year they'll be handy for a future trip at some point and since they only cost just over 6 euros it's affordable too. Have fun getting lost!

Thanks again. I think we will be well-mapped!