Auxerre

Auxerre is an historical city in the French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It has an attractive medieval core, and a picturesque location on the Yonne River. It sits at the heart of one of the country's largest wine-producing areas

Understand
In 2020, it was home to 34,000 people.

It might interest mathematicians and engineers that this beautiful old city with historic churches was also the birthplace of Joseph Fourier, who is considered the founder of modern engineering.

By car
Auxerre is located half way between Paris (170 km) and Dijon (150 km) on the A6 autoroute, at the junction of the proposed A26 Troyes-Bourges autoroute. The city is a good base for discovering northern Burgundy.

Auxerre is 15 km from Chablis, famous for its white wines, 20 km from Pontigny Abbey, 45 km from St Fargeau Castle, 60 km from Vézelay and 78 km from Troyes.

By train
Trains to are a wonderfully cheap option if you are coming from Paris or Dijon. Trains usually run every hour. You might have to make a connection at Larroche-Migennes. You can easily walk from the station to the old part of town in 10-15 minutes.

By bus
Cheaper than the train, several buses run each day between Paris and Auxerre. Flixbus departs from "Gare de bercy" in Paris and drop you 2 hours later near the city center of Auxerre.

On foot
Auxerre is small, so walking is strongly recommended for most purposes and is a pleasant thing to do in the old city.

By bus
There are free mini-buses that circle the periphery of the old town and a bus system that serves suburbs (for the suburb bus, tickets are €1.75).

See




Do

 * Walk across the pedestrian bridge that spans the river as it gives a nice postcard view of the city.
 * If you visit for the whole day, or more, you can plan to rent a bike at "la maison du vélo" and bike south along the Yonne river for a marvelous ride. The bicycle path goes almost 200 km south and passes by beautiful villages and sceneries. Bikes cost €3 for 1 hour, €5 for 2 hours and €10 for half a day (2017 prices). For half a day, you can easily reach "Vincelles" village.
 * Rent a kayak and paddle around the river next to the Parc des arbres secs.
 * Football: AJ Auxerre were promoted in 2024 and now play soccer in Ligue 1, the top tier. ("AJ" stands for Association de la Jeunesse.) Their home ground Stade de l'Abbé Deschamps (capacity 18,500) is on the riverside along Route de Vaux two km southeast of town centre.

Buy
You can buy quality wines from the Yonne region for cheap. There are also antique stores and workshops both downtown and along the river.

Eat
If you want, to cook your own food or buy food for a picnic, Leclerc is the giant supermarket that has most of what you need, located on the northeast side of the river (14 Avenue Jean Jaurès). As you are in France, avoid buying baguettes, wine or cheese in a large commercial store; try buying those kinds of products in a local boulangerie, cave à vin or fromagerie: the charm of these such stores is the reason that you came to France and something that you cannot get at a chain store.

Drink
Auxerre is surprisingly quiet at night, but if you fancy some drinks and bumping music, head to the Place des Cordeliers in the centre, where you will find a couple of bars: Les Brimborions and Le Copacabana.

Sleep
There is a row of hotels, including some budget hotels, on a ring road on the outskirts of the city that is part of National Route 151. Part of the road is called Boulevard Vauban. The location is not bad as the city is small enough that a walk from that ring road to the old city and its sights is only a few minutes.

Campers will have a look at the "Camping Municipal d'Auxerre" (generally open from April 1st to October 15th), 2 km from the centre of the town.



Connect
As of June 2022, Auxerre has 5G from all French carriers.

Go next
Trains run almost every hour to Dijon and Paris.

If driving toward Dijon, Vézelay and Avallon are worth a stop.