Cycling to Cluny for a Day of Exploring

Cluny would have to be my favorite destination in the Burgundy Region of France. I love the countryside around the town as we approached from the voie verte cycling path.

And then you can’t ignore the imposing abbey in the town. The monastery once oversaw more than 10,000 monks from Poland to Scotland. During the middle ages it was considered the spiritual heart of this region.

The Abbey

Only one-tenth of the Benedictine Cluny Abbey dates from 910 A.D. remains.

“For five hundred years the abbey church of Cluny was the largest house of God in Christendom, demoted to second place only when St Peter’s in Rome was rebuilt in the sixteenth century, and made – deliberately- just a few feet longer. ” (taken from my favorite book about Cluny: Cluny: In Search of God’s Lost Empire)

Cluny as viewed from the Voie Verte

The Best French Market

Some tourist sites describe this as a quiet little town. It is anything but that on Saturday morning when a huge market lines the square and streets. I love the sights and sounds of a Saturday morning market!

Not every town has their market on Saturday so I start my list with Tarragon and Truffles: A Guide To The Best French Markets before we leave for France. I then double check my list against the local Tourism Center once we arrive to be sure nothing has changed.