Troyes

Prefecture of the Aube, Troyes was the capital of the counts of Champagne and was called Augustobona in Roman times. A great fire in 1524 led to a reconstruction that partly explains the richness of its old centre, where one of the highest concentrations of sixteenth-century half-timbered houses survives. The town has been labelled a Town of Art and History since 2009 and has 42 buildings protected as historic monuments.

Seen from the sky, the historic heart, ringed by canals and tree-lined boulevards, forms the shape of a champagne cork over about 53 hectares. You walk through narrow lanes lined with coloured façades, often leaning. Among the monuments to see are the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul and the basilica of Saint-Urbain, as well as many stained-glass windows spread across the town's churches.

The centre is compact and is explored at a leisurely pace, between museums set up in former mansions, shops and terraces. Troyes lies at an altitude of about a hundred metres, in a plain setting crossed by the Seine.

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