Morvan Regional Park

The Morvan is a granite massif rising out of the limestone plateaus around it, forested with oak, beech and planted conifer, cut by fast streams and holding six large reservoirs. For three centuries it heated Paris: wood was cut, stacked and released into the streams in a timed flood called the flottage a buches perdues, floating loose down to the Yonne and on to the capital, a trade that ended when coal and rail took over. Bibracte, a Celtic hilltop town of the Aedui on Mont Beuvray, was a capital before the Romans and is now an excavation with a museum. Vezelay's basilica stands at the northern edge.

What you actually see

• The forested hills - granite country of oak, beech and conifer.
• Bibracte - an excavated Celtic hill town with a museum on Mont Beuvray.
• The reservoirs - lakes at Settons, Panneciere and Chaumecon for water sports.
• The flottage traces - remains of the log-floating trade in the valleys.

When to go

May to October; the Morvan is wet and cold in winter with snow on the tops. Autumn colour is good. Whitewater on the Cure and Chalaux depends on dam releases.

Honest expectations

It rains here more than in the rest of Burgundy, which is why it is green. Villages are small with limited services. Distances between sites are longer than the map suggests on winding roads.

Nearby

Vezelay lies north; Autun is south.