3 Best Sights in Burgundy, France

This charmingly turreted 16th- to 17th-century mansion contains two museums: the Musée d'Art Champenois (Regional Art Museum) and the Musée de la Bonneterie (Textile-Hosiery Museum). The former traces the development of Troyes and southern Champagne, with a particularly rich selection of religious sculptures and paintings of the late-Gothic era; the latter outlines the history and manufacturing procedures of the town's 18th- to 19th-century textile industry.

Housed in the former Cistercian convent, one museum here contains religious art and sculpture; the other has crafts and artifacts from Burgundy—including old storefronts saved from the streets of Dijon that have been reconstituted, in Hollywood-studio style, to form an imaginary street.

The roof of the 13th-century Palais Synodal, alongside Sens's cathedral, is notable for its yellow, green, and red diamond-tile motif—incongruously added in the mid-19th century by monument restorer Viollet-le-Duc. Six grand windows and the vaulted Synodal Hall are other outstanding architectural features; the building now functions as an exhibition space. Annexed to the Palais is an ensemble of Renaissance buildings with a courtyard offering a fine view of the cathedral's Flamboyant Gothic south transept, constructed by master stonemason Martin Chambiges at the start of the 16th century (rose windows were his specialty, as you can appreciate here). Inside is a museum with archaeological finds from the Gallo-Roman period. The cathedral treasury, now on the museum's first floor, is one of the richest in France, comparable to that of Conques. It contains a collection of miters, ivories, the shrouds of St-Sivard and St-Loup, and sumptuous reliquaries. But the star of the collection is Thomas à Becket's restored brown-and-silver-edged linen robe which is displayed alongside his chasuble, stole, and sandals.