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Troyes

In polls of France's most romantic towns, Troyes invariably makes the grade – and with good reason. Its astonishingly intact, ludicrously pretty historic centre wings you back to the Middle Ages, with its warren of cobbled streets, fine ensemble of half-timbered houses in pastel hues, once home to wealthy textile merchants, and uplifting Gothic churches. Often overlooked, it’s one of the best places to get a sense of what Europe looked like back when Molière was penning his finest plays and the Three Musketeers were swashbuckling.

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Attractions

Must-see attractions

16th-Century Troyes
Troyes
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren’t quite level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire…
Musée d’Art Moderne
Troyes
Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop’s palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste…
Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul
Troyes
All at once imposing and delicate with its filigree stonework, Troyes' cathedral is a stellar example of champenoise Gothic architecture. The flamboyant…
Maison de l’Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière
Troyes
Worn to a sensuous lustre by generations of skilled hands, the 11,000 hand tools on display here – each designed to perform a single, specialised task…
Hôtel de Vauluisant
Troyes
This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion shelters a twinset of unique museums. The Musée de l’Art Champenois is a repository for the evocative…
Ruelle des Chats
Troyes
Off rue Champeaux (between Nos 30 and 32), a stroll along tiny ruelle des Chats (Alley of the Cats), as dark and narrow as it was four centuries ago – the…
Église Ste-Madeleine
Troyes
Troyes’ oldest and most interesting neighbourhood church has an early Gothic nave and transept and a Renaissance-style choir and tower. The highlights…
Basilique St-Urbain
Troyes
Begun in 1262 by the Troyes-born Pope Urban IV, whose father’s shoemaker shop once stood on this spot, this church is exuberantly Gothic both inside and…