2 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.

The ancient theater, sitting at the edge of Autun on the road to Chalon-sur-Saône, makes an atmospheric picnic spot. Select lunch fixings in town, and then settle in on the stepped seats, where as many as 15,000 Gallo-Roman spectators perched two millennia ago. On Friday and Saturday nights in the height of summer, a themed performance—the only one of its kind—is put on by locals wearing period costumes. Elsewhere on the outskirts of town are the remains of a Roman Temple of Janus.