Auxerre Old Town and Clock Tower (Auxerre, tour de l’Horloge et vieille ville)

What you will see

Stand beneath the clock and read its two hands. One carries a sun and turns once a day, the other carries a moon, a globe half black and half gold, which turns to show the phases. From there, wander the lanes and small squares of the old town, lined with timber-framed houses, then walk down to the quays. From the bridges over the Yonne you get the classic view of the cathedral and the abbey rising above the river.

History

The Tour de l'Horloge stands on the site of an older tower in the town's first walls, from the 3rd or 4th century, which guarded the gate on the road to Paris. It was rebuilt in the 15th century and became the town's clock and belfry in 1483. A fire damaged it in 1825, and the architect Paul Boeswillwald largely rebuilt it between 1891 and 1893. The tower and its dial were restored between 2020 and 2022.

Next to the tower lived Guillaume Roussel, known as Cadet Roussel, a court bailiff born in 1743 who died in Auxerre in 1807. His eccentric character and his odd little house, to which he added a narrow loggia above an old porch, inspired a comic song that is still taught in French schools. A plaque under the arch of the clock tower marks the site of his house, and a fountain in town is topped by his statue.