Clearly, the Middle Ages weren't so dark for the Burgundians

The Middle Ages get a bad rap. We all learn about dark times in which people lived in cold hovels and got raped and pillaged by barbarians. True, I'd be unlikely to jump into a time machine set for the 1oth century, but the 12th through the 15th could have been quite pleasant. If, that is, you could avoid the Black Death and have the luck to be a Burgundian merchant.

Burgundy is packed with impressive cultural sites and, although a handful come from other eras, the majority are medieval. No hovels here. Medieval Burgundians built lavishly endowed abbeys, elegant fairy tale castles and charming towns filled with prosperous townhouses, workplaces and religious endowments. Both land routes and rivers made this the crossroads of Europe, and it's obvious that the farmers and merchants here made the most of that circumstance. Most of Burgundy looks as if it's been prosperous for a very long time. Indeed, at their height the Dukes of Burgundy owned a swathe of Europe that encompassed modern day Belgium and Holland.

It was no surprise, then, that the city of Beaune reminded me a bit of Bruges ... the far more famous northern trading capital of the Burgundian dukes. Most people come here because it's in the dead centre of one of the world's great wine regions (of that, more later), but it is worth time to explore on its own. Its medieval walls and towers are almost complete, and provide both a lovely place to walk and an easy reference point. It's hard to get lost when everything is within a single, small loop. The church of Notre Dame is a venerable early gothic structure with some interesting side chapels; don't miss the light switches that allow you to illuminate each at will. There's a wine museum in the impressive surroundings of the old palace of the Burgundian Dukes, and plenty of interesting medieval buildings still in active use. The city centre is filled with charming shops, of which a disproportionate amount are devoted to wines and related products.

The blockbuster site, however, is Beaune's hospital. Luther rather undermined the idea of being able to buy your way into heaven, but before he did, that fine Catholic principal resulted in some excellent art and architecture and some magnificently endowed charitable institutions. (Oh, yes, and a lot of corrupt priests.) Founded in the 15th century thanks to donations from the Burgundian chancellor and his wife, the hospice de Beaune functioned as a hospital until the '80s and part still operates as a nursing home. Today, however, the main medieval sections have been converted back to the way they would have appeared in the 1400s. The main courtyard is particularly impressive, dominated as it is by the multi-coloured tile roofs so typical of Burgundy. The huge "room of the poor" is a vast vaulted chamber lined on each side with beds, capped with a chapel at the end so that the ill could always be in the presence of God. The blockbuster site here, though, is Roger van der Weyden's altarpiece, which once stood at the end of the room of the poor but has now been moved to its own display gallery. He was one of the greatest of the early Flemish masters and his characters glow with a realism and richness of colour rarely matched by other artists. This is truly a piece of art worthy of veneration.

Vineyards made up much of the endowment that has funded the hospital through the centuries, and you can still buy the "Hospices de Beaune" label, which is a particularly fine red Burgundy. We got a bottle for dinner that night. We felt, after all, it was our charitable duty.

Equally charming, but on a much smaller scale, is the village of Noyers. Once a prosperous farming town and fortified home to a prince of the church, today it's a quiet backwater living off its picture postcard appeal and its proximity to the main wine regions. A long stretch of town wall still stands along the river Serein, punctuated by seven surviving watch towers. (Most of these have been incorporated into homes, any one of which would be on my fantasy purchase list if I had vast amounts of money.) The village is most notable for its great selection of half-timbered houses, many of which feature fantastic carved detail. If you aren't as lucky as me to have friends to stay with in the region, then you might want to make this your base of operations.

Our third medieval masterpiece to visit was Vezelay, one of two Unesco World Heritage sites in Burgundy. The abbey is famous on multiple fronts. First, it is staggeringly beautiful, both in its placement on top of a high hill and in its austere Romanesque architecture. Second, it holds the (alleged) relics of Mary Magdalene, making it a much venerated point of pilgrimage for centuries. Third, it's awash with history, most notably as the place the combined forces of Richard the Lionheart and the French king met up to start their less than successful crusade to the Holy Land. Much of the carving and architectural detail was heavily restored by Viollet le Duc (the French Pugin) in the 19th century. Not perhaps "authentic", but certainly in the right style, the carvings are worth plenty of attention. Each column capital tells a bible story.

The village of Vezelay (population 473) was once no more than the outbuildings for service and support of the abbey. Most of those have now been converted to tourism. A single main road, mostly pedestrianised, runs half a mile up a steep hill. It's lined with restaurants (including he best we ate at the whole trip) and more tourist shops than we saw anywhere else in Burgundy. For some reason, it was particularly rich in boutiques for hand-knitted fashions, many of which were extremely stylish ... and very expensive.

Of course life didn't stop in the Middle Ages in Burgundy; there's plenty to see from other time periods. Our pick this trip was the chateau of Ancy-le-Franc, a Renaissance chateau designed by the famous Italian architect Serlio. You can only go through on guided tours and, as was typical of much of our trip, we were the only tourists there. So we ended up with a fantastic personalised, English tour through this treasure trove.

You get to explore the whole vast circuit of rooms stretching around the fantastic classical courtyard, one more impressive than the next in its lavishly painted walls and ceilings and ornate floors. Amongst the many memorable rooms were a private chapel with impressive 15th century frescoes; an ornate gold guilt jewel box of a room in which Louis XIV stayed (and must have felt quite at home); a hallway painted with a fresco cycle of the battle of Pharsalis, done with such virtuousity that some have claimed to see the hand of the famous painter Uccello; a wonderfully delicate lady's bedroom with golden wall panels each painted with a different, botanically correct flower. Ancy-le-Franc is on par with the much more famous chateaux of the Loire, and the company that owns and has restored it certainly deserved more paying visitors than just the three of us. While we enjoyed our private tour, I certainly hope they get better crowds on other days.

Next up, it's on to the red wines...