The Town
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Rue Général Saussier

The central part of Troyes between the station and the cathedral is scattered with marvellous churches, of which four stand out. Leading the way, and the first you come to, on rue de Vauluisant, is the sumptuous, high-naved church of St-Pantaléon (daily 10am–noon & 2–5pm; July & Aug till 6pm), almost a museum of sculpture. A short walk to the north is Troyes' oldest remaining church, twelfth-century Ste-Madeleine, on the road of the same name (same hours as St-Pantaléon). It was considerably remodelled in the sixteenth century, when the delicate stonework rood screen (jubé) – used to keep the priest separate from the congregation – was added; it's one of the few left in France. Unfortunately the church of St-Jean-au-Marché, a short way to the south-east opposite the municipal tourist office, between rues Émile-Zola and Champeaux, is closed indefinitely though it sometimes opens to the public in the summer months; it's historically important as the church where Henry V of England married Catherine of France after being recognized as heir to the French throne in the 1420 Treaty of Troyes, known to the French as the "shameful treaty". Between it and the cathedral is the elegant Gothic Basilique St-Urbain, on place Vernier (same hours as St-Pantaléon), its exterior dramatizing the Day of Judgement.

The ancient quartier de la Cité, across the Canal de la Haute Seine, is home to three of Troyes' museums and many of its oldest buildings, huddled around the Cathédrale St-Pierre-et-St-Paul (daily: July to mid-Sept 9am–1pm & 2–7pm; mid-Sept to June 9am–1pm & 2–5pm, closed Mon morning), whose pale Gothic nave is stroked with reflections from the wonderful stained-glass windows. Next door to the cathedral, magnificently housed in the old bishops' palace on place St-Pierre, is the Musée d'Art Moderne (daily except Tues 11am–6pm; €4.60), an outstanding museum displaying part of an extraordinary private collection of art, particularly rich in Fauvist paintings by the likes of Vlaminck and Derain – along with other, first-class works by Degas, Courbet, Gauguin, Matisse (a tapestry and three canvases), Bonnard, Braque, Modigliani, Rodin, Robert Delaunay and Ernst. One room is given over to a beautiful collection of African masks and other carvings. On the other side of the cathedral, at 1 rue Chrestien-de-Troyes, the once glorious Abbaye St-Loup (daily except Tues 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €4.60) houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts, seemingly endless galleries of mostly French paintings, including a couple by Watteau, plus dismally displayed natural history and archeological stuff. Down rue de la Cité, but with its entrance round the corner on quai des Comtes de Champagne, is the "apothicairerie", a richly decorated sixteenth-century pharmacy (Mon, Wed, Sat & Sun 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €4.60) occupying one corner of the majestic eighteenth-century Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte; rows of painted wooden "simple" boxes dating from the eighteenth century adorn its shelves.

Despite being raked by numerous fires since the Middle Ages, Troyes has retained many of its timber-framed buildings: to see them wander around the streets and alleyways of the old town, off the pedestrianized rue Champeaux, and around the maze of streets south of the main shopping thoroughfare, rue Émile-Zola. Indeed, the most famous fire, in 1524, led to a massive rebuilding scheme that resulted in Troyes' wealth of Renaissance palaces. An outstanding example, just to the east of the church of St Pantaléon, is the beautiful sixteenth-century Hôtel de Mauroy, 7 rue de la Trinité, once an orphanage but now occupied by the fabulous Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensée Ouverte, (Mon 1–6pm, Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; €6.50). Troyes' most original tourist attraction by far, this surprisingly fascinating museum of tools, with seventeenth-, eighteenth- and ninteenth-century exhibits, provides a window into the world of the workers who used them and the people who crafted them, with emphasis on context. State-of-the-art techniques have somehow managed to transform shoals of hammers and spanners, flocks of axes and chisels, and myriad implements used by coopers, wheelwrights and tile-makers into jewel-like treasures.

Nearby, along rue Brunneval, lined with another row of wooden houses in varying states of repair, is Troyes' synagogue, inaugurated in the 1980s in memory of the Jewish scholar Rachi (1040–1105). He was a member of the small Jewish community which flourished for a time during the eleventh and twelfth centuries under the protection of the counts of Champagne. His commentaries on both the Old Testament and the Talmud are still important to academics today: the Rachi University Institute opposite is devoted to studying his work.

As tourist pamphlets are at pains to point out, the ring of boulevards round the town is shaped like a champagne cork. In fact it also looks a bit like a sock – a shape that's just as suitable, since hosiery ("bonneterie") and woollens have been Troyes' most important industry since the late Middle Ages. In the seventeenth century Louis XIII decreed that charitable houses had to be self-supporting and the orphanage of the Hôpital de la Trinité (the Hôtel de Mauroy) set its charges to knitting stockings. Some of the old machines and products used for creating garments can be seen in the magnificent sixteenth-century palace, the Hôtel de Vauluisant, part of which houses the Musée de la Bonneterie (4 rue de Vauluisant; June–Sept daily except Tues 10am–1pm & 2–6pm; Oct–May Wed–Sun 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €4.60 or part of the Museum pass scheme); well restored and visually appealing, it sets an example for all crafts museums with its respect for traditions and lack of sentimentality. The palace also houses the Musée Historique de Troyes et de la Champagne méridionale (same hours and ticket), a small collection of unsophisticated religious art from the Troyes school, fragments of stained glass and, down in the bowels of the cellar, some ancient ceramic floor tiles.