Baume-les-Messieurs, Cluny's Hidden Cradle at the Bottom of Its Amphitheatre

You descend toward Baume-les-Messieurs almost without seeing it coming: the road winds across the Jura plateau, flat and unremarkable, then suddenly drops away into thin air. Below, ringed by limestone cliffs some hundred metres high, a village of golden stone seems to have been set down there by mistake, at the bottom of a natural amphitheatre that locals call a reculée. The silence that reigns here, broken only by the sound of water, is no stage effect: it's the direct result of its position, almost impossible to spot from the plateau above, which kept it away from the main tourist flows for a long time.

The place owes its existence to an abbey founded right at the end of the 9th century, when the King of Provence granted the site to a monk who had come from Burgundy. The establishment grew quickly and became one of the most active centres of monastic reform of its time: according to tradition, monks who set out from Baume, together with those from the neighbouring abbey of Gigny, founded the famous abbey of Cluny in the early 10th century. Baume would go on to have up to a hundred priories under its authority during the Middle Ages, before declining and being secularised in the 18th century: the monks then became simple canons, "messieurs" (gentlemen), who gave the village its current name. What remains of this history is a sober abbey church and a gilded wooden altarpiece of Flemish origin, rather unexpected in this rural setting.

The rest of the site is a matter of geology more than architecture. The reculée splits into several side valleys, including that of the Dard, where a waterfall tumbles in steps over deposits of calcareous tufa. It really only flows after rain: the water, which travels underground, takes several hours to resurface, meaning you can easily arrive on a bright sunny day and find no more than a trickle. A cave opens nearby, its entrance as wide as a church nave, with a network of chambers extending under the rock as far as a small underground lake.

How to get there

The reference town is Lons-le-Saunier, the prefecture of the Jura, served by a regional rail line. Baume-les-Messieurs has no station of its own: from Lons-le-Saunier you need to continue by car or local transport along a small country road that climbs up and then drops back down into the amphitheatre. Traffic in the village runs one-way, with several free car parks at the entrance; it's best to park there and continue on foot rather than trying to drive closer to the busiest spots, such as the abbey or the foot of the waterfall.

When to go

Summer brings lush vegetation and, after a storm, a spectacular waterfall — but also most of the crowds, since the village is ranked among the most beautiful in France and draws tens of thousands of visitors every year into a very small space. Spring and early autumn offer a better compromise: fewer people, still-generous greenery, and rain frequent enough to keep the waterfall flowing. Winter, by contrast, transforms the place completely: the morning mist that lingers at the bottom of the amphitheatre gives it an almost unreal look, provided you're willing to accept a quieter site with fewer open services.

What to eat

You're right in the heart of Jura wine and food country here: the local wines, including the famous vins jaunes aged in barrel, pair naturally with the region's cheeses, comté chief among them. The village has a handful of simple addresses, a café and a restaurant, for refuelling after the walk to the waterfall or the visit to the cave — nothing fancy, but with produce that clearly comes from the neighbouring farm rather than a long supply chain.