Camping des 2 Rives

If you’re more about antics on the river than waiting for a bite beside it, hire canoes from the site and take a day trip down the Arroux, stopping off for riverside picnics and paddles; trips can be arranged with a pickup downstream in St.Nizier-sur-Arroux. Hikers and bikers are richly provided for here: it’s a 25-minute drive to the slopes of Mont Beuvray, crisscrossed with trails through the surrounding countryside. As well as being worth a wander for its medieval streets, Nolay (45 minutes) is surrounded by circuits past vineyards, up limestone cliffs and crags and over thundering waterfalls. If you want to scale some cliffs the hard way, with hands, feet and maybe a rope or two, make for the sheer face at Cormot, also 45 minutes away. If you’re into history, the former Gallo-Roman town of Autun (20 minutes) has a ruined temple, a barely-ruined-at-all arena from Roman times and weekly markets that have been a fixture for almost as long. To get deep into the past, make for Bibracte (20 minutes), where the museum and the excavated town tell the story of Gaulish leader Vercingetorix and his fateful clash with Rome, amid cracking Morvan scenery and footpaths following the Gauls’ route to their last great battle.