Mailly-le-Château is a small village perched dramatically on a cliff above the River Yonne in Burgundy. The site was a natural choice for a fortification, and remnants of the old château still stand among the village buildings. Behind them, an open terrace offers sweeping views over the river valley — one of the best vantage points in this stretch of the Yonne.
The village divides neatly in two. On the cliff, the upper village clusters around the Église Saint-Adrien, a medieval church whose tower has watched the river bend below it for eight centuries. Down at the waterline, the Canal du Nivernais passes through what was once a toll point on river traffic, now a small halte nautique where hire boats moor up for the night. The canal is a popular leisure route — flat, quiet, and lined with poplars — and Mailly-le-Château makes a natural stopping point for cyclists and boaters working their way between Auxerre and the Loire watershed.
There is not a great deal to do here, which is somewhat the point. The village is quiet, the light over the river valley is exceptional in the evening, and the walk from the upper village down to the canal and back takes a pleasant half-hour. Vézelay is fifty kilometres south-west if you need a more substantial excursion; the Caves of Arcy-sur-Cure are ten kilometres north-east if you want prehistoric art. Otherwise, Mailly-le-Château rewards the kind of traveller who is content to sit on a cliff above a river with a glass of local wine and watch the light change.