Saint-Léger-sous-Beuvray Things to Do

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Bibracte is a marvelous, open museum of Gaulish life set in a hillside that holds an archeological dig you may tour. Bibracte is the reason you go to St. Leger and the museum is not in the town but on Mont Beuvray, a few kilometers from the town.

It's a fairly new museum but very popular with teachers as an educational trip. There were lots of visiting school children while we were there . . . all perfectly well behaved as French school children are. One group was trying their hand at grinding grain and a pleasant young man came over and showed us what he had ground. He was deservedly proud of himself and we were delighted to share his accomplishment.

The walls are all glass on the valley side of the building so as you walk through it, you can look out at the countryside where the people being depicted lived. There is also a very nice gift shop and in summer there is a cafe on the site. Off season you must bring a picnic or drive into town for lunch.

In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC at the end of the Iron Age, a large Gaulish town stood on Mont Beuvray. Surrounded by ramparts, Bibracte was the capital of one of the most powerful peoples in Gaul, the Aedui. It is here that Vercingetorix was proclaimed head of the Gaulish coalition in the year 52 BC. It is also at Bibracte that Julius Caesar, the victor of Alesia, completed the writing of his "Gallic wars" that you probably read in Latin class.

There are guided tours in English in July and August on Mondays at 14:30 (2:30 PM).

You can also visit nearby Alesia and Autun, the town that replaced Bibracte.