Quenne: Wine Country, Nature and Cultural Heritage

Quenne and its surroundings

If you’re looking for a hotel in Quenne, the area’s features can help you choose a destination that suits your interests. Quenne combines winegrowing and rural landscapes with marked trails, historic buildings and visitor attractions. The village is 6 km southeast of Auxerre, near exit 20 of the A6 and the RD 965 road towards Chablis. Its distance from Auxerre and its location on the roads towards Chablis are two separate points of reference for finding it.

Quenne’s landscape extends across hillsides and a plateau. Vineyards, cherry trees and extensive arable fields characterize these areas. If you’d like to include a walk in your day’s plans, marked trails offer views of Auxerre and the Yonne Valley. These views give the trails a specific point of interest for planning, without requiring you to set aside a particular amount of time for walking.

Nature and trails

The Coteau Est de Quenne is a dedicated nature area. It is listed as a type 1 ZNIEFF, covers 57.12 hectares and has the national number 260014983. Its habitats include arid grasslands on stabilized scree, semi-arid hillside grasslands, scrubland and dry oak-hornbeam forests. The many orchid species found in the Coteau Est are among its botanical highlights.

The variety of habitats offers a different perspective from the agricultural hillsides and plateau: open grasslands sit alongside scrubland and dry forests. This means you can explore Quenne through both its vineyards and fields and the natural areas of the Coteau. The marked trails offer yet another focus, with views towards Auxerre and the Yonne Valley.

Church and washhouse

Notre-Dame de Quenne is a building with a composite style, remodeled several times between the 12th and 19th centuries. On the west façade, you’ll find an eight-rayed rose window and a round-arched portal with four sculpted archivolts. These features offer specific architectural details to look for when viewing the façade.

The church also houses a 17th-century Vierge de l’Apocalypse, listed as a historic monument. This work adds a distinct art-historical dimension to a visit to the church. When planning your visit, you can focus both on the building’s development over several centuries and on the history of an individual work of art.

Another notable building is Quenne’s public washhouse, an impluvium-style washhouse designed to collect rainwater. Outside, it has remnants of a livestock watering trough; inside, there is a fireplace for boiling laundry. These two surviving details point to different functions involving water and laundry, giving the washhouse a character distinct from the church.

Winegrowing history and tasting

At the Ecomusée de la Vigne et du Vin, the focus is on family history and the history of winegrowing over the past two centuries. The visit includes a tasting of four wines from the estate and gougères. This brings together the history of a family and its winegrowing with a tasting that includes both wines and a pastry.

The visit also includes an approximately one-and-a-half-hour theatrical tour. If you’d like this format to be a highlight of your stay, check the booking details before you travel. This lets you allow for the approximate duration in your day’s plans and confirm the visit details in advance.

Discover more destinations: Accolay, Périgny, Héry, Jully, Lignorelles, Pacy-sur-Armançon, Roffey, Vézelay

For the regional travel overview: Yonne.