The Hospices de Beaune courtyard

The Hôtel-Dieu was built in 1443 as a hospital for the poor and it still looks like one: an inner courtyard closed on four sides, timber galleries on two levels, dormer windows with gilded finials, and above it all a steep roof of glazed tiles laid in diamonds of black, gold, red and green. Stand in the far corner for the full diagonal with both galleries running away from you; step under the arcade for a framed shot with the roof visible through the timbers.

Go at opening. The museum lets people in at nine and the courtyard is the single most photographed square metre in Burgundy — by eleven there is a coach group in every frame. The roof reads best under a slightly overcast sky, because full sun blows out the yellow tiles and drops the galleries into hard shadow. Late afternoon in the last hour before closing is the second-best slot.

Everyone in the session needs an entry ticket, and the museum sets its own rules on tripods and on anything that looks like a commercial shoot — worth checking with them a week ahead rather than arguing at the desk. The interior wards, the polyptych room and the old pharmacy are also on the route, all low-light and all far more restricted.

One street away, Place Carnot and the lanes toward the Basilique Notre-Dame give warm limestone, iron shop signs and no ticket at all — the natural second half of an hour in town.