Rue Saint-Pierre, the village street

Vézelay is essentially one street. Rue Saint-Pierre climbs from the lower part of the village to the top of the hill, and everything else — a few side lanes, the ramparts path, the gates — hangs off it. The houses are rendered in ochre and cream over stone, with carved lintels, wooden shutters, iron balconies and the occasional Renaissance doorway; the ground floors are wine shops, small galleries, a couple of cafés and the mairie.

It is a genuine climb, steady rather than steep, and the gradient is what makes it photograph well: from the bottom the street rises away from you with roofs stacking up behind, and from the top it drops toward the valley. Both directions work. Low morning sun comes up the street from the east and lights the whole thing; by midday the render goes flat and the shadows are hard.

Before ten it is empty. In July and August the coaches arrive around eleven and the street belongs to them until late afternoon; out of season and early in the day it belongs to the village. In winter a good half of the shops are shut and the hill is often in cloud, which is atmospheric but limits what you can do.

Cars are kept out of the upper village, so park at the bottom near the Champ-de-Foire and walk up — five to ten minutes at a normal pace, more if someone is in heels on the cobbles.