For day two, I won't give you the timed itinerary. You just need to know for now that we will visit 3 new places:
a church (but what a church!), a hospital (but what a hospital!) and a wine-tasting (but this time for the red wines!).
The church is the Autun Cathedral:
That's indeed the best way to do it. Day one will be identical to the one-day-trip, we still go to Auxerre, Chablis and Vezelay. By the way, this is what the Vezelay basilica looks like from the outside:
It doesn't look like much from a distance, I agree, but you know there's a lot to be seen inside, before and after you've arrived in the nave (which I hadn't shown you yet):
And at the end of that first day, do I know the perfect place for us to stay!
Listen to this: in 1766 (23 years before the French Revolution), the local priests thought these sculptures were too naive and too mediocre so they had the tympanum walled in with plaster; they prefered to see a flat surface rather than "outmoded" sculptures... the fools! Yes, but thanks to that this tympanum is among the very few all over the country which were spared from the Revolutionary fury against religious buildings!
And, not only do the capitals inside the cathedral have the same ackward beauty as those of Vezelay, but also there's recently been a big restoration program and they have put in individual LED spotlights to all the capitals inside the cathedral: it is just magnificent!
About the hospital we'll visit, it's the "Hospices de Beaune" of the 15th century which is nowadays more like a museum worldwide famous for
1) its roof with varnished colored tiles:
2) its polyptych of the Last Judgement:
And we will also have time for a state-of-the-art tasting of several Grand Crus of the red Burgundy wines!
But, at the end of the day, we will still have a 3-hour drive back to Paris... Again, the scenery should please you:
Or we could continue driving South to Lyon and then why not drive to the Provence?
Or we could drive to Nancy, sleep there and explore the Alsace region for 2 or 3 days...
And we could stop for Champagne tastings on the way back to Paris...
Anything is possible. You tell me how many days you've got and I will create a great trip just for you!
What wouldn't I do for you...
And guess what this cathedral is famous for? Yes, its tympanum!