White cattle, hedges and Romanesque bell towers: that is the Brionnais, the corner of southern Burgundy where the Loire bends towards Digoin. This stop lies on the plain near Saint-Yan, a village best known in France for its airfield, where the national civil aviation school trains its pilots. Small aircraft circle overhead most days, and the open grassland around the runway gives the place an unusually wide sky.
Charolais cattle are the other local celebrity. The heavy cream-coloured beasts graze in every field, and at Saint-Christophe-en-Brionnais, a short way south-east, one of the biggest live cattle markets in France still takes place every week, with farmers in blue smocks haggling in the early morning. Between the fields stand some of the most beautiful small Romanesque churches in Burgundy, at Anzy-le-Duc, Semur-en-Brionnais and Montceaux-l'Étoile, built in a golden local stone with carved portals that reward a close look.
Paray-le-Monial, a few kilometres north, has a great Romanesque basilica modelled on the lost abbey church of Cluny, and it remains a busy pilgrimage town. Digoin, a little further, has a canal aqueduct that carries boats right across the Loire, an odd sight from the riverbank.
Swimming in the Loire is a bad idea anywhere along its course: shifting sand, sudden holes and strong currents make it treacherous even when it looks lazy. Look instead for a supervised leisure lake or the municipal pools in Paray or Digoin in summer.
The riding is soft and rolling, with good surfaces, little traffic and long views over the bocage. Watch for cattle being moved between fields and for tractors with wide implements. Fuel and food are in Paray-le-Monial and Digoin; order a Charolais steak, obviously, and do not ask for it well done.