France has so many small villages - all of them different...

Aze is one of our favourites

Let's take a look in the run-up to Bastille Day.

So much of Azé’s attraction is that it is almost unknown. Guidebooks mention it as notable only for some ancient caverns – marking the map site préhistorique. Tour buses are almost never seen there in this part of southern Burgundy. 

This small village is simply on the way to other places, rarely a destination itself. It is just not a tourist destination. Which is precisely how many people like it.

Buried deep in the Mâconnaise wine-growing area, it comes under the Appellation Mâcon Contrôlée, doing its own thing, in its own right, and well-respected for it.

Red beaujolais grapes are popular too for winemaking.

On the edge of town, take the road along the bottom of the vineyards. From here the rows of vines run ruler-straight up the hill. Now, close to harvest the leaves are brilliant green and tiny questing tendrils wave above them like fragile antennae.

The Mâconnaise style of architecture is very attractive. These stone houses are usually two-storey and built with a gallery-style veranda on the upper floor. As in  many parts of France, the railings are hung with bright red and pink flowering geraniums.

Almost certainly late in an afternoon, you'll find men (and sometimes women) playing a game of petanque on a gravelled space on the roadside or under trees. While the pace may seem leisurely, sometimes the games are hard-fought!

Brancion, with its medieval monastery high above the same patchworked plain that stretches across to Mont St Vincent is worth a visit too.

The ancient abbey overlooks a tiny sleepy village, typical of so many in the Saone-et-Loire region.

Inside the shadowy abbey, there murals survive, and if you are lucky you might be able to enjoy harp music as you pause to enjoy them. Nearby, gardens are laid out with vegetables and herbs as they must have been a thousand years ago.

The village is car-free with cobbled streets and just a couple of B&B's and a restaurant and cafe - and the abbey.

There are a dozen or more villages within a few kilometres of Azé, and this small one at Clessé serves a four-course regional menu every day for about the price of a main course in most other places.

The sixteenth-century Chateau Besseuill has recently been restored with luxury accommodation and an excellent restaurant.

The set-price menu included dishes such as this stunning dessert.

People come to this region to sample Mâconnaise and Beaujolais wines and taste Chardonnay at a cave (wine cellar)in the nearby village of the same name, where that grape was first planted over a millennium ago. 

Cluny is the most important, and largest, city in the area. Established as a major religious centre, its abbey draws thousands of visitors annually. This mural is the drawcard for a delicious chocolatier in the old town.

The city is still an academic centre, and these lads have custom-decorated their gowns which they proudly wear to class.

Old Cluny shows its age with cobbled streets and low archways over narrow lanes. Some doors have fifteenth-century dates inscribed over them.

Perhaps the only downside (although some would say it's a plus!) is that many small villages in France - and it is said there are around 30,000 of them in the country – are only accessibly by car or bike, or on foot.

Car hire in France is easy and now  quite affordable. This car from Driveaway made it possible to see all these places.