The Bourgogne-Franche Comté regional express train from Paris takes just 74 minutes to reach Joigny on the banks of the River Yonne in northern Burgundy. Here, the fringes of the capital’s commuter belt meet the countryside among the narrow streets of half-timbered houses and medieval churches, surrounded by fields and the Côte Saint-Jacques vineyards.
For decades, the largely agricultural area has been fertile ground for many shades of the French left – the Resistance and later the Socialist president François Mitterrand were rooted in Burgundy. Today it is where French socialism just about stops the slide of grassroots support to the far right.
