Abstract Six Liassic microfacies are briefly described from the eastern border of the Morvan mountains (France). The Rhaetian, consisting of black shaly marls with Avicula contorta (pelecypod), is a uniform microfacies of sub- and equigranular quartz grains. Interbedded marls and thin fossiliferous limestone beds (Bourgogne marble) comprise the Hettangian. This microfacies is often sandy, sometimes conglomeratic with rounded quartz pebbles. The Sinemurian is represented by the classic Gryphaea limestone. Its microfacies is also uniform and is composed of organic-detrital limestone with cryptocrystalline calcite cement. Three principal zones are recognized in the Pliensbachian stage. At the base interbedded marls and marly limestones with a rich macrofauna comprise the Carixian substage. A marly series corresponding to the lower middle Domerian overlies the Carixian. The upper Domerian substage is composed of three or four limestone beds, characteristically violet, which alternate with marl. The Toarcian consists of paper shale and marls overlain by a limestone bed containing Hildoceras bifrons (mollusk) (middle Toarcian). The Toarcian microfacies is a finely crystalline limestone with minute bone and plant fragments. The Toarcian-Aalenian contact is gradational. At the top of the Aalenian, psammitic intervals are interbedded with marls. The gray nodular limestones of the microfacies become increasingly rich in crinoid fragments from the base to the top, indicating an upper Aalenian age for the microfacies.