Franche-Comté is
possibly the most underrated of all French regions, in terms of tourism
and holiday potential. Lying between Burgundy and Alsace, and between
Champagne and Switzerland, it is a beautiful rural region that has a
lot to offer the traveller in terms of natural environment, historic
heritage, museums and sites.
The
region consists of four
departments; in the north lies the
Haute
Saone (70) mostly a deeply agricultural area, with small
towns and villages, low hills and valleys, but rising into the
foothills of the Vosges mountains to the east. In the centre of the
region, between the Haute-Saône and the Swiss border is the
department of the
Doubs
(25), consisting of a series of plateaux and hilly ridges rising from
200 metres in the north to 1200 metres on the Swiss border. In the
south of the region, the department of the
Jura (39) covers
part of the broad flat Saône valley, plus the
central part of the Jura mountains, peaking at over 1500 metres on the
Swiss border. Finally, in the north of the region lies the smallest of
all French departments (except Paris), the
territoire de Belfort,
an area that was for centuries the French-speaking part of Alsace. This
department is quite industrialised, and is the home of the Peugeot car
group.
The capital city of this region is
Besançon,
a historic city nestling beneath its ancient citadel in a loop formed
by the river Doubs. In terms of townscapes, Besançon is one
of the hidden jewels of France. The city centre is largely
undamaged by
the insensitive development that razed the historic quarters of many
French cities in the 19th and 20th centuries; it is composed mainly of
old stone-built houses, with a fine selection of 18th century urban
residences. The town boasts the oldest, and one of the finest, public
art galleries in France, with an impressive collection of old masters
and 19th century French art, including works by Cranach, Titian,
Bellini, Rembrandt, Rubens, Fragonard, Courbet, Matisse. It has been
nicknamed the "petit Louvre", on account of the richness of its
collections.
Besides its Musée des Beaux
Arts, the city has two other major museums, the Museum of time, housed
in the 16th century Granvelle Palace, a jewel of the French
renaissance, and the museum of the Resistance and the Deportation, one
of a number of museums and sites in the Citadel, a stronghold fortified
by the great military architect Vauban in the 17th century, and classed
as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008. There is
also a fine cathedral, the birthplace of Victor Hugo, and river cruises.
The Franche-Comté region
likes to promote itself as a haven for "
green tourism" or
nature tourism; in hot summers, when much of France turns brown and dry
in the heat, Franche Comté, watered by summer storms, almost
always remains green and inviting. In the
Haut Doubs and
Haut Jura area,
running along the Swiss border, the meadows remain green and full of
flowers; this is a great area for hiking and mountain biking, or even
for sailing on the lakes. And in winter time, there is plenty of
opportunity for nordic skiing and even downhill skiing, as Franche
Comté has two fully equipped resorts.
This is a region famous for its
agricultural products, notably the famous "Comté" cheese,
very similar to Swiss Gruyère, and smoked sausages. It is
also famous as France's watchmaking area - watchmaking being an
industry that is still active either side of the Swiss border. Franche
Comté is also the home of France's optical glasses and
spectacle
industry, and the town of St Claude in the Jura is famous for its
pipes. In the north of the region, the area around the towns of
Montbéliard and Belfort is the heartland of the region's
most
famous company, Peugeot, which has a major production unit at Sochaux.
Regional
specialities: Like
many mountain regions, Franche-Comté boasts plenty of
delicious
regional specialities; among the most famous are its
cheeses: of these,
themost famous is Comté (pronounced
contay) cheese,
similar to
the Swiss Gruyère cheese but with its own distinctive taste.
This is one of the best cheeses in France, and one of the most
traditional. Other cheeses: Mont d'Or, Morbier, Bleu de Gex (see
About-France.com
Cheeses page).
Other gastronomic delights:
Morteau sausage, a smoked mountain sausage
that can be boiled or grilled; Montbéliard sausage - similar
but
smaller; mountain ham. Wines: Arbois and Côtes du Jura are
the
great regional AOC wines. Arbois white is especially distinctive, when
made from Savagnin grapes. The Jura also produces a very
special
aperitif wine, called Vin Jaune; the most famous vin jaune comes from
Chateau Chalon, a village that is one of the most attractive in eastern
France..
Access: The regional
capital Besançon is accessible by direct TGV train
from Paris (2h 30) or from Strasbourg or Lyon. By motorway from UK /
Holland via Troyes or Nancy, from Germany via Strasbourg or Mulhouse.
The region has no airport, but three airports just outside Franche
Comté are served by Easyjet from the UK, and flights from
many other cities in Europe; Basel-Mulhouse Euroairport in the north,
Geneva Cointrin in the south, and Lyon St. Exupéry in the
south west.
Main
tourist attractions in
Franche Comté
Besançon from the air - Photo JP TUPIN - Ville de
Besançon .
Below: the chapel at Ronchamp
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- Besançon.
Site, historic centre, Vauban's citadel (UNESCO world heritage site),
Roman triumphal arch,
Musée des Beaux Arts, Palais Granvelle, Musée du
Temps, Musée de la
Résistance, cathedral, riverboats.
- Ecomusée
de Franche Comté (25) - Open air museum of historic houses,
Nancray, near Besançon.
- Ornans
(25): site in the Loue valley, birthplace of Gustave Courbet, Courbet
museum.
- Peugeot motor museum,
Montbéliard (25):
- Chapelle
Notre Dame du Haut, masterpiece of swiss architect Le
Corbusier. Ronchamp (70)
- Arc
et Senans: Royal Saltworks, (25) visionary 18th century
development by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux; a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Source
de la Loue (25) - where the river Loue emerges at the foot
of a steep gorge.
- Natural environment of the Haut Doubs and Haut Jura; hills,
forests, lakes.
- Ballon
d'Alsace; the southern peak of the Vosges mountains.
- Metabief
(25) and Les Rousses
(39) ski resorts, with summer activities
- Chateau
de Joux (25) Impressive fortress commanding a narrow
valley near the Swiss border.
- River cruising (boat hire) on the
Saône, at Gray
(70) and/or the Doubs at Dôle
(39)
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