Eastern France: Franche Comte

Region at a glance

Major city: Besançon

Beautiful natural scenery including forests, lakes and rivers, and mountains

Excellent region for outdoor sports such as fishing, hiking, cross-country skiing

Charming local wine villages

Medieval fortifications by Vauban

Geographically, Franche-Comté is really two regions: the high valley of the Saône is wide, gently rolling country with a certain rustic simplicity, while the Jura Mountains are more rugged with dense forests, sheer cliffs, deep gorges and torrents of water.

In winter this means cross-country skiing over 2,000 kilometers of marked trails and in summer rafting along the gentle Lison and Loue Rivers or the more challenging Saône or Doubs. Nature lovers can climb, bike and hike the mountains or explore the hills are that are honeycombed with over 4,000 caves. The streams and lakes provide world-class fishing.

Visitors can seek refuge from nature in one of many charming wine villages such as Arbois, where Louis Pasteur spent his youth, Chateau-Chalon where the Jura wines are produced, or Ornans with its riverside houses. Ronchamps is the site of Le Corbusier's concrete Chapelle Notre-Dame and Besançon, the birthplace of Victor Hugo is famous for its watchmaking.

Places of interest

Arbois

Surrounded by vineyards, Museum of Wine and Wine Growing, Pasteur Family Home and Museum

Belfort

Sandstone lion sculpted by Bartholdi, castle and Vauban fortifications, cathedral, planetarium and tropical aquarium; Palais Granvelle, Memorial and Museum of the French Resistance, fine arts museum

Champlitte

Museum of Folk Art and Franche Comté Traditions, Albert Demart Museum

Dole

Lovely old town, Louis Pasteur's birthplace

Gray

Baron Martin Museum

Luxeuil-les-Bains

Tour des Echevins Museum and Abbey

Morains-en-Montagne

The House of Toys

Morez

Eyeglass Museum

Morteau

Watch museum

Ornans

Gustave Courbet birthplace and museum

Ronchamp

Chapel of Notre-Dame du Haut de Ronchamp designed by Le Corbusier

Saline Royale d'Arc et Senans

Royal Salt Works

Salins-les-Bains

Salt mines and tunnels

Sochaux

Peugeot Museum

Vallée de la Loue

Courbet Museum.

Technical tourism and sports

Wine vineyards and cellars of Arbois, Pupillin, Côtes du Jura, Etoile and Chateau-Chalon. Peugeot automobile factory in Sochaux, watch factories in Besançon, pipe factory in St. Claude.

Cross-country skiing, fly-fishing, canoeing/kayaking, hiking, ballooning, houseboating, barging.

Cuisine

Starting with a local Pontarlier - aniseed liqueur, kirsh - a cherry flavored liqueur, diners here can enjoy delicious regional fare such as bresi - cured beef, cooked Morteau sausage and Luxeuil ham. Freshwater fish such as trout, grayling, pike and perch are also local specialities. To accompany the meal there is the rare wine known as vin de paille, as well as vin jaune, yellow wine and vin du jura, Jura wine. Cheeses of the region are Comté, Morbier, Vacherin and Cancoillotte.