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Regions à la carte
Eastern France
Region at a glance |
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 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.
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Places of interest |
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Arbois |
Surrounded
by vineyards, Museum of Wine and Wine Growing,
Pasteur Family Home and Museum |
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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 |
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Champlitte |
Museum
of Folk Art and Franche Comté Traditions, Albert
Demart Museum |
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Dole |
Lovely
old town, Louis Pasteur's birthplace |
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Gray |
Baron
Martin Museum |
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Luxeuil-les-Bains |
Tour
des Echevins Museum and Abbey |
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Morains-en-Montagne |
The
House of Toys |
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Morez |
Eyeglass
Museum |
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Morteau |
Watch
museum |
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Ornans |
Gustave
Courbet birthplace and museum |
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Ronchamp |
Chapel
of Notre-Dame du Haut de Ronchamp designed by Le
Corbusier |
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Saline Royale d'Arc et
Senans |
Royal
Salt Works |
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Salins-les-Bains |
Salt
mines and tunnels |
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Sochaux |
Peugeot
Museum |
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Vallée de la Loue |
Courbet
Museum. |
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Technical
tourism and sports |
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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. |
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Cuisine |
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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.
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