Besançon is a convenient stop off the motorway from Switzerland to Paris, but it has significant attractions, particularly its 17th century citadel, one of the fortifications designed around the peripheries of France by Louis XIV’s military engineer the Marquis de Vauban, which together make up a Unesco world heritage site. The Old Town is contained in a loop of the river Doubs ( quite a big river here already, but a tributary of the Saone), and Vauban’s citadel is on a steep hilltop at the neck of the loop.
The sultry weather of yesterday broke last night, with heavy rain, which continued most of today. Switzerland is not nearly so scenic in the pouring rain, a phenomenon which anyone who has holidayed in the Lake District will appreciate.The drive was easy, however, despite heavy spray. Swiss motorways are in good condition, with no roadworks to be seen. Switzerland, even though not being in the EU,is part of Schengen, but there still seems to be a customs issue at the border ,as there was a long queue of lorries, and small vehicles had to slow down through a chicane past a group of Police ,who looked ready to stop someone they didn’t like the look of. The French motorway on the onwards route was even better, although I did have to pay at intervals, presumably one of the reasons the traffic is relatively light.
Once in Besancon,I tried getting into a dedicated campervan section of a carpark on the quay across the river from the old town but all the large official camper places were taken at 2pm.There were ,however,plenty of normal spaces in the rest of the car park ,which also allowed 24 hour parking ,but I had to pick my spot carefully to be able to get out if any cars parked next to me-always a consideration with a 6 metre van.7 Euros for 24 hours seemed very reasonable, compared to the extortionate Swiss campsite I stayed in last night, which cost £24.In fact ,forget about a cheap holiday if you travel to Switzerland ,as the prices generally are at least twice that of Germany. Diesel was not quite so inflated but cost £1-20 per litre. France is about £1 per litre but across most of Europe I have been enjoying about 80p per litre.
I walked through the Old Town of Besançon which had to my way of thinking a really tangible French atmosphere, which is a clear contrast to the Nordic and Germanic towns I have been travelling through of late, including Lucerne(local name Luzern),which is in the German part of Switzerland. The architecture in the town is very unified, everything built of the same attractive stone, which is bi-coloured yellow and grey (even individual stones can be half grey, half yellow) and this gives a pleasant randomness to the stonework.
I climbed up to Vauban's citadel. At the foot of the hill on which it sits is a Roman gateway, erected in 175 AD in honour of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Through this is Besançon’s cathedral of Saint-Jean de Besançon, which has a Romanesque 11th century nave with later additions. It was a stiff climb from there up to the citadel, which is vast (6 acres).There is a lot to do inside, and one ticket buys you access to several museums and a significant zoo, whose inmates include big cats and primates. As a sign of its impregnability, there is a baboon colony down in the moat between the inner and outer fortresses and no fences are necessary to keep them in. I didn’t approve of the combined ticket, as the animals become just a curiosity on the side, but apparently it is fully signed up with other European zoos. Included in the price was a museum of Vauban and his fortification engineering, one about the province of Franche-Comté of which Besancon is the capital, and a museum of the Resistance and Occupation, which took one through the whole thing from the rise of Nazism to the end of WW2, and dwelt quite a bit on the collaboration in Vichy France, including French SS regiments recruited here, and the Milice, an unpleasant paramilitary Nazi French police force which hunted down patriots and resistance fighters. The citadel’s least patriotic moment was its period as a Gestapo prison and execution place. The exhibits brought back to me a film I remember, ”Lacombe Lucien”(Dir.Louis Malle) about someone sucked into this ambivalent and unpleasant world, with awful consequences.
The sultry weather of yesterday broke last night, with heavy rain, which continued most of today. Switzerland is not nearly so scenic in the pouring rain, a phenomenon which anyone who has holidayed in the Lake District will appreciate.The drive was easy, however, despite heavy spray. Swiss motorways are in good condition, with no roadworks to be seen. Switzerland, even though not being in the EU,is part of Schengen, but there still seems to be a customs issue at the border ,as there was a long queue of lorries, and small vehicles had to slow down through a chicane past a group of Police ,who looked ready to stop someone they didn’t like the look of. The French motorway on the onwards route was even better, although I did have to pay at intervals, presumably one of the reasons the traffic is relatively light.
Once in Besancon,I tried getting into a dedicated campervan section of a carpark on the quay across the river from the old town but all the large official camper places were taken at 2pm.There were ,however,plenty of normal spaces in the rest of the car park ,which also allowed 24 hour parking ,but I had to pick my spot carefully to be able to get out if any cars parked next to me-always a consideration with a 6 metre van.7 Euros for 24 hours seemed very reasonable, compared to the extortionate Swiss campsite I stayed in last night, which cost £24.In fact ,forget about a cheap holiday if you travel to Switzerland ,as the prices generally are at least twice that of Germany. Diesel was not quite so inflated but cost £1-20 per litre. France is about £1 per litre but across most of Europe I have been enjoying about 80p per litre.
I walked through the Old Town of Besançon which had to my way of thinking a really tangible French atmosphere, which is a clear contrast to the Nordic and Germanic towns I have been travelling through of late, including Lucerne(local name Luzern),which is in the German part of Switzerland. The architecture in the town is very unified, everything built of the same attractive stone, which is bi-coloured yellow and grey (even individual stones can be half grey, half yellow) and this gives a pleasant randomness to the stonework.
I climbed up to Vauban's citadel. At the foot of the hill on which it sits is a Roman gateway, erected in 175 AD in honour of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Through this is Besançon’s cathedral of Saint-Jean de Besançon, which has a Romanesque 11th century nave with later additions. It was a stiff climb from there up to the citadel, which is vast (6 acres).There is a lot to do inside, and one ticket buys you access to several museums and a significant zoo, whose inmates include big cats and primates. As a sign of its impregnability, there is a baboon colony down in the moat between the inner and outer fortresses and no fences are necessary to keep them in. I didn’t approve of the combined ticket, as the animals become just a curiosity on the side, but apparently it is fully signed up with other European zoos. Included in the price was a museum of Vauban and his fortification engineering, one about the province of Franche-Comté of which Besancon is the capital, and a museum of the Resistance and Occupation, which took one through the whole thing from the rise of Nazism to the end of WW2, and dwelt quite a bit on the collaboration in Vichy France, including French SS regiments recruited here, and the Milice, an unpleasant paramilitary Nazi French police force which hunted down patriots and resistance fighters. The citadel’s least patriotic moment was its period as a Gestapo prison and execution place. The exhibits brought back to me a film I remember, ”Lacombe Lucien”(Dir.Louis Malle) about someone sucked into this ambivalent and unpleasant world, with awful consequences.
The riverfront of Besancon's old town
 Of medical interest, Besançon was the home of Louis Pasteur |  The Roman gateway,erected in 175 AD in honour of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and beyond ,the Cathedral,originating from the 11th century |
 A view of Besançon and the loop of the river Doubs ,from the citadel ramparts |  A borrowed aerial shot which shows how vast Vauban's citadel is. |
The rain had abated by the evening and the sun briefly returned, allowing me a pleasant French pavement café experience for a drink and meal in one of Besançon’s squares, but rain has resumed again tonight at 10pm. Besançon’s Rugby heritage is in evidence ,as France are playing a friendly against Paraguay tomorrow night at the stadium here.
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