France – Besançon (En)
Besançon is a city in eastern France, near the border with Switzerland. The old town is located in a horseshoe-shaped bend on the banks of the Doubs River. The sprawling citadel of Besançon stands on a hill and is home to 3 museums, a zoo and 600-metre-long walls.
Where to stay
We stayed in the city’s motorhome area (47.237061, 6.016338 lat, long) which costs 7 euros from 9 am to 7 pm and is free on holidays. It has to fill and empty grey and black water but it isn’t easy to access the area because it is very narrow. We stayed two days and paid only 7 euros because one day was a holiday, Labor Day. The area is in front of the Doubs River and very close to the old town, a 5-minute walk.
What to see
We walked with Asha towards the old town along the banks of the river where you have incredible views, and the first thing we found was the Church of Saint Magdalene, built between 1746 and 1766, and its towers were completed in 1830. The church has a collection of very well-preserved paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. The interior is considered one of the best examples of 18th-century French religious architecture.
We crossed the river and entered the historic centre, located at the foot of the citadel where we walked along Main Street and the Revolution Square, places of great animation, we saw the old Jesuit school, the town hall, the Church of Saint Pierre, historical monument of the 18th century, the Granvelle palace, magnificent Renaissance building that now houses the Museum of Time, dedicated to watchmaking and the Church of Saint Maurice of the 4th century which underwent repairs in the 19th century and now has a beautiful Jesuit façade finished with bells.
We continue our way to the Citadel and find Castan Square where in 1870 remains of a semicircular amphitheatre and columns were found as part of a theater. And we arrive at the Saint-Jean cathedral, with its splendid astronomical clock of 30,000 pieces. Next to the cathedral is the Hotel Boituset, a historical monument from the 18th century. The citadel of Besançon is a masterpiece of the engineer Vauban and constitutes an extraordinary testimony of the military architecture of the 17th century. In addition to the fortifications, it has some interesting museums: the Comtois Museum, the Vauban space, the Museum of Resistance and Deportation, and the Museum of Natural History with its zoological garden. We couldn’t enter because there were wild animals loose inside and they don’t allow dogs, and we had Asha with us. It can also be accessed by bus, since the hill is quite steep, although we did it on foot.
We left the citadel and went through another part of the old town where we found more historical monuments such as the Theater with an auditorium in the shape of an amphitheatre and the old abbey of San Vicente from the 11th century.
What to eat
We decided to have lunch in the town hall square, at an Iguana Cafe restaurant where the waiter spoke Spanish quite well. We had the dish of the day for 11 euros including a delicious vegetable soup, beef with pepper sauce, carrots, zucchini and potatoes gratin with cheese. And they gave us some sweets for dessert. I highly recommend it, since everything was delicious and for 11 euros!
And we went to Mulhouse, the creative centre of Alsace, where our friends Hanna and Stuart joined us, which you can see in the next post!
