Besancon France
4
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Frequently Asked Questions
At the Doubs quays, a few minutes from the historic centre. The city curls inside an almost perfect loop of the river, sealed off by a rocky spur.
A passage cut beneath the citadel rock, which some barges use to cut across the Doubs loop rather than going around it. It is one of the curiosities of navigation in Franche-Comté.
Because Vauban considered it one of his major works, and UNESCO agreed by listing the fortifications in 2008. Built between 1668 and 1683 on the rock that closes the meander, its bastioned fronts stand more than a hundred metres above the river.
The Resistance and Deportation memorial, exhibits on the history of Franche-Comté, and also a zoo and insectarium set up in the former barracks, which children enjoy a great deal. You climb up for the view and stay for the museums.
On foot by a steady climb from the old town, or by tourist shuttle. The slope is real: anyone who walks with difficulty should plan on the shuttle.
Because it has made watches since the eighteenth century. The Museum of Time, housed in the Palais Granvelle and its Renaissance courtyard, displays movements, clocks and chronometers, with a whole floor devoted to the measurement of hours.
A nineteenth-century machine in Saint-Jean cathedral, at the foot of the citadel, driving thirty thousand parts and dozens of dials to show tides, eclipses and calendars. Visits are guided and run at set times: check the schedule on arrival.
It follows the line of the Roman road and climbs from the Pont Battant: grey-blue Comtois facades, mansion courtyards, and the house where Victor Hugo was born in 1802, now a museum devoted to his causes. At the top, the Porte Noire, a second-century triumphal arch, marks the entrance to the cathedral quarter.
Long-aged Comté, creamy cancoillotte, Morteau sausage smoked in a tuyé, and wines from the neighbouring Jura, including the singular vin jaune. The Beaux-Arts covered market is the place to build a basket before heading back down to the river; for something sweet, look for Fougerolles cherries in kirsch.
The euro and French. Cards work everywhere. The Quai Vauban and its seventeenth-century arcades give the best view of how the city relates to its water, a few steps from the mooring.
