Besançon Things to Do

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Museum of the Resistance and Deportation
A poignant witness to this period of history

20 rooms spread over two floors examine, with the help of photographs,
writings, documents and original objects, themes linked to the
second world war; Nazism and its origins, the war and
the Vichy regime, the deportation, the resistance in
Franche-Comté, in France, Europe-wide and the Liberation.

Plan to spend one to two full days here.

Besançon is a great destination for hikers. The old city is actually on the edge of the town, and there is an easy circular hiking trail round the loop of the river Doubs, taking you through a 19th century canal tunnel beneath the Citadelle. From there, you can get out easily onto some great out-of town hiking trails, well signposted by the city council and the neighbouring authorities. A two hour hike takes you to the top of the Montfaucon mountain, three hundred metres above the valley; from here on a fine day you can see up to 100 miles in all directions, as far as Mont Blanc, the Vosges, and the hills of Burgundy.

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There are several nice fountains in Besançon, one on the Jean Cornet Square. The fountain was build in 1900 and replaced another fountain that was destroyed. The text "Utinam" which you find under the fronton is the motto of the town, also found as "Plût à Dieu" on other buildings.
Another nice fountain is on the Place de la Révolution.

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The Museum of Time is located in the Granvelle palace, which was build in the 16th century.
It's showing some nice clocks from different times and there are exhibitions about other things that have something to do with time (for example heart pacemaker), but unfortunately all information is in French only. Also there's so much space, but it appeared to be pretty empty. And I didn't like the dark atmosphere... Nice were the hands-on exhibitions (they finally had multi-language explanations!) where you could experiment something. Altogether it was not so interesting as I expected.

Admission: adults 5 €, reduced (Saturday and with passport inter-museée) 2,50 €. Free on Sundays and for students and +60 years old..
The admission allows you to also visit the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie

Open daily except Monday and a few holidays from 9:15 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00, Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00.

The citadel was designed by Vauban for Louis XIV and was build between 1674 and 1711. I have to admit that I hadn't heard the name Vauban before, but suddenly I came across it pretty often. The citadel together with some other Vauban fortifications were recently added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The citadel today houses several museums - the Musuem of the Resistance and the Deoportation, Franche-Comté Museum, insectarium, ecological aquarium, noctarium and musuem of natural history. I assume you'll need to spend quite a lot of time there to visit it all!

Admission: adults 7,20 € or 7,80 €, depending on season.

The opening times vary in the different months, please check their homepage. Museums closed on Tuesdays.

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On the Square Castan you'll find archeological remains from the Roman times. It is named after the archeologist who started excations there in1870. Earlier, there had been the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church. Today you will here see some Roman-Corinth columns and a semi-circular place which presumably has been a Roman theatre. There's an information plate at the place with information in French, English and German.

In some courtyards, you'll find staircases, outside the building, to save space. It's not easy to find them unless you know where to look. Also often the courtyards are behind a door and we weren't sure if we can enter it nevertheless. But we found one which easily can be viewed as the courtyard is open, it's in street "Rue des Granges", house number 75.
Here's a list of other houses that were mentioned in a guide about the Besançon:
Rue des Granges: number 16, 17, 21, 75
Grande Rue: number 53, 76, 103, 108

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The cathedral was build in the 12th century and was rebuild several times throughout the times. The entrance to the cathedral is on the north side, and on the west side you will find the entrance to the Astronomical Clock. The church can be visited for free, but for the Astronomical Clock there are guided tours to visit it.