Top Franche-Comté hotels
Gray is an interesting town at the Saône river and had been the nothermost stop on our houseboat trip. We found a nice place to moor, and enjoyed walking through the streets with the old houses. The Hôtel de Ville (townhall) with its "decorated" roof was very impressing and of course the church "Notre Dame" is also worth a visit. And if you'd like to travel by houseboat, you can rent such boats there at the port.
Montfaucon is a little town near Besançon with a fort and a ruined mediveal castle. Also there's a nice viewpoint from which you have a wonderful view on the Doubs and Besançon with its citadel. It's great there! The viewpoint is on the top of the hill where Montfaucon is sitting at, next to a transmitting station. There's a map and information on walking paths and below you'll see the ruined castle. It's from the 11th century and is probably interesting to visit, but there's no way to drive there so that you have to walk quite a bit. I wished we had more time!The fort instead is not far from the viewpoint, but it seems it's military property and cannot be visited. There were several warning signs at the path saying "Domaine Militaire. Défense d'entrer" which I think means that you're not allowed to enter. However the hiking path went that way, and on that warning sign you could see...
Besançon is the capital of both the Franche Comté and the Doubs department. It's a town with lots of historic buildings, and its interesting to walk through the streets of the centre. The landmark of Besançon is its huge citadel, which sits above the town and is one of the creation of Vauban. The citadel can be visited and houses a zoo, an aquarium, and some museums.Besançon is located at the Doubs river, with a nice path along the river. And if you don't want to walk all the time you can take one of the many bycicles that you find on the cycling stations at lots of places! More on Besançon can be found on my Besançon VT page.
Dole is a lovely town at the Doubs river and the Rhine-Rhône-Canal. It was the capital of Franche Comté until the late 17th century when Louis XIV conquered that region.Dole is the perfect stop for houseboat travellers, there's a port directly below the old town. But of course Dole is also worth a visit for those traveling by car or train! Strolling around the narrow winding lanes of the old town is just nice, and if you want you also can learn something about Louis Pasteur in the museum in his house of birth. For more information please check my Dole VT page.
Ornans is a lovely town and is called the "Venice of Franche-Comté" because of its nice houses at the Loue river. In the tourist information, you can get a free booklet on the town with city map, information on sights and much more. It's in French, English and German. When you follow the circuit outlined in that booklet you will see most interesting sights and places.On the main street there are many shops and restaurants, so you don't need to leave hungry. And if you are up to walking you can climb up to the rocks and enjoy the view from there. I'm sure the tourist information can provide you with information on all the walking paths.
The Source du Lison at Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne is a great natural site, with a nice waterfall and cave behind, a pool with huge rocks around, and another cave that can be visited by adventurous people! I hadn't expected it to be so interesting there, but in the end we spend 2 hours there. All sights are well signposted and there are also several information plates, in French, English and German.The waterfall the the cave behind with the source are great, and there are also picnic benches - the perfect place! And this other cave, called "Grotte Sarrazine" is fascinating, a large cave system which had been quite under water when we've been there. But it was still interesting to go some steps into this dark cave!Some kilometers away there's another interesting sight: the "Pont du Diable", i.e. Devil's Bridge. It's a small bridge for just one car, on the street from Crozet-Migette to...
The "Cascades du Hérisson" are seven waterfalls of the Hérisson river, the hightest of them being 65 m high. It took us about 2,5 hours to see all waterfalls and it was gorgeous! It's not circuit, but that makes it possible to see all the waterfalls twice. :-) The path is well signposted and at several waterfalls you found signs with information on them (French only). You either can start at the western end, coming from Doucier, or the eastern end at Ilay. From what I read the car-park at the western end costs 4 € per car (April to September), and there's also the museum "Maison des Cascades" (4 € adults, 2 € children).We started at the eastern end instead, there's a free car-park next to Ilay on the D39 near the crossing with the D75. From there it's just 10 minutes to the Saut Girard, which already is great with it's 35 m. Nearby you can get some crêpes or ice cream. From there you...
The Langouette gorge can easily be visited as you don't have to walk much. Directly from the bridge on the car park you can view down the 47 m deep small gorge with its rapid river. At the parking you'll find a map with a 1-hour-hiking-tour which also goes up to the village, but we just walk part of it along the gorge to see the waterfalls and more of the gorge. We went up to the old saw mill with its great waterfall and then returned on a road to the parking. It was very nice there, the gorge is really impressing!
We only discovered the Cascades de la Billaude by chance, as the N4 was blocked and we therefore had to drive a detour. There's a car park and on the other side of the street a hut where ice cream and crèpes is sold.There are two possibilities to watch the waterfall - from above or below. To see it from above there's a viewpoint (belvédère) which is a 60-meters-walk. You just need to go a few steps down and you can see the waterfall. To see the waterfall from below is more trying: You first need to walk on a path along the street and then there are steep steps down. The steps were partly very high and washed out, so it was not easy to walk there. The sign said that it's 300 meters until you are down, but I'd say it was more. However when you are down you have a very nice view on the waterfall. From here you see pretty good that it's a double waterfall. The path ends here and there's no...
Champagnole was a nice stop on our way to the Cascades du Hérisson. There's a very long main street with lots of shops and restaurants, and with lots of traffic. Just a few steps away in a deep valley is the Ain river, with a nice path along it. It was really weird - you just had been in the busy street and suddenly you were in the nature with the rushing river and no sign of the town! At the tourist information there's a map showing where you can go, and near the tourist information where the "street" goes down there's the same map.Also worth a visit is the church which was build in 1750. It's quite bright and has a baroque altar from the early 17th century that came from a cloister in Poligny. Next to the church on the same place is the Hôtel de Ville, i.e. the townhall, that was build 1830. A few steps down the street you'll find the Château d'Eau which was build as watch tower and...
De Paris Hotel Besancon Besançon
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