Scratching the Surface of Besançon

16/04/2025

After our waterfall walk in the Jura mountains, we dropped down to the city of Besançon where we planned to spend a couple of days. The aire in Besançon is very central to the city centre so we were hoping for somewhere I could work during the day and still get some sight seeing in during the evening. Our couple of days here were a good introduction to the city but we will definitely be back to see more.

Besançon aire

The historic centre of Besançon nestles in an ox-bow on the River Doubs. The aire is just on the other side of the river where the rest of the city sprawls out across the nearby land. It’s a great location, down below the roads in a little-used car park. Reviews mentioned the steep descent into the parking area but in all honestly it wasn’t a problem, we saw some pretty big Concordes making the entrance and exit with ease. Our only concern was whether it would allow me to work, being in a dip would we get enough solar and a good enough signal?

When we turned the corner into the motorhome area we found that all of the official spaces were taken. A quick check of signal revealed that there was strong 4G for work so we decided to park up in a normal space and wait for someone to leave. We scanned the QR code on the parking machine which took us to the tourist info website to find that actually we could park anywhere in this car park so long as we paid for our overnight stay. A very lenient and welcome approach to motorhome parking. We re-arranged ourselves to ensure we were only taking up one space (not necessary, but something we can do now we have our new smaller van) and were maximising the solar to keep my laptop charged. After searching for a working ticket machine we paid for our first night, happy that we wouldn’t need to move.

Parked up in Besançon aire

We’d arrived on a Monday but the aire was still busy and by the evening there were probably another half a dozen vans in the overflow as well as a full aire. It was also the first time for a while that we’d seen such a wide variety of nationalities including a couple of UK vans which gave us a nice opportunity for an easy chat in English.

Besançon city

Besançon is a university city and one of the first things we noticed on our wander around the city that evening were the university buildings surrounded by groups of students. It gave the city a lively atmosphere and probably contributes to the plethora of food options from many different cultures.

We walked along the riverside promenade on our side of the river and took in the surrounding buildings. Across the river, on the inner edge of the ox-bow, is another promenade so it looks as though you can walk around the entire circumference of the old city. Another evening we tried to follow it, but quite a lot of work was going on, blocking the path at several points.

In the city we found the Tourist Information office and picked up leaflets for three self guided walking tours of the city. These can be a godsend, saving a lot of research time by pointing out the interesting features of the city. We used them for the next couple of evenings. Finding our way around the centre of the city and slightly further afield.

Many of the buildings seem to be from the 18th century, built in the same blocks of limestone which looks grey from a distance but is actually a mottled blue and beige. Some of the more modern buildings echo this, giving the whole of the city centre a very uniform appearance.

The city was fortified by Vauban in the 17th and 18th century. We didnt make it up to the citadel, but we did wander over to the Parc Glacis which is a public space on some of the old fortifications.

Sculpture ‘The Man and The Child’ by Ousmane Sow,

We also found some older buildings including the remains of the Roman amphitheatre (not very photogenic and easily missed if you don’t know its there) and the renaissance galleries of the Hotel de Champagney.

The city is famous for it’s watch and clock making. Often in competition with next door Switzerland. We saw a coupe of clock making artisanal shops in town with some unique pieces, but it appears that the majority of the industry transitioned to micro electronics.

Museum buildings in Place del la Revolution

The famous people of Besançon

There is a long list of famous people associated with the city, as you might expect. The University of Louis and Marie Pasteur is so named because of the Pasteur family links to the city. Louis’ father was born here and Louis studied here for a while. A slightly tenuous link but you can understand why it’s important to the city.

Memorial to the Pasteurs

Another person who didn’t stick around for long was Victor Hugo who was born here but only lived here for six weeks. His father was in the army and moved posting shortly after he was born. We didn’t visit the exhibit in the house of his birth as it was closed during our wanders, as were the other museums. When we’re back it will be interesting to find out more.

Of all the people we had heard of, it was the link to the marvellous chef Raymond Blanc that most stuck in our minds. As we were doing our services on our last day a man approached us and asked if we were from Ukraine. When we explained that the UK sticker stood for United Kingdom his response was an excited “Raymond Blanc”. He then explained that he was friends with the chef. Whether exaggerated or not it is true that Raymond Blanc was born near Besancon and was employed in the city before moving to the UK. A trip to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons is a true bucket list item for us. Hopefully we’ll make it there one day.