Hotels in Besancon, France

A little about Besancon...

Besançon is the capital and principal city of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, with approximately 220,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 1999. Located close to the border with Switzerland, it is the capital of the Doubs department.

The city is famous for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has a little-known speciality, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc.

Besançon is the seat of the Université de Franche-Comté. As of 2006, there were approximately 20,000 students enrolled at the university, including around 3,000 foreign students. The city is also home of the École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM), a technological school with a strong reputation in the fields of microtechnology and mechanics and the worldwide famous Centre for Applied Linguistics which teaches ten languages to non-native speakers (French, Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) and any other known language on request and which welcomes more than 3000 students every year from all over the world.

Sites of Interest:
The city has one of the most beautiful historic centres of any major town in France. The old town, "la Boucle", is enclosed in a broad horse-shœ of the river Doubs, which is blocked off at the neck by Vauban's imposing Citadelle. The historic centre presents a remarkable ensemble of classic stone buildings, some dating back to the Middle Ages. Among the most visited historic monuments are:

the 16th century Palais Granvelle, built by Cardinal Granvelle, chancellor to the Habsburg emperor Charles V Vauban's citadel and remarkable riverside frontage
the St. Jean cathedral, dating largely from the 12th century
several Roman remains, notably the Porte Noire, a triumphal arch and the Square Castan.
The citadel, the city walls and Fort Griffon were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008, as part of the "Fortifications of Vauban" group.

Besançon also has one of the finest city art galleries in France outside Paris. The Musée des Beaux Arts has a collection built up since 1694, and expanded over time by a remarkable series of bequests. The building itself was totally rebuilt in the 1960s by the architect Miquel, a pupil of Le Corbusier, its interior taking the form of a gently rising concrete walkway that takes visitors up from classical antiquity to the modern age. Among its treasures are a fine collection of classical antiquities and ancient Egyptian artefacts, as well as a very rich collection of paintings including works by Bellini, Bronzino, Tintoretto, Titian, Rubens, Jordaens, Ruysdael, Cranach, Zurbarán, Goya, Philippe de Champaigne, Fragonard, Boucher, David, Ingres, Géricault, Courbet, Constable, Bonnard, Matisse, Picasso and many others. Perhaps the most remarkable of the city's masterpieces is the massive Virgin and saints altarpiece in the St. Jean cathedral, by the Italian Renaissance painter Fra Bartolomeo.

Museums, Aquariums and Zoos:
Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology
Museum of Time
Museum of French Resistance and Deportation in the Vauban's Citadel of Besançon.
Museum of Franche-Comté traditions
Museum of Natural history: zoo, aquarium, insectarium, noctarium, climatology

Annual cultural events and fairs:
Several major events occur annually in Besançon. One of the best-known is the Besançon Franche-Comté Music Festival, taking place in September, one of the oldest and most prestigious Classical music festivals. Besançon hosts other music festivals such has the Musiques de Rues Festival (street music) in October, the Franch Country Festival(country music) in August, the Jazz en Franche-Comté Festival in June or the Herbe en Zik Festival (french rock and variety) in May.

Transport:
Besançon is situated at the crossing of two major lines of communication, the NE-SW route, following the valley of the river Doubs, and linking Germany and North Europe with Lyon and southwest Europe, and the N-S route linking northern France and the Netherlands with Switzerland. A key staging post on the Strasbourg-Lyon (Germany-Spain) route, it also has direct high-speed train (TGV) links with Paris, Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and Lille. Unusually for a town of its size, it dœs not have a commercial airport, though two international airports, EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Lyon Saint-Exupéry International Airport, can be reached in about 2 hours.