Last Half of the Week in the Franche-Comte Region

    Early Wednesday morning I again drove to the boulangerie in nearby Ougney, and after breakfast we headed towards the Loue Valley to stop at some villages along the Loue River. Our first stop was the bustling town of Ornans. The big draw in Ornans is the Gustave Courbet Museum. Courbet was a French painter born in Ornans who was kind of a bridge between classical French painters and the Impressionists. He became quite well-known at an early age and lived in Paris for many years, where he disappointed his father, who wanted him to study law. Unfortunately for him, his political allegiance in the mid-1800's cost him a lot of support, as well as his freedom and nearly his life, and his artistic career as well as his life went into decline in the 1870's before he died in 1877. Eventually his childhood home in Ornans became a museum dedicated to his works, and we spent some time touring the museum. He was an incredibly prolific painter, and the museum in Ornans has an amazing collection of his paintings.

     After leaving Ornans we drove to Lods, another village on the Loue River,  Lods is classified as one of the Plus Beaux Villages de France (Most Beautiful Villages in France), and we stopped there and had a picnic along the Loue River and then took a walk into the center of the village high above the river.

                                   VIEWS OF ORNANS AND LODS

Coat of Arms of Lods

     We then left Lods and headed towards the Saugeais Valley and the Republic of Saugeais.  The Republic of Sugeais is an independent country, comprising 11 villages, which is recognized by no one except maybe some local residents. It was created as a joke by Georges Pourchet, a hotel owner in the village of Montbenoit, which became the political capital of the Republic, in 1947. Pourchet became its first President, and after his death in 1972, his wife, Gabrielle, was elected President for life by means of an applause meter. We first drove through Montbenoit, which looked pretty dead, and then drove to the economic capital of the Saugeais Republic, the town of Gilley, which was marginally more alive. After leaving the Saugeais Republic, without having been asked to show our passports, we drove to the large town of Morteau. The towns of Morteau and Montebeliard give their names to two types of sausages, which are widely sold in this part of France and known throughout the country. Earlier in the week we had picked up both Morteau and Montbeliard sausages from a butcher in the Besancon market hall, and had them as part of dinner. We didn't buy any Morteau sausages in Morteau, but we did buy a lot of chocolate at the outlet store next to the Klaus chocolate factory in the center of town. Klaus chocolates may be factory-made, but they are very good.

      Morteau was our last tourist stop for the day, although on the drive back to our gite we did stop in Ornans again and picked up something to cook for dinner. The gite has an electric barbeque grill which I used for the first time that night, to grill veal chops. With dinner we had a bottle of the Domaine Pigneret Mercurey Rouge that we had picked up at the beginning of our trip.

     The next morning, Thursday, we drove to Besancon, where we spent the entire day. Besancon is the largest city in this region, with about 120,000 residents, and the Doubs River runs through and around the city in a loop. We spent the morning just wandering around the center of town, and had lunch at a small restaurant. We then headed for what is undoubtedly the biggest attraction in Besancon – the Citadelle, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This old fortification, high above the river, is now run by the city, and is home to several museums, a large zoo, an aquarium, and an insectarium. We spent all afternoon in the Citadelle; the insectarium was especially fascinating, and the zoo has an incredibly diverse collection of animals, particularly primates.

                                    VIEWS OF BESANCON

Besancon and Doubs River from the Citadelle

      After leaving the Citadelle we made a detour to the market hall before heading to our car, which was parked just outside the old part of the town. We stocked up on cheese from a great fromagerie, and bought more veal chops to grill. We also found a vendor that had great-looking marinated anchovies, which we bought to have before dinner with a Cremant de Jura from Domaine Desiree Petit.

     On Friday morning, our last full day at the gite, we decided to take a short drive back through some towns we had passed through earlier in the week. We first stopped in Offlanges, which we had visited at the beginning of the week, because I wanted to check out Domaine de la Bougarde, the only wine producer in the northern Jura. In the mid-1800's, this area was covered in vines and well-known for its wines; three quarters of the wine production was sold outside the region. However, phylloxera wiped out the vineyards in the 1870's, and it was only when Domaine de la Bougarde was established in the 1970's and vineyards were replanted that wine production returned. The winery produces mostly vartietal wines with the appellation Vin de Pays de France-Comte from chardonnay, pinot gris, pinot blanc, and savignin grapes for the whites; and pinot noir and gamay for the reds. We just tasted the savignin, since it's a classic grape of the Jura, and liked it quite a bit. Since we had done a good job of whittling down our stock of wines, we bought a bottle to have with dinner.

     After leaving Offlanges we headed towards the village of Montmirey-la-Ville, which we had passed through earlier in the week and which has a chateau that we wanted to try to get a look at. We parked in a small lot on the road into the village across from the chateau, and walked in through the open gates. From the grounds we were able to get a much better view of the chateau than we did from the road the other day.  

Chateau in Montmirey

Friendly Chat (Cat) in Montmirey

        We left Montmirey-la-Ville after taking a stroll around the village, and returned to the gite for lunch.  On the way, we stopped to take a photo from the road of Chateau de Rocherambert, which we had seen on our drive the day we arrived at our gite.

     Among the wines we had left were 2 vintages of a Premier Cru Mercurey Blanc from Domaine Michel Juillot, where we had stopped the day we arrived in France, and I opened one of them to have with lunch. Later in the afternoon we took a leisurely drive through some nearby villages that we had not been to yet. Today is a war memorial holiday in France, so most shops were closed and things were generally quiet in most villages.  We passed through one village that had a charming small chateau that we stopped to photograph.

      At the end of the day we returned to our gite for dinner.  We finished off the Royal Seyssel sparkling wine from Domaine Lambert before dinner, and then with dinner we had the Domaine de la Bougarde Savignin we had bought earlier in the day.  Tomorrow is clean up morning at the gite, then it's off to a chambre d'hote (bed and breakfast) outside Geneva for our last night.

The Last Half of the Week in Ornans

Wednesday was May 1, a French holiday roughly equivalent to Labor Day in the United States. Most shops were closed, but the boulangerie in town has had a sign up all week stating that they would be open on May 1, so that morning I took my usual walk there to pick up provisions for breakfast. It really is an outstanding bakery, with a terrific selection of breads, breakfast items like croissants and brioche, and cakes and pastries.

It was the first beautiful day in almost a week, so we decided to take a drive to visit several villages to the north of Ornans. The first stop was Rougement, another of the Cités de Caractere of the Franche Comté region.  Like so many villages in this region, it has an impressive church.  We also saw a sign indicating that one of the buildings was once a winemaker’s house. This part of the Franche-Comté once had a thriving wine industry, until phylloxera virtually wiped out the vineyards in the late 1800's, after which improved transportation brought lower priced wine from the Midi that finished off the wine trade here. Now, there are essentially no vineyards in the area, although I’ve read that a couple of growers are trying to revive vineyards and winemaking near Ornans.

After leaving Rougement we made a short excursion to Montbozon, a small village on the Ognon River with, once again, a lovely church.

We then drove to the larger town of Beaume-les-Dame, which we had driven through a couple of days ago on our way back from the Chateau de Belvoir. Being a holiday, pretty much everything was closed, but that meant that there were few people and very little traffic. We took a walk through the center of town, viewing the church and some beautiful old buildings.

We then headed back to Ornans by way of the village of Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. Mouthier is on the Loue River, and while it is not far from Ornans, we hadn’t stopped there when we were in the area 2 years ago.  It’s another Cité de Caractere, and was one of the most impressive we’ve seen. We parked at the bottom of the village and then walked up though the center to the top. Not surprisingly, there was an impressive church in the village.

Back in Ornans we had aperitifs in the courtyard of our gite, as it was finally sunny and warm. Later on we had dinner outside, the first time we had done that here. We were joined for dinner by the gite owner’s cat. The cat had appeared the first day we arrived, but as soon as he saw us he ran; the owner said he’s very afraid of strangers. However, while we were having dinner he appeared in the gateway between our gite and the owner’s house, sniffing the air and walking towards us. We were having veal chops, so I guess that’s what he smelled. He came over, and happily joined us for some veal.  After dinner we took our usual nighttime walk down to the center of Ornans and the pedestrian bridge over the Loue River.

Thursday was supposed to be a rainy day, so we had planned to drive into the nearby city of Besancon and go to a museum and otherwise spend some time indoors.  However, the day started off with some sun, so we changed our plans and instead drove to the village of Nancray to visit the Musée des Maisons Comtoises, an open air museum of old buildings of the Franche-Comté. It was a sprawling museum divided into different regions of the Franche-Comté, each containing several houses that had been moved from their original locations.  The buildings were furnished in their original styles, with explanations of their functions (such as the cheesemaker’s house and the bread baker’s house) and of the lives of the people who lived there.  It was a fascinating museum, and we spent several hours there.

After driving back to our gite in Ornans we had a late lunch with various cheeses and a rabbit terrine we had picked up at a boucherie in Rougemont the day before. After lunch we took another walk through the town, checking to see the progress the goats had made in clearing their land.  Back at the gite we had dinner, without the cat. Ann made tariflette, a baked dish from the Savoie region made with Rebluchon cheese and lardons (similar to bacon), and with it we had a Petite Arvine wine from the winery we had visited in Sierre, Switzerland.

Friday was our last full day in Ornans and the Doubs department, and in the morning we decided to visit Besancon, the largest city in the Doubs with a population of around 120,000. We had spent some time here a few years ago, principally visiting the magnificent old Citadel high above the Doubs River, which now houses a large zoo, gardens, and several museums. This time we parked in the same area as before and walked through the center of town to the indoor food market, which is one of the finest in France.  We spent some time wandering through the market, and although we were near the end of our trip and therefore couldn’t buy too much, we did pick up some items for lunch and dinner.  We then walked back to our car along the banks of the Doubs and drove back to our gite for lunch.

After lunch we decided to drive up to the chateau ruins high above Ornans.  We had seen lights there at night, and walkers heading up that way, but I wasn’t up for what was apparently a 2 ½ hour walk. However, I saw the Rue du Chateau on the map which looked like it was a driving route up to the chateau, and we decided to drive up there. I had read that the chateau had been destroyed on the orders of Louis XIV, and only the chapel remained. When we arrived at the top, we discovered that the ruins of the chateau was now a little village with several houses and a great view of the Loue River and Ornans.  The chapel, Chapelle St. Georges, was originally built in 1289 by the Count of Burgundy, and after being destroyed, was rebuilt in 1500. It is still in very good condition. Before leaving we took a walk even further up the hill, and got a great view of the chapel and the chateau ruins from above.

Ornans Church From Chateau Ruins

Chapelle St. Georges

Chapel and Chateau Ruins From Above

From Bugey Into The Jura

      On Saturday morning, after cleaning our gite we left Ambleon and drove to the big weekly market in Belley. It was a very large, busy market through the streets of the center of town, and we checked out all the vendors. We bought goat cheese from 3 different local producers, including one that we had visited on De Ferme en Ferme weekend and one that we had bought cheese from the prior Sunday at the fete in Lhuis.

Au Revoir Bugey

       After leaving the Belley market we drove straight to our next gite, in the village of Saligney in the Jura departement. We had spent a week in the Jura 5 years ago, in the more southerly, wine-producing area, but this time we were staying in the far northern part of the departement. Unlike the southern part of the Jura and the area we stayed in the first week of this trip, the northern Jura and surrounding regions have little or no wine production, although it's only about a one hour drive to the heart of the Jura wine area. Plus, we bought so much wine the first week that it's just as well we're not tempted by nearby wine producers. This way we can try to drink up a lot of the Savoie and Bugey wines we brought with us.

     While this area isn't known for wine production, there\s certainly plenty of cheese made here, mostly cow cheese. When we arrived at our gite, the owners presented us with a bottle of Jura wine, plus huge wedges of two well-known two local cheeses -- Comte and Morbier. Suddenly, our cheese supply had reached the level of our wine supply.

     After unpacking, we decided to take a short drive to the village of Pesmes, classified among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (Most Beautiful Villages of France). It started raining when we got there, but we nevertheless took a short stroll around the village. We managed to take a few pictures despite the rain, but decided to come back another day and take a more leisurely walk around town. Back at the gite we continued to try to make our way through the wines we had brought from the last region. A particularly outstanding wine was a sparkling Montagnieu that we had picked up at Domaine Peillot in the Bugey. Made from Chardonnay, Mondeuse and Roussette, the wine could have been mistaken for a Champagne, except that it was better than half the Champagnes I've had and a fraction of their price.

View of Ognon River From Pesmes

Alley in Pesmes

      On Sunday morning we decided to go to the city of Besancon in the Doubs departement. We needed to pick up some provisions, and while there were no weekly markets nearby, Bescancon has an indoor market hall that is open every day except Monday. While Bescancon is quite large, since it was Sunday, navigating the roads into town was not a problem, and we parked outside the center and walked into the central part of the city. The market hall was quite amazing. There were butchers, vegetable vendors, breads and other baked good, a couple of fishmongers, and 3 cheese vendors, each of which probably had a better selection than any cheese shop I've been to in the U.S. While we held off on buying cheese until later in the week when we plan to return, we bought a number of other things, including the regional Morteau smoked sausages, and three types of ravioli – eggplant, ham, and mushroom.

     After leaving Bescanson we drove back to our gite and had a simple lunch on the outdoor terrace. We had several cheeses and a salad, and a bottle of white Jongieux from Domaine Chevallier Bernard in the Savoie. White Jongieux is made from the Jacquere grape, which can make a very bland wine, but when done properly it can be superb. This wine was outstanding, with a floral nose and a lot of flavor. As a bonus, it was 11% alcohol, which helps when you're having it at lunch.

    Later in the afternoon we drove back to Pesmes, and this time the weather was more cooperative. We again took a walk around the village, but this time we could take more photos.

MORE VIEWS OF PESMES