FRANCHE-COMPTE TOURIST INFORMATION

Tourist information about the individual Franche-Compte departments of Haute-Saone, Doubs, Juras and Territoire Belfort can be found through every property details page along with tourist information about the local towns, tourist attractions and information about events happening in Franche-Compte.

FRANCHE-COMPTE TOURISM

Once a part of Burgundy, Franche-Comté - Free County- struggled to remain independent of the French crown, and was a province of the Holy Roman Empire until annexed by Louis XIV in 1674.

Besançon, the capital of Franche-Comté is an elegant 17th-century city with a tradition of clockmaking. Topographically the France-Comté is divided into two, with gently rolling farmland in the Saône valley and high Alpine scenery to the east.

Being a cattle breeding region, (Famous Limousin cattle) Franche-Comté has developed a wide variety of good quality delicatessen products. Smoked on farms in a tuyé (a large smoking chimney) the salt meats vary : brési (dried smoked beef), Morteau sausage, Luxeuil ham, Montbéliard sausage, Ballon des Vosges smoked shoulder. These delicatessens exhale an array of varied flavours including pine and juniper.

Franche-Comté produces local and Jura wines. A region of fruit trees, Franche-Comté is also a producer of brandies and particularly typified liqueurs: kirsch from Fougerolles and from Mouthier and, among others, pine and gentian liqueur. It even produces a traditional local apéritif: the anis from Pontarlier. Tradition lives on in the folk groups of Franche-Comté.

This forest country of Alpine brooks filled with trout is also the home of fabulous cheeses, notably Vacherin and Comté, and of the didtinctive yellow wine of Arbois.