my parents had been waxing poetic about this city since they first visited on an official jumelage trip a few years ago ( which i didn't was a part of ), always telling me that the next time i would join them again, we absolutely had to visit besançon! they reported about the huge citadel ( and the many museums & zoo residing on the site ), the city's remarkable architecture ( it is one of france's most beautiful old towns apparently - dating back to roman empire, which shows in the many classical buildings ) and of course about 'la boucle' - the river doubs meandering around the old city center in the form of a horse-shoe.
so it was a done deal to visit besançon! and it definitely did not disappoint. i was absolutely overwhelmed with this city, and very positively so! we had remarkable weather that day and the view from the citadel down onto the city was breath-taking. we didn't look into all of the museums ( it was simply too much - even though i really would've loved to enter the museum of resistance and deportation ), but we strolled through the zoological garden and its various sections ( noctarium and aquarium ). it was splendid! of course i still wanted to see more of the city, so we decided to leave the other museums for another time ( hopefully ) and explored the city a little bit more, before we headed back to our little mountain village in the evening.
i chopped this trip into two posts, because i took too many photos that day, haha.
a very memorable thing about french cities are the roofs and chimneys! they have a distinctive form and style and you can always identify them as typically french.
the big stone ashlars were everywhere. they were a really striking detail in the city architecture.
quartier general de la division - quarter of the major general.
the fountains had this antique thing going on, you could find a lot of them in the city.
i wonder if this cafe really was a cat cafe. i didn't have a sneak peek inside.
la porte noire - the black portal. it is a triumphal arch from the second century, back when the romans resided in the city.
the tower of besançon's cathedral.
the baroque portal of the cathedral. we didn't go inside, another thing i have to catch up on in case i ever return.
to enter the citadel you had to climb quite a steep mountain, but you were rewarded with lots of beautiful views of the city whenever you stopped to rest. as you can see, the city is not solely made of old architecture, but also modern buildings and bridges. we didn't have time for more town exploring, but i would like to return in the future to have a closer look at the modern architecture the city has to offer. i could make out quite a few interesting buildings from afar.
finally at the top. the citadel is a world heritage site and was designed by the famous architect vauban.
overgrown citadel walls.
higher and higher we climbed the mountain and slowly got quite a good overview of the city.
the modern part of town.
before entering the front royal you had to pass by these fortified entry ways.
quite the ramparts. the walls are often around 5 to 6 metres in thickness.
down in the ditches you could spot baboons! this was the first clue that behind the walls, there was a zoo waiting for us. in order to get to the main section of the citadel you had to cross a bridge over the ditches. needless to say that we didn't cross the bridge for quite a while because we were watching and observing the baboons down there. it was surely mesmerizing.
baboon pondering the purpose of life - or something like that.
they made a lot of noise!
the well and the chapel of the citadel inside the courtyard.
a memorial dedicated to the deported of world war II.
from high above the citadel's fortification walls you had a splendid vista over besançon. the clouds up in the sky were adding to the magnitude of it all. they were flying in line right above us, or at least it seemed so.
la rodia - a concert hall down by the river doubs.
i seriously loved this part of the city. how diverse the bridges are in design. couldn't get enough of this sight.
the back of the citadel. there were sheep grazing on the grounds ( if you can spot them, say hello! ) the zoo was basically built into the ditches, which i thought was an amazing idea.
the complex of the citadel is so huge, you never quite can photograph its dimensions very well.
industrious quarter down in the doubs valley. it's still a beautiful place, isn't it?
'downtown' besançon. i love how it's so tight-fitted - where the trees in the back build a border, the doubs river flows around the inner city and anything beyond that is modern as you can perfectly see here.
one of the two main towers, not sure if it was the queen or the king tower.
more military structures.
the roofs of the citadel building kind of caught my vision.
next part will be about the zoo and the inner city.
Comments