Busy day in Besancon

We got up and immediately drove to our 8am appointment for 2 tyres for Gus. After checking Gus in we managed to find a nice bakery/cafe a short walk away and treated ourselves to coffee and pain au chocolate. We went back and the tyres were fitted - but as they had squeezed us in a short appointment there was no time for a wheel alignment. We then had to find another garage to do the alignment - and luckily on our 2nd try we found one that could do it then and there. They seemed to like that we were Australians so we’re very friendly. All this was done in French - so it stretched my French a bit - but I’m getting better.

After all this was done we wanted to check out the Citadel, the large fort on the hill, in Besancon. We parked up nearby and walked up the hill. We passed by a park that had the remains of a Roman amphitheatre and a water distribution tank from the city’s large aqueduct. Thus was excavated in 1870 after a church was knocked down.

We then immediately came to a huge gate - also Roman. It was erected around 175AD in honour of emperor Marcus Aurelius.

We then continued up the hill until we arrived at the entrance to the Citadel. It’s another fortress renovated by the famous architect Vauban in the 17th century. There were a few surprising things there - the little train arrived - it would have been a alot less effort getting up the hill - and then there were monkeys and an Andean goat in the dry moat. It was an unusual place for them but they seemed ok. The area didn’t seem very secure to keep the monkeys in.

There were good views from inside.

There are many layers of walls as in the standard Vauban construction.

Not only is this a large fort, it also houses 3 museums and a zoo. We first checked out the wildlife museum which had interesting fossils and fish.

There were live pike in one tank with other large fish looking quite threatening.

There were also a stuffed mangy looking koala and a hedgehog.

We then moved onto the war and resistance museum which told the stories of the war and the resistance. One inspiring member of the resistance was Germaine Tillion who helped smuggle people out of France. She was betrayed by a priest in 1942 and moved to a concentration camp in 1943. She survived it and wrote books about her experiences and became a professor in social sciences and history of WWII. She also worked in helping people in Algeria. she died in 2008 at the age of 100.

We had a final look around seeing some interesting areas of the fort and sculptures.

We then headed back down the hill and drove through a big tunnel under the Citadel to get out of the city.

We drove along the river to Salins Les Bains where we found a nice little campsite for the night. We had a cooling swim and sit in the sun while we got a clothes washing done and charged up our electric appliances.

We had a healthy dinner of chicken veg curry and dhal and watched some YouTube films on the Jura to find out what we still had to see. It was a cool night so we had a good sleep.