Champagnole’s Mont Rivel

We woke up by the lake after a fairly quiet night - only interrupted by a few rainstorms.

It was starting to get busy with fishermen when we left. We said goodbye to the sheep and saw a big gingerbread man on the way - probably for the women’s Tour de France which passed here last week.

We drove to the bottom of a nearby hill Mont Rivel next to Champagnole. There are a few interesting things to see on it.

We found a parking spot in the nearby village and climbed up the rocky path finding some path markers here and there.

We first found a big water trough leading into where a ruined castle was supposed to be - but there was very little there - just walls on either side of the path.

We arrived at a ruined farm that is now a picnic area. The inscription over the door was from 1722.

We then continued upwards and found 2 quarries- a smaller upper ancient quarry and a large lower one used up to 1964.

The ancient one had been used to provide stone for the Gallo-Roman temple at the top of the hill.

It was a short walk uphill to the temple remains that are now totally covered in a metal roof.

We got under it to see the walls and big floor slabs still there. Apparently it was used until the 3rd century and then dismantled. It must have been very overgrown with a tree on top of it until it was cleaned up and covered.

We then headed down the paths to find Gus again.

and drove in the direction of a nearby historic town Nozeroy and had a van lunch with the view of the town.

We then drove into the camping car aire on the side of the old castle and were able to plug into free electricity.

The town was fortified in the 12th century and the walls are still there. There is not much left of the castle.

The town was very interesting with stories of the people who lived there in the 1300s through to the 1500s. One was a supporter of free rights and challenged the Catholic Church. Unfortunately after all his good work he died in prison - the church got him in the end!

The large clock is symbolic of the fact that lots of clockmakers lived here.

There were 5 convents here of which this is one. It was convenient to stash your female relatives here.

There was a very elaborate grave for Pajol - a high ranking General in Napoleon First’s army and also a politician. He came from Nozeroy.

We went into the adjoining church - a 15th century church.

It had an interesting plan of the town in 1787 showing the large convents and churches. There were 106 houses with the name of the occupant.

We were tired and thirsty after our tour but there were no bars or cafes open so we had to move on to our place for the night. We were in a boring shop car park on the edge of Besancon as we had to be there early at 8am to get our 2 new tyres fitted. It was a quiet night after all the kids went home from the skate park next door at 10pm.