Sebastian le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), was a French military engineer and adviser to King Louis XIV. What Kilroy was to the twentieth century, Vauban was to the seventeenth. Wherever you went in Western Europe, Vauban had already been there and had designed, built, strengthened — or conquered — Read More …
Near Napoléon’s tomb in the Dôme des Invalides, in one of the side niches, is a monument to another remarkable man, Sebastian le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), a French military engineer and adviser to King Louis XIV. Unlike most military officers in the seventeenth century, Vauban did not belong to Read More …
OK, I admit it. I chose this hotel because of the name. But it turned out to be a pleasant and convenient place to stay, so I can heartily recommend it even to those who are in Besançon for other reasons. The hotel is in one of the historic stone Read More …
More than a hundred meters above the old town of Besançon, Vauban’s Citadel covers eleven hectares on the top of Mont Saint-Etienne. Besançon was controlled by the Spanish until 1674, when it was besieged and conquered by a French army of about 70,000 men under Vauban’s direction. Under one of Read More …
This “Space of Vauban” is located in one of the buildings in the Citadel of Besançon. It currently consists of four exhibition rooms which “explore the life and times of Vauban and other important figures and places including Louis XIV, Versailles and Molière.” Some of the exhibits “retrace the two Read More …
For each of his citadels, Vauban designed a simple chapel so the soldiers could attend Sunday mass. The one in Besançon is dedicated to Saint Étienne (Saint Stephen), in memory of a church by that name that was demolished to make room for the citadel. Vauban himself was a practicing Read More …
Palais Granvelle is a sixteenth century Renaissance palace was built from 1534 and 1547 on the Grand Rue, the main street in the center of Besançon. At that time the Franche-Comté and Burgundy did not belong to France, but were ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558). His Read More …
This fort is on a hill at the northwest end of Besançon, on the opposite side of the city from the Citadel. It was named after an Italian engineer and architect called Jean Griffoni, who built a small fort on this site in 1595. (So it was not named after Read More …
At 3 rue du Taur, just off of Place du Capitole, there is a Gibert Joseph bookshop. This is one of a chain of bookshops that can be found in various French cities, especially near the universities. I have always liked Gibert Joseph because I used to buy my books Read More …
When you come out of the Toulouse-Matabiau railway station, the first thing you see is the Canal du Midi — unless you just cross the bridge without even noticing it. By today’s standards, the Canal du Midi (Canal of the South) does not look particularly monumental, in fact it looks Read More …