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Home > Travel France > France Destinations > Besancon
Besancon
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and comprises various overseas islands and territories which are located in other regions. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. At 674,843 square kilometers, France is the world's 40th-largest country after Myanmar. France is a member of The European Union and Paris is the capital of this nation. The sole official language of France is French. Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, migrations, and invasions.
Besancon is located precisely at the bottom of the mountainous area of the Jura massif and at the beginning of the large cultivable plains of Franche-Comte, in the middle of the department of Doubs, and about 100 kilometers from Dijon in Burgundy, Lausanne in Switzerland and Belfort and neighboring Alsace and Germany.
Besancon also fits in a particularly incredibly natural geographical site an immense almost perfect natural loop with a diameter of almost 1 kilometer, formed by the, buckles perfectly closed and overhung by the mount Saint Etienne, a high plateau open on the Jura and abrupt on the side of the city, whose peak is completely covered with an immense citadel of Vauban, the whole surrounded by 7 hills and as many forts, like the city of Rome.
Besancon also has one of the finest city art galleries in France outside Paris. The Musee des Beaux Arts has a collection built up since 1694, and expanded over time by a remarkable series of bequests. The building itself was totally rebuilt in the 1960s by the architect Miquel, a pupil of Le Corbusier, its interior taking the form of a gently rising concrete walkway that takes visitors up from classical antiquity to the modern age. Among its treasures are a fine collection of classical antiquities and ancient Egyptian artefacts, as well as a very rich collection of paintings including works by Bellini, Titian, Rubens, Jordaens, Zurbaran, Cranach, Fragonard, Boucher, David, Ingres, Gericault, Goya, Picasso, Courbet, Constable, Bonnard, Matisse and many others.
The city is famous for its micro technology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of micro technologies. The city has a little-known specialty, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc.
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