The Besançon citadel, now listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site, was designed by Vauban sits high above the town on a rocky spur. From the ramparts I could see the river doubling back on itself almost completely surrounding the old town.
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| View from Citadelle towards Besançon's old town
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Along with the zoo, aquarium, insectarium and nocturnal house the 11 hectare site houses the Musée Comtois and the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation. The latter really touched me although I did find that there was far too much information to take it all in. There are some photos, letters and personal effects that have left an indelible mark on me. The images were harrowing but I am glad that I visited it. The displays in the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation were only in French although there was some documentation of the highlights available in other languages. I didn't check the quality of the translations but translations in the Musée Comtois were quite poor. I didn't visit either the zoo or the nocturnal house as they don't particularly interest me and so I prefered to spend time on the other areas.
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| View from Citadelle towards Besançon's old town |
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| Looking futher back along the river from Citadelle ramparts |
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| Espace Vauban and Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation |
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| Muséum de l'histoire naturelle |
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Radio equipment, false papers, plans and codes used by the Resistance
Citadelle de Besançon
99, rue des Fusillés - 25042 BESANCON
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I love Besancon. When we had our apartment in the Haute Savoie, near Evian we would regularly use Besancon for a stopover. Our children were young when we visited the Museum of the Resistance so we only got to take in a very small amount of what was there. I think soewhere near on a hillside is a massive set of memorials.
RépondreSupprimerI haven't seen the memorials but we are planning to return to Besançon tomorrow so I will try and find out more about it. There was a very nice memorial within the walls of the Citadelle but it wasn't huge.
Supprimerle memorial , c'est a la chapelle des buis ^^
RépondreSupprimerMerci Agnès. C'est noté.
Supprimer