Holidays in Eastern France

in Eastern France, by Matilda
Betham-Edwards

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Title: Holidays in Eastern France
Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards

Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8936] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 27,
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HOLIDAYS
In
EASTERN FRANCE.
By
M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.
[Illustration: CHÂTEAU OF MONTBÉLIARD]
[Illustration: ORNANS--VALLEY OF THE LOUE (The Country of
the Painter Courbet.)]

PREFACE.
"Travelling in France without hotels, or guide-books," might, with very
little exaggeration, be chosen as a title to this volume, which is, indeed,
the record of one visit after another among charming French people,

and in delightful places, out of the ordinary track of the tourist. Alike in
the valley of the Marne--amongst French Protestants at Montbéliard--at
Besançon amid the beautiful scenery of the Doubs--at Lons-le-Saunier,
from whence so many interesting excursions were made into the
Jura--in the very heart of the Jura highlands--at Champagnole, Morez,
and St. Claude, it was my good fortune to see everything under unique
and most favourable auspices, to be no tourist indeed, but a guest,
welcomed at every stage, and pioneered from place to place by
educated ladies and gentlemen delighted to do the honours of their
native place. Thus it came about that I saw, not only places, but people,
and not only one class, but all, peasant and proprietor, Protestant and
Catholic, the bourgeoisie of the towns, the mountaineers of the
highlands, the schoolmaster, the pastor, the curé. Wherever I went,
moreover, I felt that I was breaking new ground, the most interesting
country I visited being wholly unfamiliar to the general run of tourists,
for instance, the charming pastoral scenery of Seine and Marne, the
picturesque valleys of the Doubs and the Loue, and the environs of
Montbéliard and Besançon, the grand mountain fastnesses, close-shut
valleys, or combes, the solitary lakes, cascades, and torrent rivers of the
Jura.
Many of the most striking spots described in these pages are not even
mentioned in Murray, whilst the difficulty of communication renders
them comparatively unknown to the French themselves, only a few
artists having as yet found them out. Ornans--Courbet's birth and
favourite abiding place, in the valley of the Loue--is one of these. St.
Hippolyte, near Montbéliard, is another, and a dozen more might be
named equally beautiful, and, as yet, equally unknown. New lines of
railway, however, are to be opened within the next few years in several
directions, and thus the delightful scenery of Franche-Comté will, ere
long, be rendered accessible to all. For the benefit of those travellers
who are undaunted by difficulties, and prefer to go off the beaten track
even at the risk of encountering discomforts, I have reprinted, with
many additions, the following notes of visits and travel in the most
interesting part of Eastern France, which, in part, originally appeared in
"Frazer's Magazine," 1878.

In a former work, "Western France," I treated of a part of France which
was ultra-Catholic; in this one I was chiefly among the more Protestant
districts of the whole country, and it may be interesting to many to
compare the two.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Valley of the Marne
CHAPTER II.
Noisiel: the City of Chocolate
CHAPTER III.
Provins and Troyes
CHAPTER IV.
Among French Protestants at Montbéliard
CHAPTER V.
St. Hippolyte, Morteau, and the Swiss Borderland
CHAPTER VI.
Besançon and its Environs
CHAPTER VII.
Ornans, Courbet's Country, and the Valley of the Loue
CHAPTER VIII.

Salins, Arbois, and the Wine Country of the Jura
CHAPTER IX.
Lons-le-Saunier
CHAPTER X.
Champagnole and Morez
CHAPTER XI.
St. Claude: the Bishopric in the Mountains
CHAPTER XII.
Nantua and the Church of Brou
APPENDIX.
Itineraries.--Outlines of Franc-Comtois History. Notes on the Geology
of the Jura
Index