BESANÇON

Time is of the essence in the Doubs capital, as Lara Dunn discovers while keeping an eye on the clock

- Lara Dunn

There’s a serenity to the all-pervasive ticking of clocks and the occasional creak of the aged wooden floor on which I’m standing. As a self-confessed horologist, the Musée du Temps in Besançon is just what I imagine paradise to be like. Hundreds of timepieces surround me in the graciously proportioned rooms of the 16th-century Palais Granvelle, all doing their timely thing to a greater or lesser degree of accuracy, and offering a fascinating insight into the city’s oft-overlooked status as the historical watchmaking centre of France. Indeed, this city in the heart of the Jura region is arguably as important an horological landmark as the area known as Watch Valley, just a short distance away over the Swiss border. Timepieces tick out the very heartbeat of the city of Besançon.

Around the clock

Capital of the Doubs département, Besançon has a population of around just 120,000, and yet the city has an impressive presence that belies its modest size and fairly remote location in the east of France, on a bend of the River Doubs cradled by the Jura Mountains. This is a city with a story and I’ve been enjoying my long weekend here finding out all about it.

First mentioned in 58BC (as Vesontio), the Gaulish settlement’s defensive location established it as an important military town. During my stay, I found that Roman remains abound in the city, such as the Porte Noire – an intricately carved triumphal arch built under the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the second century, that stretches over what is now the Rue de la Convention, not far from the medieval Cathédrale Saint-Jean.