Besançon

Besançon is the capital and principal city of the region of Franche-Comté in eastern France. It had a population of about 220,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 1999. Located close to the border with Switzerland, it is the capital of the department of Doubs. Besançon is located in the north-east quarter of France on the Doubs River. It is about 325 km east of the national capital of Paris, 100 km east of Dijon in Burgundy, 125 km northwest of Lausanne in Switzerland, and 100 km southwest of Belfort in Franche-Comté. It is located at the edge of the Jura Mountains.

The city initially developed in a natural meander of the Doubs River with a diameter of almost 1 km. The flat inner loop has an elevation of about 250 m and is bounded to the south by a hill called Mont Saint-Étienne, which has a maximum height of 371 m. The city is surrounded by six other hills which range in elevation from 400 m to 500 m: Brégille, Griffon, Planoise, Chaudanne, Montfaucon, and Montboucon

Besançon is situated at the crossing of two major lines of communication, the NE-SW route, following the valley of the river Doubs, and linking Germany and North Europe with Lyon and southwest Europe, and the N-S route linking northern France and the Netherlands with Switzerland. A key staging post on the Strasbourg-Lyon (Germany-Spain) route, it also has direct high-speed train (TGV) links with Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport, and Lille. Unusually for a town of its size, it does not have a commercial airport, though two international airports, EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Lyon Saint-Exupéry International Airport, can be reached in about 2 hours.