la citadelle de besançon

Came here in August 2014 with my family (Mum, Dad, sister, brother-in-law and Nephew). I'm a lover of history, so I enjoyed reading the bits of history around the Citadel and went in the Holocaust Museum which I found interesting despite not being able to speak French (all the information in there was written in French - I do not have a problem with this, but a small bit on each display with an English translation would have been nice).Unfortunately for the Citadel on the day we visited, it was cold, windy and grey skies. This made viewing the zoo a bit depressing in all honesty. The pens for some of the animals seemed a bit small and it really seemed like no work has been done on the outside pens at least since the zoo was installed at the citadel. My 2 year old nephew enjoyed it though, finding the monkeys, lemurs etc in particular very funny. For me though, it was just ok - better than staying in our holiday house anyway.

The Besancon fortress was great. We did all the museums and found them all interesting. The most striking was the Holocaust museum (very young children beware) Loads of history and surprisingly, a zoo there too (aquarium and insectarium as well) !! Great for a day out for the whole family.

Imposing fortress with an interesting history, set up to contain 2 museums and a zoo very well kept. The Comptois museum shows some interesting artefacts of the area and its history. In the zoo, monkeys, exotic birds, lions and tigers have enough space to move around, and I was surprised to see a good number of very young animals, born there. Possible to take nice pictures across the glasses. Nice walk on the top of the fortress wall, with a view on the city and the river.

This place is simply amazing. I brought my children when they were small & had such a lovely memory of it, that I brought them back again during a recent trip to the area and I wasn't disappointed!The noctarium alone is worth the visit! We love watching the rats scurry around in the dark. The zoo itself is just the right size & my children (ages 13, 11, 9 & 2) adored the petting-zoo area (baby bunnies!).The musée des résistants is incredible; it has SO much material and we were just floored by it. My eldest child & I could have spent the day here, but the younger children were very disturbed by it. I will come back to spend more time here, as it deserves a long, thoughtful visit.To sum it up, this is a truly great place, with many varied, intelligent, things to see and do.

One of the most interesting and prettiest fortress towns we've ever visited (and we've visited quite a lot including other Vauban fortified towns). The walk up can be strenuous from the town or easy if you drive and park or take the little tourist 'tractor train'. You can spend the whole day, there is local museum, a Vauban exhibition, and an excellent small zoo cleverly built in and around the moats and ramparts with animals happy and well managed evidenced by breeding well (lion cubs and baby gibbons when we were there.) Plenty of toilets and places for ice cream snacks drinks etc. Afterwards Bescanson old town is a sweet understated place to wander and window shop with some nice restaurants.

Caught bus from town square near tourist information. Interesting history and great views. Has cafe and little museums. Can spend all day. Steep walk on cobbled stones however can arrange lift with security if older/ disabled. Besancon is a picturesque town with many things to see and a good base for this beautiful wine growing area. Also short trip by car to Louis Pasteur house in beautiful Arbois, pretty Chateau Chalun, bath and salt museum at les Salins, and one hour to Palace of Dukes in Dijon and ancient hospital for the poor in beautiful Beaune.

First up, La Citadelle is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nuff said, like you just gotta visit, but I'll expound. Besancon is unique in France in that it is not yet hounded by the tour-bus crowd. Because it's not yet overly touristed, the city has a particular freshness to it. That's nice, coming from places like Tours (for the chateaux tours) and Paris (for a million reasons) where there are busloads of visitors. We walked up to the Citadelle from the middle of town with our kids, ages 9 and 7, who were most excited about seeing the animals at the zoo. When we arrived, we were already hungry, so we stopped off at the restaurant, Le Grand Couvert, and ordered a bottle of freezing cold Pinot gris (it was so sunny and hot this day that a bottle of cold wine at 10:30 am was well earned, trust me!), smoothies for the kids and a couple assiettes de fromage. Fabulous! We toured the ramparts of the fort to appreciate the grand views, and then it was off to see the animals. The kids were rapt; they saw monkeys, they saw big felines, they saw snakes, they saw bugs... It was great. They even got to play with the huge carp in the outdoor pool. These carp are so tame that you can touch them and stick your fingers in their mouths! There's a lovely petting zoo full of the most gentle and loving goats you've ever met, plus bunny rabbits and chickens. With kids or without, I think you might get a kick out of this place!! Highly recommended.

The history and culture of the Citadel - the Resistance Museum and the Deportation Museum in paerticular - were wonderful. Very sensitive and comprehensive overall. Unfortunately there wasn't a good restaurant nor cafe up there, so we couldn't sit down and enjoy a coffee or a glass of wine.

The citadel at besancon should not be missed. It is an incredible, imposing structure perched high up above the town. Park in one of the river side car parks and get a bus up or walk up the step steps or roadvto the top. Our legs were aching for a couple of days afterwards! Once entering the citadel you step back in time and views towards the jura and across the town are incredible. A walk around the ramparts is fabulous but not for those with vertigo. The children loved the little zoo and we spent lots of time in the little farm playing with the chickens and rabbits. A word of warning - although the sign advises that no children under ten should go to the second floor of the resistance museum, there are some very harrowing pictures in the first room on the ground floor that I did feel were suitable for my children of 5 and 8. The old town centre of besancon is also worth a visit. The architecture as you look up is very interesting.

We took bus 17 up to the castle - cost €1.50 each and walked down. This is (apparently) the best preserved castle in France - and it shows. If you're interested in castles, this is one of the best.

Interesting in both old and more recent history, the citadel is well worth the effort to get there and climb up to its walls. It's well-preserved, with a simple museum to explain what you're seeing but it's also pleasantly "wild" so you can get the flavor of what it might once have been like. Also beautiful views of the area from the walkways along its high walls.

Lovely Zoo, insect centre....cafe was ok. Lost our umbrellas there, which in most places would have been handed back into customer services....in France it appears to be 'Finders, Keepers'....

Make sure you allow lots of time and visit the Musee de Resistance as a must. You can get there via the 17 bus which is by far the easiest way to go up the very steep hill

Well worth a visit - unusual exhibits and much on the Resistance as well as details of Nazi atrocities.

This is the best attraction in Besançon. Le Musée de la Résistence et de la Déportation, the main attraction once you are up there, is extremely touching. You will be able to read the letters some French Resistents wrote to their families before they were shot by the nazis. Some of these captures Resistents were very young, and their letters before dying are extremely painful to read. This museum is located where the Nazis had their headquarters and one can see the poles where they shot the prisoners. If you know the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, get ready for something very different. The same theme, but here things get personal. This is where the action actually took place. You can feel the pain in those walls. If traveling with young children, there is a small zoo on top of the citadel that is a more suitable place to visit than this museum. The view from the citadel is astonishing and it's a reward after all those steps up. Youneed to be in good shape to walk up there!