Besançon is a city that rewards close attention. The capital of Franche-Comté sits inside an almost perfect meander of the Doubs river, which curves around the old town on three sides before reaching a rocky spur crowned by one of Vauban's most celebrated fortresses. It has the look of a city that knows it is handsome and doesn't feel the need to advertise it loudly.
The Citadel of Besançon is the obvious starting point — a UNESCO-listed Vauban fortification from the late 17th century that perches above the city with views over the whole meander and, on clear days, as far as the Swiss Alps. It houses several museums and a zoo, and the walk up from the old town takes about twenty minutes. Inside the cathedral below, the Besançon astronomical clock is a 19th-century mechanical wonder with some 30,000 components, displaying the time in multiple cities, lunar phases, and the movement of the planets simultaneously.
Victor Hugo was born in Besançon in 1802, and the city has a quiet pride about this that stops short of being insufferable. The Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie is the oldest public museum in France — founded in 1694 — and holds a collection of paintings and antiquities that is consistently underrated by visitors who never get past Paris. The old town's streets, particularly around the Grande Rue, preserve a handsome sequence of Renaissance and Baroque townhouses.
Besançon is also one of France's watchmaking cities — the industry was established here in the 18th century, and the Musée du Temps traces the history of timekeeping with considerable intelligence. This is a city, appropriately enough for the region, that takes the measurement of time seriously.