Besançon…the district of Battant

November 30, 2014 by jolsenontheroad2014 in Besançon, France and tagged Chocolate, Louis Pasteur, North African pastry, The Doubs River | 6 Comments

Hi everyone. Today I’m taking you into the town center of Besançon, to the quartier Battant, the Battant district. It’s only a small part of the center, but it’s a very important part, one of the oldest and most distinctive streets of the city. And you will see that Besançon is a town of great variety. We start at the train station, near the ramparts that I showed you last week. By the way, you can read about Besançon here. And here.

This is the central train station, the Gare Viotte…

…from which we can take the city’s new tramway to go downtown…

…this tram car is named after Louis Pasteur, a local boy:

(Of couse, a few other towns in the region have claims on Pasteur too).

But I’m not going to take the tram, I’m going on foot. Here, I’m walking through the ramparts:

(You may remember seeing this scene in the previous entry, but from the other direction.)

I soon turn onto the Rue Battant and head towards the town center…

…and we soon come to the Place Battant with its fountain:

Battant is a district of ethnic diversity, as we see in this North African pastry shop, La Rose de Tunis:

In the back of the shop you can see the owner.

He kindly let me take pictures inside his shop…

…but he didn’t want to pose.

On we go down the street…

…past numerous shops, such as this small grocery store. Battant is an everyday district, where everyday people live, work and shop…

…this kebab shop, not quite open yet…

…a hardware shop…

…a variety store…

…a music store…

…and Italian specialties, where you can eat outside…

…or inside…

…from this appetizing menu…

…or maybe take it home with you…

…along with something to drink:

Here is shop where I’ve bought many gifts over the years…

…table cloths, napkins, dish towels, small utensiles. This store is famous in town.

This shop, Kausia, Par tous les Temps (For all types of weather) , is aptly named. Besançon has a cool-to-cold and rainy climate (though summer heat waves can be torrid) and this shop is designed for it:

And the Horlogerie de Battant, a watch and clock shop. Besançon has always been the watch capital of France, ever since the first watches were invented. One of the city’s most renowned museums is the Musée du Temps (the Time Museum). You can read about it in French here.

And here is a chocolate lover’s paradise named Hors les sentiers battus... (Off the beaten paths)…

It’s a cacao bar…

… with chocolate in all its states.

The shop window has a very Christmasy look at the moment…

…there’s a welcoming chocolate-floral arrangement just inside…

…and as I’ve said, this shop is a chocloate lover’s paradise:

We finally arrive at the river, The Doubs, where we meet up with the tramway once again…

…a look back up the rue Battant…

…with the Church of La Madeleine behind us:

…the Pont Battant (the Battant Bridge) is ahead of us now…

Onto the bridge we go, and look to the right…

…and to the left…

Once across the bridge we look straight ahead up the Grande Rue, the town’s main street…

…on a Saturday afternoon…

…and on a Sunday morning:

I’ll take you up there one day soon, but we’ve seen enough for today. And I have something else to show you first.

Besançon…the ramparts

November 23, 2014 by jolsenontheroad2014 in Besançon, France and tagged First World War, Monument, Sculptures | 4 Comments

Hi everyone,

The Olsen Road will be starting up again soon for my Christmastime travels to Dublin to see my daughter and her family. In the meantime I hope to find time to take some pictures and write a few posts about Besançon, the town I live in here in France. While I was travelling in the States these last few months several people asked me about this town that I’ve now lived in for more than forty years, so I thought I’d introduce you. And Besançon is a worthy travel destination in its own right, not just because I live here.

November 11, 2014

Armistice Day

Here’s a view from my kitchen window one recent rainy morning:

Besançon is a relatively rainy town, known as the greenest city in France.

I quickly run downstairs to get a picture of the other half of the rainbow:

This will give you a better view of my neighborhood.

Later in the day I take a walk down to the ramparts, the few remaining vestiges of the old city wall and fortifications. Here we see some autumn colors along with the Tour Carrée, the square tower.

The Tour Carrée a little closer…

…and closer still:

The ramparts are a good place to go at the moment to see autumn colors:

The promenade leading down to the Doubs River:

The Promenade des Glacis along the top of the ramparts:

The ramparts are crisscrossed by some major traffic arteries…

…modernity oblige.

This is a good way to see how the new and the old live together in Besançon. Of course, the afternoon of a major national holiday is not the time to see how busy these streets can be.

The ramparts are a also good place to take pictures of the town center. Here we see the Citadel de Vauban on the hills opposite. The Citadel is a UNESCO World Heritage site now. You can read more about it here.

And with the zoom:

I’ll take you up into the citadel some day soon. It’s a very interesting place.

The roofs and chimineys of Besançon are well known.

The ramparts are full of monuments and since the commemoration ceremony for the First World War took place this morning, wreaths have been placed at the foot of these statues…

…such as this one from a group known as the Gueules Cassées, the broken faces. These were soldiers who came home from the war extremely disfigured.

This monument is dedicated to all those who gave their lives for France and who are buried abroad:

Statues of soldiers…

…and La Mère Patrie.

Sculptures are also to be found here and there in the Promenade des Glacis. This one, by Jorge Soler, is dedicated to foreigners who fought in the resistance during the Second World War…

…and this one by the Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow…

…with a child hidden under the robe:

The form of the child is hard to make out, but the feet are very clear:

There is much more to see in and around Besançon. Little by little I’ll try to show you as much as possible.

San Francisco

November 5, 2014 by jolsenontheroad2014 in California, Road trip and tagged Cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco | 4 Comments

As I said in my previous post, I’m back home in France now. And here’s a picture of the sunrise over Besançon, seen from my balcony:

But I have one last blog entry from my roadtrip.

Thursday, October 30^th

I take Van home today, to the agency in San Francisco where I rented him. I’m sad to be at the end of my trip and to see Van go, but when I see him at home among his siblings I tell myself that he’ll go on to other adventures, as I will.

I take the tramway up to Market Street and get out at Embarcadero Station. Then I take a long walk along the water front up to Fisherman’s Wharf, taking a few pictures along the way:

Coit tower is one of the main landmarks of these northeastern districts of the city:

I go all the way to Pier 39 where I have lunch:

Pier 39 is gaudy and touristic, as is much of Fisherman’s Wharf, but I like it.

After lunch I take the ritual cable car ride:

Cable cars are an iconic San Francisco institution:

Up Taylor Street we go…

…passing many cross streets…

…and some well-known landmarks…

…through the northern sections of Chinatown:

We pass by some houses that are…

…très San Francisco…

13_...très San Francisco.

…and go all the way to Market Street, to the Powell Street Station:

This, then, is the last entry for my retirement-gift-to-myself road trip. I think that San Francisco is a fitting place to stop. But this is only a pause in the Olsen Road. I’ll be back in the not-too-distant future with other travels, photos and comments. Thank you all for following along. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

My hat…

November 5, 2014 by jolsenontheroad2014 in California, Road trip and tagged France, My hat | Leave a comment

Hi everyone. I’m home in France now, trying to get over my jet lag. Re-reading some of my early posts, I realize that I’d promised you a post about how I organize things while travelling. One aspect of organization is keeping track of the more important items that I need to have on hand.

October 28th-29th, and all along these three months

You may have noticed my hat in some of my photos:

Some of you probably recognize it as the hat I bought in the south of France last June:

Throughout my trip it has hardly left me, though here it is lying on the bed at Larry’s house:

3_My hat has hardly left me during these...

But it plays an important role in addition to keeping the sun off my face. It helps me to keep track of some very important items, such as the all-important key to Van:

My hat is where I stock a lot of important items when I’m camping somewhere…

…or when I’ve checked into a motel:

So I always know where they are.

I’ve lost a few items on this trip. My bike chain and lock, the table that came with Van (I took it out and forgot to put it back, only to remember it a few hundred miles down the road), a mouse (I left it on the table in a Starbucks), and so on. But nothing really important. I dare to say that now that I’m safely home.

Now, where’s my hat?

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The Olsen Road – a travel blog

My travels here and there, at different points in place and time

Monthly Archives: November 2014

Besançon…the district of Battant

Besançon…the ramparts

San Francisco

My hat…