The Franche Comté Region

Franche-Comté is relatively undiscovered, and features many forests, rivers, lakes, gorges and vineyards. Located on the eastern France border with Switzerland, between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura mountains to the south, there is a marked Swiss influence to this region’s culture and cuisine (best known are its Comté and Morbier cheeses, the Jura wines and Morteau and Montbeliard sausages).

La Franche-Comté est une région française qui regroupe quatre départements: le Doubs, le Jura, la Haute-Saône et le Territoire de Belfort.

The geology of the region means that it is quite remote in places, where spectacular scenery is only broken by occasional family farms. More than half the region is covered in woodland, there are hundreds of lakes, and rivers and waterfalls spill from the rocks wherever you go. Similar to the alpine region of Savoie and to Switzerland, the food here is rich and warming mountain food. This is the coldest region of France. The winters are long and harsh, but there is plenty of sun in the summer, which is strong due to the altitude.

As with most stunning landscape at high-altitide, there is plenty to do activity-wise. In winter, there's the skiing, boarding, skating, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, dog sleding and skidooing. Summer persuits include paragliding, mountain biking, road cycling, walking and white water rafting.

La production agricole s’appuie sur l’élevage bovin (Montbéliarde) et la production de fromages (le Comté, le Mont d'Or, le Morbie, le bleu de Gex, la Cancoillotte). Parmi ces fromages, quatre sont des AOC.
La culture de céréales et d’oléagineux est significative.
La région possède également des vignobles qui produisent des vins d’exception. La franche-Comté est la seule région viticole du monde à produire cinq sortes de vins bien distinctes: les rouges, les blancs, les rosés, les jaunes et les vins de paille.