Every design for Besançon

Julius Caesar was the first to write the city's name, as Vesontio, in his account of the Gallic War; it took more than a thousand years to become Besançon. Today it is a lively university town, where trainees from all over the world come to the Centre for Applied Linguistics alongside the local students.

The old centre sits inside an oxbow of the Doubs, with a mountain closing the fourth side, and the Jura Mountains and the Swiss border are close by. That tight loop made it a stronghold, crowned by the Citadelle de Besançon, and it gives daily life its shape: crossing bridges, walking along the river, climbing towards the forts. Called the greenest city in France, it has parks and gardens at every turn, and its watchmaking past lives on in the Musée du Temps.

If you have ever caught your breath at the top of the path to the citadel and looked down on the river's curve, this map is yours.