Montbéliard 2

What a quiet night! 

A clear blue sky greeted us this morning. We had breakfast and thought that an early morning visit to centre-ville before the day heats up was a good idea. 

We were stopping just over l’Allan River giving us good access to the town. The first things we noticed was the attention giving to the parks and flowers around the town, and, the large amount of work being undertaken to make the place much more people friendly. 

The dominating feature of the town is the château. The Château de Montbéliard, also known as the Château des ducs de Württemberg is a fortress located on an outcropping rock that overlooks the town. It was in the Württemberg family from the 14th century until the French Revolution when it became the property of the state. From that time until 1933 it was used as a military garrisons. After this it became a local museum. 

The Dukes were responsible for the introduction of Lutheranism into the town in the 16th century. The architecture from those times is very much in evidence today. Later,  in its history,  the French made a great effort to bring Catholicism to the area, and so, a grand church, Église St Mainboeuf, directly above the Lutheran church, Temple St Georges, was built! 

Around the streets interesting buildings caught our attention, with a mix of styles - and some very practical solutions to problems that might arise. 

The house in the photo at the bottom left has an interesting spouting!




The little shop with the yellow frontage is where we bought our bread, not that interesting I hear you say, but here was the first black baguette we had seen. The lovely lady in the shop explained that it was made with cacoa and that it aided digestion. 

The World Cup football theme was running through many shops and streets, but the headlines this morning seemed to be suggesting that Les Bleus were a little lucky in yesterday’s game against Australia! Hmmmm!

Some other aspects caught our attention around the town!

We returned to the van for lunch and to give our feet a little rest. 

A little way over yonder the locals were celebrating all things American - baseball, music, bands,  boot scooting, cheer leaders, roadster bikes and American fries and hamburgers! The festival was well organised with a program that ran through most of the day. Interesting to see the clientele attending!

All in all, a very enjoyably full day.