Champagnole, Jura, France

jonnycon

Hi

I'm off on holiday to Champagnole, Jura, France I'll be taking the bike out with me. Any ideas on rides would be appreciated if anyone has any local knowledge. Cheers.

JC

knedlicky

The whole area in different directions is good and varied cycling territory, usually quiet roads. When we spent a week there about 6-7 years ago (we were first near Ornans about 50 km NE of Champagnole as the crow flies, then later about 15 km east of Champagnole), we just used a decent map and kept mainly to small roads.

I haven’t any particular suggested routes or tours - we chose our looped routes just as we went, aiming to see 2 or 3 of the ‘sights’ each day, sometimes a lake or the source of a river or a gorge, other times an attractive village or a castle or museum, etc, and this approach worked out well, but I couldn't now reproduce our routes.

But as examples of what I mean, a tour of about 100 km might be westward to the village of Baume-les-Messieurs, then to the SE, via Lake Chalain, to the Herisson waterfalls, then back to Champagnole. A tour of about 60 km could be eastward to the village of Nozeroy, then SW, via the source of the river Ain, to the Langouette gorges, then via the village of Syam back to Champagnole.

A friend of mine was in the Jura in May, based near Salins-les-Bains (about 20 km N of Champagnole) and he spent all his time (only 3 days actually) cycling the area ENE of that town, up to 30-40 km away, and liked thereabouts.

The only roads which seemed to have much traffic (so to keep away from) were the Besancon to Lons-le-Saunier one, the Pontarlier to Salins-les-Bains one, and the Champagnole to Poligny one. Or if you go south, you encounter heavier traffic in Switzerland, even on some smaller roads.

jonnycon

Hi

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I'll pack my ordnance survey. Won't get chance to do more than 2hrs at a time but will hopefully get to see some of the sights.