Saint-Claude to Les Rousses

Started our morning right with a delicious regional specialty pastry from the Jura. It is a brioche tart covered in sugar. Tasted like a sugar donut.

 After getting our laundry done, bags ready to leave the Jura monday morning, and a delicious duck and homemade applesauce lunch, we headed out to explore more of the Jura starting with Saint Claude which is about 10 minutes away.

Although this building was labeled as a bank, it is actually their new library. They had some books to return and we picked out some movies to watch together.

 This is the Cathédrale de Saint Pierre, even though this is a relatively small town, this is the largest cathedral we have seen while in France.

 In a room beside the main chapel is the actual body of Saint Claudius who died in 696. His grave became a pilgramage for people to pay respects and became known as the town of Saint Claude in 1300s.

 The Cathedral first belonged to an Abbey and was built in the 15th century.

                 
                   Beautiful views of the city

 We then head up the mountain for some more spectacular views.

 Then we reach the Belvedere Point overlooking Saint Claude.

 After reaching the top it opens up into a beautiful countryside well known for its cross country skiing in the winter. But first we must stop for a traffic jam in the Jura.

 Somehow this cow knows they must be the last one to cross and wears a large bell so the farmer can hear it is on it's way.

 This is a beautiful lake they love to cross country ski around in winter.

 Ally had fun catching all the frogs jumping around the lake.

 We shopped at this really cute shop that had lots of handmade gifts, treats, and furniture.

 This motorcycle is made completely of wood.

 We also stopped a shop in Les Rousses where they sell wooden toys which are a specialty to the region. It was a lovely resort town close to many ski resorts.

 We stopped at the market to pick up some raclette cheese to make our own fondue type dish. Normally this is only a cold weather meal, which the lady at the meat & cheese counter questioned why we would buy such ingredients in July. It is just like how we served Gaëlle a traditional Thanksgiving feast at our house in July when she was visiting us.

These were a couple of interesting offerings at the meat counter. Including a meat and vegetable jello of sorts???

                             Mousse of Duck

Before heading back down to Saint Claude we drove 2 streets over where we crossed into Switzerland so we can say we visited Switzerland on our trip. We were a bit disappointed there were no signs or flags on the other side. But the 2 minutes there was wonderful.

Here is another view of Saint Claude as we headed back down.

If you are enjoying our blog, please feel free to leave a comment so we know who else is along for the journey. You can comment as a guest and just leave your name in the comment. Bonne Nuit!