Chef-lieu of a canton in Jura (39)
Population: 8,000 (Champagnolais), 23,500 in the Champagnole Nozeroy Jura Community of Communes
Specialities: charcuterie with "fumé du Jura". Cheeses: in the heart of Comté country, Champagnole (goat's cheese). Galette jurassienne (sweet or savoury). Champagnolais (pastry). Honey (spruce, flowers). Know-how: until the 1990s, Champagnole was home to Jouef (a model train factory) and Cimenteries de Champagnole.
Personalities: Aimé Berthod (minister under the Third Republic), Marc Janin (2015 meilleur ouvrier de France in the cheese-making category), Aymeric Carrez (comedian), Hervé Balland (cross-country skiing, runner-up in the 50km world championship in 1993), Élodie Bourgeois-Pin (cross-country skiing), Quentin Fillon Maillet (biathlon, world champion in relays and runner-up in Mass Start and Sprint), Sylvain Guillaume (Nordic combined, Olympic runner-up in 1992), Aurélie Perrillat-Collomb (cross-country skiing), Benjamin Gattaz (snowboard-cross), Alain Carminati (rugby), Grégory Pujol (football), Laszlo Bodrogi (cycling, adopted Champagnolais).
Culture: Funfair (June), Assaut des Remparts (July, medieval festival in Nozeroy), Summer Swing Festival (July, open-air jazz).
Sport: 2,000 members in some sixty associations. Events: Ronde du Jura (February, car rally on snow), Raid Jurazimut (May, multi-sport raids), Tram'Jurassienne (June, hiking, cycling, mountain biking, disabled sports), Montée du Mont-Rivel (July, hiking), Marathon-relais (September). Cycling clubs: Association Cycliste Champagnolaise (FFC) - Club Cyclo Champagnole (FFCT).
Economy: eight business parks for commercial, craft and industrial activities (printing works, spectacle factories, screw-cutting). Wood-based industries (furniture, crafts, toys, etc.). Agriculture and livestock farming (12,000 dairy cows, 13 cheese-making cooperatives).
Signature: Champagnole, the Pearl of the Jura.
Labels: 3 flowers. Gateway town to the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park.
Websites and social networks: www.champagnole.fr / www.jura.fr / www.champagnolenozeroyjura.fr / www.cnjtourisme.fr / https://www.facebook.com/Champagnole/ / https://www.facebook.com/cccphj/ / www.facebook.com/OfficeDeTourismeChampagnoleNozeroyJura / @champagnolenozeroyjura / www.jura.fr
CHAMPAGNOLE TODAY
The town of Champagnole lies at an altitude of 540 metres, in the heart of the Jura department: between the Revermont vineyards, the lake district and the first steps of the mountain range. This position favours its economic, commercial and tourist development. Nicknamed the Pearl of the Jura, it borders the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park. This town of 8,000 inhabitants is dominated by Mont-Rivel (812 metres above sea level), a major Gallo-Roman archaeological site. The Ain also flows through the town, a river that has played a vital role in the town's economic and industrial development over the centuries, particularly in the water industry. Today, it is very popular with anglers for its trout. The minds of the people of Champagny have been marked by major events over the centuries: numerous fires ravaged the town between 1580 and 1798; the collapse of the galleries of the limestone quarry at Mont-Rivel caused the death of five people on 27 July 1964. With the participation of the town's residents and local artists, Champagnole launched the Urban Art & Encounters operation in 2013, creating a number of murals in different parts of the town centre. In the same spirit, the town organised its first international sculpture symposium in 2008, featuring eleven sculptors from different backgrounds. These Pierre & Ciment works line the Mont-Rivel sculpture trail. In 2020, the town of Champagnole celebrated the 700th anniversary of the Charter granted in 1320 by Hugues 1er de Chalon-Arlay to the villagers of Champagnole. This charter represented a new phase in Champagnole's history, as it gave the population unprecedented rights and freedoms. It wrote down old customs and set out the new rights granted to the inhabitants. It deals with hunting, woodland management, taxation, traffic outside the franchise area, crime and misdemeanour management, markets, etc.
CHAMPAGNOLE AND CYCLING
In the men's Tour de France, Champagnole was a particular favourite of Søren Kragh-Andersen, who won here solo in 2020 – taking his second stage of that year's race. The Dane, winner of Paris-Tours, had already won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir in Tournus in 2015, starting from... Champagnole. Few will remember the Tour's first visit to the town, as it was in 1937 for a 35km team time trial won by Sylvère Maes' Belgians ahead of future winner Roger Lapébie's French team and Gino Bartali's Italians. In 1964, astage started in Champagnole a few hours before Jan Janssen won a bunch sprint in Thonon-les-Bains. Closer to home, the Tour de l'Avenir has stopped here twice, in 2015 and also in 2011 for the start of a stage won at Le Salève by Romain Bardet ahead of Jesper Hansen, Esteban Chaves, Warren Barguil and Tim Wellens. Champagnole is above all a stronghold of Nordic skiing, the birthplace of many French internationals such as former Nordic Combined Olympic silver-medallist Sylvain Guillaume and former cross-country world. runner-up Hervé Balland.
SIGHTS:
- Gallo-Roman and Merovingian Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum was created in 1985 to house important collections from archaeological digs carried out at the time in the area around Champagnole. Its aim is to preserve and present collections that help visitors understand the history and development of the Upper Ain Valley region. This municipal museum is under the scientific and technical responsibility of the Jura departmental archaeological conservation authority.
- Church of Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte
Built: 1755
Style: classic.
History: in this church, built in 1755, the tabernacle was constructed in 1764 and then demolished in 1793. It was replaced by a 17th-century altarpiece belonging to the Ursuline nuns of Poligny, purchased in 1792 after their convent was abolished. In 1788, the church was deemed too small and two side naves were added. The organ was built in 1721 by organ builder Marin Carouge and was first installed in the church of the Poligny Dominicans. It was not until the French Revolution in 1792 that it became the property of the Champagnole church. It was not installed in the specially built gallery until 1807. It remains one of the jewels in the town's cultural heritage.
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1994.
- Route des sapins
The little elves guide travellers along the Route des Sapins, from Champagnole to Levier, through one of the most beautiful fir forests in Europe, dotted with 19 tourist sites where you can discover its history, fauna, flora, special features, its exploitation, its walks, its lookouts, etc.
- Palladian villa of Syam (6 km away)
Built: 1818.
History: a unique testimony to the life of the ironmasters, the Palladian villa is a treasure trove of neoclassical architecture built in 1818 by its patron, Emmanuel Jobez. Following the rules of the Italian Renaissance architect Andréa Pallodio, the house is built around a peristyle forming a theatre. The villa has retained its period furniture, creating a moving atmosphere that takes you on a journey through the centuries.
Special features: you can admire a fabulous collection of papers dating from the early 19th century in an astonishing state of preservation.
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1994.
TO EAT:
- Trout with yellow wine
A tasty and easy recipe for trout cooked in butter over a very low heat and drizzled with a sauce of yellow wine, butter, shallots and cream, sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.