Village · Burgundy–Franche-Comté · Altitude 291 m
Arbois
Pasteur’s home town, capital of Jura wine: vin jaune, a river running under houses, and a limestone gorge just beyond the last street.
Why go
The Jura is the wine region the French keep for themselves, and Arbois is its capital: a small stone town where the Cuisance runs beneath balconied houses and the vines start at the church tower. Here the wines are strange and wonderful, above all vin jaune, aged under a veil of yeast. Add Louis Pasteur’s family house, with his laboratory left as it was, and a wooded limestone gorge a few kilometres upstream, and you have a place that rewards curiosity, not a checklist.
History
Arbois grew where the Cuisance leaves the cliff-walled valley of Les Planches and meets the first vine-covered slopes of the Revermont. Its name is often explained by Celtic words meaning ‘fertile land', though that is an etymologist’s guess. In the Middle Ages it belonged to the county of Burgundy, today’s Franche-Comté, and the Church of Saint-Just goes back to the twelfth century.
A castle and a ring of walls some 1,200 metres long protected the town, which lay on the contested border between France and the Burgundian, later Habsburg, Franche-Comté. After Charles the Bold died in 1477, Louis XI tried to seize Franche-Comté, and his troops besieged Arbois in 1479; further sieges followed under Henri IV and Louis XIV. When the province finally became French by the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, Louis XIV had the fortifications dismantled; the Gloriette tower and a few other fragments survive.
In 1830 a tanner’s family moved from nearby Dole to a house on the Cuisance. Their son, Louis Pasteur, grew up here until he was seventeen and remained deeply attached to the town. His studies of wine and fermentation, partly carried out in Arbois, led to the process now called pasteurisation; he later inherited the house and fitted it with a laboratory next to his bedroom. In 1834 Arbois’s winegrowers joined the uprising that followed the Lyon silk workers’ revolt and briefly proclaimed a republic.
Wine has always been the town’s business. In 1936 Arbois became one of France’s very first appellations d’origine contrôlée, and today its winemakers, from the cooperative to small family estates, make the town a place of pilgrimage for wine lovers. Every first Sunday of September the Biou, a giant bunch of grapes first recorded in 1665, is carried through town to the church.
What to see
Maison de Louis Pasteur
The scientist’s family home on the Cuisance, a protected historic monument, is now a museum. The rooms keep their furniture, and the laboratory where he experimented with wine still has its glassware and instruments, as if he had just stepped out.
Church of Saint-Just
A twelfth-century nave, later vaults and choir, and a tall bell tower that rises straight out of the vineyards on the edge of town. Walk up into the vines behind it for the classic view of tower, roofs and slopes.
The Cuisance and the Gloriette tower
The river runs right through town, over small falls and under houses that hang their balconies above the water. Follow it past the old bridges to the square Gloriette tower, one of the few fragments of the medieval fortifications to survive Louis XIV.
Jura wine museum at the Château Pécauld
Housed in a small castle by the old walls, the wine museum explains what makes the Jura different: its grapes such as savagnin and poulsard, vin jaune aged under its veil of yeast, and vin de paille made from dried grapes. A good primer before visiting the cellars.
Reculée des Planches
A few kilometres upstream, the Cuisance springs from the foot of limestone cliffs at the head of a deep, wooded valley. Walk up to the springs and the Cascade des Tufs on the Petite Cuisance; the whole valley is a protected natural site.
Climate
Météo-France normals 1991-2020, station Arc-Et-Senans (235 m, 14.3 km away).
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High °C | 6.8 | 8.7 | 13.5 | 17.6 | 21.6 | 25.6 | 27.9 | 27.5 | 22.7 | 17.5 | 11.1 | 7.3 |
| Low °C | -0.8 | -0.8 | 1.7 | 4.4 | 8.7 | 12.2 | 13.9 | 13.5 | 10.0 | 6.8 | 2.6 | 0.1 |
| Rain (mm) | 91 | 85 | 87 | 88 | 110 | 92 | 93 | 96 | 98 | 111 | 119 | 112 |
| Rain days | 13 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
Timeline
- 12th c. Nave of the Church of Saint-Just built
- 1479 Louis XI’s troops besiege Arbois
- 1665 First written mention of the Biou procession
- 1678 Treaty of Nijmegen: Franche-Comté becomes French; walls dismantled
- 1830 The Pasteur family settles in Arbois
- 1834 Winegrowers proclaim a short-lived republic
- 1936 Arbois becomes one of France’s first AOCs
Uncertain or disputed
- Arbois is often called France’s first AOC; it was certainly among the very first appellations decreed in 1936, and we say no more than that.
- Accounts of the 1479 siege differ: one says the first assault failed, another that the town was sacked by Charles d’Amboise that year.
- The Gloriette tower is dated to the thirteenth century in one account and to the sixteenth in another listing.
Crowds: Rarely crowded. Summer weekends and the Biou on the first Sunday of September are the liveliest; outside those, and especially in late spring or after the harvest, the town is quiet. (editorial judgement)
Protected food & drink from here
AOP and IGP products whose official area includes this commune (INAO). Regional food: AOP & IGP →
Cheese
- Cancoillotte IGP · fresh cheese
- Comté AOP · pressed cooked cheese
- Emmental français Est-Central IGP · pressed cooked cheese
- Gruyère IGP · pressed cooked cheese
- Morbier AOP · pressed uncooked cheese
Meat & charcuterie
- Porc de Franche-Comté IGP · pork
- Saucisse de Montbéliard IGP · charcuterie
- Saucisse de Morteau ou Jésus de Morteau IGP · charcuterie
Cider & spirits
- Marc du Jura IG
Wine
- Arbois AOP
- Crémant du Jura AOP
- Côtes du Jura AOP
- Macvin du Jura AOP
Festivals within 15 km
From the Ministry of Culture’s national list; it gives a season, not dates.
| Festival | Discipline | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Chansons en fête Arbois | Music | 1 Jan – 20 Jun |
| Cœur de tango festival Arbois | Theatre, dance & street arts | 21 Jun – 5 Sep |
| Dé-lire en Revermont Poligny | Books & comics | 21 Jun – 5 Sep |
| Festival Dé-LIRE en Revermont (Lire au cœur du Jura) Arbois | Books & comics | 1 Jan – 20 Jun |
| festival international d'orgue d'Arbois Arbois | Music | 21 Jun – 5 Sep |
| Les Nuits (Re)Belles Brainans | Music | 21 Jun – 5 Sep |
| Les semeurs du val d'amour Chamblay | Theatre, dance & street arts | 21 Jun – 5 Sep |
| Salins sur scènes Salins-les-Bains | Theatre, dance & street arts | 6 Sep – 31 Dec |
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Sources
Original text. Train times computed from SNCF timetables (ODbL); climate Météo-France; products INAO; festivals Ministry of Culture. Methodology.