Camping Les Promenades

Doubs architecture is rightly famed throughout France: as well as the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans and the Citadel of Besançon, trek along to the town of Ornans (45 minutes), with its old houses rising on stilts from the Loue river, or to Château de Joux, a clifftop fortress in the Jura mountains just over an hour's drive away. Take some time too to plunge into the vast Chaux Forest, near the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans and the second biggest forest in France (the saltworks were built near the forest to supply wood for the salt production process). The forest covers over 20,000 hectares of wood and wildlife haven home to critters including boar, deer, foxes and weasels; take one of the marked trails to see what you can spot. Also on the forest edge is Osselle, home to an eight-kilometre network of caves visited since the early 16th century (wise man Voltaire is said to have been at one of the regular underground feasts here). The caves are open to the public for most of the year. The lake, beach and leisure centre of Osselle-Routelle is three kilometres north from the caves.