Jura, France: The Hidden Gem You NEED to Visit
Hello there guys. Welcome back to the channel.
Today we are exploring the Jura region of France with its unique wines, rolling hills, and laughing
cows. We’ve got towns like Arbois and three other hidden gems. So let’s get going. Allez-va-zi!
First stop, Arbois, the beating heart of Jura wine country. Rolling hills, endless
vines, and wine so good it steals your breath. But it’s more than just a sip of
heaven. This is Louis Pasteur’s hometown, where science meets charm. Stroll cobbled streets,
linger in cafés, and soak up the quirky energy. Next stop, Dole. Set on the Doubs River, this town
is all charm—winding canals, old stone bridges, and a historic core that begs to be explored.
It’s Louis Pasteur’s birthplace, but also a place for lazy strolls, lively terraces, and the
perfect mix of history and everyday French life. Cheers, guys. I must say this is one
of the most enjoyable beers I’ve had in France. Look at that backdrop there.
Next stop, Lons-le-Saunier, Jura’s capital and the birthplace of Rouget de Lisle, who wrote
La Marseillaise. This town runs on history and salt. Built on ancient saline springs, it
once thrived on the white-gold trade. Today, it’s famous for thermal baths, colorful arcades,
and lively squares where life spills onto the café terraces. A little history, a
little healing, and a lot of charm. As you’re in Jura, you should try some of the
local cheeses. This one is delicious—this is cancoillotte. And if you can see my salad that
I’m eating here, you dunk the local sausage and potatoes into it, and I would highly recommend
that. Then of course, we all know Comté. Comté is a very common cheese—you’ll find it in all
the French supermarkets and it’s delicious. It’s one of my favorites. And then Morbier is
another local cheese, and that is very nice as well. You know when you’re in France
you can’t complain about the cheese. Another addition here: whilst we were in
Burgundy I treated myself to a 1997 bottle of wine. We are going to taste-test this wine.
It’s made with 100% Gamay grape. So, let’s give it a go. This is the part where I pretend like
I know what I’m talking about. It smells like Robinson’s fruit juice. Let’s give it a go.
And you know—it is delicious. It’s very nice. As much as I like drinking wine, I also
like walking through the vineyards. It’s a very outdoorsy part of France. There are lots of
trails. There are also lots of biking lanes and different routes for you to take, which are not as
mountainous as, say, Haute-Savoie. It’s a bit more like the UK—rolling hills. It kind of reminds
me a bit of Oxfordshire with the landscape. So instead of always heading south, why not head up
to Jura and just try a different part of France for a change? It surprised me. Let me know below
if it surprised you when you visited, and would you visit Jura over going to the south of France?
Next stop, Salins-les-Bains. This town practically drips history—home to the UNESCO-listed Great
Saltworks where white gold built fortunes for centuries. I did actually arrive in this
town for the thermal springs, but I ended up enjoying the museum a little bit more. But
to be honest, there isn’t much to do here. If you want to visit the area and you’re in Geneva
as a tourist, you can always get the train to Nyon and then from Nyon you can go up into the Jura.
From there there are many trails, many activities, and lots of lakes. So that’s one option.
Another thing is, as I was driving between towns, I discovered the Comté Cheese Museum by accident.
I went in there and had a tour with a lady in English. I will put this at the end of the video
because it’s quite long. And for one cheese, there’s so much information. She blew
my mind—but it is very interesting. And the last stop is Château-Chalon. I thought
this was just going to be a castle with wine tasting because it’s the town of Vin Jaune,
but it’s a really, really beautiful hilltop village. The views are stunning, and I think
it might be the one that I preferred the most. Did you know that Laughing Cow cheese was born
right here in the Jura region in Lons-le-Saunier? You can visit the Laughing Cow Museum where
the world-famous red cow first came to life over a century ago. With playful exhibits,
brand history, and of course cheese tasting, it’s a fun stop for all ages.
And for accommodation, I stayed here as I was driving back towards
Switzerland. It’s technically not Jura, but I’d recommend it because Hôtel Le Sauvage
offers the perfect mix of history and comfort with its peaceful setting, views over Besançon,
and easy access to the Citadel and Old Town. So, I came into the museum and this lady’s
giving me my own private cheese tasting, aren’t you? Yes. Right, so here we are. There
are two kinds of Comté. One is 9 months old and the other one is 15 months old. The 9-month-old
is this one because we can see that the rind is much lighter and thinner, and the older one is
a bit darker and thicker. What also gives us the age is those crystals on the older one—there
are crystals that we can’t find on the young one. Oh, that’s very interesting. And there’s
another difference: the color. This one is more yellow and this one is more white. It
doesn’t tell us about the age; it tells us about what the cows eat. If they eat flowers or herbs,
it colors the milk and gives it a yellow tone. If the Comté is white, it means the cows ate
dry grass and hay, which doesn’t color the milk. Most of the time the color tells us about
the season. But right now, with climate change, there are no clear seasons anymore.
For example, this one is 9 months old, so you go back 9 months—we are in November. In
November they should be in the stable eating dry grass and hay. But we can see that it’s yellow,
so it means they were outside eating flowers and herbs. And for this one, it’s 15 months old, so
we go back 15 months—we’re in April. In April it’s spring and they should be outside eating
flowers and herbs, but we can see that it’s white, so it means they were inside. So with the
climate change there are no seasons anymore. So, we can try the first one.
Yes, please. Young one here. I’ll give that a go.
If you want, you can break it—you see, it’s very creamy. That’s the young one, nine
months. It’s one of my favorite cheeses. Really?
So in Comté it’s like wine—there are different aromas and smells.
Here you have the wheel of aromas of Comté: 86 aromas in six families—lactic, fruity, roasted,
vegetal, animal, and spicy. It’s very subjective; there’s no right or wrong answer, but most of the
time in the young one it’s mostly lactic aromas: the smell of butter, cream, yogurt, and milk.
The minimum maturing is 4 months, and there’s no maximum—you can find 24, 36, even 48 months or
more. But of course that doesn’t mean it’s better, because it’s very strong and expensive.
So the older it is, the more expensive it becomes. That’s the only factor that changes
the price. If it’s from summer or winter, there’s no difference in price. The very old ones are
mostly for restaurants, specialists, or cooking. What we find most in supermarkets is the
“fruity” one, between 12 to 18 months. What people like the most.
I’ve noticed it’s always got “fruity” written on it.
Yes, they’re called “fruité” because we mostly find fruity aromas in them.
You can taste the other one if you want. Let’s give the other one a
go. So this is the older one. You can see the crystals on it. Yes,
it’s a bit stronger, more intense. Do you know, I prefer the first one.
Yes, this one not a lot of people like because of those crystals. It’s very strong.
That’s what gives the stronger taste. It’s not salt—lots of people think it’s salt—but Comté
is actually one of the least salty cheeses you can find on the market. If you buy 100 grams, it
only has 0.8 grams of salt—not even 1%. Salt is only used at the end during maturing. We rub
the outside with salt, but it doesn’t enter; it just creates the rind. Those crystals are
called tyrosine. It’s an amino acid from the milk protein that crystallizes around 12
months of maturing. This is why there are none in the young one—it’s only in the older one.
Well, you speak very good English, by the way. Thank you. But before we started,
you said you didn’t speak English. It’s average.
No, it’s very, very good. I’m going to make your life easy. Do you want to
give us some facts to end it off—the top three things that tourists should know about Comté?
Top three things, I don’t know, but maybe something is that there’s no “best” because
every Comté is different. There are lots of elements that give a diversity of
aromas, smells, tastes, and textures: the age, the season, how the cheesemaker and
affineur do their work—they each have their own way of making it. And what we call
in France the terroir is very important. Because if you buy a Comté here in Poligny
and you buy one higher up in the mountains, it will not taste the same at all because the
flowers and herbs are completely different. The only best Comté is the one that you prefer.
Here we are in Poligny in the department of Jura, and Comté is a PDO cheese—Protected Designation
of Origin. It means that there are specifications and rules we have to follow according to
tradition. One of the most important rules is the area of production. We produce Comté
in the department of Jura, the department of Doubs, and just a small part of Ain.
In this area there are about 2,400 farms, which is a lot but they are small farms
because the farmer can’t have more than 50 cows. After that we have the cheesemakers—there
are 140. Here in France we call them fruitières, because Comté is the “fruit” of working together.
That’s why it’s called fruitière. And there are 15 maturing cellars where we rub the wheels of
Comté with salt. Back in the day, before, we used salt from Salins-les-Bains, but they don’t produce
salt anymore. Now we mostly use Mediterranean salt from the Camargue in the south of France.
We have reached the end of that tour of Jura. It was actually a friend of mine who recommended
going north instead of south like I normally do, and it was interesting to see a different
part of France. My top tip would be to go to the Comté Cheese Museum—by far my favorite.
Next, we are going to be at Lac Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where we’ll be filming
Neuchâtel, Estavayer, Yverdon-les-Bains, and La Chaux-de-Fonds. So, please write some
comments below—like, comment, subscribe. Thank you to all of the regular viewers.
Most of you are American and from the UK, and third place is now Switzerland.
So, cheers guys. See you in the next video.
Jura, France: The Hidden Gem You NEED to Visit!
I explored Arbois, Dole, Château-Chalon, and Lons-le-Saunier, tasted Vin Jaune, visited the Comté Cheese Museum, and even checked out the Red Cow Museum—plus so much more! Jura is France’s underrated paradise for food, wine, and charming villages.
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