Montbeliard - a Christmas wonderland in France

If Christmas has lost its magic and all you feel at its approach is a sinking in your stomach and a ‘bah humbug’ on your lips… you need to go to Franche-Comté; to be more exact, you need to go to Montbéliard.

The excitement is infectious in this fairytale town decked out as it is for Advent with some 65,000 enchanting lights that sparkle over packed streets filled with people getting into the spirit of the season. Sparkling arches stretch away along the roads and small lights burn in the winter sky. This multi-coloured canopy has been fashioned into flowers, cascades of light, triangles and fans of silver stars.They lead you mesmerised, eyes skyward through crowded streets. It’s easy to get lost as other landmarks are forgotten in admiration. The twinkling illuminations carve a magical pathway through the heart of this town, which is built round a fold of the River Doubs; they shine
merrily on the 300,000 visitors who flock to the eponymous department each December.They come from all over France and the rest of Europe to enjoy the annual Christmas lights and market, which runs from 24 November to Christmas Eve.

The festivities are centred around the Place St-Michel where more than 140 stallholders smile out of little wooden houses, selling everything you could possibly think of for Christmas: handicrafts, wooden toys, gifts, decorations, santons (Christmas crib characters) lights, food, cheeses – including the delicious Comté and melt-in-the-mouth Mont d’Or – Montbéliard sausage and cured meats, Jura wines – including regional favourites Vin Jaune,Vin de Paille
and Macvin – salmon, fois gras and champagne… the opportunities are endless.

Music mingles with delicious scents on the breeze and in l’Allée des Saveurs Sucrées – running down one side of the Temple St-Martin – you’ll find all manner of sweets, cakes, pâtes de fruits, chocolate, honey and all kinds of gingerbread. Meanwhile, in l’Allée Gourmande just off Rue du Général Leclerc, the stalls are weighed down with
tempting toasted sandwiches, snails, crêpes, soups and tartes flambées.

Christmas characters

But it’s not all about food. Every night as dusk falls, the market comes to life with choirs, musicians, dancers and Christmas characters. On the corner of Place Dorian, La Tante Airie resides in a simple wooden house. Her face full of smiles beneath a traditional headdress – une câle à Diairi; her shoulders wrapped in a cloak to keep out the winter cold. So the story goes, in the time before Father Christmas, this kind fairy used to visit the homes
of all the good children and fill their clogs with presents carried in the panniers of her faithful donkey, Marion.

It is also said that Tante Airie was the seventeenth-century Contesse Henriette de Wurtemburg, a benevolent noblewoman who was much loved by the Monbéliardais. But whoever she was, today both she and her donkey are popular
figures at the Marché de Noël as they stroll through the streets handing out les papillottes, the traditional Christmas confection which is only found in the east of France, to everyone clogs or no.

A short distance away from Tante Airie, following the official Christmas market map available from the tourist office, is Father Christmas’ house in Square Sponeck. Here the good man himself is on hand to grant everyone’s Christmas wishes. From time to time he also takes to the streets in his carriage drawn by a Comtois horse – apparently the reindeer are only used for long trips – and children can join him for the ride.

The legends of Christmas are kept alive in processions too. More than 130 children wearing white robes and crowns of candles march through the streets of Montbéliard in homage to Ste-Lucie; their recorders and jingling bells fill the town with music and light.

St-Nicolas’ alter ego

And in another procession, kind St-Nicolas parades with his alter ego Le Père Fouttard. Legend has it that the two used to travel from house to house asking if children had been good. The good ones got presents from St-Nicolas while the bad ones received a lash of the whip from Père Fouttard. Today, fortunately, the pair are less fussy about
checking up on the behaviour of the spectators. They march cheerfully around Montbéliard handing out gingerbread and mandarins to everyone.

Standing tall and proud over the celebrations on a rocky promontory is the imposing Château des Ducs de Wurtemberg, once the seat of power for the Wurtemberg dynasty who ruled over Montbéliard as a German principality for four
centuries.The romantic jumble of round towers with their fairy castle roof turrets have an unmistakable southern German feel, which is carried on throughout much of the town’s
architecture.

Unlike most of France, the town has a protestant history.The oldest Lutheran church can be found here, built in 1601 by Heinrich Schickhardt, the very same church which now forms the centrepiece for the Marché de Noël. The town’s Catholic churches are later additions built after Montbéliard became French in the late eighteenth century.

In 1603 Stuttgart-born architect Schickhardt was commissioned by Duc Frédéric de Wurtemberg to modernise the centre of Montbéliard. It is his legacy that has left the town with the distinctive Germanic character of its near neighbour, particularly with regard to the coloured façades of the older houses in the centre.Today, the impressive castle houses the Musée de Château, part of which is devoted to one of the town’s famous residents, Etienne Oehmichen, who was the first to fly a kilometre circuit in a helicopter of his own design in 1924.

But with feet firmly on the ground, no trip to Montbéliard would be complete without a visit to the Musée l’Aventure Peugeot in Sochaux. The car giant employs 15,000 people locally and is a fascinating journey from Jean-Frédéric and Jean-Pierre Peugeot’s first forays into manufacturing to the international motoring triumphs of the present day.

As well as the hundreds of cars you might expect to find on display, there are also more unusual products that were once made by Peugeot including hand tools, coffee grinders, washing machines, irons, sewing machines, not to mention the famous pepper mill which is the only product, apart from cars and bikes, still in production today. There is also a quirky restaurant nestled among the exhibits where you can fortify yourself for more entertainment with a simple yet satisfying lunch.

Old town

Back across the river in the centre of the old town and opposite the Temple St-Martin, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire Hôtel Beurnier Rossel offers an interesting glimpse of life of the French bourgeoisie in the eighteenth century.The first floor has been completely done out to recreate an authentic private house of the period.The museum also has
an exhibition of the traditional regional headdresses – les câles à Diairi – as worn by La Tante Airie. The bonnets are made out of satin and carefully embroidered with tiny pearls, silk thread and tiny pieces of cut glass.

In nearby Place Denfert-Rochereau you can take a step even further back in time. Not far from the beautiful  stone-built halles or covered market, is a stone slab known as the pierre à poissons because in the fifteenth century pike caught in the River Doubs were sold here. At Christmas the Place Denfert becomes an ice rink and parents stand warming their hands on a well-earned vin chaud or just the best hot chocolate from salon de thé Debrie
in Rue de Velotte; their small children speed round with admirable aplomb. Everywhere there is the sound of happiness; the anticipation of good times to come.They’ve captured the spirit of Christmas in Montbéliard; all you have to do is go and enjoy it.