The five fountains

These “municipal” wood turning factories, built by the Union Électrique (electricity union), were used for rural production, but were also important social locations, particularly during the winter period. Several members of one family could rent a wood-turning space in the workshop, pooling their production for sale to the Moirans traders. According to some authors, municipal workshops weren’t used by specialised craftsmen, who preferred to protect their manufacturing secrets for specific markets. Spaces in the wood-turning workshop were mostly beneficial to farmers who could use them to earn additional income without any investment costs (C. Picod, 1991).

“It spoke with a young and resounding voice, with a Jura accent with wide open vowels, clear like a white loaf in which consonants take a decisive bite. [...] The Vouivre flat on its stomach in a bed of reeds, bathing in the sun with a bare bottom and its ruby dress alongside it, indeed.” This is how Marcel Aymé, an author from Franche-Comté, described the Vouivre in his book of the same name; The Vouivre is usually described like a winged, flamboyant serpent with a garnet as its only eye, a fabulous diamond whose value, beauty and power is equalled only by the lust that it arouses in men. Often associated with desire, the Vouivre is also represented as a half-woman, half-serpent. Legend says that the creature only left its treasure to bask in the calm waters of the humid Jura environments. But beware of still waters... we don’t recommend attempting to steal its garnet!

“Bimbeloterie” is the French term used to define the trade of all sorts of wood-turned trinkets: spinning tops, cases, taps, jumping rope handles, ornaments, etc. Nearly every home still has a few old specimens once made by parents or grandparents in the family workshop. Space consuming and often of little use, they are full of ancient know-how which makes them so difficult to get rid of.

This 500-meter out-and-back is accessible to mountain bikes and offers a stunning view over the Lac de Chanon and the vast folded Jura all the way to the Jura Mountains, with illustrations and explanations provided by interpretive signposts.

Built on the Ain in 1968, at 130 metres high, the Vouglans dam is the French dam with the 3rd highest storage capacity: it is capable of holding around 600 million cubic metres of water, and with 1600 hectares of water surface, it makes the Vouglans lake one of the largest artificial lakes in France. It took a year and a half to fill with water and it deeply changed the physiognomy of the Ain’s embankments, swallowing up several hamlets as well as the Chartreuse de Vaucluse, the first Carthusian monastery in the Jura (12th century).

With significant facilities in the gorges of the Ain (Saut Mortier I, 1901 and Saut Mortier II, 1912), the Franche-Comté company, Union électrique (1897-1946), led an electricity supply network in rural municipalities and enabled craftsmanship in the region of Saint-Claude (R. Tardy, 2003). In the département of Ain, it developed two major lines providing electricity to the municipalities having sold it the land. Even better, it built industrial buildings in return for the land used to place electricity lines, in which craftsmen could rent driving power to run their towers. (PNRHJ - Collection patrimoine, “Heritage collection”)

Take time to appreciate the view: the Lac de Coiselet, created by a dam built in 1970, collects the water from the Bienne and the Ain and winds along the bottom of a distinct relief. With a bit of patience, you may see some of the birds of prey that nest in the nearby cliffs.  

From birth, the Patou dog lives alongside sheep in the sheep-pen, which allows it to build a strong relationship with the herd. The Patou’s role is not to shepherd the herd, but rather to protect it from predator attacks (wild animals, stray dogs, etc.). Its presence and its large size prevent many attacks. The dog’s first reaction is to bark and to place itself between the intruder or intruders and the herd. If the intruders do not heed this warning, the dog may then launch a physical attack. (view the Advice and Recommendations page to learn how to behave in the presence of a protection dog.)

Balconies, or galleries, which partly or completely span the length of the first floor on the farm’s facade, essentially served for drying: here, people would store wood, corn, nuts, etc., sheltered by the protruding roof called a “souleret”. Seen from the road, the railings and pillars were sometimes covered in ornate decorations.

Note the old lactometer visible at the junction of the two roads in Nezan. Livestock breeders and dairy producers working together under cooperatives would bring their production to the shared dairy (“fruitière”) in the morning and the evening to transform it into cheese and to mature. The milk was weighed using this object to calculate their production, paid for based on weight and quality (pureness, fat content, dry weight, etc.), and not based on the number of litres.