Capital of the Jura and spa town, Lons-le-Saunier is also the native town of Rouget de Lisle. The picturesque Commerce street, lined with arches, and the Liberté square decorated with fountains and surrounded by beautiful buildings, such as the theatre and the clock tower, are among the town’s key attractions.
The birth house of Rouget de Lisle, situated in the Commerce street, is today home to a museum that recounts the life of the composer of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, through an exhibition of documents and personal objects.
Also to be discovered: the 18th-century Hôtel-Dieu and its magnificent apothecaries, the Cordeliers church, the Saint-Désiré church, the charming fountains, the Fine art museum home to paintings and sculptures and the Archaeology museum exhibiting collections of mineralogy, paleontology and archaeology.
The thermal baths (Thermes) offer courses of hydrotherapy in the salt- and trace element-rich water, as well as wellbeing breaks. In front of the establishment there’s a beautiful park for walkers.