Pontarlier

Introduction

Pontarlier is located near the border with Switzerland, at the foot of the Jura mountains and is known to be the second highest town of France with an average elevation of over 1,000 metres. Its is a commune of the Doubs Department in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France and has well over 20,000 inhabitants.

Pontarlier acts as a convenient base for various outdoor activites, with access to numerous high quality ski-runs. Just 18 kilometres from the city lies the beautiful resort at the foot of the Mont d'Or mountain (1,463 metres), which offers many summer and winter activities. The town is also famous for its production of absinthe, although this came to an end almost 100 years ago, making place for pastis.

For more information about the city and its surroundings, have a look at the official Pontarlier tourist website.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

• Porte St Pierre is an 'Arch de Triomphe' erected to celebrate the rebuilding of the town and to commemorate the French conquest of Franche-Comte region in 1678.
• Eglise St Benigne is a 15th century church housing many valuable sculptures.
• Musee Municipal is a 16th century traditional house converted to a museum showcasing the articles related to the local history of the region.
• Ancienne Chapelle des Annonciades is a formerly chappel converted to an exhibition centre
• Espera Museum is an exhibition centre of stylish cars and its prototypes created by the automobile stylist Franco Sbarro.

Events and Festivals

Pontarlier was a pioneer town regarding aviation and the Local Aviation Club usually has some events throughout the year.

Weather

Summers last from June to September with generally temperatures close to 25 °C at the lower parts. Nights can be chilly though and thunderstorms occassionally strike the mountainous area. Winters last from December to March with snow and frost at night, but mostly above zero during the day at the lower areas. The higher slopes are perfect for skiing though.

Getting There

By Plane

The closest airports with a significant number of flights throughout Europe are the Euro Airport near Basel and the Geneva Airport.
The Euro Airport Mulhouse/Freiburg/Basel has most flights with many lowcostairlines serving the area, including flights to Turkey, other southern Europe destinations as well as many cities throughout the west and central parts of the continent.
The Geneva Cointrin Airport has more flights, including lots of flights to places outside Europe. It also has many flights with lowcostairlines like Easyjet.

By Train

The TGV Train is available from Paris CDG Airport to Pontarlier via Besancon and there are trains from Geneva or Zurich to Pontarlier as well, sometimes with a switch of trains.

By Car

Pontarlier is located between the A36 highway in France (near Besancon is the access route) and the highways number 1 and number 9 in Switzerland, leading towards Lausanne and Geneva.

By Bus

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

La Poste in France is also referred to as the PTT (short for postes, télégraphes et téléphones). The mailboxes are painted bright yellow and often there is a slot for local city mail and another slot for "outside mail". Normally there is a queue in the post office, but most of the post offices have the self service machine installed which is quite easy to operate. Nowadays many of the tabac and even some of the souvenir shops also sell postage stamps. Normally an overseas postcard costs almost as much as sending a letter.
Post offices are generally open from 8:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday, and 8:00am to noon on Saturdays. Apart from the basic job of mailing letters, most of the post offices do some banking activities also and some even have photocopy machines and cyber cafes for internet access.