If you’ve been feeling a little more continental lately, it’s not just your imagination. On October 20, Charlottesville formalized its union with Besançon, our longtime unofficial sister city in France. Besançon Mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret was on hand to sign a charter recognizing the alliance, though he apparently couldn’t quite get the hang of the sister metaphor (“Today is wedding night for our towns,” said the mayor, no doubt in charmingly broken English).
Besançon joins Charlottesville’s other sister cities, Pleven, Bulgaria, and Poggio a Caiano, Italy.
What’s happening with our newly wed French sister? Besançon (pop. 117,733) has been in the news most recently for a plane crash. Four passengers were killed when a private two-engine aircraft malfunctioned shortly after taking off from Besançon Airport on October 19.
It isn’t all tragedy in Besançon, though. Indeed, the city is mostly known for its breathtaking views of the Doubs River, its stunning architecture—a result of the city’s foundation as a Roman outpost—and its prominence as a locus for major industry players in technological fields. And while we might have TJ, their local-boy-made-good is none other than literary icon Victor Hugo.
