Anyone familiar with all these little towns?
We’ll be driving back to Strasbourg from the south and this year I’ve finally persuaded my husband to break the journey. We’re too grouchy for chambre d’hôte type accommodation and prefer the anonymity of a hotel. Otherwise we’d stop somewhere like Baumes-les-Messieurs or Château-Chalon.
Is one of the the 3 towns mentioned nicer than the others? All have hotels I think.
Many thanks in advance for any input.
Well, this is really @JaneJones former neck of the woods - and there are a lot of them, so I can desisit to her opinion.
My memory is of possible passing through poligny and arbois (which is a nice wine) - on way south, direction chambery. Possibly considered them as a stop though never did, so I guess they look nice enough, but small. Might have had a drink pause. Maybe peaceful?!
My main thought is what direction are you coming from from South (if not due south) because you can go through Geneva and have a swim at the beach at Celigny / crans / nyon before turning north into the jura exiting Suisse at la Cure. The views rearward as you climb are nice - I think including Mont Blanc.
So I’m more route suggestion!
PS motorways round Lons I can imagine are expensive as mountain motorways --lots of tunnels!?
edit - I do now remember, we (I) passed them on way down and considered stop (poligny) but opted for hotel on the lake so carried on.
Know them well. Lons was “our” big town for near on 20 years.
The hotels in town are generally pretty dire. A friend of ours ran this hotel just on the edge of Lons - he retired a few years back so may have changed but it was fine.
Arbois is much swankier and very much a wine town with some good restaurants. The Logis hotel in the centre of town is solid standard Logis. Poligny is the Comté cheese capital, but I know nothing of hotels.
Depends what you want and at what price.
We’ll be coming from Lyon and then Bourg-en-Bresse. Otherwise I like the sound of your suggestion.
Thanks very much Jane. Swanky might be nice after a week or so of skanky in a shack in the Cévennes.
Arbois sounds perfect.
Would a Logis be swanky enough?
If you are coming through Bourg then do take a break and go to the Monastère de Brou - on edge of town so no need to drive right into centre.
Arbois does sort of commit you to continuing on departmentals, but through a couple of nice places, whereas Lons is just about manageable to come off motorway and the return to it.
Yes, a Logis will be fine thanks.
And I will definitely suggest that stop outside Bourg. Although getting him to come off the motorway twice in one trip is probably pushing my luck.
We’ve stayed in Bourg twice now, at a hotel I think it’s a logis about 15-20m walk from centre - there’s a good brasserie (le Francis) good Poulet de Bresse reasonable prices. Logis de Brou
Many thanks Larkswood. We’ll see how far we get. We’ll be coming from the Cévennes and I find the drive far too long now to do in one day.
More route planning mode - do we have to pay for motorway in Suiss? I had a feeling the motorway from Nyons to Geneva was pay - but don’t know how…
Anyway, how about Valence - Chambery - Geneve - Bern - Basel - and up you go to Strasbourg. Could be quite scenic?
And from Basel, could one do the up bit to Strasbourg in Germany where the motorways I know are not toll…
In Switzerland to use the motorways you have to get an annual vignette. €68. And yes the A1 Geneve to Nyon counts.
Is there a pay as you go like in France? Currently working on a project in Switzerland.
Nope. Need a vignette even for a single journey.
And they are very efficient at checking them (as you’d expect 
)
Thanks, something I haven’t looked into yet.
Around €60 for 12-14 months, which is about same as return trip Paris-Lyon.
Jeez 68€ these days. Those halcyon days of 40 CHF have disappeared down the tunnels 
There was a time when I was regularly driving from Lyon to Zurich, and even to Munich via the Austrian border. I took to hating the incessant roadworks on those Swiss motorways and now avoid them like the plague. Hopefully, they’ve actually finished all of the upgrades by now.
Yup. They do check I was stopped once - cos my vignette was apparently not fixed properly.
Apparently the rules are as strong as those for the placement of a Critair sticker