Tour de France 2012 - ÉTAPE.9;Arc-et-Senans->Besançon 41,5.Km(9)
- 12 years ago
09 Iulie 2012;
Climate;
Besançon is under the influence of both an oceanic climate (notable precipitations in quantity as much as in frequency) and a continental climate with hard winters (snow, frost) and warm and dry summers. The year-round average is 11.5 °C (53 °F). The warmest month is July 20 °C (68 °F) and the coldest is January 2.1 °C (36 °F). Besançon receives about 1059 mm (41.7 inches) of precipitation per year. The wettest month is May (108.4 mm or 4.3 in); the driest is August (76.9 mm or 3 in). The highest temperature ever, recorded on 28 July 1921, was 40.3 °C (105 °F), and the lowest was a −20.7 °C (−5 °F) reached on 1 January 1985.
Demography;
As of the French Census of 2008, the population of the City of Besançon was 117,599, lower than the historical peak of 120,315 in 1975. Grand Besançon covers 122 km2 (47 sq mi), 11 municipalities and has a population of 135,652. The metropolitan area covers 1,652 km2 (638 sq mi), 234 municipalities and has 236,968 inhabitants. It is the thirty-seventh of France. It increased by 6.6% between 1999 and 2008.
Government and politics;
Besançon is the capital of the Franche-Comté région of France, a région including the four départements of Doubs, Haute-Saône, Jura and Territoire de Belfort. As such, it is the seat of the Franche-Comté regional council, and the regional préfecture (government offices).
Mayor of the City of Besançon is Jean-Louis Fousseret.
Economy;
Besançon's modern business district
Banque populaire's new offices in downtown Besançon
The city is famous for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has a little-known specialty, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc.
The watch industry, for which Besançon remains the French capital, endured a major crisis in the 1970s when the advent of quartz watches from Asia knocked out the traditional watch industry in the space of just a few years. The famous "Lip" affair epitomizes the industrial crisis. LIP is to this day the name of one of Besançon's most prestigious brands of watches. Refusing to let their factory close, the workers set up a cooperative to run it. The action produced a lot of notoriety and sympathy for the workers but also resulted in branding Besançon as a city of the radical left. It also did nothing to help revive the watch industry; the cooperative went out of business a short while later. The city took a long time to recover from the collapse of the watch industry and its other major industry of the industrial age, artificial textiles.
Climate;
Besançon is under the influence of both an oceanic climate (notable precipitations in quantity as much as in frequency) and a continental climate with hard winters (snow, frost) and warm and dry summers. The year-round average is 11.5 °C (53 °F). The warmest month is July 20 °C (68 °F) and the coldest is January 2.1 °C (36 °F). Besançon receives about 1059 mm (41.7 inches) of precipitation per year. The wettest month is May (108.4 mm or 4.3 in); the driest is August (76.9 mm or 3 in). The highest temperature ever, recorded on 28 July 1921, was 40.3 °C (105 °F), and the lowest was a −20.7 °C (−5 °F) reached on 1 January 1985.
Demography;
As of the French Census of 2008, the population of the City of Besançon was 117,599, lower than the historical peak of 120,315 in 1975. Grand Besançon covers 122 km2 (47 sq mi), 11 municipalities and has a population of 135,652. The metropolitan area covers 1,652 km2 (638 sq mi), 234 municipalities and has 236,968 inhabitants. It is the thirty-seventh of France. It increased by 6.6% between 1999 and 2008.
Government and politics;
Besançon is the capital of the Franche-Comté région of France, a région including the four départements of Doubs, Haute-Saône, Jura and Territoire de Belfort. As such, it is the seat of the Franche-Comté regional council, and the regional préfecture (government offices).
Mayor of the City of Besançon is Jean-Louis Fousseret.
Economy;
Besançon's modern business district
Banque populaire's new offices in downtown Besançon
The city is famous for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has a little-known specialty, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc.
The watch industry, for which Besançon remains the French capital, endured a major crisis in the 1970s when the advent of quartz watches from Asia knocked out the traditional watch industry in the space of just a few years. The famous "Lip" affair epitomizes the industrial crisis. LIP is to this day the name of one of Besançon's most prestigious brands of watches. Refusing to let their factory close, the workers set up a cooperative to run it. The action produced a lot of notoriety and sympathy for the workers but also resulted in branding Besançon as a city of the radical left. It also did nothing to help revive the watch industry; the cooperative went out of business a short while later. The city took a long time to recover from the collapse of the watch industry and its other major industry of the industrial age, artificial textiles.