36 Hours In The Jura

It's true that some people just never get over what Hemingway famously called the "moveable feast" of Paris — and too bad for them, because if they never leave the French capital, they'll miss the pleasures of one of France's true hidden pleasures, the Jura.

See 36 hours in the Jura Slideshow

The relatively isolated part of the Franche-Comté region, east of Burgundy and abutting the Swiss border, is a peaceful stretch of rolling green fields, hills, and valleys punctuated by vineyards, dairy farms, and small honest-to-god medieval towns.

Although the Jura is a paradise for snowshoers and skiers in winter and hikers in summer, both of whom long to hit the Grande Traversée, a 186-mile hiking and cross-country ski trail, it's important to know that this is rural territory. Roads came late here. Hence, the Jura remains one of France's lesser-known tourist destinations, which is all the more reason to visit.

Paris's café culture is one thing, but the rugged charms of the Jura, which include the local cheeses and wines that this particular soil, chunked with clay and limestone, produces, are equally addictive — if almost entirely less moveable than the stuff you find in Paris: The Jura is one of those places you can't take with you; you have to be there, in the mountains, noshing on Comté and sipping vin jaune, to get it.

Friday

4 p.m.: There's no better way to get your feet wet than to whet your appetite with Comté cheese. Mostly known in the U.S., if at all, as a cousin to Gruyère, Comté is a raw cow's milk cheese in possession of an inimitably nutty and sweet flavor, which varies, depending in no small part on how long the cheese has been aged and from which season its milk derives, and can range from bracingly intense to mild and creamy.

The most fun, offbeat place to get your first taste is on a tour at the official La Maison du Comté, a handsome townhouse in Poligny. Here, you'll learn about how and why the cheese has achieved the coveted P.O.D. label ("protected designation of origin") and get a proper introduction to the wonders of the grassy highlands from the bovine point of view. The end of the tour features a tasting of a variety of young and aged Comté cheeses. Tours are held in the afternoon and are open to, and encouraged for, the general public; they are easily booked in advance via the museum's website. Tours are about €4 per adult.

8 p.m.: After you learn about life on the farm (did we mention that the Comté museum allows visitors a chance to inhale the aromas from the layers of hay that the cows chow?), switch gears entirely with the very modern menu at the Hostellerie St-Germain, a small bed-and-breakfast housed in an 18th-century stone building, a former coach house, and run by hip young chef Marc Tupin, a native of the region, and his wife Maria.

Tupin's twin passions are the region's distinctive cheeses (in addition to Comté, there is Morbier, Mont d'Or, Tomme, and Bleu de Gex) and wines, specifically vin jaune, or yellow wine, made from late-harvested savagnin grapes, and possessed of the oxidized nose of good sherry but with a tart-tangy finish, but also others made from the distinctive Jura-grown grapes poulsard and trousseau. Tupin's seasonal menus include fresh mountain trout, the locally made dark, rich sausage called Jésus de Morteau, and more of that cheese in almost any guise you can conjure. Expect it in straightforward tartes, gougères, and traditional cheese courses, and also as an ingredient in more innovative ice creams and mousses.

Saturday

10 a.m.: No gourmet cheese shop in America, even one with built-in caves, can quite compete with the majesty of Fort St. Antoine, an affineur, a cheese maturing facility, housed in a former military fort. The subterranean facility has impossibly thick stone walls that provide the ideally cool, damp conditions that cheese-caretaking demands. The building had been sitting idle for many years after World War I when its construction was rendered obsolete by then-sophisticated German bombs. Cheesemaker Marcel Petite realized the cheese-aging potential the structure offered, and his affinage business has been thriving ever since.

Here, Comté is aged from 10 to 14 months. A typical tour of the place features the chance to get lost in both the cheese-aging process and the incredibly unique facility's architecture, and then taste some outstanding specimens in the process.

12:30 p.m.: Putting the Alps in "Alpine lunch" is the unforgettably quirky experience of Auberge la Petite Échelle, a ramshackle former nunnery turned shepherd and snowshoer hangout, where proprietor Norbert Bournez runs his own version of an eco-friendly "resort" — albeit one with a compost toilet, giant yurts, and a homemade bowling lane complete with handmade wooden pins.

Bournez, a passionate forager who grew up hunting wild herbs with his family, runs his restaurant with no electricity at all — candles light a low-ceilinged room, whose beams are strung with aging homemade sausages, and all of the food is made to order, in and atop a gas range. Needless to say, all of the ingredients are local, and the usual menu includes a salad of wild greens and herbs, a bubbling pot of herb- and pink peppercorn-flecked Comté fondue, traditional Swiss rösti topped with rounds of that rustic Morteau sausage, and wild blueberry-rhubarb tart. Cows and peaks compete for your attention while Bournez quietly works his simple magic in the kitchen.

4 p.m.: The incredibly scenic Château-Chalon is considered one of the most beautiful villages in all of France and you'll realize why as you travel there on the Routes des Vins du Jura, a stretch of "highway" lined with vineyards. Château-Chalon is a marvel of winding cobblestone streets that's just right to explore on foot; make sure to visit the 12th-century church Église Saint-Pierre, and you'll want to sample the village's unique variety of vin jaune, made here since the days of the Roman Empire.

A great place to do that is at Domaine Macle, a tiny operation founded in 1850 that is the local heart of the quirky Château-Chalon appellation. Although its A.O.C. designation has been protected by the French government since 1958, the wine is largely unknown globally — in part for the (silly) reason that its bottles aren't the usual 750-ml size, which authorities say complicates export. No matter, because tasting vin jaune at its source is a rare treat. The thing to know: the wine is aged for six years and three months after harvest, during which time it ages sous-voile, or beneath a "veil" of flor, a yeast which, as with sherry, allows for the slow-ripening process of controlled oxidation that gives the wine its distinctive character.

Domaine Macle's wine is available only at the property itself and buyers must visit the winery in person to be screened before purchases are allowed. The family is happy to give tastings and tours of their 16th-century caves by appointment to the general public, though. The tasting room is a wood-paneled, intimate affair, making the experience all the more precious.

7 p.m.: Baume les Messieurs, just four kilometers south of Château-Chalon, is another picturesque small town, this one nestled in a valley with "walls" of 200-meter cliffs surrounding it. There are gorgeous views of the countryside, a monastery founded in the sixth century, and pastures of cows and goats surrounding the cobbled main drag. Where better to sample the region's many delicacies?

Le Grand Jardin is a small restaurant situated in a little house perched on a cliff; it's owned by husband-and-wife team Christine and Didier Favre (she's front of the house; he's the chef) and is decorated in classic French farmhouse style — expect lots of paintings of chickens and hanging copperware.

The menu is an assemblage of local specialties, including fresh lake trout and wild hazelnut salad, Morteau sausage in a sauce of Comté cheese and savagnin wine, and a stunning plate of utterly authentic poulet de Bresse vin jaune aux Morilles, the famed blue-footed chicken from nearby Bresse served in a sauce of vin jaune alongside a small fortune's worth of morel mushrooms. Homemade artisanal ice cream is the thing here for dessert; the Macvin flavor, made with a local late-harvest fortified dessert wine, is special.

Sunday

10 a.m.: Visit the Grande Saline de Salins-les-Bains, the legendary salt mine built in the 18th century that's now a museum to the ancient art and backbreaking craft of salt mining. On UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, the actual attraction is a two-building affair. The modern museum offers an historical retrospective of how salt is pumped from the sea and turned into what we find on restaurant tables; the underground mine tour includes the spectacle of an ancient wooden mill used to extract salt from a depth of 250 meters and a chance to behold four enormous pit-like "stoves" where workers shoveled the salt flakes (that's the backbreaking part). There is also a kid-friendly "Planet Salt" play space, where budding gastronomes can play and learn with interactive exhibits and enjoy a good-old-fashioned diorama of the salt-making process. Best of all: The gift shop sells incredibly addictive sea salt-salt water caramels to take home.

Note: Salin-les-Bains is also known for its pottery and ceramics; the town was once home to antique faience and majolica factories; though those are no longer in existence, plenty of shops stock beautiful examples of each. Try the elegant Terres d'Est on Avenue Aristide Briand.

12 p.m.: Here's how to go out with a bang. A splurge indeed is on offer at the recently renovated 18th-century Château de Germigney, a restored manor house, originally the home of the Marquis of Germigney, complete with authentic English gardens but decidedly French gastronomy. The Relais & Chateau property is an expansive (and expensive) resort with all sorts of amenities, from arranged hunting and mountain biking excursions, but the pièce de résistance is, without a doubt, the dining room. The chef puts the massive gardens to good use, offering up a selection of très French greatest hits —coquilles St. Jacques, frog's legs, foie gras terrine, — enhanced with flavors from the Jura (think more of that Comté cheese and Morteau sausage and morel mushrooms).