No, it is not a principality landlocked between France and Switzerland.
The Territoire de Belfort is a department in its own right, but one of the smallest in metropolitan France.
And it is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year with great fanfare.
The amalgam is not unjustified as the 143,000 inhabitants of this piece of Franche-Comté, nestled between the Vosges and the Jura mountains, cultivate their sovereign spirit, inherited from several military headquarters and numerous workers' struggles.
The Territory is in their image, colorful.
The half-timberings in the south of the department unquestionably evoke neighboring Alsace.
The hamlet of Saint-Dizier-l'Évêque plunges into a Swiss atmosphere, while to the north, the Vosges farms punctuate the climb to the Ballon d'Alsace, labeled Historical Climb of the Tour de France.
This resolutely subservient nature is embodied in Belfort, the prefecture of the Territory, in a colossal stone lion elected two years ago "
favorite monument of the French
".
The work of…
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