European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 11, 1959, Darmstadt, Hesse A Green Shangria that few americans come tilsit. The Cathedral foreground is the showpiece of the split level town of St. Claude As Iri new England Stone walled Fields Are a typical feature of the Upland pastures. One 3 totes from. A vacationing correspondent straying eastward from the conventional French vacation trails winds up in the Jura and seems to like what he finds there by Morton p. Gudebrod staff writer. Bon Uleu Jura sphere is not another House within a Al half mile of this modest chalet style summer pension and the crickets Are filling our bowl of verdure with a sedative Buzz ing. It s hard to realize that less than 25 airline Miles away to the East in Geneva statesmen have been trading boasts of atomic might. For peace in the sense of serenity rather than of in War is the key note of this Jura Region of France. We can oly wonder Why this Lovely Region of thick forests High pastureland and plunging or meandering Waters should be overlooked by Europe stationed Ameri cans in search of vacation areas. It is easily accessible via several of France National High ways simple but comfortable inns Are conveniently spaced along its excellent roads and its rolling Countryside and its Forest filtered air is at the same time bracing and relaxing. Yet in seven Days of exploring this Green Shangrila behave yet to encounter a . Forces License plate on the Road. The Jura mountains Are the Happy end result of a cataclysm that occurred about50 million years ago. Up to then the savants say most of this part of Europe was under water except for islands which we know As the Massif Central of France and the Vosges mountains. The sea Bottom was made up of layer upon layer of Sedi ment each representing an almost unthinkable measure of time. And then came some cosmic Blowout inthe Earth s crust that overnight so to speak created the Alps. Squeezed Between the immovable mass of Central France and the pressure of the new mountains the Jura sea bed buckled upward like crumpled counterpane while the Waters spilled off. Wherever the carving of glaciers or the work of erosion has left the Rock Bare the individual strata of the prehistoric sea bed sharply defined end lofty Cliffs look like petrified birthday cakes with Forest for an icing and each layer representing an Eon of pre history. The geology class is now dismissed. The Jura in t very Large in area roughly "160 Miles from Northeast to Southwest and not More than 40 Miles wide at the thickest part of its roughly Crescent Eastern limits billow Over the Swiss Border. In its Vest pocket Way it manages to pack in Scenic features that will remind american visitors of various areas of the states the High Meadows with their stonewalls Are re mindful of new England the Forest bordered lakes Are something like Northern Maine and the deep narrow Gorges with their foaming Waters Are smaller editions of the kind of sights found in our National Parks. V the Juras Siens Are a rugged lot As the must be to get by in a Bountiful but uncompromising land where Winter last seven months. They must work hard in the intervening five tending their crops fattening their cattle and lumbering their forests in preparation for the Long col season. In the Uplands even during the Green summer the farmhouses have an attitude of bracing themselves against the deep shows to come. They re built of the native Stone with a single Low Broad roof shelter ing family quarters Grange and cattle is the season when the fresh sawn logs of Winter firewood Are climbing i neat piles against the farmhouse Walls. Even Down in the Valley towns the House Sand even churches Are sheathed on the weather Side with unlovely Zinc sheets to keep out the Winter winds. And speaking of towns there Are Only a few communities in the Jura big enough to justify the name Coligny Lons Lesaunier Morez St. Claude and Arbois Are Amon the principal ones. Most of these the impartial Michelin guide to the area describe Sas rather banal in aspect it we have inspected a handful of them and we can agree. Architecturally they re nothing much but most of them Are in dramatic settings provided by the surrounding Jurassic Cliffs and they have a quiet character All their own. If you re vacation ing near any one of them the rest Are always within easy reach. From the standpoint of the tourist is one of the most interesting. This is a split level Community if Ever there was one. It clings to both sides of the Gorge of the Bienne River and is almost surrounded by soaring Heights. Entering St. Claude from the High pasture land just to the North Calls for a careful hairpin descent of several thousand feet and when you get into the town you can still look Down dizzying distances. St. Claude was for centuries a religious shrine so famous in its heyday that it grew immensely Rich and in so doing go tout of hand. In the 12th Century the venerated monks of the Abbey lived a life of the strictest religious discipline despite the wealth brought in by the pilgrims then the nobility jealous of All that income muscled in decreeing that henceforth the monks could be drawn Only from the established nobility. In a few decades they had completely taken Over and a stranger Mon Astery never existed. Instead of living in cells the patrician friars built themselves tastefully furnished private chalets dined like gourmets entertained lavishly and took nine month vacations every year. It was decades before the higher authorities of the Church Werab e to put things right again. But St. Claude has Long since lost it religious Eminence. What remains is the Small 13th Century Cathedral with its Wood carvings of Jehan de Vitry the inhabitants of St. Claude still carve Wood but the Art has degenerated to the manufacture of souvenir Briar pipes and continued on Page 14 Jurassic Cliffs Are like petrified birthday 6 Besancon Dole Arbois pol1gnv Lons Lesaunier Moreau Pont arlier the Placid River Doubs in no hurry at All to quit the Region meanders 310 Miles through the Green valleys. \ Thi stars and stripes i avg it 11, the stars and stripes
