Besançon is the capital of Franche-Comté, and its 4th division football club is bizarrely called Besançon Racing Club. This may explain why it plays in the 4th division. Besançon is famous for producing status-symbol quartz watches and automatic ticketing machines for airport car parks. Think of Besançon next time you reach uncomfortably from your car window and drop your ticket in a puddle. The city's famous sons include the Lumière brothers (see our Provence blog,) Victor Hugo and Raymond Blanc.
Victor Hugo is best known for writing Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which, as a stage musical and a Disney film, have gone on to generate millions in theatre revenue and sales of cuddly hunchback toys. Hugo also enjoyed merchandise spin-off success in his own lifetime, with the publication of Toilers of the Sea. Until his sea-creature novel came out, most French believed that the squid was a mythical beast. Thanks to Victor, Paris was gripped by squid fever and the 1866 Society Season was a-slither with squid parties, squid exhibitions, squid dishes and squid hats.
Raymond Blanc probably knows what to do with a squid. Disappointingly though, he came last in the Omelette Challenge in BBC's Saturday Kitchen. Blanc dithered for minutes over his omelette, whilst Jun Tanaka had his on-the-plate and covered in ketchup in just 17 seconds. The 1994 Japanese attempt at world's largest omelette probably took even longer to cook than Blanc's. The Japanese chefs then had to eat the 160,000-egg omelette whilst live hamsters were inserted in their underpants. Probably.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
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