Thermes de Lons-le-Saunier

Thermes de Lons-le-Saunier draws chlorurated and sulfated mineral springs in the capital of the Jura department of eastern France, a city of arcaded market streets and distinctive yellow-stone architecture set in the limestone plateau country that produces Comte cheese, Vin Jaune, and one of France's most complex regional cuisines from an agricultural landscape shaped by the unique microclimate of the Jura massif. The spring waters of Lons have been used for rheumatic and gynaecological conditions since the eighteenth century and the thermal complex maintains both a medical prescription programme and a leisure spa in the heart of a city whose central arcades and clock tower make it one of the most handsome departmental capitals in France. Baume-les-Messieurs, fifteen kilometres to the north, is one of France's designated Most Beautiful Villages, its magnificent geological cirque of three-hundred-metre vertical limestone walls enclosing a medieval abbey, a village of old stone houses, and a cave system that makes it one of the most complete natural and cultural spectacles in the Jura.