Vauban, the citadel and the territory

And if we revisited the work of Vauban like a walk? The new episode of the France Télévisions documentary series “The 100 places you must see” presents the life of the prolific fortress builder from the perspective of an invitation to travel. The work of the ingenious Marquis of Louis But the territory is linked to the intimate, to childhood, to this time when impressions color the character. So here we are in Côte-d'Or, in the bucolic town of Semur-en-Auxois where Vauban studied the humanities.

Fortified at the time of the Hundred Years' War, the site has impressive medieval defenses, solid ramparts and towers perched on a granite spur which serves as a natural foundation. All surrounded by a river. By chance of geography, the future prince of French forts thus studied less than 15 kilometers from the oppidum of Alésia – rediscovered only two centuries later -, where the armies of Vercingétorix were besieged and broken by the legions of Julius Caesar.

A string of fortresses

A few years later, nourished by these youthful visions and the scientific progress of his time, Vauban built a string of fortresses on the borders of the kingdom. Since we have to choose, the show takes us to discover three of them. Fort Saint-André de Salins-les-Bains (Jura), taken by France in 1674, overlooks a strategic valley by 600 meters. The site was transformed into an autonomous fortress, where the soldiers lacked nothing, not even a chapel, inaugurated to avoid the long return trips to the village below. Same fight at the Château de Joux (Doubs). Empowering the site is once again a priority: Vauban founded a store capable of storing up to 36 tonnes of food and had one of the deepest wells in France dug for a year, the bins from which drew hundreds of liters of water at a time. Finally, with the citadel of Besançon, the builder reconnects with his first love and the dungeon of Semur. Layered on the local relief, the bastioned architecture follows a meander of the Doubs. Nothing is lost with Vauban.

But be careful! The promised walk is not just about jumping from fort to fort. Let's return to the intimate. The Vauban family, of minor nobility from Morvan, once owned a castle in Bazoches. Enriched by the wars of the Sun King, Vauban bought the site which had passed from hand to hand. True to himself, he restored it and transformed it into barracks. In winter, he devoted himself entirely to his “idle activities” in the retirement of his study, his back to the fireplace, pen trained on his blackened pages of drawings of fortifications and rationalized casemates. His siege armor is still exposed there, with its bullet holes. Wounded six times, Vauban was definitely not just a library strategist.

To inject more lightness, the show allows itself some infidelity. One of these stops lingers at the Château d'Arlay, to enjoy the main course of the stronghold: a spit-roasted guinea fowl, stuffed with chopped shallot, parsley and softened butter. A traditional cuisine from the Jura that Vauban had perhaps tried. In short, delicious evocations of the lands traveled and of a life led in defense of the territory.