Discover Poligny: Comté, Heritage and Trails

Poligny combines a wide range of cultural attractions with walking and cycling routes. Highlights include the Musée de Poligny and the Collégiale Saint Hippolyte, as well as a hike through wine-growing areas and a 46-kilometre circular cycling route. A visit to the Comté site on the road from Lons to Poligny rounds out the selection. This gives you a range of options for your stay: art and history, Comté, a short hike or a longer bike ride.

Comté and Museum Experiences

The Maison du Comté is located in the heart of the Jura, on the road from Lons to Poligny. It offers an approximately 1.5-hour experience about the Comté industry, designed with families in mind. An admission ticket includes a self-guided visit and a tasting of two Comté cheeses. The approximate duration gives you an indication of how much time to allow for this activity; the visit and tasting are both included in the ticket.

The Musée de Poligny features collections of ethnology, archaeology, natural history and fine art. Its holdings include a herbarium, dinosaur bones and Quaternary fauna, as well as exotic and ethnological collections. Paintings and sculptures complete the range, brought together in two rooms. The collection spans topics from natural history and archaeology to fine art.

The Collégiale Saint Hippolyte

The Collégiale Saint Hippolyte is open to visitors during the day all year round. It houses a remarkable collection of 15th-century Burgundian statues and two Cavaillé-Coll organs facing one another. Unlike the wide-ranging museum, the Collégiale is distinguished by this combination of a statue collection and organs. For culture enthusiasts, the two venues therefore offer different experiences: one has collections spanning several fields of knowledge, while the other features Burgundian sculpture and instruments facing each other. When planning your visit, note that the Collégiale can be visited during the day.

Circular Routes and Wine Country

The Parcours de la Tour comprises a 1,650-metre loop through the town centre, showcasing Poligny’s rich architectural heritage, and the 1,750-metre Mouthier-le-Vieillard loop. Their lengths are similar: the second loop is 100 metres longer. The Parcours de la Tour starts at Place des Déportés, beneath the Traje des Fromagers, a gateway. It also ends at Place des Déportés, at the corner of Rue H. Friant.

For a hike with a clearly stated duration, try the Balade à Poligny: this easy trail is 4.1 kilometres long, with a stated walking time of one hour. It passes through the Monts Martin, Grands Roussots and Chevraudes wine-growing areas. The Culée de Vaux et Croix du Dan circular route, which starts in Poligny, offers a different perspective on the landscape. Its viewpoint looks out over the Culée de Vaux, Poligny and the Bresse; on a clear day, you can also see the town of Dole. The hikes therefore differ both in their stated length and duration and in the landscapes described.

Explore by Bike

For a longer option, the family-friendly La Coulée Douce cycling loop is 46 kilometres long. It follows streams and passes through forests and wine-growing areas before returning to Poligny via Tourmont. This makes it quite different from the 4.1-kilometre Balade à Poligny: one is an extended bike ride, while the other is an easy hike with a stated walking time of one hour. The specific route details help you compare the options based on your preferred activity and the time you have available.

Discover more destinations: Mournans-Charbonny, Darbonnay, Châteauneuf, Cuttura, Barretaine, Uxelles, Mouchard, Moirans-En-Montagne

For the main travel overview: Jura.