Ornans

Gustave Courbet was born in Ornans in 1819 and painted the valley repeatedly, and the town's postcard image is his subject too: houses built out over the Loue on stone piers, reflected in green water. His family home is now the Musee Courbet, which holds paintings and documents and looks straight onto the river. A Burial at Ornans, the huge canvas that scandalised the Salon of 1850 by giving a village funeral the scale reserved for history painting, is in the Musee d'Orsay, not here. Further up the valley, the Source of the Loue emerges full-grown from the base of a cliff in a limestone amphitheatre.

The main sights

• The stilted houses - buildings standing over the Loue on stone piers.
• The Musee Courbet - the painter's family house on the river.
• The Source of the Loue - a river emerging from a cliff base upstream.
• The valley cliffs - limestone walls and viewpoints above the town.

When to go

April to October; the source is most dramatic in spring melt. The museum closes Tuesdays and some winter periods. Autumn colour in the valley is good.

Good to know

Courbet's most famous works are elsewhere, chiefly in Paris. The museum is modest in scale. The source is a separate drive with a short walk from the road.

Nearby

Besancon lies north; Baume-les-Messieurs is southwest.

Key facts