The Red and the Black is set in Franche-Comté: Julien Sorel grows up in the fictional town of Verrières, studies at the seminary in Besançon, and meets his end after a church shooting based on a real 1827 crime near Grenoble.
The route follows Julien from Verrières-de-Joux, the village that may have lent its name, through Besançon's citadel, seminary and cathedral, to Brangues and Place Grenette, where the real Antoine Berthet who inspired the novel was tried and executed.
Vauban's fortifications, a UNESCO World Heritage group, include the citadels of Lille and Besançon, the Mont-Louis citadel, the ramparts of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, Mont-Dauphin, Neuf-Brisach and the Asfeld Bridge at Briançon.
Louis XIV's military engineer drew a belt of strongholds around France. Each stop here is a place you can still walk through, and each shows a different way of making a border hard to cross.
Stops follow the date each fortress was begun. Some of them are still working towns, not just monuments.
