Contrasts

When Caeser wrote the history of his wars against the Gauls, he described Vesontio in some detail - a settlement inside a deep loop of a river - about a kilometre wide, and with hills and mountains to one side and rich plains to the other. The name Vesontio transformed itself into Besancon,(cedilla on the c).
It seems to have been very rich for a very long time, with an amazing collection of wonderful building still in daily use dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, rather like Oxford, with cloisters and courtyards and hidden spaces. From the middle ages it had hospitals and refuges for women, children, the sick, and the poor and a vivid tradition of taking care of its people, so there are numerous public fountains, with elegant sculptural adornments. It claims to have the oldest public art collection in France. This may be true, but we have noticed several places such as Dijon where claims are made about public art.
It must be hard being in charge of building up a public collection, as your personal taste or judgement may be harshly judged in the future. These collections are historically formed out of the personal collections of some rich individuals by bequest, but here in Besancon there are some striking features. There are a lot of pictures of women being safe, doing safe things.... minding children, holding dishes, weaving, etc. There is also a picture from the late 18th c of a child (boy? girl?) holding a whip over a prostrate puppet...the picture is called 'Gratuite, obligatoire', very sinister. And another nasty piece called La Somnabuliste or something like that...a very gothic image, not Fantin-Latour (I think) but a horrid vision of femininity, dark and threatening.
This morning, disdaining breakfast costing 8 euros in the otherwise excellent Hotel Granvelle, we ate at a cafe round the corner for half the price and there on the wall was a poster/calendar of a naked girl lying on a scaled-up plate of spaghetti in a rolling landscape. Woman as food. How safe is that?
So, in this wonderful old place I am left with the feeling that they have a fine history of public maintenance but they have been terrified of their women, and still are, maybe.