The Château de Joux, also known as Fort de Joux, is a medieval castle overlooking a road from France to Switzerland.

Not only does it look pretty epic, you can also visit it!

Let’s see how to get to it & how to visit:

 

How to Get to Le Chateau de Joux

Le Château de Joux is located in the south of the Doubs department. It’s in between the Jura department and Switzerland.

Location: Google Maps

 

 

It’s a short drive away from the Gorges de la Langouette (50mn), and the famous 4 lacs du Jura (1h).

You can drive all the way up to the castle. There’s a small parking lot right in front with 15 spots. If it’s full, drive further down the road and you’ll find another parking lot, with 40 spots. And if this one is full too, well you can park in the village and walk up the hill (15mn to 30 mn walk depending on where you park in the village).

 

entry to chateau de joux pontarlier

 

Chateau de Joux Visit Details

The Chateau de Joux is a treat to see even from the outside. Simply getting in the area and seeing the castle from different angles is epic enough. But if you want to take it one step further, you can actually get inside the castle!

Here’s a glimpse at what you’ll see inside:

  • Musée d’armes (Arms Museum)
  • Berthe de Joux prison cell
  • the keep (donjon)
  • spiral staircase
  • big well
  • underground galleries
  • and more!

 

The castle can only be visited with a guided tour. Here’s the info about guided tours:

Length of visit: 1h15

Price: Adults 7.50€, Children 4.50€

Payment: credit card, cash, checks

Bookings: no bookings

Closing dates: castle is closed from November 16th to March 31st

Opening times: 10am-12:30pm & 1:30pm-6pm

More details: Chateau de Joux

 

aerial view of fort de joux jura

 

Visiting le Fort de Joux, Doubs

After exploring the Jura department for a few days, and seeing beautiful medieval villages like Château-Chalon and Baume-les-Messieurs, it was time to move on.

We left our Airbnb in the morning, and drove to the Cascade de la Billaude; a quick hike down the valley to get to the bottom of the waterfall, then hiked up to the car. We drove to the next department, the Doubs, to visit my uncle. We stayed for the day at his place, before driving to our next destination, Annecy.

Right before leaving, I wanted to explore one cool location I spotted on Google Maps: the Château de Joux.

 

road leading to chateau de joux

 

The castle sits on a cliff, above the road that leads to Switzerland. We followed the road, and turned right on the small road leading up to the castle.

 

chateau de joux from the road

 

The road gets all the way up to the castle, and we pulled up in an empty parking lot right in front of the main door.

 

entry to the chateau de joux jura

 

The sun was already setting down, and of course the castle was closed. We couldn’t enter the main area, but it was still nice to discover the castle from many angles, without the crowds.

 

entry to the chateau de joux horizontal version

 

We got gifted with a nice sunset that colored the sky pink. We enjoyed the last minutes of the day high up on the cliff, watching the forest on one side, and the epic medieval castle on the other side.

 

nesrine in front of the château de joux

 

We hopped back in the car, almost ready to leave the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. Of course I had to get some more photos, so I drove down on the road to find a spot away from the castle, to fly the drone. Here are a few aerial shots of the castle:

 

chateau de joux at night

chateau de joux from the sky

chateau de joux at night on the cliff

 

And that was it, time to leave! I sipped on my coffee, and got ready for the 2 hours drive to Annecy.

 

Visit Jura

Planning your trip to Jura? You’ll find below a few other travel guides & key spots to see in the area.

Cool waterfalls in Jura:

The best hikes around:

 The BIG guides:

 

I hope you enjoy your trip to Jura and to France; if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below, I always reply.

Help a fellow traveler and share this guide with the buttons below!