Franche-Comté (UK: /ˌfrɒ̃ʃ kɒ̃ˈteɪ/,[2] US: /- koʊnˈ-/;[3][4] French: [fʁɑ̃ʃ kɔ̃te] ⓘ; Frainc-Comtou: Fraintche-Comtè; Arpitan: Franche-Comtât; also German: Freigrafschaft; Spanish: Franco Condado; all lit.

The name "Free County of Burgundy" (Franche Comté de Bourgogne; Freigrafschaft Burgund) did not appear officially until 1366.

[8] They were separated again by the end of the 15th century, since duke and count Charles the Bold died in 1477 without sons, and his cousin King Louis XI of France consequently failed to secure all of Burgundy, ceding the Free County to the Philip of Austria by the Treaty of Senlis in 1493.

In 1506, Philip was succeeded by his son Charles, the future king of Spain (1516) and the Holy Roman Emperor (1519).

Although ruled by Spanish Habsburgs, the Free County was never annexed into the Kingdom of Spain, and thus remained a domain within the Holy Roman Empire.

It was conquered a second time in 1674, and finally was ceded to France in the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678), leaving the Holy Roman Empire as a result.

Louis XVI issued a decree banning these practices on 8 August 1779, but the Parlement of Besançon blocked this until 1787.

The population of the region fell by a fifth from 1851 to 1946, reflecting low French natural growth and migration to more urbanized parts of the country.

The Région des Lacs is a land of gorges and waterfalls dotted with tiny villages, each with a domed belfry decorated with mosaic of tiles or slates or beaten from metal.

The summits of Haut Jura have wonderful views across Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) and toward the Alps.

Franc-comtois is the name of the dialect of Langue d'Oïl spoken by people in the northern part of the region.

We find in Besançon the National School of Mechanics and Microtechnology (ENSMM) or the UTBM, the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard[13] in Belfort and Montbéliard.