Arc-et-Senans is home to the Royal Saltworks

By Staff Writer Larry Wilson

We took the fast train to Dijon, home of the mustard, and a rental car pickup and fun drive, some on byways, some on the toll-road autoroute, through a French forest (not exactly the High Sierra) to Arc-et-Senans, home to the Royal Saltworks designed and built by the visionary eccentric Ledoux from 1775 to 1779.

It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in a weird way was the highlight of our trip: obscure, not an American tourist destination, and we got to stay overnight in one of the 225-year-old buildings at a better rate than in a bad hotel.

We roamed the grounds alone, after the tours were over; I took a long run around the circular park; I pulled out my watercolor set in a gazebo created as part of a landscape designers’ competition; late at night the buildings were lighted as part of another artist’s work.

The dinner in the local village was indifferent; the countryside not particularly picturesque, but living in this great master’s nutty salt factory was a treat.