Saint-Claude, the town of the pipe

Long before it became Saint-Claude the town of the pipe, Saint-Claude had a history of its own…

It was after the discovery, in the twelfth century, of the intact body of Abbot Claude, a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Oyand who had died more than four hundred years earlier, that the town of Saint-Claude became a place of pilgrimage and took the name Saint-Oyand-Saint-Claude. Only in the fifteenth century did King Louis XI give the town the name Saint-Claude.

Saint-Claude the town of the pipe is a small French town in the Jura department with about 13000 inhabitants. Set in the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park, in the Franche-Comté region, it has Lons-le-Saunier as its prefecture. The town is ringed by peaks such as Mont Bayard, Mont du Crêt Pourri and Mont Chabot.
World capital of the pipe, Saint-Claude owes its reputation to its craft production of briar pipes.
The economy of Saint-Claude has long been based on craftsmanship, on turned articles in wood or bone, which, thanks to the briar pipe, grew considerably from 1855 onwards. Saint-Claude also has lapidary and diamond-cutting industries.

The pipe may hold no secrets for Saint-Claude, but it will always hold some for its visitors!
It is well worth meeting the master pipe makers, who share their know-how and are glad to explain to visitors the 10 stages in the making of a pipe, as well as the materials used.
Saint-Claude pipes can cost from 30 to 400 euros. A number of criteria determine and account for the price of a pipe: the quality of the briar and of its drying, but also its age, which gives a higher quality to the pipe itself, the choice of materials between ebonite and acrylic, or indeed the shape of the pipe…
Given the quality of Saint-Claude pipes, it is worth taking care of your pipe.

Saint-Claude the town of the pipe, but not only that…
Rich in monuments such as Saint-Pierre Cathedral and its choir stalls or the Chapelle des Carmes, in museums such as the “Musée de la pipe et du diamant” and the “Musée de l’Abbaye”, and in bridges, waterfalls and nearby gorges, Saint-Claude the town of the pipe offers plenty of fine walking routes. Not forgetting a detour by its “Caveau des artistes”, where craft objects and local produce are on show.