Brême River, Small brook in Franche-Comté, France

The Brême is a 16 km brook in the Doubs that rises in Fallerans as the Ruisseau des Breuillots and takes its name at the Pont de Fagot. It crosses the Ravin de Saules, where it drops over a low rocky ledge in a white cascade, and the Ravin du Puits-Noir. A single stone arch bridge with a flat-topped parapet spans it.

Gustave Courbet, born in the region, painted the Brême and its tributary the Plaisir-Fontaine, notably Le Ruisseau de la Brême around 1865, now in Besançon's musée des beaux-arts, and a version dated 1866 held in Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza. The wooded Ravin du Puits-Noir, which the brook crosses, was one of his preferred motifs.

Gustave Courbet, a native of the region, painted the Brême and its tributary the Plaisir-Fontaine, notably Le Ruisseau de la Brême around 1865, now in the Musée des beaux-arts de Besançon, and a version of 1866 in the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. In Franche-Comté, the stepped travertine cascades along the river are called nassis.

The GR 595 follows part of the valley floor, passing the nassis, the travertine cascades that form ledges across the stream. A former railway line from L'Hôpital-du-Grosbois to Lods is now a cycle path, crossing the Brême on a curved viaduct of 13 arches. The Ravin du Puits-Noir has its own walking route.

Gustave Courbet painted Le Ruisseau de la Brême around 1865; that canvas is now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Besançon. A second version, dated 1866, hangs in the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The brook also appears in Le Ruisseau couvert (1865) at the Musée d'Orsay.