All the roads leading from the Rhine to Paris traversed lofty mountains and the many rivers that irrigate France's eastern provinces. In the region of Belfort lies the Grande Ballon of Alsace, a broad, high summit that spawns three mountain chains. The first, the mainly granite Vosges, extends north between the Rhine and the Moselle. Its last heights branch in a northeastern direction past Kaiserslautern, where they take the name Mont-Tonnerre, to Bacharach on the Rhine to form a steep ridge called the Hunsrück. A second mountain chain, the Jura, marches south-southwest from the Grande Ballon to form a chain of sandstone summits and plateaus of considerable height. West of the Vosges, the third range – the mountains of Charolasi – run northwest from Alsace before turning south-southwest in the region of Mirecourt. At Montigny-le-Roi, this relatively flat chain climbs to significant heights until reaching the Plateau of Langres.

These ranges extend three arms that form hill chains: the first and steepest provides the watershed for the Seine and Loire Rivers by stretching northwest in the region of Arnay-le-Duc before knifing south at Saulieu and finally twisting for one last time to the northwest near Château-Chinon. The second hill chain, the Argonne, steps northward at Langres, follows the Meuse, and gradually gains elevation to form a significant ridge by the time it reaches Lorraine, where it culminates in the Argonne Forest.