In the transect of transition from the central to the western part of the alpine arc (Western Switzerland and France) a palinspastic restoration of the alpine foreland is tempted, including the Subalpine Chains (Aravis and Bornes), the Molasse basin and the Jura mountains. Major problems in this reconstruction at the virgation ofthe chain are : (1 the changing directions of tectonic transport during deformation ; (2) the lack of information on the geometry of strike slip faults (and lateral limitations of thrust sheets) and of the amount of tectonic displacement along these faults; (3) the lack of information about the internal architecture ofthe main anticlinal structures of the Jura and the Subalpine Chains. In the Tabular Jura, N-S shortening is limited to minor thrusts. The Plateau Jura, with little transpressive deformation along the "faisceaux", has been thrusted in Late Miocene and Pliocene times to the NW and W on the top of the Bresse basin by a mean distance of about 8 km. In the Folded Jura, the High-Chain of the Central Jura, with strong N-S shortening by thrusting and folding (maximum 20 km), is separated from the less de¬ formed Southern Jura (6 to 8 km internal E-W shortening) by the Vuache-Forens-Les Bouchoux strike-slip fault zone, which is linked to the alpine front by the Vuache-Annecy left lateral strike-slip fault and by the Alby structure. Strain markers indicate changing transport directions from N-S to E-W during the deformation of the Jura, from Early Miocene to now. In the Subalpine chains, a first deformation phase (mainly Oligocene and Early Miocene) indicates SSE-NNW to SE-NW shortening by folding and thrusting of about 8 km, and a second phase is at the origin of 6 km of thrusting from the ESE or E to WNW or W (mainly Miocene and Pliocene).