Those who enter the village of Grand in the Vosges completely unprepared, will perhaps wonder how on earth it ever got its name. With a population of less than 400 souls, Grand is anything but grand. But the name Grand has nothing to do with the French adjective for ‘large’.…
In spite of its impressive name, Domrémy-la-Pucelle is just a tiny village. Nowadays it has less than a hundred inhabitants. Nevertheless, Domrémy is world-famous, as it is the birthplace of Joan of Arc (ca. 1412-1431), the “Maid of Orleans” who managed to raise French morale during the Hundred Years War…
Jonvelle in the Haute-Saône is a village with less than 125 inhabitants. Its main attraction is the Musée des Vestiges Gallo-Romain, which is dedicated to the remains of a villa from the Roman age. Nowadays we tend to think of a villa as a large house in the country, but…
Andematunnum was one of the principal settlements (oppida) of the Gallic tribe of the Lingones. This tribe had sided with the Roman during Julius Caesar’s Gallic War (58-50 BCE). Their allegiance to Rome is proven by the fact that Caesar had his legions winter in their territories[1], and by their…
Ancient Vesontio was the principal town (oppidum) of the Gallic tribe of the Sequani. Their name refers to the Latin word for the Seine river (Sequana), but it seems rather unlikely that the tribesmen called themselves Sequani too. Modern Besançon is a nice city with a beautiful cathedral. In the…
About a mile outside the small village of Faverolles in the Haute-Marne, one can find the imposing remains of a Gallo-Roman mausoleum from the early Imperial era. It stood along the road leading from Langres, which was then called Andematunnum, to the valley of the river Blaise and then perhaps…