Ardeche

See also: Ardeche (homonymy)

The department of Ardeche (07) is a department French which owes its name with the river the Ardèche.

Denomination

Ardeche is called, in Occitan, Ardecha .

History

Ardeche is bordered by the valley of the the Rhone on its frontage is, which always was in contact with the movements of these main roads of communication, even if its mountains protected it. The installation of the prehistoric men in the department goes back approximately to -30  000 years. Many traces still remain, in particular in the south of the department (Grotte Chauvet, Dolmen S, Menhir S, etc).

During the Antiquity there, the Romans find people (the Helviens) ready to be combined with them, and they found several sites (in particular Alba-the-Roman). Helviens trade then with the Greeks and the merchants of the East. Alba is destroyed during the Germanic invasions and the local bishop settles at the edge of the Rhone close to sound vivarium : after Charlemagne, the county of Vivarais passes in Lotharingie (field of Lothaire Ier). In the sudden starts of the Middle Ages, the count-bishop remains under the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Provence and Burgundy then of the Holy roman Empire in 1039, before passing, at the conclusion of the Albigensian Crusade against the Count de Toulouse, with the crown capétienne in 1305.

A great majority of Vivarais becomes Protestant at the 16th century. Follows one century of wars of religion, repressions, massacres, etc the seat of Privas by Richelieu and Louis XIII takes place in 1629, and Louis XIV lance the repression of the Camisard S at the beginning of the 18th century.

The French revolution is not well accommodated in Vivarais, which remains faithful to the king, and of the bands of Chouan S take refuge in the mountains. The department of Ardeche (initially of the Sources of the Loire ) is created the March 4th 1790, pursuant to the law of the December 22nd 1789, starting from the near total of the province of the Vivarais (except Pradelles, more Vans). The 19th century sees the department developing, in particular thanks to the industry of the Soie, the mine and the arrival of the railroad. In 1861, there are 388.000 inhabitants in the department.

At the end of the century, the wine south undergoes the crisis of the Phylloxéra. Then Ardeche pays a heavy tribute at the time of the two world wars: in 1918, 12  000 soldiers do not return from the face, and during the Second world war, several resistant takes the maquis, which causes arrests and executions, but also accelerates the departure of the troops Nazis. Post-war period, small industry is maintained (high valleys of the Boutières) or périclite (mines of Largentière), agriculture takes again its rights with a middle of 20th century when the fruit-lofts (pêchers of Eyrieux, cherries in the south) will know the fame while the valley of the Rhone, with the river itself channeled little by little, is industrialized - especially opposite, in the plain out of left bank. In the department, rather early implied in the development of contemporary technologies (Minitel, Info highways), tourism (of the green Ardeche in north to the Mediterranean zones all between Aubenas and the mouth of Ardeche in the Rhone), became an important component of the economy ardéchoise.

Served formerly well by the rail, Ardeche had a local grid ferroviare developed, in particular by the company of PLM. The majority of the communes of more than 2000 inhabitants had a station at the beginning of the 20th century (lines Robiac - Vogüé - Teil, Vogüé- Aubenas - Lalevade - Largentière, Pouzin - Privas, the Voulte-sur-Rhône - Cheylard and Peyraud - Annonay - Borough-Argental). However between 1969 and 1982, the majority of the lines are removed and the rails deposited. Only the line the SNCF Givors remains - Nimes, along the Vallée of the Rhone, reserved for freight, which makes department of Ardeche, the only metropolitan French department having no passanger station.

Blazon

The old blazon of Vivarais, taken again by the department of Ardeche, is an affected blazon of France old of a crack: a gold edge. This edge carries eight escutcheons of azure which represent the eight places which sent deputies to the States of Vivarais:
  1. Tournon
  2. Fish ponds
  3. Boulogne
  4. Largentière
  5. Merry
  6. Annonay
  7. Montlaur
  8. Borough-Saint-Andéol

Policy

Geography

Ardeche belongs to the area the Rhone-Alps. It is bordering on the departments of the Drome, of Vaucluse, the Gard, the Lozere, the Haute-Loire, the the Loire and the Isere.

The grounds, the climate and the vegetation of Ardeche are quite different between north and the south from the department. North (Haut-Vivarais) is rather crystalline, wet and green the south (Bas-Vivarais) is calcareous, drier, with a Mediterranean vegetation.

The southern part is well Karst ifiée. It conceals many Cavité S natural, of which some very vast and famous: swallow-hole of Orgnac, cave of Saint-Marcel, swallow-hole of Christmas.

Climate

Ardeche offers a strong diversity of climates. Indeed, a moderate climate characterizes the north of the department. The south offers a climate of Provence.
  • green Ardeche located at the north of the department, lain between 350m and 850m of altitude is of moderate climate.
  • the plate ardéchois located at the west of the department, of an average altitude of approximately 1000m offers a climate of medium mountains.
  • southernmost Ardeche is characterized by a hot and dry climate Mediterranean (the zone of culture of the olive-tree starts in Aubenas).

Economy

Industry very early arrived to Ardeche thanks to the culture of the Silkworm developed by Olivier de Serres for the workshops of Soie Lyon are born. But this activity has periclity at the end of the 19th century, even if there remain still several companies of the textile - and, in the south, of many mulberry trees. The industrial fabric developed with the profit of the small and medium-size companies, in particular in the field of mechanics, the plasturgie, the tannery (Annonay), of the paper mill, agroalimentary and the jewelry (basin of the Cheylard). Some heavy industries were also established (cement factories, nuclear plant of Cruas, glassmakings)

Agriculture is still quite present, but with rather small average pieces. Agribusiness industry is also present, with the saltings, the cheeses (Picodon, Saint-félicien, etc) or the confectionery (maroon frozen). All the actors of the die Châtaigne are represent in Ardeche what is equivalent to more than 1000 full-time employment between the production, the transformation and marketing. In 2004, the ardéchoise production of sweet chestnuts was of 5400T, that is to say 50% of the French production. The vineyard, in thirty years, became famous - Côtes of the Rhone of north around Cornas and Saint-Péray until the Côtes of Vivarais and with the Côtes of the southernmost Rhone around Borough-Saint-Andéol.

It is tourism which is the most dynamic sector and more developed (country holidays, sporting tourism): to see low.

Demography

Ardeche remains a department rather little populated (density of 52 hab/km ², against 112 for France), with strong disparities (Valley of the Rhone/mountains). It is also rather rural: in 1999, 51% of the inhabitants live in communes of less than 3000 inhabitants (against 12,5% for whole France). Certain zones develop thanks to their position (cities with the periphery of Valence, for example, city-streets of Rochemaure with Viviers vis-a-vis Montélimar, attraction of the zone Tricastin in extreme south-east), or thanks to the tourist activity.

The inhabitants of Ardeche are called Ardéchois .

See too

Culinary specialities

  • Petrel
  • Jam of sweet chestnuts or " Cream of marron"
  • Split
  • Cousina (soup with sweet chestnut)
  • Foudjou
  • Picodon (goat's milk cheese AOC)
  • Maouche

Tourism

Tourism is very developed in Ardeche. One can divide the department into three great zones:
  • southernmost Ardeche , which goes from the Rhone to the Cevennes piedmont - by far tourist the summer. Attractions are:
    • Vallon-Pont-d'Arc: vacation resort for those which wish to visit the Gorges of Ardeche and to descend the river in the canoe until Saint-Martin-in Ardèche.
    • the Cave Chauvet, discovered in 1994, which one can visit an exposure to Vallon.
    • the mysterious Wood of Païolive, close to the Vans and banks of the Chassezac.
    • the Swallow-hole of Orgnac, Great Site, museum.
    • the medieval village of Merry with the museum of chestnut grove and its greedy living room in October.
    • the remarkable site of the Throats of " Beaume" near the village of Merry. Preserved and only accessible throats has foot or in the canoe with the primptemps.
    • the " Tourist road of the Gorges of Ardeche " through its Natural reserve and scrubland.
    • many sites megalithic (approx. 750 dolmens in Low-Ardeche, and ten menhirs).
    • very beautiful Romance churches of Thines, of Larnas, that of Borough-Saint-Andéol close to residences Rebirth, Fish ponds, its cathedral and its old city, castles of Largentière, Vogue, Labastide-of-Virac…, villages labellized like Balazuc, Saint-Montan, Labeaume…
  • the mountain ardéchoise , hard plate with more than 1000 meters of altitude, virgin and wild
  • green Ardeche , to the north of the department
    • the engines with vapor of the Railroad of Vivarais connect the towns of Tournon to Lamastre via Boucieu-the-King, since 1891 by borrowing a narrow railway which curves in the throats of the Soft
    • the village of Lalouvesc , for its excursions and the traces that there Saint Jean-François Régis left.
    • Peaugres and its " safari"
    • villages of Character of Désaignes and Boucieu-the-King.
  • the Country of Aubenas-Valleys is the crossroads of Ardeche. Aubenas, Ville Carries Regional natural park of the Mounts of Ardeche, and Valley-the-Baths, thermal city of the road of the Towns of Water of the Massif Central, represent the first hotel park of Ardeche, with the meeting between the Massif Central and Provence.
  • the Sources and Volcanos of Ardeche indicate the tourist territory of reception composed by the 15 tourist offices going of the Valley of the the Rhone at the borders of the High Loire and Lozere.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • the
  • Prefecture of Ardeche
  • General advice of Ardeche
  • Info highways of Ardeche - 271 communes of Ardeche in line
  • Ardeche in 1883 by Vuillemin (chart and text)
  • Knowledge in life, the official gate of the inheritance of southernmost Ardeche
  • Sources and Volcans of Ardeche

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