Vittel

Vittel
Vittel
	Commune
	General view of the town
	Coat of arms
	Location of Vittel
	Vittel Vittel
	Coordinates: 48°12′09″N 5°57′01″E
Country	France
Region	Grand Est
Department	Vosges
Arrondissement	Neufchâteau
Canton	Vittel
Intercommunality	Terre d'eau
Government
• Mayor (2017-2020)	Franck Perry
Area 1	24.13 km2 (9.32 sq mi)
Population (2017-01-01)[1]	5,071
• Density	210/km2 (540/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	88516 /88800
Elevation	322–457 m (1,056–1,499 ft) ; (avg. 335 m or 1,099 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Vittel (archaic German: Wittel) (French pronunciation: [viˈtɛl]) is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.

Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the Vittel brand.

History

In 1854, after visiting the baths at nearby Contrexéville, lawyer Louis Bouloumié purchased the Fontaine de Gérémoy, site of the modern-day town of Vittel. Two years later, Bouloumie built a pavilion from which developed the grand, luxurious architecture which characterises the site.[2] The town was also a recognized spa, bottling and exporting its waters.[3]

In 1968, the Club Med was opened.

Mayors of Vittel

Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Vittel during the 2009 Tour de France.

Start	End	Name
1882	1903	Ambroise Bouloumié
1903	1919	Henri Gérard
1919	1945	Jean Bouloumié
1945	1947	André Gérard
1947	1952	Charles Villeminot
1952	1953	André Gérard
1953	1977	Guy de la Motte-Bouloumié
1977	1995	Hubert Voilquin
1995	2001	Guy de la Motte-Bouloumié
2001	2017	Jean-Claude Millot
2017	2020	Franck Perry

World War I

Home to U.S. Army Base Hospital 36 from Detroit, Mi. from November 1917 until February 1919. This unit was formed at the Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery now Wayne State University, School of Medicine. They occupied the five resort hotels in the city plus the casino.

World War II

During the Battle of France in the summer of 1944, a small grass airstrip north of the town was used for light liaison aircraft by the United States Army Air Forces. The Twelfth Air Force headquartered several fighter wings in Vittel during their drive east into Germany. In 1945, that flat, grassy area of land (now a racetrack for horses) was used as a holding area for captured Luftwaffe aircraft before their shipment to England and the United States for evaluation (Operation Lusty).

Vittel served as an internment camp for enemy aliens of the German Reich during World War II. Hundreds of American and British families were interned there from September 1942 until liberation by the US Army on September 10, 1944.

A few hundred Jewish people, citizens of German enemies, were also sent there by the Germans who hoped to use them to exchange for German prisoners or nationals held elsewhere.[4] The order of Catholic nuns, Soeurs du Sainte Esprit, were charged with looking after Jewish girls who were interned there.

References

"Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
"Vittel -- son histoire". Retrieved 2011-04-26.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vittel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 151.
Vashem, Yad. "Institute for Holocaust Research".

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.

[Histoire-2] "Vittel -- son histoire". Retrieved 2011-04-26.

[EB1911-3] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vittel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 151.

[4] Vashem, Yad. "Institute for Holocaust Research".