Le Crest

Le Crest
Le Crest from summit of Puy Giroux.
Le Crest
Location within Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region  Le Crest
Coordinates: 45°41′07″N 3°07′39″E / 45.685346°N 3.127384°ECoordinates: 45°41′07″N 3°07′39″E / 45.685346°N 3.127384°E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement	Clermont-Ferrand
Canton	Les Martres-de-Veyre[1]
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes Les Cheires
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Gérard Perrodin[2]
Area^1	6.84 km^2 (2.64 sq mi)
Population (2013)^2	1,326
• Density	190/km^2 (500/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	63126 / 63450
Elevation	366–653 m (1,201–2,142 ft) (avg. 608 m or 1,995 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. ^2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Le Crest is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. It is a market village of a rural region is known for wine growing and other agricultural crops. As in areas of Italy, the ancient village developed around a fortress chateau built on a hilltop for defensive purposes. Dwellings of commoners were built outside the walls of the chateau. The village has a central square with a fountain and a market cross. Agricultural fields extend away from the limits of the village, so the people lived near each other in the village and would travel outside to the fields and vineyards to work.

Anton Docher, a missionary Catholic priest who served for 34 years at Pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico, United States of America, was born in Le Crest in 1852. He was later known as "The Padre of Isleta."

In popular culture

• The activities of the World War II resistance in Le Crest were the subject of the third series of the 1989 television drama Wish Me Luck.
• Samuel Gance's historical novel, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père (2013), recounts the adventurous life of Father Anton Docher after he emigrated to the United States. Much of it is set in the village.^[3] It describes the life of the wine growers of the 19th century.

Gallery

• 
  Le Crest, Dec. 2006
• 
  Church in Le Crest
• 
  "La tour de l'horloge"
• 
  The village about 1900, showing ancient chateau
• 
  Church c. 1900
• 
  General view
• 
  Haying and the village
• 
  Main square c. 1900
• 
  The main square, c. 1900
• 
  Fountain square and market cross, c. 1900
• 
  The old fountain, c. 1900

See also

• Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department

References

• INSEE

1. "Décret 2014-210 du 21 février 2014 portant délimitation des cantons dans le département du Puy-de-Dôme" [2014-210 decree delimiting cantons of Puy-de-Dôme department]. Légifrance (in French). 21 February 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
2. "List of Mayors of Puy-de-Dôme" (PDF). Prefecture of Puy-de-Dôme. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
3. Samuel Gance. Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père. L'Harmattan, 2013, p.1-52 et p.101-110.