Vittel

Vittel

General view of the town

Coat of arms
Vittel

Coordinates: 48°12′09″N 5°57′01″E / 48.2025°N 5.9503°E / 48.2025; 5.9503Coordinates: 48°12′09″N 5°57′01″E / 48.2025°N 5.9503°E / 48.2025; 5.9503
Country France
Region Grand Est
Department Vosges
Arrondissement Neufchâteau
Canton Vittel
Government
  Mayor (20082014) Jean-Claude Millot
Area1 24.13 km2 (9.32 sq mi)
Population (2006)2 5,745
  Density 240/km2 (620/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
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.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.
This article is about French municipality. For Russian journalist, see Igor Vittel.

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.[1]

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 current Jean-Claude Millot

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).

See also

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 10th, 1944.

There were Jewish people there also The order of Catholic nuns, Soeurs du Sainte Esprit,

were charged with looking after Jewish girls who were interned there. It is said that the girls committed suicide when they learned that they were being deported

References

  1. "Vittel -- son histoire". Retrieved 2011-04-26.
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