The village with its church, its square and its fountain, is the image of Epinal of the French countryside. The quintessence of what the tourist seeks to find while wandering around France. Just like the bistro or the bakery, the village is part of the French art of living.
Nestled in the hollow of a valley, on the slopes of a hillside, in the middle of fertile plains or overlooking the waters of a river, villages are the soul of France. Who has not dreamed of a house decorated with a garden and a few trees in the calm of nature and the song of birds.
Villages including L’Est Républicain, Le Républicain Lorrain and Vosges Matin act as a daily mirror in order to reflect, as closely as possible to the populations, the richness of this economic life, sometimes industrial, agricultural of course, cultural and associative, based on a sometimes turbulent history. Indeed, the villages we know have welcomed their inhabitants for centuries, even millennia. Groups of men came to settle there and forged their identity and that of the territories surrounding them.
42 villages
For the fourth edition of our special operation “ My beautiful village “, our local editorial staff have, in each of the seven departments of our distribution area, made an initial selection of ten municipalities, reduced to six by a selection committee. All are home to fewer than 3,500 inhabitants and are distinguished by the richness of their historical and natural heritage or their unusual character.
The prizes awarded to the winners will be presented during the community laurels evenings organized this fall in each of the seven departments in the broadcast area of L’Est Républicain, Vosges Matin and Républicain Lorrain.
