Three communes in the Ain department are merging to become a single town, Valserhône.
Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, Chatillon-en-Michaille and Lancrans have become one since 1 January 2019, with a single name for this new municipality, integrated into the Pays Bellegardien community of municipalities.
Like the 234 new municipalities created at the beginning of the year in France, resulting from the merger of 612 former municipalities, Valserhône thus becomes the 3rd largest municipality in the Ain with nearly 17,000 inhabitants.
Valserhône…
This name, a word inspired by the waterways that cross the commune, symbolises the meeting of the Valserine, a tributary river, and the Rhône River, which comes from Switzerland.
And what do the inhabitants of the area think?
Meeting at the weekly market in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine with the newly renamed Valserhônoises and Valserhônois.
A report by Franck Grassaud and Thierry Swiderski for France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes:
To find out more about the commune of Valsherhône:
- Official website (French) of the commune and Facebook page
- Wikipedia presentation page
Along the Rhône
- Towns and villages crossed by the river Rhône (French)
- Department of Ain : presentation (French) and transports (French)
- List of new communes in France, wikipedia (French)
- Map of the Rhône river
- Weather along the Rhône
- Taking the train in Switzerland and France
- Where to sleep in the Rhône valley?
- River tourism map (Rhône)
- Towns along the river
- The Viarhôna, the green bike route along the Rhône river
