Divonne-les-Bains

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Commune of Divonne-les-Bains
Administration
Country	France
Région	Rhône-Alpes
Département	Ain
Arrondissement	Gex
Canton	Gex
Mayor	Etienne Blanc (2001-2008)
Statistics
Land area¹	33.88 km²
Population² (1999)	6,277
- Density (1999)	185.2/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	01143/ 01220
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

Divonne-les-Bains, a commune in the French département of Ain, is a popular spa town.

Divonne lies on the border with French-speaking Switzerland, between the foot of the Jura mountains and Lake Geneva. Geneva itself is 20 minutes away on the Swiss autoroute to the south-west. Nyon, a Swiss market town, is the nearest main town travelling east along Lake Geneva towards Lausanne. On the French side the nearest town is Gex, which lies at the foot of the Col de la Faucille pass by which the main N5 road crosses the Jura in the direction of Dijon.

Divonne became popular as a spa in the 19th century. However many of its present-day amenities - casino, golf course, hippodrome, open air swimming pool and artificial lake - were built after 1945. A cultural centre by the lake was completed in 2005. Divonne hosts a small chamber music festival every summer which is centred on its tiny theatre and the Chateau de Divonne, a 19th-century hotel which overlooks the town, Lake Geneva and the French Alps beyond, from the high terrace which was the site of Divonne's medieval castle.

A short way above the town there are several natural springs. These were already known to the Romans, who built an aquaduct from Divonne to Nyon to supply water to their garrison.

The town is home to some 6,000 people, which now includes people from all over the world, for whom Divonne is a pleasant place to live for a few years while they are posted in the Geneva area with multinational companies or international organizations such as the United Nations.

There is a lively market on Sundays and a succession of cultural and sporting events throughout the year.

Divonne used to have a railway, linking it to Gex and Bellegarde on the French side and to Nyon and Geneva on the Swiss side. The old railway station can still be seen in the town centre. Diamonds were mined in Divonne in the past, and the present-day thermal spa is built on the site of a diamond-cutting works, powered by a water wheel on the Divonne river which still turns today.