Saint-Gérand-le-Puy

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Coordinates: 46°15′31″N 3°30′46″E / 46.2586111111, 3.51277777778

Administration
Commune of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy
Location

Country	France
Region	Auvergne
Department	Allier
Arrondissement	Vichy
Canton	Varennes-sur-Allier
Mayor	Xavier Cadoret (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	268 m–359 m (avg. 325 m)
Land area^¹	19.55 km²
Population^² (1999)	1,029
- Density	52/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	03235/ 03150
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: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Saint-Gérand-le-Puy or Le Puy is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne in central France.

Its inhabitants are known as the Gérandais.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Administration
4 Demography
5 Places and monuments
6 The Joyce connection
7 Notable people with links to the commune
8 See also
9 External links (all sites in French, unless otherwise indicated)
- 9.1 Map Links
- 9.2 Links which require payment for detailed information

[edit] Geography

Much of the local rock is Indusial Limestone which is a form of fresh-water limestone common in the Auvergne, known as ‘indusial’, because of the cases, or indusiae, of the larvæ of Phryganea (resembling caddis-flies), which have been encrusted, as they lay, by hard travertine (a white or light-coloured concretionary limestone, usually hard and semi-crystalline, deposited from water holding lime in solution).

The area is rich in fossils, notably birds from the Miocene era. See, for example, Cheneval J (1984), Les oiseaux aquatiques (Gaviiformes à Ansériformes) du gisement aquitanien de Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier} (The acquatic birds (Galliformes to Anseriformes) of the aquitanian deposits of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier}.

[edit] History

A Roman road runs by the town. It was a fortified village in the Middle Ages, deriving strategic importance from its location on the route from Moulins to Lyon.

The town was a stop on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - a local cross marking the way is shown at [1].

It belonged to the seigneurie of Montluçon at the beginning of the 13th century but when the le Bourbonnais (part of the Massif Central essentially co-terminous with the modern Allier) became a Duchy in 1327 it passed into of the hands of the Bourbons.

During the French Revolution it was known as Puy-Redan. In 1832, Saint-Etienne-de-Ciernat and Saint-Etienne-du-Bas were joined to the commune and, in 1833, Saint-Allyre-de-Valence followed.

[edit] Administration

List of successive mayors
Date of election	Identity	Capacity
March 2001	Xavier Cadoret (ex Karim KADDOURI)
Mayor since 1991, re-elected in 1995 (77%) and in 2001 (84%).

[edit] Demography

Demographic Changes
1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999
1100	1143	1121	1018	1064	1029
Number remaining commencing from 1962 : Population without double-counting

[edit] Places and monuments

The 11th century Romanesque church of St Julien was the original chapel of the chateau.
- Its tower is shown at:[2];
Château of Saint-Gérand: The manor is 15th century;
Manor of Gondailly is 15th century with 19th century reconstruction;
A dodecahedral washouse is under restoration;
The James Joyce Museum is located in a room adjoining the town library.

[edit] The Joyce connection

In December 1939 James Joyce, his wife, Nora, and son, Giorgio, made an extended visit to the town to see Giorgio’s son, Stephen, a pupil at the bilingual school there.

In February 1940 they were visited by Samuel Beckett.

After Easter, they moved for a few months to Vichy, some 20 Km away, to see their friend Valéry Larbaud. Personal problems, and the imminent German occupation, persuaded them to move to their final port of call, neutral Switzerland, where they arrived on December 14, 1940. A year later, Joyce died in Zurich. His obituary published in Time can be read online[3].

The memory of Joyce has been celebrated for many years in Saint-Gerand, in particular with "le Jour d'Ulysse[4]."