Blieux

Blieux
Blieux
Administration
Country France
Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Arrondissement Digne-les-Bains
Canton Barrême
Intercommunality Moyen Verdon
Mayor Marcel Collomp
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 831–1,921 m (2,726–6,302 ft)
(avg. 950 m/3,120 ft)
Land area1 56.8 km2 (21.9 sq mi)
Population2 57  (2008)
 - Density 1 /km2 (2.6 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 04030/ 04330
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.

Blieux is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.

Contents

History

The commune of Blieux first appeared on maps in 1100[1].

Much later, during the French Revolution, records show that the residents of Blieux had created a political club (patriotic society), which was very common at the time. (See Jacobin Club)[2].

Name of the commune

According to Ernest Nègre, the first recorded name for the commune, Bleus, was derived from the Occitan word bleusse, meaning 'dry'. This was likely a reference to the local soil[3]. By contrast, Charles Rostaing argues that the name derives from the pre-Indo-European root word, *BL, meaning 'mountain in the form of a spur'[4].

La Melle, the name of a nearby hamlet, comes from the celtic word, mello, meaning an elevated location[5].

Economy

Historically, Blieux was a pastoral community, with a yearly alpine grazing cyle known as transhumance. As with much of Provence, tourism the primary source of economic activity today.

Geography

The village is located at an altitude of 950m[1], in the vally formed by a tributary of the river Asse, known as the 'Asse de Blieux'.

Hamlets

Summits and passes

Population

Historical population of Blieux
Year 1765 1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851
Population 823 913 801 818 810 907 969 876 802 780
Year 1856 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896 1901
Population 735 736 650 598 573 560 537 508 449 442
Year 1906 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954 1962 1968
Population 403 374 241 200 181 160 110 100 73 59
Year 1975 1982 1990 1999 2008
Population 54 59 57 59 57

With the exception of those that have been totally abandoned, Blieux is one of the communities in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department that has experienced the greatest population decline from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.

Inhabitants are known as Blieuxois.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b de La Torre, Michel (1989). Deslogis-Lacoste. ed (in French). Alpes-de-Haute-Provence : le guide complet des 200 communes. Paris. pp. 72. ISBN 2-7399-5004-7. 
  2. ^ Patrice Alphand, « Les Sociétés populaires», La Révolution dans les Basses-Alpes, Annales de Haute-Provence, bulletin de la société scientifique et littéraire des Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, no. 307, 1989, pp. 296-298
  3. ^ Ernest Nègre, Toponymie générale de la France : étymologie de 35 000 noms de lieux, Genève : Librairie Droz, 1990. Volume II : Formations dialectales. Notice 23793, p 1281
  4. ^ Charles Rostaing, Essai sur la toponymie de la Provence (depuis les origines jusqu’aux invasions barbares), Laffite Reprints, Marseille, 1973, p. 85
  5. ^ Rostaing, p. 206