A brief history of communes
A typical French landscape with a church and a village in Normandy. In the countryside, the parish, i.e. the village church, often served as the basis for the creation of the commune. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: Mlis via Depositphotos.
What was it like before the communes?
In the past, there were mainly parishes (a religious division), seigneuries and, in the case of certain large towns, communes, which in the Middle Ages had acquired a degree of freedom from a lord or even a king. There was little or no democracy in these entities. In some large towns, the post of mayor or consul was often bought. In small parishes, you are not asked for your opinion, except sometimes, for the church, in the "conseil de fabrique". As far as the seigneury was concerned, only the seigneur decided. Sometimes there were several seigneuries in the same parish, sometimes with different laws, which made things very complicated.
The French Revolution changes everything
On the evening of 14 July 1789, after the storming of the Bastille, France's first commune was born: the commune of Paris. Self-proclaimed after the assassination of the Provost of Merchants, the forerunner of the mayor, it was given a mayor and replaced all the old Parisian organisations that preceded it and dated back to the Middle Ages. A civil guard of 48,000 citizens was created. Louis XVI was presented with a fait accompli and a few days later met Jean Sylvain BAILLY, an astronomer who became the first mayor of Paris.
Sylvain BAILLY, the first mayor of Paris (he can be recognised by his tricolour sash) welcomes Louis XVI a few days after the storming of the Bastille. Painting chosen by Monsieurdefrance.com Jean-Paul Laurens - Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France, 1891 /commons.wikimedia.org
12 November 1789: date of birth of the communes
The National Assembly created the communes on 12 November 1789. It decreed that "there shall be a municipality in every town, village, parish or rural community". In short, no more towns, villages or other divisions: a single administrative division for everyone and a single name for it: the commune. At the same time, the French territory was divided into districts, cantons and départements. So, while the old local divisions were abolished, so too were the former larger divisions: duchies, counties, and their different laws. It is the inhabitants who choose whether the commune will replace the old parish or whether it will replace a community (e.g. several hamlets). Most of the time, what is chosen is the parish, and there are an enormous number of parishes in France, which explains the large number of communes - 44,000 in 1789 and almost 35,000 today. That's a lot more than in many countries, particularly in Europe. Although only residents who owned property and paid a certain level of tax could vote, for the first time they could choose who ran them. It was a revolution thanks to the Revolution. They were also asked to choose or build a common house, which would soon be known as the Mairie (or town hall in larger communes). Today, the Mairie is highly symbolic of France.
1792: the birth of the Civil Registry
Since 1792, marriages in France have been performed before the local registrar (the mayor or an elected official). Illustration chosen by monsieurdefrance.Com: OceanProd via depositphotos.com
Since 1537 and the Edict of Viller-Cotteret, parish priests had been responsible for recording baptisms, marriages and burials in parish registers, but in 1792 the Civil Registry was born. People were no longer married before the parish priest, but before the town mayor, so that the union could be recognised by the State. From then on, it was a civil registrar who declared to the spouses that "in the name of the Law, I declare you united in marriage", rather than in the name of God. Similarly, the civil registrar recorded births, marriages and deaths in registers. This is still the case today, and when there is a religious ceremony, it does not replace the ceremony at the Mairie. Only a republican marriage is legally valid. Later, in the 19th century, it was the communes that took charge of children's education, in particular by building schools. They were also responsible for building the many communal wash-houses set up in the 19th century to combat the cholera epidemic, which was wreaking havoc. Even today, although many decisions are taken at a different level (inter-municipality, for example), the communes still manage day-to-day life and many community projects .
The communes today :
While there were 44,000 communes in 1789, they have now fallen below the famous 36,000 that many French schoolchildren learnt about at school. Napoleon had already cut back on the number of communes by abolishing those deemed too small, and nowadays the state is encouraging communes to merge, so their numbers are falling steadily. In 2022, France will have 34,826 communes in Metropolitan France (including Corsica) and 129 communes in the Overseas Departments and Regions, making a total of 34,985 French communes . Nearly 85% of them have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. Inhabitants often have a name, the "gentilé", by which they are known (although in many communes the inhabitants have no name).
France's smallest and largest commune
Arles is the largest commune in France in terms of surface area. Photo chosen by Monsieurdefrance.Com: blooda via depositphotos.
The smallest commune in France in terms of population is Rochefourchat. It's in the Drôme department and has 1 inhabitant. Or rather one inhabitant, the one and only Rochefourchatienne. Rochefourchat has a ruined castle, a disused church, a chapel and some beautiful old houses. The smallest commune in France in terms of surface area is Castelmoron-d'Abret, in the Gironde department. Smaller than the Place de l'Etoile in Paris, it covers 3.5 hectares and has 53 inhabitants. The village is built on high ground and is full of charm. Around the church, the streets are lined with beautiful old houses, and the town hall is housed in the former ducal palace. It's worth noting that over 5,000 communes are less than 5 hectares in size. The largest commune in France in terms of population is of course Paris, with 2,165,000 inhabitants. Arles is the largest commune in France with 759 km2, i.e. 7 times the surface area of the city of Paris. Chamonix and Saint Gervais les Bains are the highest municipalities in France and even in Europe, since they share... Mont Blanc!
The two highest communes in France are Chamonix and Saint Gervais les Bains, as they share the summit of Mont Blanc. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.Com: hzparisien@gmail.com via depositphotos
Communes without church towers
The Mairie is even more emblematic than the churches in the French countryside, since many communes are said to be "without a church tower", i.e. they have no church within their boundaries . Even so, there are 650 of them. The Aube département has the most, with 20 communes.
Communes that died for France.
During the First World War, the fighting was so intense that some villages disappeared and it was not possible to rebuild them, particularly because of the number of shells left in the ground, as around Verdun. Some villages have had their name attached to the village next door, while others have been rebuilt a little further away from the original village. There are also communes that have been declared "died for France" but still exist. There are 9 of them in the Meuse département, all near Verdun , and all deserve to be named. They are Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Cumières-le-mort-homme, Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux, Louvemont-côte-du-Poivre, Ornes and Vaux-devant-Damloup. These communes have a war memorial, a "shelter" chapel and a mayor who is appointed by the State and has all the functions of a mayor except the possibility of being a grand elector for senatorial elections and sponsoring a candidate in presidential elections.
The ruins of the village of Ornes, in the Meuse department, where the ground still bears the scars of the war. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: By TCY - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4251449
The shortest name and the longest name
The French municipality with the longest name is Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-Et-Isson. That's 37 letters and 7 dashes. Located in the Marne region of Champagne, it has a population of 508, a beautiful church (whose choir and transept date from the 16th century), a château and even a Champagne museum. The oldest café in the Marne department (Le Lion d'or, opened in 1740 and closed in 2014) has long been a feature of the pretty timber-framed houses. The French commune with the shortest name is Y. Located in the Somme region of Picardy, it has 90 inhabitants known as Yssois or Ypsiloniens. It paid a heavy price in the First World War during the Battle of Peronne. Its church, Saint Médard, was completely rebuilt.
Mayor, town halls, symbols and responsibilities
The largest and smallest town hall in France.
Paris City Hall is the largest city hall in France and even in Europe, with 600 rooms and 66,000 m2. Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: photocreo via depositphotos.
Town halls have been part of the French landscape since the French Revolution. Some are huge, like Paris's 66,000 m2 Town Hall, making it the largest in Europe. Sometimes they're tiny, like the smallest town hall in France, at Saint Germain de Pasquier in the Eure region of Normandy. Just 12 people can fit in there by pushing the furniture around. The highest town hall in France is located at Saint Véran in the Hautes-Alpes at a height of 2042 metres. It is also the highest town hall in Europe. Each of these town halls features Marianne, the symbol of the Republic, the portrait of the President of the Republic, a tricolour flag (which is not always decorated with flags, as it may only be on special occasions) and now a European flag.
The Mayor and his symbols.
A mayor wearing a tricolour scarf with gold tassels (it can also be worn as a belt). Photo chosen by monsieurdefrance.com: Oceanprod via depositphotos.
The mayor is elected by a majority of the councillors. The mayor is entitled to wear the tricolour scarf with gold tassels, while the deputy mayors may wear the tricolour scarf with silver tassels. Local councillors are not entitled to wear it, except when replacing the mayor for a civil ceremony (e.g. a wedding). The blue is close to the collar, unlike the deputy's, which helps to differentiate them. A mayor may not wear the tricolour scarf for a private event outside his municipality.
