English

Good Morning

January the 3rd  2012 - The SKY VOILLANS 

Voillans is a simple, discreet little village, nestling on a hillside in the Jura Mountains.  

The village extends in the curved landscape between the river valleys of Doubs and Ognon, in a hollow at the southern edge of the high plateau Les Mondreveaux.

The village is located in Franche-Comte. East of France close to Switzerland.

Most of the area is covered by a gently rolling high plateau landscape ... which is on average  420 above sea level.

... fields,  some larger forest areas. 

Montbéliard cows

But at the moment it is winter :

The Church

Landscape 2010

Our small stream 2010

Town Hall - School street 2010

History

First Part

Human beings have been present here for a long time.

In the neighboring village, Vergranne,  a human tooth  dating from the Quaternary period - 400,000 years ago - has been found.

 In a another nearby village, Santoche, 
there is a 5,000 yearold dolmen.

In Roman times, Voillans was traversed by the Rhine Road anothe Hadrian's Way. The village was probably a Roman outpost or mansio.

This area is also known as called "La Levée of Julius Cesar", or Julius Caesar's recruiting ground.

The village's current name first appears in the twelfth century as Vaylans (1173)
In the Middle Ages, the village was part of the Holy Empire, not France, when Frederick I was Emperor.

Frederick Barbarossa

In the seventeeth century during the Ten Years War (1635-1644), the village was largely destroyed by the soldiers of Bernard de Saxe-Weimar.

The plague added to these misfortunes it declined from 295 inhabitants in 1614 to 55  in 1657.

In 1658 the village'name became Voulans
In 1678 Voulans becomes "French" when the Franche Comté was conquered by Louis XIV.

Louis the Fourteenth

to be continued

December 29th 2011 - Photo M.Sandrat

Next the second part of the  the village's history