Sub-prefecture: Ain (01)
Stage town: for the 2nd time
Population: 3,600 (Nantuatians)
Specialities: Nantua sauce made with crayfish butter to accompany fish quenelles, Comté (cheese), Bugey wines
Personalities: Jean-Louis Aubert (singer), Corinne Niogret (biathlete), David Hellebuyck (footballer), Amélie Goudjo (handballer)
Sport: US Nantua-Port Rugby Haut-Bugey (finalist in the French Honneur championship in 2015), US Nantua (football), Tennis Club Nantua. Events : Trace des Maquisards (ultra-trail), Les Étoiles du Lac (athletics, pole vault)
Economy: shops, services, crafts
Festivals: Fête de la quenelle sauce Nantua (October) / Nantua Fest (music, June) / Festival Woua'art (July)
Labels: Medal-winning town of the Resistance / Most Beautiful Detours in France / Listed as a tourist municipality
Websites and social networks: www.nantua.fr / www.haut-bugey-tourisme.com / www.ain.fr
NANTUA AND CYCLING
Nantua's geographical location, both too close and too far from the Alps, has not encouraged official cycle races to be held here. In fact, the statistics only record one finish in town: a victory by Jean Forestier in the Circuit des Six Provinces in 1954. For the record, it was Jean Forestier's second victory in this edition, which was won overall by Charly Gaul. Just over a month later, the future green jersey of the Tour de France (1957) won the first of his four stage victories in the Tour in Lyon.
But in the absence of an 'official' race, Nantua made up for it by organising one of the peloton's most popular criteriums every year on 15 August between 1945 and 1960. The Ain sub-prefecture (and many others, as the race attracted more than 20,000 spectators) saw the likes of Italy's Bartali and Coppi, Switzerland's Kubler and Koblet, Spain's Bahamontes and Poblet, Luxembourg's Gaul and France's Robic, Bobet, Anquetil and Poulidor.
SIGHTS
Lake Nantua
Situated at an altitude of 475 m, this lake of glacial origin stretches 2.7 km from west to east, is 650-m wide and has a total surface area of 141 ha. It has a capacity of 40 million cubic metres of water and a maximum depth of 42.9 m. It is fed to 80 pc by three small streams that flow into its south-eastern part: the Doye, the Merloz Nord and the Merloz Sud. The water only exits at one point: the Bras du Lac, which then flows into the Oignin.
Listed as: protected natural site
Church of Saint-Michel in Nantua
Style: Cluniac Romanesque
History: it is the last vestige of the abbey church of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre de Nantua, which was built around 671 and became a simple priory in 1100. Originally a Romanesque church with a Cluniac influence, it was decorated in the first regional Gothic style at the end of the 12th century. In 1791, the priory church became the parish church, with Saint-Michel as its patron saint. In 1793, the church was looted, and the bell tower and tower were destroyed, as were all the religious buildings in the region.
Characteristics: this is a Romanesque building of great architectural sobriety, with a central nave covered with ribbed vaults
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1907
Nantua Viaduct
Construction: 1985 and 1996
Characteristics: the Nantua viaduct is a motorway bridge that enables the A40 motorway to link Mâcon with Annemasse and then Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, crossing the Nantua valley at the exit of the Chamoise tunnel. The viaduct also crosses the small Oignin river. The first section was opened to traffic in 1985, followed by the second in 1996. The Nantua viaduct is 1,003 metres long and is made up of two separate viaducts to carry traffic in both directions on the motorway. The viaduct is supported by piers measuring between 46 and 77 metres high, the largest of which are the height of a thirty-storey building, the height at which the Chamoise tunnel exits. Each structure has around ten piers, made up of caissons cast in place using climbing formwork, with the foundations poured at depths of between fourteen and twenty-one metres. The Nantua viaduct was immediately followed by the Neyrolles viaduct, 782-metres long and six to fourteen-metres high
Resistance and Deportation Museum
The Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation de l'Ain et du Haut-Jura (Museum of the Resistance and Deportation in the Ain and Haut-Jura) displays over 15,000 objects in a lively, modern museography. It is one of the richest collections on the Second World War in France. The museum was set up by the Friends of the Museum association at the end of 1983, in the town's former prison dating from the mid-19th century. After work carried out by a number of volunteer former members of the Resistance and deportees, numerous donations received and the initial museography put in place, the museum opened its doors on Friday 12 August 1985. It was inaugurated on 18 October 1986 by General Simon, then Chancellor of the Order of the Liberation, Jacques Boyon, Secretary of State for Defence, Henri Gorju, Mayor of Nantua and Pierre Mercier, President of the Friends of the Museum. The museum was managed by the association until 1990, then by the town of Nantua until the end of 2003, and now by the Ain General Council. Inspected in 1992, it was awarded the Musée de France label in 2003. It is considered to be one of the main reference museums on the theme of the maquis and the secret army in France.
TO EAT
Nantua sauce
Nantua sauce, made with crayfish butter, is used to accompany fish quenelles. In Nantua, the quenelles are made with a minimum of 22 pc pike meat. The crayfish used to make this sauce came from the abundance of these crustaceans in the rivers and lake around Nantua. The butter was made from the shell waste, which was cooked, crushed and filtered.
