Bonnétage

Bonnétage is a commune in the French department Doubs in the Franche -Comté.

Geography

Bonnétage is located on 935 m, 10 km southwest of Maîche and about 14 km northwest of the town of La Chaux -de-Fonds (air line). The village is located in the Jura, at an exposed south-facing slope of the height Sur le Rocher, in the west of the plateau of Maîche and south of the Dessoubre valley.

The area of ​​17.71 km ² municipal area includes a portion of the French Jura. The main part of the area is occupied by the weakly in relief plateau Maîche, which is on average 880 m. It is mainly composed of meadow and pasture land, but also shows some of larger forest areas, particularly the Grand Bois. The plateau has no above-ground rivers, because the rainwater seeps into the karst underground. The northern boundary runs in the heights Champ du Bois (980 m) and Sur le Rocher (978 m), which form the boundary of the plateau of Maîche against the Dessoubre valley.

To the southeast, the municipality's area covers a long narrow strip down over the almost 10 km wide high plateau down to the canyon-like incised valley of the Doubs. It encompasses a section of the broad ridge of the Grand Mont, on the with 1047 m the highest peak of Bonnétage is achieved. This ridge forms in geological- tectonic respects an anticlinal folds of the Jura and is oriented southwest-northeast direction according to the strike of the mountains in this region.

The community consists of various Bonnétage hamlets, villages and numerous hamlets, namely:

• Le Village skin ( 935 m) with the Church, on the southern slope of the height Sur le Rocher
• Le Bas Village ( 885 m), the oldest district of the municipality, at the southern foot of height Sur le Rocher
• Le Grand Communal ( 848 m), today the center of the community, on the plateau of Maîche
• Le Petit Communal ( 842 m) on the plateau of Maîche
• Fourgs ( 861 m) on the plateau on the northeast edge of the height of Le Mémont
• La Pâture - of - brebis ( 890 m) on the southwestern edge of the height of Les Fontenelle
• Les Cerneux- Monnot ( 885 ) on the plateau of Maîche

Neighboring communities of Bonnétage are Grand'Combe -des- Bois, Le Russey, Le Luhier, Montbéliardot and Plaimbois du Miroir in the West, Rosureux and Saint- Julien- lès- Russey in the north, Les Fontenelle and Fournet -Blanche Roche in the east and the Swiss town of La Chaux -de-Fonds in the south.

History

The area of Bonnétage was cleared in the Middle Ages by monks of the Priory of Laval and reclaimed. Together with the Franche -Comté reached the village with the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678 to France. In the early 1900's Bonnétage experienced by the introduction of the watch industry an economic boom.

By 1 January 2009 there was a change in the membership of the district municipality. So far, belonging to the district Montbeliard, all municipalities in the canton came to the district Pontarlier.

Attractions

The village church in the hamlet of Le Village skin was built in the 14th century in the Gothic style and remodeled in the 16th century. Another church is located in the hamlet of Les Cerneux- Monnot. In the various villages and hamlets, particularly in Les Cerneux- Monnot, various farmhouses dating from the 17th to 19th centuries in traditional Franche-Comté style have been preserved.

Population

With 798 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) Bonnétage one of the small communities of the department of Doubs. Once the population has consistently had in the first half of the 20th century in the range between 500 and 550 people, a slight population growth was recorded since the early 1950s.

Economy and infrastructure

Bonnétage until the 20th century, a predominantly by agriculture ( livestock and dairy farming ) and forestry embossed village. The sector has mainly settled in the district of Le Grand Communal. There are various operations of small and medium enterprises, mainly in the fields of watchmaking and Decolletage, micromechanics and transport industry. Many workers are also commuters who engage in the surrounding larger towns of their work.

The village has good transport links. It lies on the main road D437 which leads from Montbéliard to Morteau. Further road links exist with Orchamps -Vennes and Fournet -Blanche Roche.