The title of France's longest commune name belongs to a tiny village in the Marne département in north-eastern France.
It glories in the name of Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson.
With around 500 residents, Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson is hardly one of France's best-known villages, but it has become something of a curiosity due to its extremely long name.
At 38 letters (excluding hyphens), it beats the country's other lengthy place names - and yes, locals still have to write it on official paperwork.
The secret to the length of the name is that it's really four names; Saint-Remy, Bouzemont, Saint-Genest and Isson.
In fact, this is the reason behind most of France's longest place names - it happens when two or more communes merge to form a single administrative authority.
They have the choice of either picking one name, or merging both names, and for reasons of local pride the merging option is the most common. If communes choose to merge names, they are obliged to hyphenate them for "administrative convenience".
France has more than 34,000 communes - the smallest administrative entity in the country. Some contain just a couple of hundred people, but all have a local mayor.
Other lengthy commune names include:
- Beaujeu-Saint-Vallier-Pierrejux-et-Quitteur (Haute-Saône)
- Saint-Laurent-les-Bains-Laval-d'Aurelle (Ardèche)
- Siccieu-Saint-Julien-et-Carisieu (Isère)
- Coise-Saint-Jean-Pied-Gauthier (Savoie)
Several of these names also result from historical mergers between neighbouring localities.
Back in 2022, graphic designer specialised in data Clara Dealberto posted a map of France on her X account showing the names of the longest towns in each département.
Comme je vois que vous aimez la bonne cartographie, je vous ai préparé...
— Clara Dealberto (@claradealberto) November 2, 2022
💫 La carte de France du plus long nom de commune par département 💫
(un énorme big up à Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson) pic.twitter.com/ZDaXsnm1EC
Dealberto didn't stop there. She also posted a map of the towns with the longest names consisting of a single word.
When it comes to single-word towns, France is quite restrained - the winner for this round is located in the Hautes-Alpes and is spelt with an eminently reasonable 14 letters - Barcillonnette.
Just behind it are the towns of Rochefourchat (Drôme), Beaucroissant (Isère), Villargondran (Savoie) and Barcelonnette (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), all with 13 letters.
🗺📏 Vous m'avez beaucoup posé la question et j'ai votre bonheur (et votre savoir) à cœur, alors voici :
— Clara Dealberto (@claradealberto) November 3, 2022
💫 La carte de France du plus long nom de commune EN UN SEUL MOT par département 💫
Pas de tiret, pas d'espace, pas d'apostrophe ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/daQpzIc2ST
France has around 34,800 communes, making it the country with the largest number of municipalities in the European Union. The system dates back to the French Revolution in 1789, when every parish or town became its own commune.
What about the shortest?
At the opposite end of the scale are the communes with very short names.
Among the shortest are:
- Y (Somme - pronounced i-grec, like the letter), consisting of just a single letter.
- Eu (Seine-Maritime)
- By (Doubs)
- Oz (Isère)
- Fa (Aude)
- Ri (Orne)
De Y à Eu, en passant bien sûr par By, Uz et Oô, laissez-moi vous présenter...
— Clara Dealberto (@claradealberto) November 2, 2022
💫 La carte de France du plus petit nom de commune par département 💫 pic.twitter.com/81GMcR7voi
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