Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais

Montreuil
Montreuil
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	; ; Montreuil
	Location within Nord-Pas-de-Calais region ; ; Montreuil
	Coordinates: 50°27′53″N 1°45′47″E / 50.4648, 1.763Coordinates: 50°27′53″N 1°45′47″E / 50.4648, 1.763
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Montreuil
Canton	Montreuil
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes du Montreuillois
	Government
• Mayor	Bruno Béthouart
Area1	2.85 km2 (1.10 sq mi)
Population (2006)2	2,498
• Density	880/km2 (2,300/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	62588 / 62170
Elevation	2–43 m (6.6–141 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Main	Births etc

Montreuil or Montreuil-sur-Mer (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃tʁœj syʁ mɛʁ]) is a sub-prefecture in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is located on the Canche river, not far from Étaples. The sea, however, is now some distance away.

Sights[]

It is surrounded by medieval ramparts, part of the reinforcement work of the famed French military engineer Vauban from his fortification of northern France in the 17th century.

Demographics[]

Population (1999): 2,688 inhabitants for the city, 21,603 inhabitants for the canton and 99,288 inhabitants for the arrondissement.

History[]

Montreuil was the headquarters of the British Army in France during the First World War. General Haig was quartered in the nearby Château de Beaurepaire. A statue commemorating his stay can be seen outside the theatre on the Place Charles de Gaulle. During the German occupation of the town during the Second World War, the statue was taken down. It was never found and is thought to have been melted down. It was rebuilt in the 1950s, using the sculptor's original mould.

Literature[]

Lawrence Sterne visited the town in 1765. He recounted his visit through the eyes of the narrator of his novel A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768).

Montreuil is the setting for part of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, where it is identified only as M____-sur-M__ in past translations. The protagonist, Jean Valjean (going by the name Father Madeleine), is for a few years the mayor of Montreuil, as well as owner of the local factory, and it is where the character Fantine lives, works, and later becomes a prostitute before dying in a local hospital. Hugo had spent several vacations in Montreuil.^[1]

International relations[]

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Twin towns — Sister cities[]

Montreuil is twinned with:

Slough, United Kingdom^[2]

Gallery[]

References[]

^ Edward Behr, The Complete Book of Les Misérables (Arcade, 1993), 29
^ "British towns twinned with French towns". Archant Community Media Ltd. http://www.completefrance.com/language-culture/twin-towns. Retrieved 2013-07-11.

INSEE commune file

External links[]

The equestrian statue of Field Marshal Haig on the website "Remembrance Trails of the Great War in Northern France"

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This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.

[1] Edward Behr, The Complete Book of Les Misérables (Arcade, 1993), 29

[Archant_twinning-2] "British towns twinned with French towns". Archant Community Media Ltd. http://www.completefrance.com/language-culture/twin-towns. Retrieved 2013-07-11.

[1]

[2]