Communes of France

Cognin

Cognin (Savoie) is a commune near Chambéry, France, first recorded in 1107 as ecclesia de Cohonnino, known for its excavated Gallo-Roman villa (1969–1976), Château de Martinel, and Robert Badinter's 1943–44 shelter.

Collobrières

Collobrières is a commune in the Var department of southeastern France, set in the heart of the Massif des Maures and known as a center of chestnut production.

Colmar

Colmar, prefecture of France's Haut-Rhin department in Alsace, about 67,000 inhabitants, known for Little Venice canals, the Unterlinden Museum with the Isenheim Altarpiece, and its dry wine-growing microclimate.

Colmier-le-Bas

Colmier-le-Bas is a commune of 22 inhabitants in Haute-Marne, Grand Est, France (INSEE 52137), known for the Gallo-Roman villa at Les Cloisets with early 2nd-century mosaics, inscribed a monument historique in 1990.

Condat-sur-Vienne

Condat-sur-Vienne, a commune in Haute-Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 6 km south of Limoges; chef-lieu of its canton, Limoges Métropole member, 5,281 residents (2023), Gaulish name meaning confluence, Gallo-Roman villa and mosaic.

Conquereuil

Conquereuil (Konkerel) is a rural commune in Loire-Atlantique, France, INSEE 44044, pop. about 1,061, on the river Don between Nantes and Rennes; site of the battles of 981 and 992 in which Duke Conan I of Brittany died.

Cordes-Tolosannes

Cordes-Tolosannes is a rural commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department of southwestern France, best known as a medieval bastide overlooking the Garonne valley with about 357 inhabitants.

Corlier

Corlier, commune in the Ain department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France; also a Pleiades ancient place (BAtlas 17 E1) typed as temple/sanctuary; medieval châtellenie of the seigneurs de Thoire et Villars.

Coulanges

Coulanges: name of several French communes (Coulanges-lès-Nevers in the Nièvre, Coulanges in the Allier, Coulanges-sur-Yonne) from Latin Colonica; noted for mills, a forge, and Gallo-Roman pottery kilns.

Courbevoie

Courbevoie, commune 92026 in Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, west of Paris on the Seine; 82,902 inhabitants in 2023, motto Curva via mens recta, part of La Défense business district.

Créteil

Créteil, prefecture of the Val-de-Marne department in Île-de-France (not to be confused with Creil in the Oise), is a commune of 93,397 inhabitants (2023) south-east of Paris, rebuilt as a New Town-style ZUP from the 1960s, home to UPEC university and led by mayor Laurent Cathala since 1977.

Cubières

Cubières, Lozère commune in Occitanie, France (pop. 209, 2016), near Mont Lozère; known for the ancient-to-20th-century Neyrac lead-zinc-silver mines of the Bleymard district and their post-mining risks.

Damblainville

Damblainville is a commune in Calvados, Normandy, on the Ante river, with 227 inhabitants over 6.35 km². Distinguished by a Gallo-Roman secondary agglomeration on the Monts d'Eraines and the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church.

Desaignes

Désaignes (Dézagne) is a medieval village de caractère in the Ardèche valley of the Doux, France, with a 14th-century castle, Roman remains, and a Protestant temple history spanning 1608, 1684, and 1822.

Dijon

Dijon, capital of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France; 162,650 inhabitants, UNESCO-listed historic centre within the Climats vineyard site, ducal palace, mustard and crème de cassis gastronomy, and TGV links under two hours from Paris.

Dinard

Dinard (INSEE 35093) is a Breton seaside resort on the Côte d'Émeraude facing Saint-Malo across the Rance estuary. Known for its Belle Époque villas, 407 listed buildings, British origins, and 2026 mayor Arnaud Salmon.

Dole

Dole, anciently Dola, is a town in the Jura department of eastern France on the Doubs, capital of Franche-Comté until 1674 and the birthplace of Louis Pasteur.

Donzère

Donzère is a commune in the Drôme department of southeastern France, known for its archaeology, which includes Bronze Age caves, a Gallo-Roman winery, and a medieval castle.

Dreux

Dreux is a commune and sub-prefecture of Eure-et-Loir in northern France, at the meeting point of Normandy and Île-de-France, best known for the Chapelle royale, burial place of the Orléans family including King Louis-Philippe.

Dunkirk

Dunkirk (Dunkerque, Duinkerke) is a port city in Nord, Hauts-de-France, France's third-largest port, site of the 1940 Operation Dynamo evacuation, 72% destroyed in WWII, now a battery-manufacturing hub with free buses.

Ecoust-St-Mein

Écoust-Saint-Mein, a rural commune in Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, near Bapaume and Arras, site of one of the largest trapezoidal-plan Gallo-Roman villas of northern Gaul (L'Homme Mort) and a village rebuilt after the 1917-1918 offensives.

Épernay

Épernay, Marne sub-prefecture on the river Marne, France's Champagne capital with the 1.5 km Avenue de Champagne, 110 km of chalk cellars, UNESCO-listed since 2015; 22,174 inhabitants (2023).

Espinasse-Vozelle

Espinasse-Vozelle is a commune in the Allier department of central France, about 5 km southwest of Vichy. It was formed in 1829 by merging the communes Espinasse and Vozelle, and had 995 inhabitants in 2023.

Estrées-sur-Noye

Estrées-sur-Noye is a commune in the Somme, Hauts-de-France, 12 km south of Amiens, with about 290 inhabitants. It is known for a Gallo-Roman villa excavated by Roger Agache that modeled northern Gaul's large rural estates.

Ferrières-sur-Beaulieu

Ferrières-sur-Beaulieu (officially Ferrière-sur-Beaulieu), commune 37108 in Indre-et-Loire, France, near Loches; 703 inhabitants in 2023, named from Latin ferraria for Gaulish iron mines, with a 13th-century Angevin-vaulted church of Saint-Gilles.

Folleville

Folleville, Somme (INSEE 80321), a small Picardy commune with a Roman military camp, château ruins (11th-15th centuries, Louis XI, Talbot 1440), and the UNESCO-listed church tied to Vincent de Paul and the Compostela route.

Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is a Seine-et-Marne commune about 70 km southeast of Paris, home to the François I Renaissance château (UNESCO-listed since 1981) and the largest forest in Île-de-France, a 1998 biosphere reserve with 15–18 million annual visitors.

Fontans

Fontans is a commune (INSEE 48063) in Lozère, Occitanie, France, in the Margeride plateau near Saint-Chély-d'Apcher; about 227 inhabitants, elevation ~1,031 m, with a classified Romanesque-Gothic church of Saint-Pierre and an ancient temple site.

Fougères

Fougères, a commune in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, France, is a medieval frontier town of about 20,300 people, dominated by the Château de Fougères, one of Europe's largest preserved medieval fortresses, and formerly the French shoe capital.