Mirecourt

Mirecourt is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France. Mirecourt is known for lace-making and the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly those of the violin family. Inhabitants are called Mirecurtiens.

Geography

Mirecourt is the administrative capital of a canton positioned in the Xantois district at the heart of the Vosges plain, at the confluence of the River Madon with the Arol Valley. Most of the town is laid out on the west side of the Madon on a succession of levels. Visitors are attracted by the richness of the town's architecture and by the natural advantages of the site.

Mirecourt is also at the heart of a road crossing, 24 kilometres (15 miles) from Vittel, 35 kilometres (22 mi) from Épinal to the east by southeast, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Neufchâteau and 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Nancy. For much of the twentieth century Mirecourt was a staging post on the RN66, a major road towards Paris. Following improvements to the autoroute network towards the end of the twentieth century, the nearest major routes to Paris are now, the A31 autoroute and the RN57 respectively some fifteen kilometres (9 miles) to the west and to the east. The RN 66 has been correspondingly declassified: elements of the economic focus that once followed the old route nationale has followed the traffic away to the newer routes: in the final forty years of the twentieth century the registered population declined by around 25%, though the level appears subsequently to have plateaued at around 6,400.