Ain

Ain is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it borders the cantons of Geneva and Vaud. In 2019 it had a population of 652,432.
Ain is composed of four geographically different areas - - each of which contributes to the diverse and dynamic economic development of the department. In Bresse agriculture and agro-industry are dominated by the cultivation of cereals, cattle breeding, milk and cheese production as well as poultry farming. In Dombes pisciculture assumes greater importance, as does winemaking in Bugey.
Ain's prefecture is Bourg-en-Bresse. It is bordered by Jura to the north, Saône-et-Loire to the northwest, Rhône and the Lyon Metropolis to the southwest, Isère to the south and Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Switzerland to the east.
In the alphabetical ordering of French departments, used for postal and demographic purposes among others, Ain comes first and is thus assigned the number 01 as its department number.

History

The first inhabitants settled in the territory of today's Ain about 15000 BC. The menhir of in Simandre-sur-Suran dates from the mid-Neolithic era, in the fourth or third millennium BC. The late-second century BC Calendar of Coligny bears the oldest surviving Gaulish inscription.
In 58 BC Julius Caesar's military action against the Helvetians, advancing through Gaul over the territory of today's Ain, marked the beginning of the Gallic Wars.
Under the Merovingians the four historic regions of the modern department belonged to the Kingdom of Burgundy. At the start of the 6th century AD the diocese of Belley was created as the first bishopric in the region. Abbeys of the order of Saint Benedict were established in the valleys.
In 843 the Treaty of Verdun assigned the territories that comprised Ain to the kingdom of Lothar I. The first big fiefdoms emerged between 895 and 900 in Bâgé-le-Châtel, which formed the nucleus of the pays of Bresse, and in Coligny. Numerous castles were erected in a low rolling terrain that was not otherwise easily defended. In the 12th century Romanesque architecture flourished.
In the 11th century the Counts of Savoy and Valromey settled in the region of Belley. In 1272, when Sibylle de Bâgé, sole heir, married Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, they added Bresse to their domains and – by the Treaties of Paris in 1355 – the territories of Dauphiné and Gex on the right bank of the Rhône.
At the start of the 15th century almost the whole region of Ain was united under the house of Savoy. New monasteries were founded in the cities and churches were constructed or reshaped in the Gothic style of architecture.
At the start of the 16th century the Duchy of Savoy was at the peak of its power and Ain was inherited by Margaret of Habsburg, the widow of Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. In Brou she erected a church and a monastery in late-Gothic style. Bourg-en-Bresse became a bishop's see. After Margaret's death, Francis I of France, a nephew of the Dukes of Savoy, claimed the Duchy for himself and conquered it in 1536. Following a treaty concluded in 1559 in Savoy the territory of Ain was restored to the Duke of Savoy, who immediately started fortifying it. During the Franco-Savoyard War of 1600–1601, Henri IV of France reconquered the region, although the citadel of Bourg remained impregnable. The Treaty of Lyon of 17 January 1601 finally ended the conflict. Ain now belonged to Burgundy.
In the 17th century sculpture, painting and literature prospered. During the 18th century streets and small industries emerged. On 28 March 1762 the Count of Eu, son of the Duke of Maine, ceded the region of Dombes to Louis XV.
In 1790, during the French Revolution, the departments of Ain and Léman were created. Ain was subdivided into nine districts, 49 cantons and 501 communes. The Revolution did not claim many victims in the department but it destroyed numerous valuable historical monuments. During the first French Consulate the districts were abolished. The Congress of Vienna dissolved the department of Léman and assigned the arrondissement of Gex to the department of Ain. However seven communes of Gex were given to Geneva to link Canton of Geneva with rest of Switzerland after the second Treaty of Paris was signed on November 20, 1815: Bellevue, Collex-Bossy, Meyrin, Pregny, Grand-Saconnex, Vernier and finally Versoix.
During the French Revolution and the First Empire a large number of churches were destroyed, but in 1823 the diocese of Belley was refounded. The Curé of Ars became famous. During the Second French Empire numerous churches were rebuilt, agriculture changed profoundly and the railways expanded.
Owing to its distance from the front line the department was spared the destruction of World War I. However the majority of the vineyards could no longer be cultivated and disappeared. Industrialization of the department began in Oyonnax and Bellegarde. Construction of the Barrage de Génissiat started in 1937.
World War II struck the department of Ain hard and took its toll as 600 people were deported, half whom did not return. Commemorating this tragic era are the monument of the Maquis in Cerdon, the memorial of the children of Izieu and the museum of the resistance and deportation in Nantua.
In the second half of the 20th century industrialisation of the department proceeded, favoured by an expansive road and railway network.

Geography

Ain is a department of geographic contrasts. In the north the plain of Bresse is bordered by the river Saône and rises slightly towards the north-east. In the south-east, the territory of Dombes has more than a thousand ponds and lakes. In the east, the mountain chain of the southern Jura overlooks the plain of Bresse. The busy transport axes to Italy and Switzerland crisscross the valleys. The Gex region is separated from the rest of the department by the last eastern mountain chain of the Jura where the highest elevation in the department, the Crêt de la Neige, can be found. Gex belongs geographically to the Lake Geneva basin.
The river Saône represents the western border of the department. It is fed by three smaller rivers: the Reyssouze, the Veyle and the Chalaronne. The river Rhône forms the department's borders in the east and the south. Its main tributaries are the Suran and notably the river Ain which is itself fed by 118 small rivers and creeks.

Principal communes

The most populous commune is the prefecture Bourg-en-Bresse. As of 2019, there are 8 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:

Commune	Population
Bourg-en-Bresse	41,111
Oyonnax	22,456
Valserhône	16,378
Ambérieu-en-Bugey	14,134
Saint-Genis-Pouilly	13,943
Gex	13,121
Miribel	10,122
Ferney-Voltaire	10,026

Transport networks

Ain is situated at the crossroads of a large national and international flow of commodities and is therefore an important transit region. More than 4000 km of transport routes serve the department. In addition to a well-developed transport network of former national roads, which were transferred to the department in 2007, Ain is crisscrossed by 220 km of highway.
For national and international flights, the international airports of Lyon and Geneva are located within a rather short distance. The department of Ain also contains two waterways, the rivers Saône and Rhone, on which building materials, such as gravel, are shipped. The most important harbour is situated in Jassans-Riottier on the river Saône.
The railway network is of great importance, in particular the TGV connections Paris–Geneva and Paris–Lyon. The upgraded Ligne du Haut-Bugey was opened in 2010, reducing travel time between Paris and Geneva by 20 minutes. The regional TER network is important mainly as concerns the connection to Lyon.

Demographics

The department of Ain is marked by very dynamic demographics. The population has grown from 471,019 inhabitants in 1990 to 638,425 in 2016. This increase is primarily due to natural growth and secondarily by a slightly positive migration balance.
The average population density is 111 inhabitants/km². While the Saône valley, the Côtière, Bourg-en-Bresse and the Gex region have a high density of population, the mountainous Bugey area is less populated.
Population development since 1791:

Higher education and research

Several colleges and research institutions are located in Bourg-en-Bresse, as well as one in Bellignat. In Bourg-en-Bresse, they include the Centre for University Studies, Alimentec, the Ecole Supérieure de Plasturgie, the commercial college of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and a branch of the Lyon faculty of education. Bellignat is home of the polytechnic for plastics engineering.
The Centre for University Studies, which was relocated from the University Jean Moulin in Lyon to Bourg-en-Bresse, has 540 students who pursue their studies in 6 different branches. They are: modern foreign languages, being English-German and English-Spanish; economic and social administration; business administration; and 3 levels of study in law. Law students may gain a diploma after 2 years of law study, a 'licence' after 3 years, or a Maîtrise after 4 years. This last corresponds to a master's degree in law and offers a specialization in commercial and trade law.
At Alimentec, altogether 700 students attend courses. Two streams of study can be followed, applied nutritional sciences or towards qualification by the commercial college of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The research and technology centre for applied nutritional sciences located in Bourg-en-Bresse has faculties for biology, energy sciences, informatics and biotechnology.
Also situated in Bourg-en-Bresse is a branch of the Lyon faculty of education, providing 450 places for future school teachers.
In Bellignat, at the heart of the 'plastics valley', a polytechnic university was founded in 1992, under the direct control of the Ministry of youth, education and research. The Ecole Supérieure de Plasturgie provides 140 places for future plastics engineers and utilizes a pluridisciplinary research laboratory which qualifies advanced students, notably PhD students.
Although it is headquartered just across the border in Geneva, most of CERN's Large Hadron Collider lies in parts of several communes in the Arrondissement of Gex in Ain.