La Françonne is a creek

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 situated north of Mirabel-aux-Baronnies

Mirabel-aux-Baronnies

Mirabel-aux-Baronnies is a commune in the Drôme department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.Perched on top of a hill, Mirabel is renowned for its mild climate and beautiful scenery...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, department Drôme

Drôme

Drôme , a department in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.-History:The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution...

, and to the east of the former Jewish quarter called les Josiols

Les Josiols

Les Josiols is a former Jewish quarter situated north of Mirabel-aux-Baronnies, a French commune in the southern Drôme department.Situated on a hillside, Mirabel has a mild climate. Mirabel, which was first mentioned in 1059, had a flourishing Jewish quarter until 1348. The Jews that inhabited Les...

. This quarter existed until 1348, when the inhabitants of Les Josiols were assassinated due to rumours that they had caused the outbreak of the pest

Bubonic plague

Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...

 in Mirabel by poisoning the well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

s. The Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 themselves were said not to suffer from the pest as they drank water from the creek Françonne. Françonne is also the name of the site situated east of Les Josiols, the creek passing in between.

The Françonne joins the Gaude River, a contributor of the Eygues River.

Actual situation

The Françonne is nowadays a small creek of about one meter width, since the flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

of 1992 the borders have not been flooded anymore.

For more information

1. P. Olivier-Elliott: Les Baronnies, ISBN 2 7449 0266 7

2. Claude Leone-Chanot: Mirabel aux Baronnies, ISBN 2 903044 85 6

3. www.mirabelauxbaronnies.fr