Saint-Gingolph is a small town situated on the south bank of Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...

 (Lac Léman). It sits at the Franco

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...

-Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 frontier, and is administratively divided into Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland

Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland

Saint-Gingolph is a municipality in the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.The municipality is the Swiss portion of the town of Saint-Gingolph, which straddles the Swiss-French border provided by the Morge river. The French side of the town is known as Saint-Gingolph,...

 (Switzerland) and Saint-Gingolph, Haute-Savoie

Saint-Gingolph, Haute-Savoie

Saint-Gingolph is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-See also:* Saint-Gingolph* Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland*Communes of the Haute-Savoie department-References:*...

 (France). Its name is derived from the eighth century saint Gangulphus

Gangulphus

Saint Gangulphus of Burgundy is venerated as a martyr by the Catholic Church. Gangulphus was a Burgundian courtier whose historical existence can only be attested by a single document: a deed from the court of Pepin the Short dated 762...

, who is said to have lived as a hermit in this region.. Its division at the Morge dates from 1569: as the municipal Web site explains, it is one town consisting of a single parish (the church and cemetery are on the French side) with two municipal administrations and two distinct legal systems.

Saint-Gingolph is located a short distance from Évian-les-Bains

Évian-les-Bains

Évian-les-Bains or Évian is a commune in the northern part of the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France...

, Monthey

Monthey

Monthey is the capital of the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.- History :The castle in the town center was built in 950 on a hill, the first houses of Monthey surrounded it. Monthey is first mentioned in 1215 as Montez At the 13th century, the counts of Savoy owned the...

 and Montreux

Montreux

Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...

. It is accessible by road, rail or boat. Built on an alluvial cone of the Morge

Morge

The Morge is a small river in eastern France , right tributary of the river Isère. Its source is near the Col de Saint-Roch, northeast of Voiron. It flows through Voiron, and joins the Isère south of Voiron, opposite the town Saint-Quentin-sur-Isère.-References:*http://www.geoportail.fr*...

, a frontier mountain stream, St.Gingolph is surrounded by mountains and has approximately 8 km of shore-line alongside the lake.

History

The town played an important role during World War II when Haute Savoie was occupied first by the Italian and then by the German Army. The fact of large-scale intermarriage and business and family connections across the frontier made it possible for the Resistance to smuggle goods, arms and refugees (including many French Jews) across the border, often using a secret tunnel (no longer in existence; it was actually a drainage pipe) located near the lake. These stories are documented in a book privately published in 1994 by the late André Zénoni, "Saint-Gingolph et sa région frontière dans la Résistance 1940-1945". (Intermarriage across the frontier is less frequent in the modern age because there are separate primary schools ("L'Ecole André Zénoni" on the French side) and French lycéens are bussed to Evian, while Swiss students take the train to Monthey. Thereafter, each tend to seek employment in commercial centers in their own country. In any case, the town is so small that there are only two or three weddings recorded in a year.)

Transport

The Swiss railway line from St Maurice and Martigny terminates at Saint-Gingolph (Switzerland), the French line from Evian to Saint-Gingolph having been abandoned in the late 1980s. There is now discussion of resuscitating the line by 2012; this has been mentioned in the Swiss and French press but the outlook, according to Swiss railway workers, is dubious. The old, unelectrified, French tracks remain in place.