Ferney-Voltaire

Ferney-Voltaire is a commune in the Ain department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It sits between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss border and forms part of the metropolitan area of Geneva. The town takes its present name from the writer and philosopher Voltaire, who bought the Ferney estate in 1758 and lived there until shortly before his death in 1778; his statue stands in the town centre. Earlier registers record the place as Fernex, and it was renamed Ferney-Voltaire in 1791. Under Voltaire the settlement grew and gained cottage industries such as pottery and watchmaking. Today it is a fast-growing town with a Saturday market and a large international community, thanks to the nearby CERN and the United Nations Office at Geneva, and it is home to the Lycée International. Its population rose from 856 in 1793 to 12,094 in 2023.