La Goutelle

La Goutelle
La Goutelle
Location within Auvergne region La Goutelle
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement	Arrondissement of Riom
Canton	Canton of Pontgibaud
Intercommunality	Pas engagé dans une structure intercommunale
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Jean Boucheret
Area1	24.25 km2 (9.36 sq mi)
Population (1999)2	582
• Density	24/km2 (62/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	63170 / 63230
Elevation	612–884 m (2,008–2,900 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

La Goutelle is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.

Geography

La Goutelle is situated some 30km west of Clermont Ferrand, on the old N141 running from Royan on the Atlantic coast all the way across France. The road, now renamed the D941, has lost its national importance but still remains the principal route linking Clermont Ferrand to Limoges.

Economy

La Goutelle is part of the canton of Pontgibaud, and like Pontgibaud relied on mining as its major source of income until the early 20th Century. Nowadays milk production, forestry, passing trade for its bars and restaurants and the export of labour to Clermont Ferrand and the Ancizes form La Goutelle's economy. La Goutelle has managed to retain several shops, bars and restaurants and has a regionally renowned boulangerie. La Goutelle has a municipal campsite though it only tends to be occupied in the weeks surrounding the Fete Patronale

Population

The 2010 census reported a population of 610 inhabitants in La Goutelle (with 520 registered voters, not all full-time residents). More than 20 of La Goutelle's constituent "villages" are inhabited. Le Bourg has around 250 inhabitants. Ossebet, Ballot, Salmondeche are the larger outlying villages.

Culture

It shares primary school services with neighbouring St. Jacques d'Ambur and has joined the "communité de communes" Pontgibaud, Sioule & Volcans in 2010. Its football team is currently incorporated into Association Sportive Pontgibaud - La Goutelle. Although all home games are played at La Goutelle, the last Goutellois player left the club in 2007. ASPLG went into "sommeil" ("sleep" - a temporary suspension) at the end of the 2009/2010 season. In common with most of the villages of the Combrailles, there is an active Comité des Fetes which amongst other responsibilities, runs the Fete Patronale - always the first weekend of August (2010, 30 July to 2 August).

Administration

The mayor is Jean Boucheret, 1st Adjoint Maurice Martin, 2nd Adjoint Jean-Francois Marcheix and 3rd Adjoint Stephane Nebus. La Goutelle was one of the many French communes to elect an Englishman to the town council in 2008. The Maire-Adjoint, Michel Bonnafoux, resigned in somewhat acrimonious circumstances in 2009.

See also

• Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department

References

• INSEE