Padoux () is a commune in the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

in northeastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Population

Inhabitants are called ''Padoselliens''.

Geography

Padoux is positioned between

Épinal Épinal (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in northeastern France and the prefecture of the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department. Geography The commune has a land area of . It is situated on the river Moselle, so ...

Rambervillers Rambervillers () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Inhabitants are called ''Rambuvetais''. Geography The town is built on the banks of the ...

: nevertheless, it is administratively within the canton of

Bruyères Bruyères () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. The town built up around a castle built on a hill in the locality in the 6th century. It was the birthplace of Jean Lurçat, in 1892. History In World W ...

, some across country to the south-east. Directly the west, and set in the Forest of Padoux, is the little village of

Badménil-aux-Bois Badménil-aux-Bois () is a Communes of France, commune in the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department in Grand Est in northeastern France. See also *Communes of the Vosges department References

Communes of Vosg ...

. The watershed/drainage divide between the

river basins A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

of the Meurthe and of the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

runs through the commune. Two much smaller rivers that cross it are the Mortagne and the Padozel. The landscape and its customs are at a point of transition between mountain country to the east and the gently rolling landscape Lorriane Plain to the west. The soil type reflects a mixture of underlying

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, with very little

Silicon dioxide Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundan ...

. The result is a soil known locally as white earth (''terres blanches'') and ashen earth (''terres rousses''): the latter are particularly suitable for growing

cereals A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize (Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, suc ...

in general and especially for

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

History

In 1594 and again in 1710 Padoux is recorded as subject to the bailiwick of Épinal: in 1751 it transferred to that of Châtel. In 1790, as part of the administrative reform that followed the French Revolution, Padoux found itself included in the canton of

. The present administrative map of France dates from 1800. On 21 June 1940

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

was arrested at Padoux by the Germans. At the time he was serving with the French military as a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

Events

Former mayor Alphonse Vauthier relaunched during the second half of the twentieth century an Easter Monday livestock fair which each year continues to attract crowds of traders and of onlookers.