Raon-l'Étape

Raon-l'Étape is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.

Inhabitants are called Raonnais.

Geography

Raon-l'Étape is positioned at the mouth of the Plaine River at the point where it converges into the Meurthe, itself a tributary of the Moselle. Because it is on departmental frontier with the adjacent Meurthe-et-Moselle département, Raon-l'Étape is sometimes known as the "Gateway to the Vosges" (porte des Vosges). The town is positioned at a point where relatively flat lands transform into a much more mountainous topography: the mountains have for centuries restricted the options for travellers between francophone France and Alsace (formerly the western reaches of the Empire on the other side of the Vosges Mountains). The position of Raon has therefore been critical to influencing the movements of merchandise in peace time and of armies in war time for many centuries.

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges is 17 kilometres (11 mi) to the south-east while Nancy is 69 kilometres (43 mi) to the north-west, in both cases tracking the national road RN59, much of which has in recent years been upgraded to quasi-autoroute quality. Taking a cross country route, Épinal is approximately 44 kilometres (27 mi) to the south-west.