Can mouthe claim to be the coldest place in france?

DISCOVER THE TEMPERATURE-DRIVEN RIVALRIES BETWEEN MOUTHE AND NEIGHBOURING VILLAGES IN THIS FROSTBITTEN PART OF DOUBS, FRANCE, WHERE WOLVES THREATEN FARMERS’ LIVELIHOODS You had better pack a

polar jacket if you plan to visit Mouthe (Doubs), a village of 1,108 inhabitants on the Swiss border. Welcome to “The little Siberia of France”, where the nation’s coldest temperature was

recorded on 17 January, 1985, with a lip-freezing minus 41 degrees Celsius. In Mouthe, the ground freezes on average every two days (176 days per year) and the thermometer dips below minus 5

for around 80 days. The temperature drops to minus 20 six times every seven years, minus 25 every two years and descends below minus 30 every eight years, according to reports from _Météo

France_. So much so that inhabitants have made snow and blazing winds an art de vivre and the _mairie_ has generated a lot of tourism from its frozen lands, even if its record is disputed.

Daniel Perrin, Mouthe’s mayor since 2014, told _The Connexion _he had a discussion last year with representatives of Mignovillard, a nearby village, who said that one person in its hamlet,

_La Combe Noire_, had recorded an even lower temperature. “It cannot be recorded since no one lives there,” said Mr Perrin, adding that he thinks that several valleys surrounding Mouthe may

have recorded similar temperatures. Meteorologists put Mouthe’s exceptional cold down to a combination of altitude, absence of trees and vegetation, the presence of snow, and the flattened

basin shape of the land. ‘INVERTED-TEMPERATURE’ All of which creates an ‘inverted-temperature’, a phenomenon where ground air is colder than the atmosphere since it does not receive enough

solar radiation at night. _La Combe du lac_ in Lamoura (Jura) or_ La combe des Cives_ in Chapelle-des-Bois (Doubs) have similar winters, leading to rivalries over which village is the

title-holder of France’s coldest. They have both observed colder temperatures than Mouthe, although never reaching Mouthe’s rock-bottom record. Meteorologists believe _La combe des Cives_ or

other surrounding areas could have been colder on that particular January night. But Mouthe’s thermometer was the only one functioning, and it was not situated in the coldest areas of the

region. But Mouthe has another less known characteristic feature. The village is the source from which the Doubs, France’s tenth biggest river, and an affluent of the Rhône, springs from a

55-metre-long syphon at 940 metres high. It was named by Julius Caesar after he decided it was “indecisive”. The source is the Doubs department’s busiest site, where Mr Perrin has installed

ten ski chalets, particularly aimed at cross-country skiers, since Mouthe is at the end of the famous _Transjurassienne_ cross-country skiing competition. The shimmering frost on the nearby

forests clothe the village of Mouthe in a lily-white blanket during the winter season. PACKS OF WOLVES The forests also hide packs of wolves that are suspected to have killed nine cows in

September 2022, killings that have put pressure on the Doubs prefecture to act. Farmers have asked the prefecture to allow _tir de prélèvement_, a phrase which describes an event organised

by hunters who possess a licence to kill wolves, which is the highest level of the government’s regulating plan for wolves. _Tir de prélèvement_ was allowed for the first time on 26

September, 2022, in the Lorèze department. Associations have opposed the solution, arguing that it is useless and does not regulate the activity. RELATED ARTICLES ‘COLDEST TOWN IN FRANCE’

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