On Gerardmer's origins

Originally Gérardmer was probably a hamlet of fishermen and hunters. Various objects discovered near Longemer Lake in 1959 suggest it was already a lacustrine settlement in Neolithic times (between 5,000 BC and 2,500 BC).
The hamlet was first called Gerardmer in the 11th century thanks to the Duke of Lorraine, Gérard of Alsace (Duke from 1048 to 1070). Delighted by the site, he had a tower built there (near the existing cemetery on Boulevard d'Alsace) that he used for overnight stays and as a hunting lodge.
The hamlet was called Giromeix (Gérard's garden) which became Gérardmeix (from the medieval Latin meix - a small manor or group of houses in the country with working fields) and then Gérardmé or Gérardmer (pronounced Gérardmé).
In the 18th C, roads were built through the forest opening up the area around Gérardmer. At the time it was a farming community (stock raising) with some clothmaking (each family had a loom to satisfy its own needs and sold the surplus), and with a number of woodcutters and sawyers. The archives also mention a tannery and paper mills (a craft industry transforming linen cloth into paper using water-power).
From 1830 on, textile and wood industries grew fast, becoming the driving force behind town's expansion. They y are still the town's main industries with dynamic companies founded by craftsmen in times gone by and newly arrived companies.
In spite of the damage caused during WW II (in 1944 85% of the town was destroyed), Gérardmer remained a dynamic industrial town. Several companies - weavers, carpenters, building chalets and timber frames, bleachers and manufacturers of household linen, are known all over France and even abroad.

Gérardmer : a long-established tourist centre

On 23 july 1875, Gérardmer formed the "Comité des Promenades", forerunner of today's tourist offices. Tourists started visiting the area in the 1850s: Father Jacquel, author of the First Tourist Guide to the Valley of the Lakes, wrote in 1852, "a large number of visitors come to the town each year as soon as the fine weather returns". By 1860, the first summer residences were being built on the shores of the lake of Gérardmer by wealthy bourgeois from Lorraine, Paris, Belgium and Luxembourg. By the 1870s, the number of visitors was growing fast; hotels and other tourist facilities were built to met their needs: the Union Nautique was founded in 1885 - it remains one of the best spots to go swimming in the lake - the casino in 1895, the Saut des Cuves theater in 1897, unfortunately the latter was pulled down in 1937...
This growth coincided with the advent of the railway (the first train arrived in Gérardmer station in 1878) and the tramway (lines to Remiremont, la Schlucht and Hohneck were built around 1898).
Since the 1870s, Gerardmer has become a steadily more popular center, continually extending and improving its facilities. Winter sports became popular in the 1900s, followed by camping, holiday camps, and many new sports both along the shores of the lake and in the forest (Fantastcable's giant flying fox, the Acro-Sphere adventure park, the water-sports center, sailing, windsurfing, canoeing, rowing, skin-diving, the sports and leisure center with its swimming pool, skating rink, climbing wall, bowling alley, alpine and cross-country skiing, new snow sports, snow-shoe trekking...)

Discovering Xonrupt-Longemer

Xonrupt became an independent municipality in 1919 when the town split from its neighbour Gérardmer. The name comes from the Vosges patois, "hhon" meaning a wooded plank, and "ru" meaning stream, thus "the wooded bridge over the stream". The name of the lake, Longemer (ending mère - mare-, unlike Gérardmer which ends mé, pronounced May) means long sea.
A farming area until the 1950s, Xonrupt has since become a popular tourist resort thanks to its magnificent natural heritage and its situation at the foot of the Vosges mountains.
In summer, numerous activities ara available on the lake: swimming (no lifeguards), boating and fishing, and in the nearby forest, with superb outings on foot or horseback or by bike.
In winter, Xonrupt is a cross-country skier's paradise, with 16 miles of signposted, marked tracks through the forest. Linked to Gérardmer and La Bresse 's cross-country ski pistes (forming the Three Sites Domain), Xonrupt offers visitors a choice of 63 miles of well- marked, signposted cross-country ski runs. Alpine skiing is very popular in the family resorts of Poli.
But tourism is not Xonrupt's only activity: the wood and textile industries are well represented, as are various crafts, with the local shops making a major contribution to the town's economy.