Roche-sur-Yon, capital of the French department of Vendée, on the Yon, 50 miles SSE. of Nantes by rail, has a prefecture, lyceum, library of 12,000 volumes, a museum, and a theatre. Napoleon selected it in 1805—then a mere village—to be the departmental capital. From 1815 to 1848 it was called Bourbon-Vendée, from 1848 to 1870 Napoléon-Vendée. Pop. 8789.
Roche-sur-Yon
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 8: Peasant to Eoumelia, p. 754
Source scan(s): p. 0765