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Arc-sous-Cicon (Municipality, Doubs, France)

by Arnaud Leroy

Source: Jérémy Dhote

Presentation of the city
Description of the flag

See also:

Presentation of the city

The municipality of Arc-sous-Cicon stretches over 2,560 hectares, with an average elevation of 810 m a.s.l. and a highest point at Crêt Monniot (1,142 m a.s.l.) The municipality has 532 inhabitants.
Arc-sous-Cicon is located in a closed basin, described in geological terms as a Cretaceous synclinal, in the Jura mountains.

Arc-sous-Cicon was known as Widdo de Castello qui vocatur Sicco (1097), Cicons (1162), Arc-dessous-Cicon (1278), and Arcus supra cicon (1280). A very detailed history of the place and of the lords of Cicon can be found online.

There is in Arc-sous-Cicon a small winter resort called Arc-sous-Cicon-Crêt Monniot, with 35 kms of cross-country ski tracks.

Arc-sous-Cicon is located within the AOC zone (zone d'appellation contrôlée - area of controlled label of origin) of the Mont d'Or - Vacherin du Haut Doubs cheese.
To be eligible to a given AOC, a cheese must be produced in a specific geographical area and using tabulated and controlled production specifications. In most cases, a AOC cheese must be produced with non-pasteurized milk. The Mont d'Or is produced from early autumn to late winter, using only milk from cows of Pie Rouge cattle which pastured on areas located higher than 700 m a.s.l. The cheese is sold in a circular box made of fir shaving, in which it is laterally surrounding by a strap made of spruce bark. A strap is called in French sangle and the skilled specialists who cut off the straps from bark are called sangliers, which also means in French wildboars. The association of fir and spruce woods contribute to the specific flavour of the cheese. When the three-week maturation period is achieved, the cheese has a red-yellowish rind, soft and undulating. The best way to eat the cheese is to break the rind with a spoon and to pick up the cheese, which is in a semi-liquid state.

Arc-sous-Cicon was the birth city of General Ravier (1766-1828), made general and Baron of Empire in 1809, who took part to the Napoleonic campaign of Russia.

On 17 July 1967, children from Arc-sous-Cicon came across three or four 'black Chinese' of about 1 m high, wearing a kind of helmet. Next day, inhabitants of the village found a field in which grass had been burned in a circular pattern. On that night, unexplained light phenomena were observed by the Besançon astronomical observatory. The story can be found (with variants!) on several ufology websites.

Ivan Sache, 9 February 2002

Description of the flag

The flag of Arc-sous-Cicon is horizontally divided yellow-black-yellow.

Ivan Sache, 9 February 2002