Orange

Orange is a town in the department of Vaucluse, in the south of France. The municipality in Provence covers an area of 74.2 km² and has a population of 28,889 (1999). Accessible via the A7 from Lyon.


Around the town, there is a lot of wine production from the Côtes du Rhône region, with well-known wines such as Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas. Orange was for many years the center of the trade in oranges, which has influenced the French term for this fruit (orange), and thus also the designation for the color orange.

Orange has connections with the House of Orange. In 1544, William of Nassau inherited this town from his cousin René of Chalon and became Prince of Orange. In 1713, it became part of the French province of Dauphiné. It remained a province within that province; it was almost completely surrounded by the Comtat Venaissin, a papal state that remained independent for another small century before also being absorbed by France.

Wim Hak