Ambert

Ambert
Town hall
Ambert
Administration
Country	France
Region	Auvergne
Department	Puy-de-Dôme
Arrondissement	Ambert
Canton	Ambert
Intercommunality	Pays d'Ambert
Mayor	Christian Chevaleyre (2001–2008)
Statistics
Elevation	514–1,365 m (1,686–4,478 ft) (avg. 527 m or 1,729 ft)
Land area1	60.48 km2 (23.35 sq mi)
Population2	7,016  (2007)
- Density	116 /km2 (300 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	63003/ 63600
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Ambert (Occitan Embèrt) is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.

Administration

Ambert is the seat of the canton of Ambert and the arrondissement of Ambert. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. The arrondissement consists of eight cantons.

Geography

Ambert lies on the Dore River, a tributary of the Allier River.

General view

Demography

Historical population of Ambert

Year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006
Population	7160	7328	7603	7722	7420	7309	7376
From the year 1962 on: population without double counting—residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) are counted only once.

Places of interest

Ambert is famous for its fourme-d'Ambert cheese, its paper mills (the first edition of Diderot's Encyclopédie was printed on paper made in Ambert) and its circular town hall (popularized by Jules Romain in his novel Les copains).

The Agrivap Chemin de Fer Touristique operates out of Ambert. There is a steam engine that makes a local run, but to see the line in full a ride on the Panoramique Autorail is not be missed.

There is an industrial museum with an interesting collection of tractors and small steam engines.

In the town the Museum of Cheese is worth a visit, as is the old paper mill a few kilometres outside the main town.

Notable people

Ambert was the birthpace of Michel Rolle (1652–1719), mathematician, Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894), composer and Henri Pourrat (1887-1959), writer who is known to wrote novel Gaspard des Motagnes.

Twin towns

• Annweiler, Germany, since 1988
• Saitama, Japan, since 1989
• Gorgonzola, Italy, since 2002. Both cities, known for their blue cow's-milk cheeses (cheese and Fourme d'Ambert), have almost the same latitude: 45° 32' N for Gorgonzola, 45° 33' N for Ambert.

See also

• Communes of the Puy-de-Dôme department