Le Bouchet-Saint-Nicolas

Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Location of Le Bouchet-Saint-Nicolas

(2023–2026) Alain Vidal^[1]Area

19.31 km² (7.46 sq mi)Population

(2021)^[2]

276 • Density14/km² (37/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)INSEE/Postal code

43037 /43510

Elevation1,118–1,301 m (3,668–4,268 ft)
(avg. 1,228 m or 4,029 ft)¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Le Bouchet-Saint-Nicolas (French pronunciation: [lə buʃɛ sɛ̃ nikɔla]; Occitan: Lo Bochet de Sant Nicolàs) is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France.

Personalities

The author Robert Louis Stevenson stayed at an inn in the village on 22 September 1878, having failed to find the nearby Lac de Bouchet, and his visit (recorded in his book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes^[3]) is commemorated by a statue of the author and his donkey, Modestine. The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail (GR 70), a popular long-distance path following Stevenson's approximate route, runs through the village.^[4]

Population

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	427	—
1975	369	−2.06%
1982	301	−2.87%
1990	246	−2.49%
1999	236	−0.46%
2009	233	−0.13%
2014	271	+3.07%
2020	280	+0.55%
Source: INSEE^[5]

References

^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 6 June 2023.
^ "Populations légales 2021". The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
^ Robert Louis Stevenson [1879]. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes at Project Gutenberg
^ Castle, Alan (2007). The Robert Louis Stevenson Trail (2nd ed.). Cicerone. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-1-85284-511-7.
^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE