Soldiers' Street Names

Oraison, a rural town, had 1700 inhabitants in the early 1900s. On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France. All able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 40 were eligible for conscription, and many from the village and surrounding villages left their homes and families to defend their homeland. What was supposed to be a simple formality quickly turned into a terrible tragedy, and 63 soldiers from the town never returned from the war.
On February 4, 1921, Mayor Victor Gérard and his councilors decided to name the village streets after the town's soldiers who had died in the 1914-1918 war. On July 3 of the same year, the decision was confirmed, and street signs were ordered from an enameling company in Villeurbanne. Oraison was the only town in France to name all the village streets after one of its soldiers in 1921. The person named on a street sign lived on that very street. This is how the town of Oraison, a rural town, pays tribute to its soldiers.
Previously, there were very few street names: it was the Grande Rue then the rue de la première traverse, then the rue de la seconde traverse, ... where we simply said, "I'm going to the rue des Aillaud", the family who lived on this street.

A book, "Historical Origin of the Streets of Oraison," by Claude Sauve, has been published on this subject. This book is on sale at the Arbousier bookstore and at the Jondot press tobacconist in Oraison.

You can discover the street names during the guided city tour or head into the old village to discover these streets.
Elie Louis Julien Street was called Grande Rue; Charles Dol Street, Clos Street, ...

When we look closely at the names of the street signs, we notice that the Larousse definitions for some of them do not coincide with the situation in Oraison. It happened that the original qualification of a road was modified by the urban extension that it experienced. It is easy to understand that a path became a street or an avenue. The current names have, for the most part, kept their original toponym. Except for all the streets to which the municipality of GERARD Victor, mayor from 1919 to 1941, gave the name of a soldier from the village who died in the war of 1914-1918. (Deliberations of February 4 and July 3, 1921). This is a very important characteristic of the city of Oraison.