Canton of Collonges

Collonges (French pronunciation: [kɔlɔ̃ʒ]; Arpitan: Colonges) is a commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Collonges is located on the border with the Haute-Savoie department, just northeast of Fort l'Écluse in Léaz, Ain. It is also situated 20 km (12.4 mi) southwest of Geneva, Switzerland.

Fort l'Écluse, or the Fort de l'Écluse, is a military fort in Léaz, Ain, close to Collonges in Eastern France. It commands the Rhône Valley as a natural entrance into France from Switzerland between the Vuache and the Jura Mountains. The fort, which was established by a Duke of Savoy, was completed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban during the reign of King Louis XIV. It was destroyed by the Austrians in 1815, but rebuilt by the French; at the same time it was considerably strengthened and heightened. The high-road intersects a portion of this fortification.

Farges (French pronunciation: [faʁʒ]) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.

Chevrier is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.

Arpitania (Arpitan and Italian: Arpitania, French: Arpitanie) is a controversial term which denotes the purported ethnic or cultural unity of the Western Alps, represented by speakers of Franco-Provençal (termed Arpitan). "Arpitania" roughly corresponds to the historical County of Savoy and its successor state the Duchy of Savoy: France (Ain, Rhône, Savoie, Haute-Savoie, a big part of the Isère department, southern Franche-Comté). The northwestern salient (roughly a strip between Mâcon and Roanne) is seen linguistically transitional between Arpitan, Occitan, and other Oïl languages. Italy (Aosta Valley, parts of Piedmont, Faeto and Celle di San Vito in the Province of Foggia, in Apulia) Switzerland (Romandy, excluding the northern and western parts of Jura)The terms Arpitan and Arpitania (Arpitanie) are neologisms coined in the 1970s by Joseph Henriet (born 1945), a Communist school teacher who was influenced by the Basque activist Federico Krutwig. In his Garaldea (published 1978), Krutwig names the Basques "Garalditans", a purported Neolithic race which he claimed existed thousands of years ago. Looking for racial or linguistic remnants of the "Garalditans", he moved to the Aosta Valley in 1970, constructing Basque etymologies for local placenames. In Aosta, Krutwig befriended the young Maoist activist Joseph Henriet. Influenced by Krutwig, Henriet declared the local patois the descendant of the Neolithic "Garalditan language". He later replaced the term garalditan with harpitan, a conflation of the patois words arpa "alp", arpian "one who works on an alp", and the Basque etymology Basque harri-pe "under the rocks" proposed by Krutwig. Around 1980, Harriet dropped the Basque-inspired initial h-, now proposing an "Arpitan confederation" (Confédération arpitane) uniting Savoy and the Valais (but not including the patois-speaking Vaud). With the failure of his Arpitan political movement, he retired to private life. The term arpitan since the 1990s has found usage beyond the immediate sphere of Henriet's activities, especially driven by online use. Pichard (2009) suggests its newfound success was due to the happy rhyme with Occitan and the unwieldiness of the alternative francoprovençal. The alternative term patois, while viewed with affection in Switzerland, has a condescending or "humiliating" connotation in France. An Aliance Culturèla Arpitana was founded in 2004.

Léaz (French pronunciation: [le.a]; Arpitan: Lèya) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. In addition to the main village, the commune has three hamlets: Grésin, Lavoux and Longeray.

Vulbens (French pronunciation: [vylbɛ̃s]; Arpitan: Vulbin) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Vulbens is located 20 kilometres southwest of Geneva, on the hills of the Vuache. Vulbens has a border with Switzerland, the commune of Chancy. Other neighbouring municipalities are Chevrier, Pougny, Valleiry, Viry and Dingy-en-Vuache.

Pougny (French pronunciation: [puɲ'i]) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It lies near the border with Switzerland and is the first French village to be crossed by the Rhône, and a hydro-electric station constructed in 1926 which it shares with the Swiss village of Chancy is named after it.

Péron (French pronunciation: [peʁɔ̃]) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.

Pougny—Chancy station (French: Gare de Pougny—Chancy) is a railway station in the commune of Pougny, in the French department of Ain, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is located at the border between France and Switzerland and is an intermediate stop on the Lyon–Geneva line of SNCF.

Dingy-en-Vuache (French pronunciation: [dɛ̃ʒi ɑ̃ vɥaʃ]; Arpitan: Dinzhi) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.

Chancy is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. The westernmost point of the country is located there.