Geography
The commune is spread over various little hills and valleys between the fields of the Fave valley (which has its source here at an altitude of 350) meters and the mamillated Ormont Hills to the north. The territory of the commune forms a triangle between Neuvillers-sur-Fave to the east, Nayemont-les-Fosses to the west and north and Remomeix together with Sainte-Marguerite in the south.
For those unfamiliar with the traditional lay-out of mountain villages in the Vosges Mountains, the pattern of settlement in this commune may appear curiously dispersed: roads are underdeveloped and the uneven topography enforces a patchy and dispersed footprint for the hamlets. In fact developments in the twentieth century have in some ways contributed to the spreading of the settlement pattern. In common with many rural communes, Pair-et-Grandrupt suffered a prolonged population decline which set in after the agricultural depression which started in the 1870s and from which there was no sustained recovery until the second half of the twentieth century. In this commune, however, the trend reversed as the motor transport revolution improved general access to rural communes: population has risen strongly since 1972. Between 1968 and 1999 registered population (excluding double counting in respect of students and others with two registered homes) increased from 200 to 439, and the construction of a modern water supply network supported by appropriate pipes and pumps has made it possible to build on formerly dry mountainside sites, and at levels of housing density which in earlier centuries was not possible simply because the nearest usable water supply was insufficient and/or too far away.
Read more about this topic: Pair-et-Grandrupt
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