L'Abbaye

L'Abbaye is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Jura-Nord Vaudois district in the Vallée de Joux.

It takes its name from Lac de Joux Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery.

[3] L'Abbaye has an area, as of 2009[update], of 31.88 square kilometers (12.31 sq mi).

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, a Bear's Head sable lined Argent ensigned on a Billet Gules bendwise three Escallops bendwise Or.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (1,226 or 94.0%), with German being second most common (33 or 2.5%) and Portuguese being third (19 or 1.5%).

[8] The age distribution, as of 2009[update], in L'Abbaye is; 120 children or 9.4% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 170 teenagers or 13.3% are between 10 and 19.

[9] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] The Manoir De Haute Roche is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The entire village of Le Pont is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[14] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 21.98% of the vote.

In the federal election, a total of 399 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.7%.

[9] There were 627 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.3% of the workforce.

The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 888 of which 826 or (93.0%) were in manufacturing, 12 or (1.4%) were in mining and 49 (5.5%) were in construction.

In the tertiary sector; 40 or 26.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 38 or 24.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 37 or 24.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 1.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 2 or 1.3% were in education and 11 or 7.1% were in health care.

[9] From the 2000 census[update], 269 or 20.6% were Roman Catholic, while 618 or 47.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.

[18] During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care.

The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years.

Aerial view (1964)