Pair-et-Grandrupt () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. The commune takes its name from the two substantial hamlets of Le Pair et Grandrupt. 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. Ecclesiastical The religious tradition here has been characterised by chapel-style Christianity. The commune has no church or curé of its own, being still part of the large parish of Bertrimoutier. Beside the church at Bertrimoutier is a large cemetery-ossuary which for centuries has welcomed the mortal remains of people from a wide area along the southern flank of the Ormont Hills. The rapid increase in population Pair-et-Grandrupt that has been underway since the final decades of the twentieth century is giving rise to discussion as to whether the needs of growing numbers of Christian believers in Pair-et-Grandrupt are now sufficiently served by The Church. History The