GERARDMER  , a

town of north-eastern France, in the department of Vosges, 33 M . E.S.E. of Epinal by rail . Pop . (1906) of the town, 3993; of the commune, 10,041 . Gerardmer is beautifully situated at a height of 2200 ft. at the eastern end of the small Lake of Gerardmer (285 acres in extent) among forest-clad mountains . It is the chief summer-resort of the French Vosges and is a centre for excursions, among which may be mentioned those to the Hohneck (4481 ft.), the second highest summit in the Vosges, the Schlucht, the mountain pass from France to Germany, and, nearer the town, the picturesque defile of Granges, watered by the Vologne, which at one point forms the cascade known as the Sant des Cuves . The town itself, in which the chief object of interest is the huge lime-tree in the market-place, carries on cloth-weaving, bleaching, wood-sawing and the manufacture of wooden goods; there is trade in the cheeses (geromes) manufactured in the neighbourhood . Gerardmer is said to owe its name to Gerard of Alsace, 1st duke of Lorraine, who in the 11th century built a tower on the bank of the lake or mer, near which, in 1285, a new town was founded .