Givry
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Givry is an attractive small town in the department of Saone et Loire, near Chalon sur Saone, but its fame stems from something that happened here in the mid 14th century. At the time, Europe was under attack from the bubonic plague, and a record of the passage of the epidemic survives in one of the church registers of Givry, discovered in the attic of the local town hall in 1885.

The register makes for shocking reading. Before 1348, the town averaged 25 deaths per year; the rate rose suddenly in July of 1348, to reach a peak in August with 110 deaths and 303 in September - 10 on one day alone. The rate then dropped again slowly until November, where 19 deaths were recorded before the register stops suddenly; it is assumed that the priest himself succumbed to infection.

One in two of the town’s population had died in the epidemic, but the register gives us an interesting post-script: in 1349, even with the population halved, 86 marriages were celebrated - which is four times the pre-plague average.

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