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Mison (Municipality, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France)

Flag of Mison - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 5 January 2006

Presentation of Mison
Flag of Mison

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Presentation of Mison

The municipality of Mison (850 inhabitants in 1999) is located 11 km north-west of Sisteron. The municipality is made of the old village of Mison, dominated by the ruins of a medieval fortress and built on the heights separating the valleys of Buëch and Durance, and of the village of Les Armand, located on the big road Sisteron-Grenoble. The Barons d'Armand were upgraded to Marquis by Letters Patented signed in February 1694 and registered on 10 May 1694.

Mison is the birth place of Jean-Baptiste Salvat, Ambassador of King Louis XV, and of the mathematician and astronom Ernest Esclangon (1876-1954). Esclangon completed his Doctorate in 1904 on the quasi-periodical functions often used in mathematical physics and celestial mechanics. He wrote 236 scientific papers. In 1918, he proposed a method based on the propagation of sound that allowed the detection and destruction of the German Bertha cannons. Esclangon was appointed Director of the Observatory of Paris and created in 1933 the first speaking clock. The clock gives the atomic stroke and can be called by dialing 3699. Esclangon promoted the building of the big astronomic station of Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire, located near Forcalquier in a place with a very dry and clean air and far from most light sources. Esclangon served as the President of the International Astronomic Union.

Source: Sisteron municipal website

Ivan Sache, 5 January 2006

Flag of Mison

The flag of Mison, as photographied by Dominique Cureau, is light blue with the name of the village in yellow capital letters.
This flag seems to have been inspired by the municipal arms of Mison, which are (GASO):
D'azur à la fasce haussée d'argent chargée du mot MISON en lettres capitales de sable, accompagnée en chef de deux roses aussi d'argent et en pointe d'un chevron abaissé d'or soutenu d'une rose d'argent.
Timms translates the blazon as: Azure a chevron debased or and on a fess enhanced argent the capital letters MISON sable all between three roses two in chief and one in base of the third.

Louis de Bresc [bjs94] reports the arms of Mison as registered in the Armorial Général (Arm. I, 283; bl. II, 1327; enr. 40 l.):
D'azur, à une fasce haussée, d'argent, chargée du mot MISON de sable, surmontée de deux roses d'argent et accompagnée en pointe d'un chevron abaissé d'or, enfermant une autre rose d'argent.
These arms were adopted in the beginning of the XVIIth century and are shown by Achard. They were derived from the arms of the Armand family, D'azur à une fasce rehaussée d'or, accompagnée en chef d'une couronne ducale et en pointe d'un chevron, le tout d'or.

Ivan Sache, 5 January 2006