Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Gex

GEX, a town of France, the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Ain, is beautifully situated, 2000 feet above sea-level, at the base of the Jura chain on the Journant, 3 miles from the Swiss frontier, and 10 miles N.W. of Geneva. It has tanneries, saw-mills, and corn-mills, and a considerable trade in cheese and wine. The town gives its name to the old Pays de Gex, situated between the Alps and the Jura, which was successively under the protection of the Swiss, the Genevese, and the counts of Savoy, until in 1602 it came into the possession of France, retaining, however, until the Revolution its old independent jurisdiction, with Gex as its chief town. The population of the town in 1876 was 1469.