page_title: Saint-Genis-Pouilly
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Saint-Genis-Pouilly / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Communes limitrophes de Saint-Genis-Pouilly
context_page_description: Saint-Genis-Pouilly is a commune in the Ain department within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France.
  It is located in the Pays de Gex, at the foot of the Jura Mountains. Bordering the Swiss frontier, it is part of the cross-border area of Geneva.
  With a population of over 12,000 inhabitants, it is one of the ten most populous towns in the department of Ain.
  A large portion of CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, is located within the territory of Saint-Genis-Pouilly; the ALICE experiment is located on the periphery of the town, and the main entrance to the primary CERN campus and the ATLAS experiment are located only 3 km from the centre of St Genis. CERN is the world's largest fundamental physics research laboratory and its presence has largely been responsible for the development of the community of Saint Genis since the middle of the 1960s.
context_section_description: Saint-Genis-Pouilly is composed of two market towns (Saint-Genis and Pouilly) and two hamlets (Pregnin and Flies).
  The two market towns have both continued to expand and  now practically merge into one, however the two hamlets still remain separate from each other and from the two towns.
  The elevation of the commune varies from 419 m (at the extreme south of the commune, to the confluence of the rivers Allondon and Nant de l'Ecra) to 502 m (at the extreme north of the commune, in the village of Flies).
  The commune is situated at the limit between the plains surrounding Geneva and the first foothills of the Jura.
  As indicated on the map opposite, the communes surrounding Saint-Genis-Pouilly are: Thoiry, Sergy, Crozet, Chevry, Prévessin-Moëns and Satigny (Swiss).
caption: Communes bordering Saint-Genis-Pouilly
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