Word Study: Vichy

According to the online dictionary, Vichy is "a city in central France; a provisional capital of unoccupied France . . ." After the World War II German occupation of Paris and northern France, Marshal Philippe Petain declared a government to replace the French Republic: the France State, which took effect in July 1940, according to Wikipedia. Vichy was set up as the temporary seat of government in the southern, unoccupied "free zone" from 1940 to 1944.