VITRY-LE-FRANCOIS, a town of north-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Marne, on the right bank of the Marne, 20 m. S.E. of Chalons, on the railway from Paris to Strasbourg. Pop. (1931) 8,727. The Marne-Rhine canal, the Haute-Marne canal, and the lateral canal of the Marne unite at Vitry. The present town was built in 1545 on a uni form plan by Francis I. to replace the older one of Vitry-en
Perthois, 2 z m. to the north-east, burned in the previous year by Charles V. During the early weeks of the World War Joffre had his headquarters at Vitry-le-Francois, and it was taken and retaken in the battle of the Marne (1914).