The 101 departments in France are grouped into 18 areas (examine these right here) however every division is distinct, typically with its personal meals and traditions and, after all, surroundings.
What are French departments and why ought to we care?
Nearly as good French schoolchildren we’re purported to know the departments of France by coronary heart, however we do not, apart from these which are close to the place we both dwell or spend our summer time holidays.
A ‘département’ is an administrative unit, with areas above it and communes (these will be cities or villages) under. A division can be subdivided additional however that is purely administrative and people segments, like cantons or arrondissements, aren’t used typically sufficient to fret about.
The primary 83 French departments had been created in 1790, at a time of giant turmoil: the Bastille had simply been stormed, and Louis XVI has begun his slide in the direction of the guillotine (that may occur in early 1793). However efforts to consolidate France had been additionally shifting ahead and the departments had been a end result. They had been designed to be roughly the identical dimension, with every capital not more than a day’s horseback journey from the furtheset corners of the division. And to keep away from any political misunderstandings, they might be named after pure geographic options – rivers, mountains, valleys.
France departments have advanced over time, rising from 83 to 130, again down, and up once more. Now and again, a politician decides to go away a mark by altering the boundaries, complicated everybody.
For instance, in 1964, the realm round Paris was made up of three departments: Seine, Seine-et-Marne, and Seine-et-Oise. For a wide range of causes, the Seine and Seine-et-Oise had been changed by SEVEN new departments and France went from 94 departments to 99.
Not content material to go away effectively sufficient alone, in 1996 Corsica was cut up in two, elevating the variety of departments to 100. Then all types of sophisticated issues occurred to our abroad departments and we ended up with 101, which is what now we have now.
Please wait some time earlier than getting that map tattoo. Issues will change once more, I promise.
What number of departments in France?
So now we have 101 départements, together with these situated abroad because of our far-flung colonia empire, however the quantity adjustments now and again as new sub-divisions are determined.
It is at all times good to have an concept of the identify or variety of your favorite departments, yours, for instance, or these close by.
In France we frequently use the numbers to seek advice from them… for instance, you are going snowboarding within the village of St Bumpkin? A buddy would possibly ask, “Is that within the 74?” What they actually imply is: “Is that within the département of the Haute-Savoie?”
There is no such thing as a exhausting and quick rule. Typically we use numbers, typically names, typically smaller areas inside departments which are recognized and significant, however not official.
For instance, I dwell within the Bugey, within the Ain, the 01. If I am speaking to somebody on the opposite aspect of France, I am going to name it the Ain or the 01. But when I am speaking to somebody from the Ain, likelihood is they’re going to know the gorgeous Bugey, well-known for its chickens, cliff climbing and gorgeous rivers.
The map and France departments record under ought to assist make sense of all of it. Or confuse you additional.
As I journey by way of France, I write about every of those departements.
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And now, this is France, in all its illogical glory: areas, and every division inside it.
Full record of French departments
The next is a listing of all of the areas of France and their respective departments, or départements, together with every division’s quantity. I’ve visited many of those however have not written about all of them – however I am engaged on it. You will discover a full record of tales by division on my sitemap or by What’s New on this web site.
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Ain (01) ● Allier (03) ● Ardèche (07) ● Cantal (15) ● Drôme (26) ● Isère (38) ● Loire (42) ● Haute-Loire (43) ● Puy-de-Dôme (63) ● Rhône (69) ● Savoie (73) ● Haute-Savoie (74)
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Côte-d’Or (21) ● Doubs (25) ● Jura (39) ● Nièvre (58) ● Haute-Saône (70) ● Saône-et-Loire (71) ● Yonne (89) ● Territoire de Belfort (90)
Bretagne
Côtes-d’Armor (22) ● Finistère (29) ● Ille-et-Vilaine (35) ● Morbihan (56)
Centre-Val de Loire
Cher (18) ● Eure-et-Loir (28) ● Indre (36) ● Indre-et-Loire (37) ● Loir-et-Cher (41) ● Loiret (45)
Corse (Corsica)
Corse-du-Sud (2A) ● Haute-Corse (2B)
Grand Est
Ardennes (08) ● Aube (10) ● Marne (51) ● Haute-Marne (52) ● Meurthe-et-Moselle (54) ● Meuse (55) ● Moselle (57) ● Bas-Rhin (67) ● Haut-Rhin (68) ● Vosges (88)
Hauts-de-France
Aisne (02) ● Nord (59) ● Oise (60) ● Pas-de-Calais (62) ● Somme (80)
Île-de-France
Paris (75) ● Seine-et-Marne (77) ● Yvelines (78) ● Essonne (91) ● Hauts-de-Seine (92) ● Seine-Saint-Denis (93) ● Val-de-Marne (94) ● Val-d’Oise (95)
Normandie
Calvados (14) ● Eure (27) ● Manche (50) ● Orne (61) ● Seine-Maritime (76)
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Charente (16) ● Charente-Maritime (17) ● Corrèze (19) ● Creuse (23) ● Dordogne (24) ● Gironde (33) ● Landes (40) ● Lot-et-Garonne (47) ● Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64) ● Deux-Sèvres (79) ● Vienne (86) ● Haute-Vienne (87)
Occitanie
Ariège (09) ● Aude (11) ● Aveyron (12) ● Gard (30) ● Haute-Garonne (31) ● Gers (32) ● Hérault (34) ● Lot (46) ● Lozère (48) ● Hautes-Pyrénées (65) ● Pyrénées-Orientales (66) ● Tarn (81) ● Tarn-et-Garonne (82)
Pays de la Loire
Loire-Atlantique (44) ● Maine-et-Loire (49) ● Mayenne (53) ● Sarthe (72) ● Vendée (85)
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04) ● Hautes-Alpes (05) ● Alpes-Maritimes (06) ● Bouches-du-Rhône (13) ● Var (83) ● Vaucluse (84)
France’s Abroad Possessions
These areas should not in Metropolitan France (which means they’re on different continents) however they’re absolutely built-in politically into France (they pay taxes, ship representatives to the Legislative Meeting and so forth):
- Guadeloupe
- Martinique
- Guyana
- La Réunion
- Mayotte
Due to historical past, France has a further set of abroad possessions of varied classes which you may not know ‘belong’ to us. These embrace…
- Abroad collectivities: French Polynesia (assume Tahiti), Saint Pierre et Miquelon (off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada), Wallis and Futuna (in the midst of the Pacific between Fiji and Samoa), and Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, each well-known Caribbean trip spots. Every sends deputies to the Nationwide Meeting, France’s legislative physique.
- Abroad territories: French Southern and Antarctic lands, in addition to just a few scattered islands within the Indian Ocean.
- New Caledonia, which has its personal particular standing as half French however half impartial.
- Clipperton Island, a tiny enclave off the coast from Acapulco which is state owned, uninhabited and which the federal government can not seem to resolve find out how to use.
Why can we even have departments in France?
The concept of départments has a protracted historical past.
We first floated the thought to our then king, Louis XIV, in 1655, but it surely took till the French Revolution to kind issues out. At the moment, France was a mish-mash of administrative, navy, non secular, authorized or fiscal territories that overlapped each other.
Lastly, in 1789, the French Revolution introduced some order to the confusion and 83 departments had been created. Their sizes had been decided in order that one might journey from wherever within the division to its capital on horseback in lower than a day.
At present, some departments are city, some are rural, and their dimension varies wildly. In densely populated ones, you may cross the whole division in half an hour on a bus or tram. Within the extra rural areas, like mine, you will must drive a full hour-and-a-half to succeed in the capital. Given France’s extreme forms, you’ll have to do that extra typically than you assume, since a lot interplay with the federal government includes gathering tons of paperwork to be introduced in particular person at a given time and date. If you do not have a automobile, effectively… you may spend as much as half a day on public transport simply getting there.
Most departments are named after rivers and mountains (with just a few exceptions resembling Savoy, which at all times likes to go its personal means and typically would not imagine it’s a part of France in any respect). French division numbers have two digits, besides Corsica, which has one digit and one letter (2A and 2B) and the abroad departments, which have three digits. Making the numbering system uniform would maybe have been less complicated…
And naturally, the choice of when to go to France will depend upon the place you’re going!
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