Pays de la Loire

Pays de la Loire
—  Region of France  —

Flag
Logo
CountryFrance
PrefectureNantes
Departments
5
Loire-Atlantique
Maine-et-Loire
Mayenne
Sarthe
Vendée
Government
 - PresidentJacques Auxiette (PS)
Area
 - Total32,082 km2 (12,386.9 sq mi)
Population (2009-01-01)
 - Total3,553,353
 - Density110.8/km2 (286.9/sq mi)
Time zoneCET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST)CEST (UTC+2)
NUTS RegionFR5
Websitepaysdelaloire.fr

Pays de la Loire is one of the 26 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)¹. Other examples of "artificially created" regions include Rhône-Alpes, which was created as the region for Lyon, and Midi-Pyrénées, which was created as the region for Toulouse.

Contents

Geography

Pays de la Loire is made up of the following historical provinces:

  • a part of Brittany, with its old capital Nantes contained within the Loire-Atlantique department. This is only 20% of Brittany. The other 80% of Brittany make up the region of Bretagne.
  • Anjou: is largely contained within the Maine-et-Loire department. The whole of the former province of Anjou is contained inside Pays de la Loire.
  • Maine: is now divided between the Mayenne and Sarthe departments. The whole of the former province of Maine is contained inside Pays de la Loire.
  • a part of Poitou: is contained within the Vendée department. Most of the old province of Poitou is inside the Poitou-Charentes region.
  • a part of Perche: is within the northeast of Sarthe department. The rest of Perche is inside the Basse-Normandie and Centre regions.
  • a small part of Touraine: southeast of Maine-et-Loire department. Most of the former province of Touraine is inside the Centre region.

Consequently, the name of the region, chosen by the French central government, was not based on history, but purely on geographical references: Pays (i.e. "lands") de la Loire (i.e. "of the Loire River"). However, the majority of the famous châteaux of the Loire Valley are located in the Centre region, and not inside Pays de la Loire, despite the confusing name. The Pays de la Loire present many great monuments as the castles of Angers, Laval, Mayenne and the Nantes "Château des Ducs de Bretagne", the Royal Fontevraud Abbey (the widest monastic ensemble in Europe), the old city of Le Mans, and also many natural parks such as the Brière and the Marsh of Poitou.

Demography

Evolution of the population listed by departments:

YearPopulation of the departments
Loire-Atlantique
department		Maine-et-Loire
department		Mayenne
department		Sarthe
department		Vendée
department		Total Pays de la Loire
1801369,305375,544305,654388,143243,4261,682,072
1851535,664516,197374,566473,071383,7342,283,232
1901664,971515,431313,103422,699441,3112,357,515
1921649,691475,485397,2922,174,150
1936659,428478,404251,348388,519389,2112,166,910
1946665,064393,7872,224,163
1954733,575395,6412,320,177
1962803,372535,122250,030443,019408,9282,440,471
1968861,452585,563252,762461,839421,2502,582,866
1975934,499629,849261,789490,385450,6412,767,163
1982995,498675,321271,784504,768483,0272,930,398
19901,050,539704,668277,748513,280508,9623,055,197
20051,208,761754,997297,854551,971587,1623,400,745

External links

Search Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons has media related to: Pays de la Loire

Notes

¹ In the 1960s, eight large regional cities of France (Lille, Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse) were made "balancing metropolises", receiving special financial and technical help from the French government in order to counterbalance the excessive weight of Paris inside France.

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Regions of France

Coordinates: 47°28′N 0°50′E / 47.467°N 0.833°E / 47.467; 0.833

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