50 Fun Facts About Departments of France

French departments were sized so that any town could reach the prefecture within a day by which means?

On horseback, a rider from the edge of a department was meant to reach its chief town within 24 hours, which is why most mainland departments are of similar size.

Which Normandy department, home to Juno Beach and other D-Day landing sites, shares its name with an apple brandy?

Calvados makes the apple brandy that carries its name, along with butter, cheese and cider. Its Juno Beach Centre commemorates the Canadian landing of 1944.

Which ruler created the post of prefect in 1800, placing a state-appointed official over every French department?

Napoleon Bonaparte was still First Consul when he created the prefects, who remained each department's chief executive until 1982.

Which overseas department, about one-seventh the size of European France, is home to Europe's main rocket launch site?

French Guiana, on the coast of South America, suits rocket launches because it lies near the equator and faces open ocean.

Which department on the Swiss border is named after the mountains that gave a period of the dinosaur age its name?

Jura limestone was where rocks of that age were first identified, which is how the Jurassic period got its name.

Which department, linked to Kent by the Channel Tunnel, takes its name from the French term for the Strait of Dover?

Pas-de-Calais shares a sea border with the English county of Kent that runs halfway along the tunnel.

Which North African country was divided into French departments from 1848 until its independence in 1962?

Algeria was treated as part of France itself, on the same footing as Corsica or Normandy, while neighbouring Morocco and Tunisia were protectorates.

Which country ruled the departments of Alsace and part of Lorraine from 1871 until the end of the First World War?

Germany annexed the land after winning the Franco-Prussian War, and took it again during the Second World War before France regained it in 1944–45.

Which department around Amiens shares its name with a river and a First World War battle fought in 1916?

Somme soil also saw the Battle of Crécy in 1346, a major English victory early in the Hundred Years' War.

Which city, nicknamed the Pink City and home to the headquarters of Airbus, is the prefecture of Haute-Garonne?

Toulouse owes the nickname to its pinkish terracotta bricks, and before 1790 it was the capital of the vast Languedoc region.

Which town, famous for the palace of Louis XIV, is the prefecture of the Yvelines department?

Versailles lost its royal status in the Revolution but became a prefecture in 1790, and passed to the newly created Yvelines in 1968.

Which department in southwest France, home to the Lascaux cave paintings, has a large community of British residents?

Dordogne's original Lascaux caves are closed to the public, so visitors tour a replica instead. The department had over 7,000 British residents in 2022.

Which five-digit number in France begins with the two digits that identify the local department?

Postal codes on the French system also cover the overseas territories and even Monaco.

Since 2009, French motorists have been free to display the number of any department they like on which item?

Licence plates became permanent in 2009; before then a car needed new ones whenever its owner moved to another department.

Which Caribbean overseas department is made up of two main islands that together form the shape of a butterfly?

Guadeloupe's two wings, Basse-Terre in the west and Grande-Terre in the east, are divided by the Rivière Salée.

Which Caribbean department of France lost its main town, Saint-Pierre, when Mount Pelée erupted in 1902?

Martinique's Saint-Pierre was known as the Paris of the Lesser Antilles before the eruption, which killed about 28,000 people within minutes.

Which Indian Ocean island, a French department since 1946, is home to the active volcano Piton de la Fournaise?

Réunion was named Isle Bourbon by the French who claimed it in the 17th century, after the royal house that then ruled France.

Which department, home to Mont-Saint-Michel, takes its name from the French word for the English Channel?

Manche literally means sleeve, the French name for the Channel, and the department faces the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

Which department, home to Reims and the main Champagne vineyards, is named after a river the Romans called Matrona?

Marne has Châlons-en-Champagne as its prefecture, while the better-known Reims and Épernay are only subprefectures.

Which city, the third-largest in France, has been run since 2015 by a metropolis with the powers of a department?

Lyon and its suburbs were lifted out of the surrounding department, so the metropolis handles services that a departmental council runs elsewhere.

How many departments does France have in total, counting the five that lie overseas?

101 is made up of 96 departments in metropolitan France and five overseas; the original map of 1790 had just 83.

French departments were first numbered in which order, the reason Ain is 01 and Yonne is 89?

Alphabetical order still explains most of the numbers, though departments created later were placed at the end, numbered from 91 upwards.

Which older units, such as Languedoc and Champagne, did the departments replace when France was redrawn in 1790?

Provinces had kept their own privileges, so the revolutionaries replaced them with equal units meant to strengthen national unity.

Which region groups Paris with seven surrounding departments, including Essonne and Val-d'Oise?

Île-de-France is the most populous region in the country, home to more than 12 million people.

Which department on the Belgian border, with Lille as its prefecture, has more residents than any other in France?

Nord was created from the French parts of the old counties of Flanders and Hainaut, and a Flemish dialect of Dutch was long spoken there.

Which department around Bordeaux is the largest in metropolitan France, covering about 10,000 square kilometres?

Gironde also named the Girondins, a faction of the Revolution whose leading voices were deputies from the department.

Which department on the Mediterranean has Marseille as its prefecture and largest city?

Bouches-du-Rhône means mouths of the Rhône, and besides Marseille it takes in Aix-en-Provence and Arles.

Which Mediterranean department, home to Saint-Tropez, is named after a river that no longer flows through it?

Var lost its namesake river in 1860, when its eastern district around Grasse was handed to a newly created neighbouring department.

Which Alpine department, with Annecy as its prefecture, contains Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps?

Haute-Savoie has the widest range of elevations of any French department, from about 250 metres in a river valley to the summit at over 4,800 metres.

Which department at the tip of Brittany, containing the port of Brest, is the westernmost in mainland France?

Finistère comes from the Latin for end of the earth, and its Breton name, Penn ar Bed, means head or end of the world.

Which department around Dijon, famous for Burgundy wine, is named after a vine-covered escarpment?

Côte-d'Or, literally golden hill, was proposed by a deputy from Dijon and is said to evoke the autumn colour of the slopes.

Which Indian Ocean territory became a French overseas department in 2011 after 95% of its voters backed the change?

Mayotte lies in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African mainland, and joined the European Union's outermost regions in 2014.

Corsica's two departments are identified by which pair of labels, the only ones in France to include a letter?

2A and 2B replaced the number 20 when the island was split into Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse in the 1970s.

Which kingdom ceded Nice and two Alpine departments to France in 1860 in return for help in unifying Italy?

Sardinia struck the bargain in secret at the spa town of Plombières-les-Bains in 1858, before the treaty itself was signed in Turin.

Which Alsace department has Strasbourg, the official seat of the European Parliament, as its prefecture?

Bas-Rhin means Lower Rhine, because it lies downstream of the other French department on the river.

Which department around Nîmes shares its name with a famous Roman aqueduct bridge with three tiers of arches?

Gard takes its name from the river Gardon, which the bridge was built to cross.

Which city, once the main residence of the Dukes of Brittany, is now the prefecture of a department outside Brittany?

Nantes heads Loire-Atlantique in the Pays de la Loire region; Pétain's government drew a Brittany without the city in 1941.

Which Atlantic department, home to the Puy du Fou theme park, rose against the revolutionary government in 1793?

Vendée also lends its name to the Vendée Globe, a solo, non-stop yacht race around the world.

Which units, each run by a mayor and a municipal council, are the lowest tier of French local government?

Communes are far more numerous in France than in any other European country, because they still largely follow the villages and parishes of 1789.

Which number identifies Paris as a department, inherited from the larger department that was broken up in 1968?

75 belonged to a department that also covered the inner suburbs until 1968, when it was divided into four.

Which present-day capital headed a French department when the First Empire stretched to 130 departments?

Rome led a department first called Tibre, formed when France annexed most of the Papal States in 1809 and dissolved in 1814.

Which department, home to Michelin's headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, is named after a dormant volcano?

Puy-de-Dôme's namesake peak once held a Gallo-Roman temple of Mercury and has served as a stage finish in the Tour de France.

Which Normandy department, containing Rouen and Le Havre, dropped the word Inférieure from its name in 1955?

Seine-Maritime sits at the mouth of the river that flows through Paris; its old name, in use since 1790, simply meant lower.

Which department in southern France, with Mende as its prefecture, has fewer residents than any other in France?

Lozère is named after Mont Lozère and is home to only about 76,000 people.

Which city in eastern France, whose 1870–71 siege is commemorated by Bartholdi's giant lion, heads the 90th department?

Belfort held out until after the armistice, and France kept its territory when the rest of Alsace was ceded in 1871; it became a full department in 1922.

Which department of Brittany takes its name from Breton words meaning small sea, after its enclosed gulf?

Morbihan is named after the sheltered sea that dominates its coastline, and many residents support teaching in the Breton language.

Which department around Avignon was created in 1793 after France annexed lands long ruled by the Pope?

Vaucluse is named after the Fontaine de Vaucluse, one of the largest karst springs in the world.

Which department in the Massif Central shares its name with one of the oldest cheeses in France?

Cantal is named after the Plomb du Cantal, the highest peak of the Monts du Cantal, the remains of a huge ancient volcano.

Which southwestern department is covered by Western Europe's largest man-made forest, planted with pines in the 1800s?

Landes was mostly swampy land grazed by sheep until an 1857 law ended the old herding life and led to large-scale planting.

Which department is home to both the Millau Viaduct and the village that gave Roquefort cheese its name?

Aveyron's Millau Viaduct opened in 2004, and its tallest mast rises 343 metres, higher than the Eiffel Tower.