Departments of France
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50 free Departments of France trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
France is divided into departments, the units behind its road signs, its prefectures and a good deal of local pride. They were drawn up during the Revolution to replace a patchwork of older territories, and most still carry the names of the rivers, mountains and coasts they were given then. This quiz covers the departments from every angle: picking out a department from its main town, its landscape or a famous sight, the logic behind the numbering, the stories hidden in the names, the departments that lie far beyond Europe, and the moments when the map was redrawn by war, treaty or reform. It suits geography fans, French learners and anyone planning a trip who wants the names on the road signs to mean something. Teachers and quiz hosts can use it as a ready-made round, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01French departments were sized so that any town could reach the prefecture within a day by which means?
On horseback
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.
Q 02Which Normandy department, home to Juno Beach and other D-Day landing sites, shares its name with an apple brandy?
Calvados
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.
Q 03Which ruler created the post of prefect in 1800, placing a state-appointed official over every French department?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte was still First Consul when he created the prefects, who remained each department's chief executive until 1982.
Q 04Which overseas department, about one-seventh the size of European France, is home to Europe's main rocket launch site?
French Guiana
French Guiana, on the coast of South America, suits rocket launches because it lies near the equator and faces open ocean.
Q 05Which department on the Swiss border is named after the mountains that gave a period of the dinosaur age its name?
Jura
Jura limestone was where rocks of that age were first identified, which is how the Jurassic period got its name.
Q 06Which department, linked to Kent by the Channel Tunnel, takes its name from the French term for the Strait of Dover?
Pas-de-Calais
Pas-de-Calais shares a sea border with the English county of Kent that runs halfway along the tunnel.
Q 07Which North African country was divided into French departments from 1848 until its independence in 1962?
Algeria
Algeria was treated as part of France itself, on the same footing as Corsica or Normandy, while neighbouring Morocco and Tunisia were protectorates.
Q 08Which country ruled the departments of Alsace and part of Lorraine from 1871 until the end of the First World War?
Germany
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.
Q 09Which department around Amiens shares its name with a river and a First World War battle fought in 1916?
Somme
Somme soil also saw the Battle of Crécy in 1346, a major English victory early in the Hundred Years' War.
Q 10Which city, nicknamed the Pink City and home to the headquarters of Airbus, is the prefecture of Haute-Garonne?
Toulouse
Toulouse owes the nickname to its pinkish terracotta bricks, and before 1790 it was the capital of the vast Languedoc region.
Q 11Which town, famous for the palace of Louis XIV, is the prefecture of the Yvelines department?
Versailles
Versailles lost its royal status in the Revolution but became a prefecture in 1790, and passed to the newly created Yvelines in 1968.
Q 12Which department in southwest France, home to the Lascaux cave paintings, has a large community of British residents?
Dordogne
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.
Q 13Which five-digit number in France begins with the two digits that identify the local department?
Postal code
Postal codes on the French system also cover the overseas territories and even Monaco.
Q 21How many departments does France have in total, counting the five that lie overseas?
101
101 is made up of 96 departments in metropolitan France and five overseas; the original map of 1790 had just 83.
Q 22French departments were first numbered in which order, the reason Ain is 01 and Yonne is 89?
Alphabetical
Alphabetical order still explains most of the numbers, though departments created later were placed at the end, numbered from 91 upwards.
Q 23Which older units, such as Languedoc and Champagne, did the departments replace when France was redrawn in 1790?
Provinces
Provinces had kept their own privileges, so the revolutionaries replaced them with equal units meant to strengthen national unity.
Q 14Since 2009, French motorists have been free to display the number of any department they like on which item?
Licence plates
Licence plates became permanent in 2009; before then a car needed new ones whenever its owner moved to another department.
Q 15Which Caribbean overseas department is made up of two main islands that together form the shape of a butterfly?
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe's two wings, Basse-Terre in the west and Grande-Terre in the east, are divided by the Rivière Salée.
Q 16Which Caribbean department of France lost its main town, Saint-Pierre, when Mount Pelée erupted in 1902?
Martinique
Martinique's Saint-Pierre was known as the Paris of the Lesser Antilles before the eruption, which killed about 28,000 people within minutes.
Q 17Which Indian Ocean island, a French department since 1946, is home to the active volcano Piton de la Fournaise?
Réunion
Réunion was named Isle Bourbon by the French who claimed it in the 17th century, after the royal house that then ruled France.
Q 18Which department, home to Mont-Saint-Michel, takes its name from the French word for the English Channel?
Manche
Manche literally means sleeve, the French name for the Channel, and the department faces the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
Q 19Which department, home to Reims and the main Champagne vineyards, is named after a river the Romans called Matrona?
Marne
Marne has Châlons-en-Champagne as its prefecture, while the better-known Reims and Épernay are only subprefectures.
Q 20Which city, the third-largest in France, has been run since 2015 by a metropolis with the powers of a department?
Lyon
Lyon and its suburbs were lifted out of the surrounding department, so the metropolis handles services that a departmental council runs elsewhere.
Q 24Which region groups Paris with seven surrounding departments, including Essonne and Val-d'Oise?
Île-de-France
Île-de-France is the most populous region in the country, home to more than 12 million people.
Q 25Which department on the Belgian border, with Lille as its prefecture, has more residents than any other in France?
Nord
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.
Q 26Which department around Bordeaux is the largest in metropolitan France, covering about 10,000 square kilometres?
Gironde
Gironde also named the Girondins, a faction of the Revolution whose leading voices were deputies from the department.
Q 27Which department on the Mediterranean has Marseille as its prefecture and largest city?
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône means mouths of the Rhône, and besides Marseille it takes in Aix-en-Provence and Arles.
Q 28Which Mediterranean department, home to Saint-Tropez, is named after a river that no longer flows through it?
Var
Var lost its namesake river in 1860, when its eastern district around Grasse was handed to a newly created neighbouring department.
Q 29Which Alpine department, with Annecy as its prefecture, contains Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps?
Haute-Savoie
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.
Q 30Which department at the tip of Brittany, containing the port of Brest, is the westernmost in mainland France?
Finistère
Finistère comes from the Latin for end of the earth, and its Breton name, Penn ar Bed, means head or end of the world.