Country of the Loire

The Pays of the Loire are a French Région West of the France gathering five departments.

History

See also: History of the Countries of the Loire

The area of the Countries of the Loire was created in 1955, under the name of Pays of the Loire , by ministerial decree of November 28th, 1956 signed under the Fourth Republic at the same time as the other areas during the introduction of the “areas of program”, administrative cutting whose scope were extended little by little to give the French areas current. It is different from the area of Angers resulting from decree 2727 from the Vichy government in 1941 since the the Vendée was not included in this one and that on the other hand the Indre-et-Loire was there for its occupied part, the Pays term of the Loire did not exist at the time.

To the difference in other areas, the Countries of the Loire did not correspond, with their creation, any administrative entity which would have preexisted: the five departments were gathered on arbitrary criteria, purely administrative and political. Historically, the Countries of the Loire recover pieces of the old provinces of Anjou, of Brittany, Maine, Perche and Poitou. The membership of the Loire-Atlantique to this area (rather than in Brittany) is in addition a subject of debate. Nevertheless, to its history, the Comté of Nantes was already seconded from Brittany, by alliance and protection of the sovereigns Plantagenêts or by annexation with the Anjou between Xesiècle and XIIIesiècle.

See on this subject the article on the administrative Detachment of the Loire-Atlantique. The area, thus cut out, allowed at the same time Rennes and Nantes to become regional administrative capitals. Its name is misleading because evoking the majestic course of the river king, it excludes nevertheless departments from them emblematic, with their castles of the same name, like the Indre-et-Loire and the Loir-et-Cher, located them in Center area.

The area is marked with the Middle Ages by the expansion of the angevin field. As of Xesiècle, the counts of Anjou increase their territory by conquests. As of 909, Foulque Ier of Anjou receives the Comté of Nantes and takes the title of count d' Anjou and Nantes. Thereafter, the dynasty of the Plantagenêts will dominate the Comté of Maine and the Anjou (1129 - 1204), the Comté of Nantes (1156 - 1203), then the Normandy (1154), thanks to the marriage in 1113 of Foulque V of Anjou and Erembourg of Maine. This dynasty reigned on the England (1154-1399) then must give up its continental provinces with the royal field (1204). With his apogee under Henri II, one speaks about a Empire Plantagenêt, his Scottish field going of the borders in the Pyrenees thanks to his marriage with Aliénor of Aquitaine.

In 1532, the Duché of Brittany is joined together with the Royaume of France by a perpetual treaty of union. The area is marked at the time of the Révolution by the Guerres of the Vendée (1793 - 1796) and the Chouannerie. These events constitute greatest rising against the central capacity of the French history. The area still knows the war in 1870 with a Prussian incursion in the Sarthe. The war of 1939-1945 is marked by the action of the Résistance, the bombardments of Saint-Nazaire and the Release (July 1944) by the 3rd American army ordered by the Général Patton, circumventing the German army occupying the Cliff pocket after the Opération Cobra. The 2nd dB crosses Mayenne and the Sarthe in this movement.

Five departments:

The chief town of area is the town of Nantes.

Policy

See also: Political of the Countries of the Loire

Area of catholic and preserving tradition, the Countries of the Loire were traditionally directed by the French line. However, this one lost of it for the first time control at the time of the last regional elections of 2004.

The left majority elected the Socialist Jacques Auxiette, then mayor of the Roche-sur-Yon, president of the district council.

The department of the Loire-Atlantique is the subject of requests for a fastening with the Région Brittany. The general advice of Loire-Atlantique emitted as of the years 70 qu ' it wished the fastening of the department in Brittany. A survey going back to November 2006, carried out by the general advice, gives to 67% people favorable to the reunification.

Transport

See also: Transport of the Countries of the Loire, FOR THE THIRD TIME Country of the Loire

Destineo is a Web site of information to the travellers of the area.

Geography

Of a recent administrative creation, the departments composing the area of the Countries of the Loire do not have history and of culture communes. The Pays-de-la-Loire with are crossed Breton influences, ligeriennes and poitevines. The most known site of the river which gives them its name, the Loire ch4ateau, is not located solely in this area, but mainly upstream, in the Center area.

The area of the Countries of the Loire extends on 32.082 km ². It draws its name from the the Loire which crosses only two departments out of the five before throwing in the Atlantic Ocean. The last affluents of the river irrigate the area: the Dormouse, the the Sarthe and the Mayenne which gather to form the Maine with Angers, the Erdre, in north; the Thouet and the Separate Nantes in the south. On the whole, one counts 18.000 kilometers of river in the area.

The relief of the area is consisted hills of the Vendée in the south, and the north of the Sarthe and Mayenne by Coëvrons, the Alps Mancelles, the Forest of Perseigne and the hills of the Pole. The culminating point is the Mont of the Heads (417 meters). The Sillon of Brittany, which is the continuity of the Landes of Lanvaux of the Morbihan, finishes with the headland of the Butte Holy-Anne with Nantes. Most of the area is located on the Armorican Massif. Only the part is on a sedimentary Bassin: half is department of Maine-et-Loire and the department of the Sarthe in the east heights of Coëvrons, is the three quarters of this department. This part of the area is from a topographic point of view very near to the area centers.

The area is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean over a 368 kilometers length and has two important islands, Noirmoutier and the Île of Yeu. The coasts are alternatively rock and sandy, Wild Côte in the north of the mouth of the Loire, Côte of Jade between the Loire and the island of Noirmoutier, Côte of Light in the Vendée.

Several Marais gained on the sea during the centuries punctuates the littoral, the Brière close to Saint-Nazaire, the Breton Marais in the north of the Vendée and the Marais Poitevin in the south.

The area is 5th of France in term of surface (1: the Midday-Pyrenees, 2nd: the Rhone-Alps, 3rd: Aquitanian, 4th: Center)

Economy

The area is 5th of France in term of population and gross domestic product.

Very present in particular in agro-alimentary the (3me of France) with 51% of the production of meat 19% for milk and 20% in the work of the grain, 67% of the territory is occupied by agriculture. The countries of the Loire are the first French area for the production of bovine meat, poultry (red label), rabbit, duck and 2nd for milk, poultry (simple), pig and potato.

Demography

The inhabitants of the Countries of the Loire are the ligériens and the ligériennes. At the first January 2006, the population of the Countries of the Loire was of 3.426.000 inhabitants. The great concentrations of population are around the three large pole urban of the area: Nantes, Mans and Angers. These three cities belong to the 20 larger French metropolises. It is they which brought dynamism to Ligérienne demography. The most flourishing Nantes at summer. Angers with considerably increased in twenty years (40 000 inhabitants in its urban surface). It remotely the Manceau neighbors of a few thousands of inhabitants who them, underwent a weaker growth, because of regressing industrial economy.

Culture

Of a recent administrative creation, the departments composing the area of the Countries of the Loire do not have history and of culture communes. The Countries of the Loire to are crossed Breton influences, poitevines and of Maine. Exception is made departments of the Sarthe, Mayenne and Maine and the Loire. These respective three-Ci and their cities formed part of the two close areas formerly Anjou and Maine. These three departments have a history relatively different from the Loire-Atlantique and the Vendée. Having formerly been under the domination of Plantagenêts and kings d' Angleterre, the preserved inheritance is well targeted. The most known sites of the river, the Loire ch4ateau, are not located solely in this area, but mainly upstream, in the area Center.

The National orchestra of the Countries of the Loire is a component of the culture of the Countries of the Loire. With more than 10.000 subscribers and by giving 200 concerts gathering nearly 200.000 spectators per annum, the National orchestra of the Countries of the Loire east one of the orchestras knowing the strongest audience in Europe. It profits from the financial support of the District council of the Countries of the Loire, of the Ministère of the Culture, the towns of Nantes and Angers and of the five general advices of the area.

Since 2002, the previous weekend the festival of the Quoted of the congresses of Nantes, the Insane Day is exported in the cities of the Pays area of the Loire. Concerts are given to Challans, Cholet, Fontenay-the-Count, Fontevraud, Laval, the Arrow, the Roche-sur-Yon, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Saumur, Saint-Nazaire… nearly 50.000 tickets sold in 2007, in addition to the 122.000 of the Nantes festival which is also exported with Bilbao, Lisbon, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

The Cathedral of Mans, the Castle of Angers are also visited buildings. The Night of the Dreams and the tapestry of the Apocalypse are major events of the area in summer period.

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