Eure is part of the current region of Haute-Normandie and is surrounded by the departments of Seine-Maritime, in the region of Basse-Normandie (Lower-Normandy) by the departments of Orne and Calvados, in the region of Ile-de-France by the departments of Oise, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines and in the region of Centre by the department of Eure-et-Loir.

The department is a largely wooded plateau cut by the valleys of the Seine River and its tributaries.

The altitude varies from sea level to 248 meters in the south.

Eure is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Normandy.

EURE Tourism

The main tourist attraction is Giverny (4 km from Vernon) where Claude Monet's house and garden can be seen, as well as other places of interest (see Websites, below).

The Abbey of Bec and the Château-Gaillard near Les Andelys are other important tourist attractions. Giverny sits on the "right Bank" of the River Seine. The village lies 80 km (50 miles) from Paris, west and slightly north, on the border between the province of Normandy and the Île-de-France (it is officially in the département of Eure, in the région of Haute-Normandie). Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country. To the south-east stretches the fruitful plain of Beauce, the "granary of France", of which the town is the commercial centre. The Éolienne Bollée is an unusual wind turbine, unique for having a stator and a rotor, as a water turbine has. The eponymous invention was first patented in 1868 by Ernest Sylvain Bollée in France. A further patent dated 1885 differed mainly in two ways: First, in how the turbine was turned to face the wind and second, in an improvement which increased the flow of wind through the turbine was added. The turbines built according to the 1885 patent were commercially successful.