LOIRE INFORMATION
LOIRE Geography
Loire is part of the current administrative region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Rhône, Isère, Ardèche, in the region of Auvergne by the departments of Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme and Allier, and in the region of Burgundy by the department of Saône-et-Loire.
The River Loire traverses the department from south to north.
LOIRE River
The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of 1,013 kilometres (629 mi), it drains an area of 117,000 km2 (45,000 sq mi), which represents more than a fifth of France's land area. It rises in the Cévennes in the département of Ardèche at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc, and flows for over 1,000 km (620 mi) north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay at St Nazaire. Its main tributaries include the Maine, Nièvre and the Erdre rivers on its right bank, and the Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne, and the Sèvre Nantaise rivers on the left bank. The Loire gives its name to six départements: Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, and Saône-et-Loire in the Burgundy region. The central part of the Loire Valley was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2, 2000. The banks are characterized by vineyards and chateaux in the Loire Valley.
LOIRE History
Loire was created in 1793 when the original department of Rhône-et-Loire was split.
Its capitals have been the following:
Feurs from 1793-1795
Montbrison from 1795-1855
Saint-Étienne since 1855
Rhône-et-Loire: Rhône-et-Loire was a département of France whose préfecture (capital) was Lyon. Created on March 4, 1790 like the other French départements, Rhône-et-Loire was abolished on August 12, 1793 when it was split into two départements: Rhône (préfecture: Lyon) and Loire (préfecture: Feurs, then Montbrison, then now Saint-Étienne).
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Rhône département was enlarged several times by incorporating into it areas from neighboring départements, so that today the two départements of Rhône and Loire combined are larger than the older Rhône-et-Loire département.
If Rhône-et-Loire still existed, its population at the 1999 French census would have been 1,799,812 inhabitants, whereas in 1999 the Rhône département had 1,578,869 inhabitants, and the Loire département had 728,524 inhabitants.
LOIRE Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens.
The industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the area's 728,542 inhabitants.
LOIRE Administration
Department number : 42
Region : Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture : Saint-Étienne
Subprefectures : Montbrison, Roanne
Arrondissements : 3
Cantons : 40
Communes : 327
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