Gers

For the football team, see Rangers F.C.
Gers
—  Department  —

Coat of arms
Location of Gers in France
Coordinates:
Country France
Region Midi-Pyrénées
Prefecture Auch
Subprefectures Condom
Mirande
Government
 - President of the General Council Philippe Martin (PS)
Area1
 - Total 6,257 km2 (2,415.8 sq mi)
Population (1999)
 - Total 172,335
 - Rank 89th
 - Density 27.5/km2 (71.3/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 32
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 31
Communes 463
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

The Gers (French: le Gers, Occitan: Gers) is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.

Contents

History and culture

In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby.

The Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony.

The inhabitants of the department are called les Gersois.

The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as:

Also, some prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza, sunflowers and grain.

The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken.The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south.

Alexandre Dumas, père created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac.

André Boingnères, former mayor of Termes-d'Armagnac in the 1960s.

Politics

The President of the General Council is Philippe Martin of the Socialist Party.

Party seats
• Socialist Party 17
Union for a Popular Movement 9
• French Communist Party 3
• Miscellaneous Left 1
Miscellaneous Right 1

Geography and demography

Located in southwestern France, the Gers is part of the Midi-Pyrénées region. It is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Gers is often referred to as amongst the least densely populated, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe.

List of the 10 most important cities of the département:

# Municipality Population (1999)
1 Auch 21 911
2 Condom 7 256
3 Fleurance 6 279
4 L'Isle-Jourdain 5 557
5 Lectoure 3 941
6 Eauze 3 888
7 Vic-Fezensac 3 614
8 Mirande 3 564
9 Gimont 2 741
10 Pavie 2 220

Climate

The annual rain varies from more than 900 mm in the south-west of the department, to less than 700 mm in the North-East (Auch, Condom, Lectoure).

The winters vary, with only occasional freezing temperatures, but the climate remains mild and dry, the departement is one of sunniest in France.

The summers are very hot and dry, the temperatures often is exceeding 40°. Auch is together with Toulouse and Millau one of the hottest cities of France, with often more than 300 sunny days in the year.

Tourism

According to recent data tourism represents annually:

See also

External links

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