Centre (French region)

This page is about the administrative region in France. For other similarly named regions, see Centre Region.
Center
—  Region of France  —

Flag
Logo
Country  France
Prefecture Orléans
Departments
6
Government
 • President François Bonneau (PS)
Area
 • Total 39,151 km2 (15,116.3 sq mi)
Population (2008-01-01)
 • Total 2,538,000
 • Density 64.8/km2 (167.9/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
GDP/ Nominal € 63 billion (2006)[1]
GDP per capita € 25,200 (2006)[1]
NUTS Region FR2
Website regioncentre.fr

Centre (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ]) is one of the 27 regions of France, located towards the northwest of the actual centre of the country, around the Loire Valley. Its capital is Orléans, although its largest city is Tours.

Contents

Features

The main feature of Centre is the Loire Valley. It includes the rich, fertile valleys of the Loire River and its tributaries: Cher, Indre, Loiret, etc. Centre contains the famous châteaux of the Loire Valley, which attract many tourists to the region. The climate of the region is essentially oceanic.

Name

The name Centre was chosen by the French central government based purely on geography, as Centre is composed of too many historical provinces to use a historical name. However, Centre is not in the geographical centre of France, and the name has been criticized as being overly dull and nondescript.

It has been proposed to rename the region Val de Loire (i.e. "Valley of the Loire") or also "Coeur de Loire" (i.e. "Heart of Loire), which would give more character to the name of the region. Val de Loire is a name associated with positive images of the Loire Valley, such as the chateaux, the gentle and refined lifestyle, wine, the mild and temperate climate. The name change has not yet been adopted, but the term is sometimes juxtaposed with the region's name, as in Centre - Val de Loire.

Major communities

References

  1. ^ a b "GDP per inhabitant in 2006 ranged from 25% of the EU27 average in Nord-Est in Romania to 336% in Inner London". Eurostat. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-19022009-AP/EN/1-19022009-AP-EN.PDF. 

See also

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Centre Centre] at Wikimedia Commons