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Regions : a pack of 26 cards
France used to be divided into provinces such as la Normandie, l’Aquitaine, la Provence, etc... Each one had its own laws and customs (for example its weights and measures, its cooking, its language and its legends).
To unify the country and make it easier to control, the State divided it into 100 départements and made laws that applied everywhere. The départements were grouped into administrative regions.
In 1960, the government decided to change the grouping of some départements to make the regions correspond more closely to the old provinces.Some regions are made up of two départements (Alsace), others have eight (Midi-Pyrénées).
Altogether, there are 22 regions in mainland France and 4 overseas. Each of the overseas regions is also a département (D.O.M. = département d’outre mer): la Guadeloupe, la Guyane, la Martinique and la Réunion.
Decentralisation now devolves greater powers to the regions. They are run by a regional council (Conseil Régional) elected by the inhabitants. They have their own budgets to promote the economic, social and cultural life of the region, and they also run the secondary schools.Regions have each their specificity, for instance Ile-de-France is the richest. 1 in 5 French people live in the Ile-de-France and are known as "Franciliens". Rhône-Alpes has the highest mountain: the Mont-Blanc. Provence-Côte-d’Azur stretches along the Mediterranean Sea also called "la Grande Bleue". Normandy used to be a province but is now divided into 2 regions: Lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie) and Upper Normandy (Haute-Normandie). Nowadays many Normans (in both regions) think that the two should be reunited.
His ancestors came from the little Norman town of Pont d’Ouilly. “Elementary, my dear Watson!” “Douilly” crossed the Channel and became “Doyle”.