Lot-et-Garonne

Lot-et-Garonne
Department

Prefecture building of the Lot-et-Garonne department, in Agen

Coat of arms

Location of Lot-et-Garonne in France
Coordinates: 44°20′N 0°30′E / 44.333°N 0.500°E / 44.333; 0.500Coordinates: 44°20′N 0°30′E / 44.333°N 0.500°E / 44.333; 0.500
Country France
Region Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Prefecture Agen
Subprefectures Marmande
Nérac
Villeneuve-sur-Lot
Government
 • President of the General Council Pierre Camani (Socialist Party)
Area1
 • Total 5,361 km2 (2,070 sq mi)
Population (2013)
 • Total 333,180
 • Rank 70th
 • Density 62/km2 (160/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 47
Arrondissements 4
Cantons 21
Communes 319
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Lot-et-Garonne (French: [lɔt‿e ɡaʁɔn], Occitan: Òlt e Garona) is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers.

History

Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original eighty-three departments created on March 4, 1790, as a result of the French Revolution. It was created from part of the province of Guyenne and Gascony; originally the territory of the ancient county of Agenais constituted nearly the whole.

Several of the original southeastern cantons in the arrondissements of Agen and Villeneuve-sur-Lot were separated from it in 1808 to become a part of the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne.

Geography

Lot-et-Garonne is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne, Gers, Landes, Gironde, and Dordogne. The north of the department is composed by limestone hills. Between Lot and Garonne, there is a plateau carved by many valleys. In the west of the department, the Landes forest is planted in the sand. It's composed by maritime pines. Between the forest and Agen, there is the Albret, a country very hilly.

Economy

Food-processing, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals are all major industries of the department.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Lot-et-Garonnais.

Tourism

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.