The Pays de la Loire region of France
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Pays-de-la-Loire covers an area of 32,082 km² made up of the following historical areas:-
- Loire-Atlantique department, part of the old Brittany
- Maine-et-Loire department, old Anjou.
- Mayenne and Sarthe departments, old province of Maine.
- a part of Poitou (but most of Poitou is inside the Poitou-Charentes région) .
- a part of Perche (northeast of Sarthe department)
- a small part of Touraine (southeast of Maine-et-Loire department). .
Consequently, the name chosen by the French central government, was based purely on geographical references and is misleading because most the Loire Valley is located in the Centre région, and not inside Pays-de-la-Loire.
Many people in the département of Loire-Atlantique and in Brittany would like to have Loire-Atlantique enter the Bretagne région in order to reunify Brittany. So far, however, a change in the région boundaries is not on the agenda, as the tough issue of what to do with the rump Pays-de-la-Loire deprived of its capital and 21% of its territory seems hard to resolve.
Wine is raised here - Muscadet and Gros Plant.
Pays de la Loire contains the following departements (the chief town of each department - the prefecture) is shown in brackets:-
- Loire-Atlantique (Nantes)
- Maine-et-Loire (Angers)
- Mayenne (Laval)
- Sarthe (Le Mans)
- Vendee (La Roche-sur-Yon)