Côte-d'Or

Côte-d'Or
—  Department  —

Coat of arms
Coordinates:
Country France
Region Bourgogne
Prefecture Dijon
Subprefectures Beaune
Montbard
Government
 - President of the General Council François Sauvadet (NC)
Area1
 - Total 8,763 km2 (3,383.4 sq mi)
Population (2006)
 - Total 532,948
 - Rank 49th
 - Density 60.8/km2 (157.5/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 21
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 43
Communes 707
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Côte-d'Or is a department in the eastern part of France.

Contents

History

Côte-d'Or is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was formed from part of the former province of Burgundy.

Geography

The department is part of the current region of Bourgogne. It is surrounded by the departments of Yonne, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Jura, Aube, and Haute-Marne.

A chain of hills called the Plateau de Langres runs from north-east to south-west through the department to the north of Dijon and continues south-westwards as the Côte d'Or escarpment, which is named from the department's name. It is the south-east facing slope of the escarpment which is the site of the celebrated Burgundy vineyards. To the west of the Plateau de Langres, towards Champagne, lies the densely wooded district of Châtillonais. To the south-east of the plateau and escarpment, the department lies in the broad, flat-bottomed valley of the middle course of the Saône.

Rivers include:

Climate

The climate of the department is temperate, with abundant rain on the west side of the central range.

Politics

The President of the General Council is François Sauvadet of the New Centre.

Party seats
Socialist Party 12
• Union for a Popular Movement 11
• Miscellaneous Right 8
Miscellaneous Left 6
Left Radical Party 3
• New Centre 2
• MoDem 1

Economy

This is a premier wine-growing region of France. It produces what are arguably the world's finest, and definitely most expensive Pinot noir and Chardonnay wines from some of the most rigoursly and painstakingly (thanks to the region's many monasteries) classified vineyards in the world. Wine from the Côte-d'Or was a favorite of the emperor Charlemagne. Other crops include cereal grains and potatoes. Sheep and cattle are also raised in the department. The region is famous for its Dijon mustard.

There are coal mines and heavy industry, including steel, machinery, and earthenware. The industries most developed in Côte-d'Or are

The big works are generally in the conurbation of Dijon although biggest (CEA Valduc) is at Salives in the Plateau de Langres. There is also the SEB metal works at Selongey below the plateau on the margin of the Saône plain and the Valourec metalworking group at Montbard in the west of the department on the River Brenne near its confluence with the Armançon. The Pharmaceutical industry has shown the greatest growth in recent years. However, since the Dijon employment statistics zone includes the urban and administrative centre of the Burgundy region, the service sector is proportionately bigger there in relation to the industrial, than in the other three zones of Côte-d'Or.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Costaloriens.

Tourism

Some of the major tourist attractions are the Gothic abbey church of Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye and the Romanesque abbey church at Saulieu, as well the Château de Bussy Rabutin at Bussy-le-Grand. The Abbey of Cîteaux, headquarters of the Cistercian Order, lies to the east of Nuits-Saint-Georges in the south of the department.

See also

External links