Loire (French pronunciation: [lwaʁ]; Franco-Provençal: Lêre; Occitan: Léger) is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.
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Loire was created in 1793 when the original department of Rhône-et-Loire was split.
Its capitals have been the following:
Loire is part of the current administrative region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Rhône, Isère, Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, and Saône-et-Loire.
The River Loire traverses the department from south to north.
The Loire department is split into three arrondissements:
The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens.
The industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the area's 728,542 inhabitants.
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