Pyrénées-Atlantiques

Pyrénées-Atlantiques
—  Department  —

Coat of arms
Location of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in France
Coordinates:
Country France
Region Aquitaine
Prefecture Pau
Subprefectures Bayonne
Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Government
 - President of the General Council Jean-Jacques Lasserre
Area1
 - Total 7,645 km2 (2,951.8 sq mi)
Population (2007)
 - Total 643,090
 - Rank 37th
 - Density 84.1/km2 (217.9/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Department number 64
Arrondissements 3
Cantons 52
Communes 547
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Gascon: Pirenèus-Atlantics; Basque: Pirinio-Atlantiarrak or Pirinio-Atlantikoak) is a department in the southwest of France which takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.

Contents

History

Basses-Pyrénées is one of the original 83 departments of France created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne, Béarn, and Gascony and included the three traditional provinces of the northern Basque Country: Labourd, Soule and Basse-Navarre. It also included two tiny exclaves of Bigorre which were located within Béarn.

The previous history of the region, under the Ancien Régime, can be found at those individual articles.

On October 10, 1969, Basses-Pyrénées was renamed Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Geography

Pyrénées-Atlantiques is part of the Aquitaine region of Southwest France. It is bordered by the Landes, Hautes-Pyrénées , Gers departments and the Bay of Biscay (mar Cantabrico in spanish) .

Principal settlements include Pau, Biarritz, Bayonne, Anglet, Urrugne and Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

Lac Gentau is located here.

Economy

Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a border province, has cultivated a number of economic and cultural links with Spain.

Two urban concentrations exist in the east and west of the département: Pau, which has 145,000 inhabitants, and 344,000 workers in the local area; and Bayonne - Anglet - Biarritz which has 166,400 inhabitants and 235 000 workers in the local area

Culture

The parts of the department that were part of Guyenne and Béarn have a culture heavily influenced by the Basques.

Both the Gascon language and the Basque language are indigenous to the region here. Gascon is an Occitan language that is more closely related to Catalan than it is to French. Basque is a language isolate. However, French, the official language of the French Republic, is today the native language of the majority and is spoken by virtually all inhabitants.

See also

External links