Wikipedia:WikiProject France/Departments article structure

This page is adapted from Wikiproject Franch departments in the process of a merger. Its purpose is to retain the guidelines developed by the project for articles on French departments.

Finding information about the departments

Population: document in French: 1999 census, including population of regions, departments and cities of more 100,000 inhabitants. Caution: "Aires urbaines de plus de 50,000 habitants" doesn't give the population of the cities, but the population of the "urban area", the city and its surroundings. 1999 French census

For more information: the "Conseil General" of the departments (their governing body) have harmonized the URLs of their websites. For instance, the URL of the Puy-de-Dôme Conseil General is: http://www.cg63.fr (note that 63 is the department number).

Valuable information can also be found at: http://splaf.free.fr (in French)

Structure

The article should start with a good introduction, giving name of the department, location in France (south, north..., region), bordering sea, rivers, mountains and the like. Also, add a few facts about the department, the things that it is known for, if applicable.

Next, there is a table with quick facts about the department. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page. The contents are as follows:

• The prefecture (capital)
• The sous-prefectures
• Land area: The area of the department in km² (and sq miles), in that order.
• Inhabitants: The number of inhabitants; also include a year for this estimate.
• Population density: The number of inhabitants per km² and sq mile (please use the numbers used in the two previous entries).

The rest of the article should consists of a few short paragraphs. These paragraphs should give an outline of the history/politics/etc. of the department and, if necessary, a link to a full article on them.

Department name

Region	abcd
Number	xx
Préfecture	Xxxxx
Sous-préfectures	Xxxxx
Area  - Total  - % water	xx,xxx km² xx%
Population  - Total (Year)  - Density	xxx,xxx xxx/km²

History

Main article: History of _ (If applicable)

Geography

Main article: Geography of _ (If applicable)

Main cities (other than prefecture and sub-prefectures)

Link: List of the communes of the department (The list can be found at Fr.Pedia. See the discussion about it above)

Economy

Main article: Economy of _ (If applicable)

Culture

Main article: Culture of _ (If applicable)

Includes:

• Languages spoken
• Touristic highlights, touristic cities.