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Pays de la Loire (French pronunciation: ; Breton: Broioù al Liger) is one of the 27 regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the late 20th century to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)¹. Other examples of "artificially created" regions include Rhône-Alpes, which was created as the region for Lyon, and Midi-Pyrénées, which was created as the region for Toulouse.
Pays de la Loire is made up of the following historical provinces:
Thus the name of the region, chosen by the French central government, was not based on history, but purely on geographical references: Pays (i.e., "lands") de la Loire (i.e. "of the Loire River"). The majority of the famous châteaux of the Loire Valley are located in the Centre region, and not inside Pays de la Loire, despite the apparent reference to the river in the name.
The Pays de la Loire has numerous prominent monuments, such as the castles of Angers, Laval, and Mayenne, and the Nantes Château des Ducs de Bretagne, the Royal Fontevraud Abbey (the widest monastic ensemble in Europe), and the old city of Le Mans. In addition, it also has many natural parks such as the Brière and the Marsh of Poitou.
Evolution of the population listed by departments:
An increase in the population was seen particularly as people migrated from all over France to the Loire region due to the rise of Nantes to prominence.
The biggest city in Pays de la Loire is Nantes, which is the sixth most populated city in France with over 290,000 people (city proper) and a metropolitan population of almost 900,000.
Angers is another metropolis of the region. It has a metropolitan population of about 400,000 and is the third biggest job provider in north-western France, just behind Nantes and Rennes.
Le Mans is another city in Pays de la Loire. Situaded in north-east Pays de la Loire, Le Mans is home to over 300,000 (metropolitan population).
¹ In the 1960s, eight large regional cities of France (Lille, Nancy, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse) were made "balancing metropolises", receiving special financial and technical help from the French government in order to counterbalance the excessive weight of Paris inside France.
Lyon, Pays de la Loire, Brittany, Loire-Atlantique, Paris
United Kingdom, European Union, Italy, Canada, Spain
Socialist Party (France), Occitan language, Rhône-Alpes, Corsica, Île-de-France
Departments of France, France, Paris, Regions of France, Le Mans
Île-de-France, Réunion, Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Nantes, Rennes, Loire-Atlantique, Vannes, Saint-Malo
Rhône-Alpes, Midi-Pyrénées, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Corsica, Aquitaine