Dordogne

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Dordogne

The Dordogne coat of arms
Location

Administration
Département number:	24
Région:	Aquitaine
Préfecture:	Périgueux
Sub-Préfectures:	Bergerac Nontron Sarlat-la-Canéda
Arrondissements:	4
Cantons:	50
Communes:	557
Conseiller Général:	Bernard Cazeau
Statistics
Population	Ranked 58th
-1999	388,293
Population density:	43/km²
Land area¹:	9060 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Dordogne (Occitan: Dordonha) is a département in central France named after the Dordogne River.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Tourism
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Dordogne was one of the original 83 départements created during the French Revolution in 1790, on March 4. It was created from the former province of Périgord.

[edit] Geography

The département is part of the région of Aquitaine and is surrounded by the départements of Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, Charente-Maritime, and Charente. It is the third largest département of France.

[edit] Demographics

The inhabitants of the département are called Périgordiens or Périgourdins.

As Dordogne has become one of the favourite destinations of British immigration to France, Dordogne is now sometimes called "Dordogneshire" as a joke, especially since the British have there little town, called Eymet.

[edit] Tourism

There are more than 1,000 castles in Dordogne, including the following:

The famous caves of Lascaux are a major tourist attraction. Périgueux has important Roman ruins, including an arena which is still visible inside a public park located near the town center.