Charente
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Charente | |
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| Coat of arms of the Charente department | |
| Location | |
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| Administration | |
| Department number: | 16 |
| Region: | Poitou-Charentes |
| Prefecture: | Angoulême |
| Subprefectures: | Cognac Confolens |
| Arrondissements: | 3 |
| Cantons: | 35 |
| Communes: | 404 |
| President of the General Council: | Michel Boutant PS |
| Statistics | |
| Population | Ranked 66th |
| -1999 | 339,628 |
| Population density: | 57/km² |
| Land area¹: | 5956 km² |
| ¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km². | |
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Charente (Saintongeais: Chérente, Occitan: T'Charanto) is a department in western France named after the Charente River.
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[edit] History
Charente is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Angoumois, west and south of Saintonge.
[edit] Geography
The department is part of the current region of Poitou-Charentes. It is surrounded by the departments of Vienne, Haute-Vienne, Dordogne, Gironde, Charente-Maritime, and Deux-Sèvres. It contains part of the geographical regions of Poitou and Limousin.
[edit] Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called Charentais.
[edit] Economy
Cognac and pineau are two of the major agricultural products. They also produce excellent butter. But the Charentaise slipper is the 2nd most well-known product (after cognac).
[edit] See also
- Cantons of the Charente department
- Communes of the Charente department
- Arrondissements of the Charente department
[edit] External links
- (French) Prefecture website
- (French) General Council website
- (English) Official Charente Tourist Board
