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Gers

About 2 pages (577 words)

Gers

Coat of arms of the Gers department
Location

Administration
Department number:	32
Region:	Midi-Pyrénées
Prefecture:	Auch
Subprefectures:	Condom Mirande
Arrondissements:	3
Cantons:	31
Communes:	463
President of the General Council:	Philippe Martin PS
Statistics
Population	Ranked 89th
-1999	172,335
Population density:	28/km²
Land area¹:	6257 km²

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

The Gers (French: le Gers, Occitan: Gers) is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.

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

History

In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby. The Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony.

Geography

Located in southwestern France, the Gers is part of the Midi-Pyrénées region. It is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Gers is often referred to as amongst the least densely populated, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called les Gersois.

Culture

The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as foie gras, Armagnac brandy and wild mushrooms. The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken. There has been a heavy influence of waves of both British and Spanish immigrants.