France Regions Explained

France Regions have been consolidated. The former 22 administrative regions are now just 13 regions. This finalization came  January 1, 2016 to continental France and 5 overseas regions. Taking a closer look at this consolidation will help you as new guidebooks are published. You can plan your vacation within these 13 new continental regions. There are two maps below. The first map , shows the boundaries of all the French regions along with their departments. The regions in France have legal status and each one has a capital city. Regional identity is an important part of the culture of France.

Each of the France Regions is divided into departments. These did not change with the consolidation of the regions.  Each department is then divided into arrondissements. There are 100 departments across the country. When two Regions were combined, all the departments automatically moved to the newly formed Region. However, each department has been given the droit d’option. This “right to choose” allows the department to change regions at any point between 2016 and 2019. (see Le point for further information)

Size Comparison of France Regions

The total land area of continental France is 260, 558 square miles which is slightly less than twice the size of Colorado and slightly smaller than Texas. If compared to the United Kingdom, it is almost three times the size of the UK.

List of France Regions and Maps

This map gives a list of the continental Regions and their respective Departments.

© PHOTO MINISTÈRE DE L’INTÉRIEUR

This second map has the names of each of the new regions. Below, you will find these regions and departments listed. I have maintained the original region names. Some of the Regions maintained their original composition.

Below is a list of the Regions and their respective departments. Notice that I included the old regional names after the newly named Region. Regional identity is important in France. Because of this regional identity, some of the individual names of the Regions have their own hyperlink because I have a blog post for that particular region. These link to pages that give you a brief overview of those departments in the former Region.