Wikipedia:WikiProject France/Departments article structure

This page is adapted from Wikiproject Franch departments in the process of a merger. Its purpose is to retain the guidelines developed by the project for articles on French departments.

Finding information about the departments
Population: document in French: 1999 census, including population of regions, departments and cities of more 100,000 inhabitants. Caution: "Aires urbaines de plus de 50,000 habitants" doesn't give the population of the cities, but the population of the "urban area", the city and its surroundings. 1999 French census

For more information: the "Conseil General" of the departments (their governing body) have harmonized the URLs of their websites. For instance, the URL of the Puy-de-Dôme Conseil General is: http://www.cg63.fr (note that 63 is the department number).

Valuable information can also be found at: http://splaf.free.fr (in French)

Structure
The article should start with a good introduction, giving name of the department, location in France (south, north..., region), bordering sea, rivers, mountains and the like. Also, add a few facts about the department, the things that it is known for, if applicable.

Next, there is a table with quick facts about the department. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page. The contents are as follows:


 * The prefecture (capital)
 * The sous-prefectures
 * Land area: The area of the department in km2 (and sq miles), in that order.
 * Inhabitants: The number of inhabitants; also include a year for this estimate.
 * Population density: The number of inhabitants per km2 and sq mile (please use the numbers used in the two previous entries).

The rest of the article should consists of a few short paragraphs. These paragraphs should give an outline of the history/politics/etc. of the department and, if necessary, a link to a full article on them.

History
Main article: History of _ (If applicable)

Geography
Main article: Geography of _ (If applicable)

Main cities (other than prefecture and sub-prefectures)

Link: List of the communes of the department (The list can be found at Fr.Pedia. See the discussion about it above)

Economy
Main article: Economy of _ (If applicable)

Culture
Main article: Culture of _ (If applicable)

Includes:
 * Languages spoken
 * Touristic highlights, touristic cities.