Auvergne (region)

This article is about the French administrative région of Auvergne. For the historical county and province of Auvergne, see Auvergne (province).

Auvergne
—  Region of France  —
Flag Logo
Country	France
Prefecture	Clermont-Ferrand
Departments	4 Allier Cantal Haute-Loire Puy-de-Dôme
Government
• President	René Souchon (PS)
Area
• Total	26,013 km2 (10,044 sq mi)
Population (2008-01-01)
• Total	1,341,000
• Density	52/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
GDP/ Nominal	€ 32 billion (2006)
GDP per capita	€ 23,800 (2006)
NUTS Region	FR7
Website	auvergne.org

Auvergne (French pronunciation: [ovɛʁɲ]; Occitan: Auvèrnhe / Auvèrnha) is one of the 27 administrative regions of France. It comprises the 4 departments of Allier, Puy de Dome, Cantal and Haute Loire.

The current administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not part of Auvergne. The Auvergne region is composed of the following old provinces:

• Auvergne: departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, north-west of Haute-Loire, and extreme south of Allier. The province of Auvergne is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region.
• Bourbonnais: department of Allier. A small part of Bourbonnais is also contained inside the Centre region (south of the department of Cher).
• Velay: center and southeast of department of Haute-Loire. Velay is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region.
• a small part of Gévaudan: extreme southwest of Haute-Loire. Gévaudan is essentially inside the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
• a small part of Vivarais: extreme southeast of Haute-Loire. Vivarais is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region.
• a small part of Forez: extreme northeast of Haute-Loire. Forez is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region.

Velay, Gévaudan, and Vivarais are often considered to be sub-provinces of the old Languedoc province. Forez is also often considered to be a sub-province of Lyonnais province. Therefore, the modern region of Auvergne is composed of the provinces of Auvergne, major part of Bourbonnais, and parts of Languedoc and Lyonnais.

The 2002 award-winning film, To Be and to Have (Être et avoir), documents one year in the life of a one-teacher school in rural Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne.

The region contains many volcanoes, although the last confirmed eruption was around 6,000 years ago. They began forming some 70,000 years ago, and most have eroded away leaving plugs of unerupted hardened magma that form rounded hilltops known as puys.

Geography

In the region surrounding Clermont-Ferrand, the highest mountain is 1,885m (6,180 ft). From north to south, with a small ascent around the Plateau de Millevaches (978m/3,200 ft) the terrain becomes flatter and rockier. The Auvergne is 25 per cent woodland, 45 per cent grassland, 20 per cent arable land and 10 per cent other uses (including urban areas).

Climate

The average annual temperature is 12 degrees C (53 degrees F), and the region receives 510 to 1,020 mm (20 to 40 in) of rainfall annually.

Demographics

Auvergne is one of the least populated regions in Europe, let alone France. The département of Cantal would be almost completely depopulated if it weren't for the town of Aurillac. Major communities in the region include the capital Clermont-Ferrand, Montluçon, Aurillac and Vichy.

Major communities

The "Chaîne des Puys" in Puy-de-Dôme

• Aurillac
• Chamalières
• Clermont-Ferrand
• Cournon-d'Auvergne
• Issoire
• Le Puy-en-Velay
• Montluçon
• Moulins, Allier
• Riom
• Vichy

Economy

The region is predominantly agricultural with tourism slowly becoming more important. Cows are much in evidence and are used both for meat and for milk, which is made into a number of well known cheeses: Bleu d'Auvergne, Cantal, Fourme d'Ambert and Saint-Nectaire.

Despite its small local market, the Auvergne region has developed many national and international champions, such as Michelin, Limagrain (seed), the group Centre France-La Montagne (regional daily press), Volvic mineral water (group Danone) and numerous dynamic SMEs around the two universities and large schools (engineers, doctors and business school) of its capital, Clermont-Ferrand.

Most of these champions are exporting more than 75% of their production in the world.

Auvergne is a region relatively industrial, since the share of industry in the working population is 22% (110,000 jobs), against 18% national average.

The main industry Auvergne is the tire industry, represented by Michelin, with headquarters and history is located in Clermont-Ferrand, and Dunlop, based in Montlucon.

A diverse fabric of small industries: metallurgical (Aubert and Duval), mechanical, pharmaceutical (Merck-Chibret), food (cereals, meat (Salers, Limousin), cheese (Saint-Nectaire, goat, blue d'Auvergne), mineral , etc..) exists in the region, particularly in the Puy-de-Dôme and the Haute-Loire.

These include the Thiers cutlery, metal Issoire, lace in Le Puy and livestock as well as food in the Cantal.

The Auvergne is also one of the premier research in France with 8000 + of researchers in the fields of chemistry, tire, steel, medical and pharmaceutical sciences in agricultural research (INRA's laboratories and Limagrain's laboratories), in biotechnology, seismology, meteorology ...

The food, with its branches mineral water, dairy products, meat products, forestry, honey, jams and candied fruit ... over 12,000 employees.

External links

• Auvergne regional council website (French)
• Auvergne at the Open Directory Project (English)
• Auvergne Web Tourist and general information about the Auvergne region. (English) and (French)
• Regordane Info Independent portal for the Regordane Way or St Gilles Trail. The Regordane Way starts in Auvergne (English) and (French)
• Auvergne-tourism (French)