Mayenne

For other uses, see Mayenne (disambiguation).

Mayenne
—  Department  —
Coat of arms
Location of Mayenne in France
Coordinates: 48°10′N 0°40′E
Country	France
Region	Pays de la Loire
Prefecture	Laval
Subprefectures	Château-Gontier Mayenne
Government
• President of the General Council	Jean Arthuis
Area
• Total	5,175 km2 (1,998.1 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Total	300,643
• Rank	74th
• Density	58.1/km2 (150.5/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	53
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	32
Communes	261
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Mayenne (French pronunciation: [majɛn]) is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.

History

Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine. The southern third of Mayenne corresponds to the northern portion of the old province of Anjou.

After the Coalition's victory at Waterloo, between June 1815 and November 1818, Mayenne was occupied by Prussian troops.

Geography

Mayenne is part of the current region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Mayennais. This demonym is not the source of the word mayonnaise.

Video games

The town is featured as a level in the World War II video game Call of Duty 3.

See also

• Cantons of the Mayenne department
• Communes of the Mayenne department
• Arrondissements of the Mayenne department

External links

• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General council website