Haute-Garonne

Haute-Garonne
Department
Prefecture building of the Haute-Garonne department, in Toulouse
Coat of arms
Location of Haute-Garonne in France
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Prefecture	Toulouse
Subprefectures	Saint-Gaudens Muret
Government
• President of the General Council	Georges Meric
Area 1
• Total	6,309 km2 (2,436 sq mi)
Population  (2013)
• Total	1,298,562
• Rank	13th
• Density	210/km2 (530/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	31
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	27
Communes	589
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Haute-Garonne (French pronunciation: [ot ɡaʁɔn]; Occitan: Nauta Garona; English: Upper Garonne) is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city and capital is Toulouse.

History

Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.

The department was originally larger. The reduction in its area resulted from an imperial decree dated 21 November 1808 and which established the neighbouring department of Tarn-et-Garonne, to the north. The new department, created in response to the pleadings of various locally powerful politicians, took territory from five surrounding departments including Haute-Garonne. The districts lost to Tarn-et-Garonne in 1808 were those of Montech and Castelsarrasin.

Geography

Haute-Garonne is part of the current region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Aude, and Ariège. It also borders Spain in the south (province of Lleida and province of Huesca).

The department is crossed by the upper course of the Garonne River (hence the name) for nearly 200 kilometers (120 mi). The borders of the department follow the river. The Garonne enters France from Spain at the town of Fos, and goes through Toulouse and leaves the department. The extreme south of the department lies in the Pyrenees mountain range and is very mountainous. The highest elevation is the Peak of Perdiguère, at 3,222 meters (10,571 feet) above sea level.

Politics

This department was the political base of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

The President of the General Council is Pierre Izard of the Socialist Party.

Party		seats
style="background-color: Template:Socialist Party (France)/meta/color" |•	Socialist Party	43
style="background-color: Template:Union for a Popular Movement/meta/color" |	Union for a Popular Movement	3
style="background-color: Template:Miscellaneous Right/meta/color" |	Miscellaneous Right	3
style="background-color: Template:Miscellaneous Left/meta/color" |•	Miscellaneous Left	2
style="background-color: Template:Left Radical Party/meta/color" |•	Left Radical Party	1
style="background-color: Template:French Communist Party/meta/color" |•	French Communist Party	1

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Haut-Garonnais. The greatest population concentration is around Toulouse. The south of the department is quite sparsely populated. More than a million people inhabited the department at the last census in 1999. Young people are well represented with 55% of the population under the age of 40 and of those, 16% are between the ages of 20 and 29. This is because Toulouse is a university town.

The largest towns are:

Commune	Population (1999)	Commune	Population (1999)
Toulouse	390,350	Colomiers	28,538
Tournefeuille	22,758	Muret	20,735
Blagnac	20,586	Plaisance-du-Touch	14,164
Cugnaux	12,997	L'Union	12,141
Balma	11,944	Ramonville-Saint-Agne	11,696
Saint-Orens-de-Gameville	11,142	Saint-Gaudens	10,845
Castanet-Tolosan	10,250	Portet-sur-Garonne	8,737
Saint-Jean	8,362	Villeneuve-Tolosane	8,252
Revel	7,985	Castelginest	7,735
Pibrac	7,440	Fonsorbes	6,909

Tourism

• 
  Capitole de Toulouse at night
• 
  Château de Laréole
• 
  Pyrenees seen from Bagnères-de-Luchon
• 
  Lac d'Oô
• 
  Cité de l'espace

Winter Sports

The department has four ski resorts.

• Peyragudes (1600 m -2450 m), 55 km of slopes
• Luchon-Superbagnères (1440 m - 2260 m), 30 km of slopes
• Le Mourtis (1380 m - 1816 m), 22 km of slopes
• Bourg-d'Oueil (1350 m - 1500 m)

See also

• Cantons of the Haute-Garonne department
• Communes of the Haute-Garonne department
• Arrondissements of the Haute-Garonne department

External links

• Template:Fr icon General council website
• Template:Fr icon Prefecture website
• Template:Fr icon Tourism website
• Template:Fr icon Photography Panoramics 360° website