Centre - Val de Loire

Historically, the Centre Region included the three provinces: Orleans ( now Loiret, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher), Berry (Cher and Indre) and Touraine (Indre-et-Loire). These identities and their traditions still remain in the hearts and minds of the local people - despite government reorganisation. This is highlighted in the way they promote their tourism (sometimes confusingly) using both the old traditional areas and the new departments. The Region Centre which has adopted the 'Val de Loire' tag to promote its tourism had in fact wanted to have it officially recognised as its name, unfortunately to do this, by law, it was first necessary to get the approval of its own departments and that of all the other Regions. Not surprisingly the region of 'Pays de la Loire' took exception to this, believing that it would  diminish their marketing efforts and anyway the 'Loire' tag belonged to them!

The Ministry for the Interior agreed, so the procedure was aborted.

The mistake had, in fact, been made at the assignation of names for the newly formed Regions as with the river Loire flowing through four of its departments, Centre, as opposed to Pays de la Loire (with only two) had the stronger claim to have it included in its name. So an early marketing opportunity was lost. Now by adopting the name they are making it easier for their potential visitors to associate the region with its most envied attractions the Châteaux de la Loire.

The region within France

 The Departments

 Centre region in France is made up of six  Departments: 

Cher [18],                                                                                                          Eure-et-Loir [28],                                                                                      Indre [36],                                                                                                           Indre-et-Loire [37],                                                                                   Loir-et-Cher [41]                                                                                    Loiret [45].

The region has much to offer the discerning  tourist and where perhaps it is the Departments  of 37, 41 & 45 that have the more well known attractions (they contain a major part of the Unesco World Heritage site) they all have much to offer.

Orleans in Loiret is the administrative capital of the Region though it could be argued that  Tours , its largest city,                    in Indre-et-Loire might be considered its cultural capital.

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