Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast
Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. The people of the commune are known as Aiziriztar; the commune is part of the Mixe country in the French Basque Country of Lower Navarre. It is located north of Saint-Palais. Highway D29 runs north from Saint-Palais through the entire commune from south to north and passing through the town; the D529 Highway runs east from the commune to its junction with Highway D134. Highway D933 enters the commune in the southeast and runs north along the eastern side of the commune to exit in the north; the commune is located in the Drainage basin of the Adour and is watered by the Bidouze, a tributary of the Adour, it has its tributaries: the Joyeuse and the Eyherachar and Recalde streams. The commune's name in Basque is Aiziritze-Gamue-Zohazti. For Aïcirits, Jean-Baptiste Orpustan proposed the Basque etymology aitz, meaning "high" and aratze, meaning "fern patch", giving "high fern patch" or "rocky fern patch".
He indicated that Suhast may come from zuhaztoi, meaning "plantation of trees". The inhabitants of Camou are known as Gamuar and the inhabitants of Suhast are known as Zohaztiar; the following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune. Sources: Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. Ldh/EHESS/Cassini: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini database Origins: Notaries: Notaries of Labastide-Villefranche Bayonne: Cartulary of Bayonne or Livre d'Or Ohix: Navarre: Titles of the Kingdom of Navarre Biscay: Martin Biscay Pamplona: Titles of Pamplona Suhast the village of Camou-Mixe, joined Aïcirits and Camou-Mixe on 22 March 1842. List of Successive Mayors of Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast The commune is linked to the following administrative bodies: the catchment area of Saint-Palais Local Agency for Employment of Biarritz the social welfare fund of Bayonne the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bayonne Basque Country the sanitation sector of Bayonne Saint-Palais-South-West-Landes the subdivision of the Departmental Equipment management of Saint-Palais-Bidache The town depends on the district court of Bayonne, the High Court of Bayonne and the Court of Appeal of Pau.
The commune belongs to six inter-communal structures: the community of communes of Amikuze the AEP union for the Mixe country the energy union of Pyrenees-Atlantiques. Population change Sources: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast is classified by the INSEE among the communes which are predominantly rural areas in the hilly agricultural region of the Basque Country, it is part of a favoured agricultural area known as "simple". The registered office of the Lur Berri company, a large food cooperative group, is located in Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast; the town is part of the designated zone of Ossau-iraty. It hosts other companies in the agri-food sector as one of the first fifty two communes of the department: Union agricultural coop feed livestock. According to the Map of the Seven Basque Provinces published in 1863 by Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, the dialect of Basque spoken in Aicirits-Camou-Suhast is eastern low Navarrese; the village has a cave at Camou linked to the Basque legend of Txahalgorri, the young red bull.
The former Chateau of Camou. It contains collections of ancient models of machines from plans of Leonardo da Vinci; the Church of Saint Martin. Martin Landerretche, born on 26 July 1842 at Bussunarits-Sarrasquette and died on 29 January 1930 at Espelette was a bascologue, a priest, writer and a Basque French academic in the Basque language, he was the pastor at Aïcirits. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department AIZIRITZE-GAMUE-ZOHAZTI in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast on Lion1906 Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast on Google Maps Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute website Aïcirits and Suhast on the 1750 Cassini Map Aïcirits-Camou-Suhast on the INSEE website INSEE
Angous
Angous is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Angousiens or Angousiennes Angous is located some 5 km south-west of Navarrenx and 12 km north-east of Mauléon-Licharre, it can be accessed by the D2 road which runs from Navarrenx and forms the south-eastern border of the commune before continuing to Moncayolle-Larrory-Mendibieu. Access to the village is by the D69 road; the commune consists of farmland with patches of forest. Located on the watershed of the Adour, the Serrot, a tributary of the Lausset, with many tributaries flows through the commune from south-west to north-east passing near the village; the Ruisseau de Lassere with many tributaries flows from the south-west towards the northeast to the east of the village and forms part of the eastern border. The commune name in Gascon is Angós which means "marshy terrain" according to Michel Grosclaude and Brigitte Jobbé-DuvalThe following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune.
Sources: Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. Grosclaude: Toponymic Dictionary of communes, Béarn, 2006 Cassini: Cassini Map from 1750 Ldh/EHESS/Cassini: Cassini Database Origins: Census: Census of Béarn Reformation: Reformation of Béarn Insinuations: Insinuations of the Diocese of Oloron Notaries: Notaries of Navarrenx Angous: Titles of Angous. Paul Raymond noted on page 6 of the 1863 dictionary that the commune had a Lay Abbey, a vassal of the Viscount of Béarn. In 1385 there were 12 fires in Angous and it depended on the bailiwick of Navarrenx; the barony of Gabaston, a vassal of the Viscount of Béarn, was made up of Angous and Susmiou. List of Successive Mayors The commune is part of six inter-communal structures: the Community of communes of the Canton of Navarrenx. In 2009 the commune had 106 inhabitants; the evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793.
From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger towns that have a sample survey every year. Population change Sources: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 The activity is directed towards agriculture; the town is part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée zone of Ossau-iraty. The Parish Church of Saint-André is registered as an historical monument. Church Gallery The sect Tabitha's place has a property of eleven hectares in the commune. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Angous on the Community of communes of the Canton of Navarrenx website Angous on Lion1906 Angous on the 1750 Cassini Map Angous on the INSEE website INSEE
Ainharp
Ainharp is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Ainharbars. Or Ainharbear. Ainharp is located some 50 km west by southwest of Pau, 15 km southeast of Saint-Palais, 10 km north-west of Mauleon-Licharre, it is part of the former province of Soule. The commune can be accessed by road D242 from Lohitzun-Oyhercq in the west passing through the village and continuing southeast to Mauleon-Licharre; the D344 road goes to the north from the village through the commune east to Espes-Undurein. The commune terrain is undulating of mixed forest. Located in the drainage basin of the Adour, the commune is the source of numerous streams including the Lagardoye which forms part of the south-eastern border, the Quihilleri which forms much of the western border, the Lafaure which forms much of the northern border; the commune name in Basque is Ainharbe. Jean-Baptiste Orpustan proposed two etymological interpretations: a meaning of "low heather" from ilharr meaning "heather" and -be or "height of the low rocks" from gain meaning "high" and har meaning "rock" that indicates the high position of the village on the left bank of the Saison.
The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune. Sources: Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque ToponymyOrigins: Notaries: Notaries of Labastide-Villefranche Ohix:Contracts retained by Ohix, Notary of Soule Insinuations: Insinuations of the Diocese of Oloron Reformation: Reformation of Béarn Paul Raymond noted on page 4 of his 1863 dictionary that the commune was a former priory in the diocese of Oloron and that there was a hospital for pilgrims. List of Successive Mayors of Ainharp Mayors from 1929 Ainharp is a member of seven intercommunal structures: the community of communes of Soule-Xiberoa the association to support Basque culture the intercommunal association of the Valley the intercommunal association for the construction and operation of the CES of Mauleon the AEP association for Soule Country the remediation association for Soule Country the energy association of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques The activity is agricultural.
The town is part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée zone of Ossau-iraty. The commune has a church which dates back to the 11th century and a Calvary-Bell Tower from the 17th century, its cemetery features Hilarri dating from the time of the bell tower. The village is located on a secondary road of the pilgrimage to Saint Jacques de Compostela which passes on the highway to Ports de Cize, the priory of Saint-Palais to Saint-Michel-le-Vieux which had a hospice for pilgrims called Benta to L'Hôpital-Saint-Blaise, Pagolle, Haux and Ordiarp; the commune has a primary school. Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Cantons of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Arrondissements of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department AINHARBE in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia Ainharp on Lion1906 Ainharp on Google Maps Ainharp on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute website Ainharp on the 1750 Cassini Map Ainharp on the INSEE website INSEE
Ainhoa, Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Ainhoa is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Ainhoars; the commune of Ainhoa is in the traditional Basque province of Labourd. Ainhoa is some 20 km due south of Bayonne and is directly on the Spanish border which forms the southern border of the commune; the commune is mountainous and forested in the south-east portion but with farmland in the northwest of the commune. There is one border crossing to Spain on the southern border at the village of Dantxana. Ainhoa and Sare, together with the two Spanish communes of Zugarramurdi and Urdazubi, form a cross-border territory, called Xareta. Straddling the border with Spain, it is a passage for the Way of St. James from Bayonne to Pamplona; the commune's border with Spain is in the Dancharia area and accesses the area of Dantxarinea d'Urdazubi. The commune is connected to Espelette in the north-east by Highway D20 which passes through the village and continues south to the Spanish border.
Highway D305 branches continues west to join Highway D4 before Cherchebruit. A network of small country roads covers all parts of the commune. Located in the watershed of the Adour, the Nivelle river runs along the southern border and forms the border between France and Spain. Numerous streams arise in the commune and flow down to the Nivelle including the Opalazioko erreka, the Lapitxuri and its tributaries, the Larreko erreka, the Erdiko erreka, the Farendeiko erreka, the Haitzagerriko erreka, the Barretako erreka. Paul Raymond mentions the Haïçaguerry, a tributary of the Nivelle, which descended to Gorospila on the Spanish border, which crossed the territory of Ainhoue; the commune name in basque is the same - Ainhoa. Brigitte Jobbé-Duval suggested that the name could come from the Basque aino which means "goat"; the following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune. Sources: Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table.
Map: The Map of the Government-General of Guyenne and Gascony and the neighbouring region Cassini: Cassini Map from 1750 Ldh/EHESS/Cassini: Ldh/EHESS/Cassini database Lhande: Pierre Lhande, Basque-French DictionaryOrigins: Saint-Claire: Titles of the Abbey of Sainte-Claire of Bayonne Collations: Collations of the Diocese of Bayonne The ancient redoubt of Urrizti reflects the ancient past of the area. Paul Raymond noted on page 4 of his 1863 dictionary that the parish of Ainhoa was in the gift of the Abbot of Urdax; the Curacy of Ainhoa was created by the Priory of the Premonstratensian of Urdazubi in the 13th century. On 27 April 1238 the new king Theobald I of Navarre purchased the toll rights instituted by Viscount Juan Pérez de Baztan, Ainhoa being at the borders between the Duchy of Aquitaine since 1151, run by the Angevin Kings of England and the Navarrese kingdom; such tolls were charged to pilgrims and traders traveling to Santiago de Compostela on the Way of St. James in Galicia, Spain.
Military clashes between the "English run" Basques of Aquitaine and the Navarrese in 1249 led the Seigneur of Ainhoa, in 1250, to recognize the suzerainty of King Henry III of England. By 1265 Gonzalvo Juanis, Seigneur of Ainhoa known as Gonzalvo Ibáñez or Gonzalvo Yáñes, did not recognize either the English or the Navarrese; however he opened the way to conquest based on old historical claims. Garda Arnaut de Espelette, with loyalty to the "English run" Basques of the Duchy of Aquitaine, sent a letter, dated 29 July 1289 praying the Ainhoa people to adequately connive with him; the outcome of such frontier business was to set up an "undivided" land as had been done previously with the nearby Aldudes close to the Baztan valley. Documents from Estella dated September 1369, some 80 years proved that the people from Ainhoa paid taxes to both the King of Navarre and the "English" Seneschal of the Landes territory in return for their fiscal and personal privileges; when "English run" Bayonne surrendered to the French in 1451 it is not known if these "undivided status" villages on the English-Navarrese frontier were taken by the French as well.
In the Spanish Invasion of 1636 in the Labourd territories many villages, including Ainhoa, were razed. Because of the 1659 "Treaty of the Pyrénées" whereby the Spanish-born Queen regent of France Anne of Austria with the help of Cardinal Mazarin, the First Minister of France, set up an advantageous peace and obtained Maria Theresa of Spain as a wife for her son Louis XIV of France. Ainhoa was repopulated again. Disputes between the new settlers and the old residents concerning the use of communal lands for cattle grazing and fodder and the access by newcomers to town hall positions, church grants, etc. had to be settled by the autonomous Parliament of Bordeaux in the sense of paying for access to village privileges. Ainhoa was destroyed during the Thirty Years War and rebuilt; the only remains from before the destruction are the Machitorénéa House. In 1724, following the revolts in Saint-Jean-le-Vieux Mouguerre and Saint-Pierre-d'Irube, the people of Ainhoa revolted against the salt tax and against other new taxes.
This was a prelude to the uprisings in all of Labourd in 1726 against the said taxes. Bayonne and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port followed in 1748; the Law of 4 March 1790 determined a new administrative landscape of France by creating departments and districts. This resulted in the creation of the department of Basses-Pyrénées and reuniting the Béarn, the
Aldudes
Aldudes is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. It is located in the former province of Lower Navarre; the inhabitants of the commune are known as Aldulaises. The village Aldudes is part of Le Pays Quint; the commune is an area of pasture belonging to cultivated by French farmers. It is located in the Aldudes valley on the banks of the Nive des Aldudes in the Basque province of Lower Navarre, it is on the Spanish border some 20 km southwest of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port although it can not be directly accessed from there. Access is by the D948 road from Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry in the north, which passes through the village continues south to Urepel; the D58 road goes from the village through the length of the commune before continuing to Spain through Urepel commune. The Spanish border of Navarre forms the northeastern borders of the commune. Located in the watershed of the Adour, Aldudes is traversed by the Nive d'Aldudes with its many tributaries, such as the Urbeltch Labiaringo erreka, the Aktieltako erreka, numerous unnamed streams.
Paul Raymond mentioned a stream which rises in Aldudes and joins the Nive des Aldudes. The name of the commune in Basque is Aldude. Aldudes was the name given to the entire valley bordering the Baigorry Valley and the Spanish border. Jean-Baptiste Orpustan proposes the construction ald-uhide meaning "the path beside the water". According to Ernest Nègre however, the name Aldudes is a contraction of the basque Aldubide meaning "way to the summits" from the root aldu meaning "heights" and bide meaning "way"; the romanisation into Aldudes is a plural. The following table details the origins of the commune name and other names in the commune. Sources: Orpustan: Jean-Baptiste Orpustan, New Basque Toponymy Mérimée: Ministry of Culture Mérimée database: Presentation of the Commune), Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. Origins: Camara: Titles of Camara de Comptos The commune originated in the 16th century when young noblemen of the Baigory family founded the village which, by the ancient Basque succession rule, reserved the legacy of the family house to the eldest child.
The parish was established in 1793. List of Successive Mayors The commune of Aldudes participates in five intercommunal organisations: the community of communes of Garazi-Baigorri the intercommunal association for the development and management of the slaughterhouse of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port the joint association of the watershed of the Nive the association to support Basque culture the energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques A fish farm is active on the road to Urepel. Basque pig breeding is an activity in full revival in the Aldudes valley, under the leadership of the Technical Institute of Pork; the commune hosts the Ets Pierre Oteiza company, one of the fifty top agribusinesses in the department. It is part of the Appellation d'origine contrôlée zone of Ossau-iraty. According to the Map of the Seven Basque Provinces, published in 1863 by Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, the dialect of Basque spoken in Aldudes is western Lower Navarrese dialect. In 1952 the square in front of the church and the town hall was converted into a playing field for "laxoa".
This ancient game of basque pelote is played with leather gloves. At the entrance porch of the church is the target for the game; the commune contains a number of sites that are registered as historical monuments: Houses and Farms The Menementa Farm The Iguxkagerrea Farm The Joalginenborda Farm Other sites of interestCromlechs: There are three Harrespils on the Argibel site. These are great circles of stone or "menhirs" for funerary purposes, dated from the 1st millennium BC; the Harrespil are notable due to their number and their witness to knowledge of ancient burial rites. The commune has two religious sites that are registered as historical monuments: The'Chapel of the Assumption at a place called Eznazu has been listed on the Inventory of cultural heritage since 21 March 2003, it contains a Statues which are registered as historical objects. The Parish Church of Notre-Dame has a rosary. Other religious sites of interestSome Hilarri in the cemetery are from the 19th century - two from 1805.
Palombière is the property of the association of the Baigorry Valley. This hunt at 500 metres above sea level was created in 1840 by the mayor of the town, Charles Schmarsow. Reorganized in 1880, it passed into the hands of the Ospital family who still lead the hunt; the five Filetiers use five pantières or special nets and ten beaters to direct the pigeons to the nets. The commune has a private primary school. Georges Lacombe, born 31 January 1879 in Orthez and died July 1947 in Paris, was a linguist and Basque French academic. On the eve of the First World War he prepared, with the help of Dr. Jean Etchepare, a doctorate in Letters on the Aldudes dialect. Bernard Delhom, born in 1885 in Aldudes, was the oldest man in France from 30 December 1995 to 7 February 1996 when he died in Paris at the age of 110 years and 213 days Jean-Baptiste Urrutia, born in 1901 at Aldudes and died in Montbeton, was a missionary in Indochina and Bishop of Huế during the Indochina War and the Vietnam War Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Cantons of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Arrondissements of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Aldude in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi En
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the largest administrative region in France, located in the southwest of the country. The region was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 through the merger of three regions: Aquitaine and Poitou-Charentes, it covers 84,061 km2 – or 1⁄8 of the country – and has 5,800,000 inhabitants.. The new region was established on 1 January 2016, following the regional elections in December 2015, it is the largest region in France by area, with a territory larger than that of Austria. Its largest city, together with its suburbs and satellite cities, forms the 7th-largest metropolitan area of France, with 850,000 inhabitants; the region has 25 major urban areas, among which the most important after Bordeaux are Bayonne, Poitiers, La Rochelle, as well as 11 major clusters. The growth of its population marked on the coast, makes this one of the most attractive areas economically in France. After Île-de-France, New Aquitaine is the premier French region in research and innovation, with five universities and several Grandes Ecoles.
The agricultural region of Europe with the greatest turnover, it is the French region with the most tourism jobs, as it has three of the four historic resorts on the French Atlantic coast:, as well as several ski resorts, is the fifth French region for business creation. Its economy is based on agriculture and viticulture, tourism, a powerful aerospace industry, digital economy and design and pharmaceutical industries, financial sector, industrial ceramics. Many companies specializing in surfing and related sports have located along the coast; the new region includes major parts of Southern France, marked by Basque, Oïl cultures. It is the "indirect successor" to medieval Aquitaine, extends over a large part of the former Duchy of Eleanor of Aquitaine; the region's interim name Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes was a hyphenated placename, known as ALPC, created by hyphenating the merged regions' names – Aquitaine and Poitou-Charentes – in alphabetical order. In June 2016, a working group headed by historian Anne-Marie Cocula, a former vice president of Aquitaine, proposed the name "Nouvelle Aquitaine".
The decision came after the popular favorite, "Aquitaine", faced resistance by regional politicians from Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. The other popular favorite, "Grande Aquitaine," was rejected for its connotation with a feeling of superiority. Alain Rousset, president of the region, concurred with the working group's conclusion, reaffirming that he considered the acronym "ALPC" no choice at all. For those deploring the loss of "Limousin" and "Poitou-Charentes", he noted that the predecessor region of Aquitaine subsumed the identities of the Périgord or the Pays Basque, which did not disappear during its 40 years of operation. On 27 June 2016, just a few days ahead of the 1 July deadline, the Regional council unanimously adopted Nouvelle-Aquitaine as the region's permanent name. France's Conseil d'État approved Nouvelle-Aquitaine as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, effective two days later. For the recent history of each former administrative regions and departments before 2016, For the history of past entities covering much of the area of the region before the French revolution, At 84,061 square kilometers, the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine is larger than French Guiana, which makes it the largest region in France.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine is delimited by four other French regions, three autonomous communities in Spain to the south, the North Atlantic Ocean to the west. Nouvelle-Aquitaine comprises twelve departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Corrèze, Dordogne, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Deux-Sèvres and Haute-Vienne, its largest city and only metropolis is Bordeaux, in the heart of an urban agglomeration of nearly one million inhabitants. Taking into consideration the urban area, the new region is home to six of the fifty largest metropolitan areas of French territory: Bordeaux Bayonne Limoges Poitiers Pau La Rochelle. In addition, the region has a network of medium towns scattered throughout its territory, including: Angoulême Agen Brive-la-Gaillarde Niort Périgueux Bergerac Villeneuve-sur-Lot Dax Mont-de-Marsan The region covers a large part of the Aquitaine Basin and a small portion of the Paris Basin and the Limousin plate and the western part of the Pyrenees, it is part of five watersheds facing the Atlantic Ocean: Loire, Charente and Dordogne (and their extension, the
