Gers
The Gers is a department in the Occitanie region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River. Inhabitants are called les Gersois. In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby; the Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Gascony. In 1808 it lost Lavit on its north-eastern side to the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne; the culture is agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as: Armagnac brandy, Côtes de Gascogne, Floc de Gascogne, Foie gras, wild mushrooms. Some prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza and grain; the Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not spoken. The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south. Alexandre Dumas, père created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac.
A horse race at the Auteuil Hippodrome has been named after André Boingnères, a notable local race-horse owner and the successful mayor of Termes-d'Armagnac between 1951 and 1976. The President of the General Council is Philippe Martin of the Socialist Party. Located in southwestern France, the Gers is part of the Occitanie region, it is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne and Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Gers is referred to as amongst the least densely populated, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe. List of the 10 most important cities of the département: The annual rain varies from more than 900 mm in the south-west of the department, to less than 700 mm in the North-East; the winters vary, with only occasional freezing temperatures. The amount of sunshine is about 1950 hours/years; the summers are dry. Auch is, together with Toulouse, Nîmes, Ajaccio, Marseille and Perpignan, one of the hottest cities in France. According to recent data tourism represents annually: 610 000 tourists, 5.900.000 nights, 22.100 commercial beds, 2 400 paid employment related to tourism, the tourist represent an equivalent of 17.100 permanent inhabitants, their estimated expenditure is 141.000.000 €.
Cantons of the Gers department Communes of the Gers department Arrondissements of the Gers department General Council website Prefecture website Welcome to the Gers in Gascony http://www.tourisme-gers.com
Armous-et-Cau
Armous-et-Cau is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Communes of the Gers department INSEE
Augnax
Augnax is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Communes of the Gers department INSEE
Auch
Auch is a commune in southwestern France. Located in the region of Occitanie, it is the capital of the Gers department. Auch is the historical capital of Gascony; the River Gers flows through the town. Auch is well connected to nearby cities and towns such as Agen and Tarbes by Routes Nationales. Auch is a ancient town, whose settlement was noted by the Romans during their conquest of the area in the 50s BC. At that time, it was settled by an Aquitanian tribe known to the Romans as the Ausci, their name for the town was Elimberris. This has been tentatively etymologized from the Iberian iltir and a cognate of the Basque berri, although another Iberian settlement in Granada recorded by the Romans as "Iliberi" had no contact with proto-Basque speaking peoples. Following their conquest, the Romans renamed the town Augusta Ausciorum. Augusta Auscorum was one of the twelve civitates of the province of Novempopulana and became the provincial capital after the 409 destruction of Eauze by the Vandals; the common term Augusta was dropped and the name evolved into the modern Gascon Aush and French Auch.
The town became the seat of a Catholic archdiocese. Its archbishops claimed the title of Primate of Aquitaine and Navarre. Auch is known for its Renaissance Cathédrale Sainte-Marie with its magnificent organ, carved stalls and rose stained-glass windows, La Tour d'Armagnac – a 14th-century prison, as well as a statue of d'Artagnan, based on the real life person, Charles de Batz, Comte d'Artagnan born nearby in the château de Castelmore, written about by Alexandre Dumas. Auch was the birthplace of: Jacques Fouroux, rugby union player Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse, admiral Dominic Serres, painter Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange and prominent Neo-Thomist theologian Auch is a location mentioned in the M. R. James short ghost story Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book published in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904. Gascony Show – English language radio in Auch Communes of the Gers department INSEE Official website Unofficial website about Auch
Avensac
Avensac is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Communes of the Gers department INSEE
Aux-Aussat
Aux-Aussat is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Communes of the Gers department INSEE
Bajonnette
Bajonnette is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Saint-Orens church Communes of the Gers department INSEE
