Gâtinais (pronounced [ɡɑtinɛ]) or Gâtine (pronounced [ɡɑtin] ) was a province of France, containing the area around the valley of the Loing, corresponding roughly to the northeastern part of the département of Loiret, and the south of the present department of Seine-et-Marne. Under the Bourbons, the Gâtinais had already been divided between the provinces of Île-de-France and Orléans. In the words of the modern tourist slogan for the "two Gâtinais", it lies between the Seine and the Loire.
Under the Franks, Gâtinais was the pagus Wastinensis (eventually to become Wasteney in the 20th century), (or Vastinensis) one of five belonging to the Archbishop of Sens. The west part of Puisaye and the archbishop's other fiefs in the northwest of the modern department of Yonne, west of that river, are also often considered part of Gâtinais; as is the area around Étampes in the present department of Essonne. Around the 10th century, the main town of this province was Château-Landon, and a twenty-five-mile circle around Notre-Dame de Château-Landon basically comprised it.
