Loiret in the context of "Orléans Métropole"

Orléans (US: /ˌɔːrleɪˈɒ̃, ˌɔːrliˈɑːn, ɔːrˈleɪənz/; French: [ɔʁleɑ̃] ) is a city in north-central France, about 120 kilometres (74 miles) southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the department of Loiret and of the region of Centre-Val de Loire.

Orléans is located on the river Loire nestled in the heart of the Loire Valley, a region classified as a World Heritage Site where the river curves south towards the Massif Central. In 2020, the city had 117,026 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries. Orléans is the center of Orléans Métropole that has a population of 290,346. The larger metropolitan area has a population of 454,208, the 20th largest in France.

Centre-Val de Loire (/ˌvæl də ˈlwɑːr, ˌvɑːl-/; French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ(ə) val də lwaʁ], lit. 'Centre-Loire Valley'), or simply Centre as it was known until 2015, is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior of the country, encompassing six departments (Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher and Loiret), with a population of 2,572,853 as of 2018. Its prefecture is Orléans, and its largest city is Tours.

Nièvre (French: [njɛvʁ] ) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019. Its prefecture is Nevers.

Covering an area 6,817 square kilometres (2,632 sq mi), Nièvre is landlocked between six other departments: Yonne to the north, Côte-d'Or to the east, Saône-et-Loire to the southeast, Allier to the south, Cher to the west and Loiret to the northwest.

The Essonne (French pronunciation: [ɛsɔn] ) is a 101-kilometre (63 mi) long French river. It is a left tributary of the Seine. Its course crosses the departments of Loiret and Essonne, and it gives its name to the latter. The Essone's name and the present name of its higher course (the Œuf) originate in Acionna, a Gallo-Roman river goddess attested at Orléans (Genabum).

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.