Prefectures in France

Marseille (French: Marseille; Provençal Occitan: Marselha; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the second-most populous city in France, after Paris, with 877,215 inhabitants in 2022 (Jan. census) over a municipal territory of 241 km (93 sq mi). Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marseille metropolitan area, which extends over 3,972 km (1,534 sq mi), had a population of 1,900,957 at the Jan. 2022 census. The cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and 90 suburban municipalities have formed since 2016 the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, an indirectly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,922,626 at the Jan. 2022 census.

Founded c. 600 BC by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city in France, as well as one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It was known to the ancient Greeks as Massalia and to Romans as Massilia. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient times. In particular, it experienced a considerable commercial boom during the colonial period and especially during the 19th century, becoming a prosperous industrial and trading city. Nowadays the Old Port still lies at the heart of the city, where the manufacture of Marseille soap began some six centuries ago. Overlooking the port is the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde or "Bonne-mère" for the people of Marseille, a Romano-Byzantine church and the symbol of the city. Inherited from this past, the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille (GPMM) and the maritime economy are major poles of regional and national activity and Marseille remains the first French port, the second Mediterranean port and the fifth European port. Since its origins, Marseille's openness to the Mediterranean Sea has made it a cosmopolitan city marked by cultural and economic exchanges with Southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. In Europe, the city has the third largest Jewish community after London and Paris.

Bouches-du-Rhône (/ˌbuːʃ djuː ˈroʊn/ BOOSH dew ROHN; French: les Bouches-du-Rhône [le buʃ dy ʁon] , locally [le ˈbuʃə dy ˈʁɔnə]; Occitan: lei Bocas de Ròse [lej ˈbukɔz de ˈʀɔze]; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and largest city is Marseille; other important cities include Aix-en-Provence, Arles, Martigues and Aubagne.

Marseille, France's second-largest city, has one of the largest container ports in the country. It prides itself on being France's oldest city, founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea around 600 BC. Bouches-du-Rhône is the most populous department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, with 2,043,110 inhabitants as of 2019. It has an area of 5,087 km (1,964 sq mi). Its INSEE and postal code is 13.

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the mainland. The main prefecture and largest city is Marseille, France's second largest city after Paris and the 2nd largest urban area when combined with Aix-en-Provence with over 1.9 million residents.

A prefect (French: préfet, plural préfets, both [pʁefɛ]) in France is the State's representative in a department or region. Regional prefects are ex officio the departmental prefects of the regional prefecture. Prefects are tasked with upholding the law in the department they serve in, including controlling the actions of local authorities. Prefects are appointed by decree by the President of France when presiding over the government's Council of Ministers, following a proposal by the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior. They serve at the government's discretion and can be replaced at any meeting of the Council of Ministers.

To uphold the law, they are authorised to undertake a wide variety of actions, such as coordinating police forces, enforcing immigration rules, controlling authorities' finances, as well as suing local collectivities in the name of the State. The prefects in Lille, Rennes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon and Strasbourg each have additional tasks as heads of their regional defence and security zone (zone de défense et de sécurité). In the Paris area, the prefect of police is the head of the local zone. Overseas France has a similar zones system.

Haute-Savoie (French: [ot savwa] ; Arpitan: Savouè d'Amont; Italian: Alta Savoia) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva; to the south and southeast are Mont Blanc and the Aravis mountain range.

It holds its name from the Savoy historical region, as does the department of Savoie, located south of Haute-Savoie. In 2019, it had a population of 826,094. Its subprefectures are Bonneville, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois and Thonon-les-Bains. The French entrance to the Mont Blanc Tunnel into Italy is in Haute-Savoie. It is noted for winter sports; the first Winter Olympic Games were held at Chamonix in 1924.

Corsica (/ˈkɔːrsɪkə/ KOR-sik-ə; Corsican: [ˈkorsiɡa, ˈkɔrsika], Italian: [ˈkɔrsika]; French: Corse [kɔʁs] ; Ligurian: Còrsega) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, the nearest land mass. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. As of January 2024, it had a population of 355,528.

The island is a territorial collectivity of France, and is expected to achieve "a form of autonomy" in the near future. The regional capital is Ajaccio. Although the region is divided into two administrative departments, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud, their respective regional and departmental territorial collectivities were merged on 1 January 2018 to form the single territorial collectivity of Corsica. Corsican autonomy is more extensive than in other regional collectivities of France and the Corsican Assembly is permitted to exercise limited executive powers. Corsica's second-largest town is Bastia, located in the prefecture of Haute-Corse.

Lorraine is a historical area of Eastern France that today falls within the administrative region of Grand Est. It was the medieval kingdom called Lotharingia (855–959 AD), after Emperor Lothair I or King Lothair II, which extended further north and came to be ruled by the Holy Roman Empire as the Duchy of Lorraine, before the Kingdom of France annexed it in 1766.

From 1982 until January 2016, Lorraine was an administrative region of France. In 2016, under a reorganisation, it became part of the new region Grand Est. As a region in modern France, Lorraine consisted of the four departments Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Moselle and Vosges (from a historical point of view the Haute-Marne department is also located in the region), containing 2,337 communes. Metz is the regional prefecture. The largest metropolitan area of Lorraine is Nancy, which was the seat of the duchy for centuries.

Strasbourg (UK: /ˈstræzbɜːrɡ/ STRAZ-burg, US: /ˈstrɑːsbʊərɡ, ˈstrɑːz-, -bɜːrɡ/ STRAHSS-boorg, STRAHZ-, -⁠burg; French: [stʁasbuʁ] ; German: Straßburg [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊʁk] ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department and the official seat of the European Parliament.

The city has about three hundred thousand inhabitants, and together Greater Strasbourg and the arrondissement of Strasbourg have over five hundred thousand. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 860,744 in 2020, making it the eighth-largest metro area in France and home to 14% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of roughly 1,000,000 in 2022. Strasbourg is one of the de facto four main capitals of the European Union (alongside Brussels, Luxembourg and Frankfurt), as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the European Parliament, the Eurocorps and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. An organization separate from the European Union, the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines most commonly known in French as "Pharmacopée Européenne", and its European Audiovisual Observatory) is also located in the city.

Cayenne (/keɪˈɛn/; French pronunciation: [kajɛn] ; Guianese Creole French: Kayenn) is the prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's motto is "fert aurum industria", which means "work brings wealth". Cayenne is the largest Francophone city of the South American continent.

In the 2021 census, there were 151,103 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Cayenne (as defined by INSEE), 63,468 of whom lived in the city (commune) of Cayenne proper.

Lyon (Franco-Provençal: Liyon) is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of Paris, 278 km (173 mi) north of Marseille, and 113 km (70 mi) southwest of Geneva, Switzerland.

The City of Lyon is the third-largest city in France with a population of 520,774 at the January 2022 census within its small municipal territory of 48 km (19 sq mi), but together with its suburbs and exurbs the Lyon metropolitan area had a population of 2,327,861 that same year, the second largest in France. Lyon and 58 suburban municipalities have formed since 2015 the Metropolis of Lyon, a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues, with a population of 1,433,613 in 2022. Lyon is the prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and seat of the Departmental Council of Rhône (whose jurisdiction, however, no longer extends over the Metropolis of Lyon since 2015).

Foix (/fwɑː/ fwah, French pronunciation: [fwa] ; Occitan: Fois [ˈfujs, ˈfujʃ]; Catalan: Foix [ˈfoʃ, ˈfojʃ]) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the prefecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is the second least populous French departmental capital, the least populous being Privas. Foix lies south of Toulouse, close to the borders with Spain and Andorra.

It is only the second biggest town in Ariège, the biggest being Pamiers, which is one of the two sub-prefectures, the other being St Girons. Foix is twinned with the English cathedral city of Ripon, with the Spanish towns of Sarroca de Lleida, Lleida and the Andorran capital Andorra la Vella.

Toulouse (/tuːˈluːz/, too-LOOZ, French: [tuluz] ; Occitan: Tolosa [tuˈluzɔ] ) is a city in Southern France, the prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea, 230 km (143 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean and 680 km (420 mi) from Paris. It is the fourth-largest city in France after Paris, Marseille, and Lyon, with 511,684 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (2022); its metropolitan area has a population of 1,513,396 inhabitants (2022). Toulouse is the central city of one of the 22 metropolitan councils of France. Between the 2014 and 2020 censuses, its metropolitan area was the third fastest growing among metropolitan areas larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France.

Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, the SPOT satellite system, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. It hosts the CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST) which is the largest national space centre in Europe, but also, on the military side, the newly created NATO space centre of excellence and the French Space Command and Space Academy. Safran, Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Defence and Space, Collins Aerospace and Liebherr-Aerospace also have a significant presence in Toulouse.

Drôme (French pronunciation: [dʁom] ; Occitan: Droma; Arpitan: Drôma) is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019. Drôme's prefecture is Valence.

The southern portion of the Drôme, closest to Provence, is often known as the fr:Drôme Provençale.

The Gard (French pronunciation: [ɡaʁ] ) is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019; its prefecture is Nîmes.

The department is named after the river Gardon. In recent decades of the twenty-first century, local administration and French speakers have returned to the original Occitan name of the river, Gard (Occitan pronunciation: [gaɾ]). It is part of a revival of Occitan culture.

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (French pronunciation: [ovɛʁɲ ʁonalp] ; AURA) is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into effect on 1 January 2016, after the regional elections in December 2015.

The region covers an area of 69,711 km (26,916 sq mi), making it the third largest in metropolitan France; it had a population of 7,994,459 in 2018, second to Île-de-France. It consists of twelve departments and one collectivity with particular status (the Metropolis of Lyon) with Lyon as the prefecture.

An arrondissement (English: /əˈrɒndɪsmənt/, French: [aʁɔ̃dismɑ̃] ) is the third level of administrative division in France generally corresponding to the territory overseen by a subprefect. As of 2023, the 101 French departments are divided into 333 arrondissements (including 13 overseas).

The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture. When an arrondissement contains the prefecture (capital) of the department, that prefecture is the capital of the arrondissement, acting both as a prefecture and as a subprefecture. Arrondissements are further divided into communes.

Vaucluse (French: [voklyz]; Provençal: Vauclusa (Classical norm) or Vau-Cluso (Mistralian norm)) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019. The department's prefecture is Avignon.

It is named after a spring, the Fontaine de Vaucluse, one of the largest karst springs in the world. The name Vaucluse itself derives from the Latin Vallis Clausa ("closed valley") as the valley ends in a cliff face from which the spring emanates.

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (sometimes abbreviated as AHP; French pronunciation: [alp də ot pʁɔvɑ̃s] ; Occitan: Aups d'Auta Provença; lit. 'Alps of Upper Provence'), formerly until 1970 known as Basses-Alpes (French pronunciation: [basz‿alp], lit. 'Lower Alps'), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south, Vaucluse to the west, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes to the north. Formerly part of the province of Provence, it had a population of 164,308 in 2019, which makes it the 8th least populated department and the 94th most populated French department.

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's main cities are Digne-les-Bains (prefecture), Manosque, Sisteron, Barcelonnette, Castellane and Forcalquier. Inhabitants are called the Bas-Alpins (masculine) or Bas-Alpines (feminine) in reference to the department's former name, Basses-Alpes, which was in use until 1970. Although the prefecture is Digne-les-Bains, the largest city is Manosque. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's INSEE and postal code is 04.

Alpes-Maritimes (French: [alp(ə)maʁitim]; Occitan: Aups Maritims; Italian: Alpi Marittime; lit. 'Maritime Alps') is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it encompasses the French Riviera alongside neighbouring Var. Alpes-Maritimes had a population of 1,094,283 in 2019. Its prefecture (and largest city) is Nice, with Grasse as the sole subprefecture.

Alpes-Maritimes has become one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations in recent decades, featuring renowned cities and towns such as Nice, Grasse, Cannes, Antibes, Menton, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Sainte-Agnès, as well as numerous alpine ski resorts. It also entirely surrounds the Principality of Monaco. The department's inhabitants are called Maralpins (masculine) or Maralpines (feminine) but are more commonly referred to as "Azuréens"; its flag and arms are those of the City of Nice. In terms of politics, Alpes-Maritimes is one of France's most right-wing departments, as the majority led by The Republicans in the departmental council holds all but two of the 54 seats following the 2021 election.