Creuse

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Creuse

Coat of arms of the Creuse department
Location

Administration
Department number:	23
Region:	Limousin
Prefecture:	Guéret
Subprefectures:	Aubusson
Arrondissements:	2
Cantons:	27
Communes:	260
President of the General Council:	Jean-Jacques Lozach PS
Statistics
Population	Ranked 97th
-1999	124,470
Population density:	22/km²
Land area¹:	5565 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

For other uses, see Creuse (disambiguation).

Creuse is a department in central France named after the Creuse River.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Tourism
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of la Marche.

[edit] Geography

Creuse is part of the current region of Limousin and is surrounded by the departments of Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cher, and Indre.

It is located in the Massif Central and is permeated by the Creuse River and its tributaries. The river is dammed at several locations both for water supply and hydroelectricity generation. Typically for an inland area of continental Europe, Creuse has relatively cold winters with some snow-fall into April but also hot summers although rain-fall occurs throughout the year because of the relatively high elevation of the land. The topography is principally rolling hills intersected by often steep river valleys. The terrestrial ecology is typically cool temperate with a species mix that would not be uncommon in the western UK with oak, ash, chestnut , hazel and Prunus species dominating the woodlands. There are no commercial vineyards and much of the farming is beef cattle (Charolais and Limousin) and also sheep.

[edit] Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Creusois. Over the past two generations Creuse has experienced the greatest population decline of any French department, from 164,000 in 1960 to 124,000 in 1999 - a fall of 24%.

[edit] Tourism

The major tourist attractions are the tapestry museum in Aubusson and the castles of Villemonteix, Boussac, Banizette, the monastery of Moutier-d'Ahun (exceptional wood carvings, XVIIth c.) fr:Abbaye de Moutier-d'Ahun

Since the late 1990s the Creuse has become a major tourist destination. The summers are relatively warm, but not as hot as in the southern parts of France. With forests and a few houses dominating the landscape, and very little pollution, many residents of neighboring countries (notably British and Dutch, but also German and Belgian) have sought to buy a property in the Creuse. The housing is not expensive, compared to Great Britain or Provence, and if one wants to pass a nice, calm and comfortable vacation, the Creuse is the place to go. There is much controversy, however, as to the way communities are established in the Creuse. Large communities of English people are found with little or no link to the outside. Creusois often complain that tourists and permanent immigrants make no effort to learn the language and this is a source of much discussion in the administration of the area.