Departement de la Loire-Atlantique

Loire -Atlantique is a department of France, located in the Pays de la Loire region. It owes its name to the presence of the Loire, an important river which crosses it, and of the Atlantic Ocean, which borders its coast, to the west, where the mouth of the Loire forms an estuary.

The department was created in 1790 by dismemberment of the province of Brittany, under the name of Loire-Inférieure, and kept this appellation until 1957. It bears the number 44 in the French departmental numbering. It constitutes a local authority administered by the departmental council of Loire-Atlantique, whose president is Michel Ménard 4. The capital of the department is Nantes, also prefecture of the Pays de la Loire region. It currently has three arrondissements, the capitals of which are Nantes, Saint-Nazaireand Chateaubriant.

The territory of Loire-Atlantique has been culturally and historically close to the administrative region of Brittany since the Ancien Régime. The question of a possible attachment to the Brittany region is the subject of a recurring debate.