Charente-Maritime (Saintongeais: Chérente-Marine) is a department on the west coast of France in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It is named after the Charente river, the most important river in the department, and its position along the coast.

Its prefecture is the city of La Rochelle.

History

The department, as Charente-Inférieure ("Lower Charente" because it was in the lower part of the Charente river), is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790.

It was created from parts of the old provinces of Saintonge and Aunis and small parts of Poitou and Angoumois.

The new department had seven districts: La Rochelle, Rochefort, Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Saintes, Pons, Montlieu and Marennes. The capital (now prefecture) was Saintes alternating with La Rochelle and Saint-Jean-d'Angély but soon was changed and Saintes was kept as the only capital.

In 1800, with the creation of the arrondissements in France, the seven districts were changed into six arrondissements: Saintes, Jonzac, Marennes, Rochefort, La Rochelle and Saint-Jean-d'Angély and in 1810 the capital was moved to La Rochelle.

On 10 September 1926, the arrondissements of Marennes and Saint-Jean-d'Angély were eliminated. In 1943, Saint-Jean-d'Angély was made again an arrondissement.

On 4 Septembre 1941, the name of the department was changed from Charente-Inférieure to the present name of Charente-Maritime.

Geography
Charente-Maritime is part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It has an area of .

The highest point in the department is in the woods of Chantemerlière, near the commune of Contré in the northeast, and that is  high.

The department is bordered by the departments: Vendée, Deux-Sèvres, Charente, Dordogne and Gironde.

The main rivers are the Charente and its tributaries, the Boutonne and the Seugne, along with the Sèvre Niortaise, the Seudre, and the Garonne in its downstream part, which is the estuary of the Gironde.

The department includes the islands of:
 Île de Ré
 Île d'Aix
 Île d'Oléron, the largest island of Metropolitan France; it is  long and  wide, with an area of 
 Île Madame, the smallest of the four islands.

Climate
The climate of La Rochelle is an oceanic climate with template summers, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average amount of precipitation for the year in La Rochelle is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of .

The average temperature for the year in La Rochelle is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

Administration
The department is managed by the Departmental Council of the Charente-Maritime in La Rochelle. Charente-Maritime is part of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Administrative divisions
There are 5 arrondissements (districts), 27 cantons and 469 communes (municipalities) in Charente-Maritime.

The following is a list of the 27 cantons of the Charente-Maritime department (with their INSEE codes), following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

 Aytré (1701)
 Chaniers (1702)
 Châtelaillon-Plage (1703)
 Île d'Oléron (1704)
 Île de Ré (1705)
 La Jarrie (1706)
 Jonzac (1707)
 Lagord (1708)
 Marans (1709)
 Marennes (1710)
 Matha (1711)
 Pons (1712)
 Rochefort (1713)
 La Rochelle-1 (1714)
 La Rochelle-2 (1715)
 La Rochelle-3 (1716)
 Royan (1717)
 Saint-Jean-d'Angély (1718)
 Saint-Porchaire (1719)
 Saintes (1720)
 Saintonge Estuaire (1721)
 Saujon (1722)
 Surgères (1723)
 Thénac (1724)
 Tonnay-Charente (1725)
 La Tremblade (1726)
 Les Trois Monts (1727)

Demographics
The inhabitants of Charente-Maritime are known, in French, as Charentais maritimes (women: Charentaises maritimes).

Charente-Maritime has a population, in 2014, of 637,089, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Rochelle, with 210,151 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other four, Rochefort,  Saintes, Jonzac and Saint-Jean-d'Angély, have respectively 187,843, 128,786, 56,973 and 53,336 inhabitants.

Evolution of the population in Charente-Maritime

The 10 main cities in the department are:

Gallery

References

Related pages
 Arrondissements of the Charente-Maritime department

Other websites

 Departmental Council website 
 Prefecture website 
 Charente Maritime Tourisme 

Departments in Nouvelle-Aquitaine