page_title: Pays de la Loire
section_title: Major communities
hierarchical_section_title: Pays de la Loire / Major communities
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Maisons à colombage à Angers, rue de l'Oisellerie.
context_page_description: Pays de la Loire are one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It is one of the regions created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" ¹.
context_section_description: The biggest city in Pays de la Loire is Nantes, which is the sixth most populated city in France with over 290,000 people (city proper) and a metropolitan population of almost 900,000.
  Angers is another metropolis of the region. It has a metropolitan population of about 400,000 and is the third biggest job provider in north-western France, just behind Nantes and Rennes.
  Le Mans is another city in Pays de la Loire. Situated in north-east Pays de la Loire, Le Mans is home to over 300,000 (metropolitan population).
  Nantes
  Angers
  Le Mans
  La Roche-sur-Yon
  Cholet
  Saint-Nazaire
  Laval
caption: Half-timbered houses in Angers
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