Talk:Provinces of France

message: How exhaustive is this list? - User:Olivier
The map here is misleading.  What is being listed are certainly not generalités, which were the units of the Intendants.  For instance, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine were all in a single generalité.  This is closer to the map of gouvernements, that is to say, areas with a military governor.  But even that doesn't seem to be quite right, since I think that (for instance) Saumurois, Paris, the Lorraine Bishoprics ought to be separated out, Angoumois and Saintonge ought to be joined together.
Here is a map of the gouvernements, for reference, although I don't know how accurate it is, as I've seen different versions. john k 08:59, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Hardouin, this page doesn't quite make sense, and is trying to simplify into provinces a complex territorial administrative structure used by the ancien regime which had many overlaps. The best solution would be to list, in seperate sections, généralités, parlements, and gouvernements which were the main units of territory. I dont think ecclesiastical provinces and bishoprics are relevant. Pays d'état were, as i understand it, a form of generality, alongside pays d'election and something else i dont remember, not a seperate category. i am adding a map from the french page. N-edits 15:29, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  

message: Meanings in modern French (in France at least) :
* Pays :
** country : such as the UK, the US, Belgium, Germany, etc.
** part of an ancient province : meaning still used today but with "pays de" as part of the name of the area e.g. Pays de Caux, or Pays de France (which still refers to an area  of the département of Val-d'Oise in the région Ile-de-France, hence the name of the towns Roissy-en-France, Mareil-en-France, Puiseux-en-France, Belloy-en-France, Châtenay-en-France, etc).
** Pays de Galles means Wales (Galles alone can't be used, except in Prince de Galles).
* Région :
** modern-day administrative aera of France;
** any region (geograpical, hitorical, as in English) and even an ancient province.
* Province :
** "la province": in France, that's France excluding Ile-de-France (most common meaning in France today). "Ma famille vit en province" is a very common sentence in Paris!
** modern-day administrative area of Belgium and Canada.
** refers to the ancient "administrative" regions of Ancien Régime France (mainly, duchies and counties).
* contrée: no longer used today, except often ironically as lost or remote countryside area.
Liam D 14:54, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  ''Pays, région, province and contrée'' 

message: Lower Navarre seems to be missing. Sorry I'm no historian so I don't know how to fix this omission. I'm just pointing it out in case someone can fix it. If I'm off the mark, then feel free to ignore/delete this note. Raichu2 (talk) 01:31, 15 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Lower Navarre is often considered a part of Bearn and/or Gascony (Gascony and Basque have the same root, FWIW, Navarre being the traditional homeland of the Basque peoples).  If you look at the map in the article, it is clearly part of Bearn by that map.  As noted in the article itself, what were and were not "provinces" at various times in French history are somewhat fluid.  The map shows the borders and names of Provinces as they existed when the system was abolished, and by that time I am fairly certain that Basse-Navarre was considered a lesser part of Bearn.  --Jayron32 02:48, 15 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing province