Drôme

Drôme () is a French department in southeastern France in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and named after the Drôme river. Its prefecture is the city of Valence.

History
Drôme is one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790; it was made with part of the old French province of Dauphiné. It was divided in 6 districts: Romans, Valence, Die, Buis, Montélimar,and Crest. The capital was Chabeuil but in the same year the capital was moved to Valence.

With the creation of the arrondissements, the 6 districts became four arrondissements: Valence, Die, Montélimar and Nyons. In 1926, the arrondissement of Montélimar was eliminated.

Geography
Drôme is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in southeastern France, with an area of .

The department borders with 5 other departments in 2 regions:
  Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
 Hautes-Alpes (east)
 Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (southeast)
 Vaucluse (south)
 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
 Ardèche (west)
 Isère ( north and east)

There are 5 natural regions in Drôme; they are, from north to south:
 A region with hills.
 The plain of Valence to the west.
 The Vercors Massif to the east.
 The central part of the department formed by the valley of the Drôme river and the highest mountains in the department.
 The Drôme provençale to the south.

The highest point in the department is Rocher Rond, (). It is  high; it is on the border with the Hautes-Alpes department.

The main rivers of Drôme are:
 Rhône, in the western part of the department; in the department, it is only  long.
 Drôme river, a tributary of the Rhône.
 Isère river, another tributary of the Rhône.

Climate
The climate of the Drôme department, in the city of Valence, is an oceanic climate, Cfb (Marine West Coast Climate) in the Köppen climate classification.

The average temperature for the year in Valence, at an altitude of , 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 .

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Valence is . The month with the most precipitation on average is September with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of .

Administration
Drôme is part of the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The department is managed by the Departamental Council of the Drôme in Valence.

Administrative divisions
There are 3 arrondissements (districts), 23 cantons and 353 communes (municipalities) in Drôme.

 INSEEcode  Arrondissement  Capital  Population(2014)  Area(km²)  Density(Inh./km²)  Communes 261  Die  Die 42,955  2,286.9    113 262  Nyons  Nyons  141,971  2,358.7    149 263  Valence  Valence  314,233  1,884.4    105

The following is a list of the 19 cantons of the Drôme department (with their INSEE codes), in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

 Bourg-de-Péage (2601)
 Crest (2602)
 Dieulefit (2603)
 Le Diois (2604)
 Drôme des collines (2605)
 Grignan (2606)
 Loriol-sur-Drôme (2607)
 Montélimar-1 (2608)
 Montélimar-2 (2609)
 Nyons et Baronnies (2610)
 Romans-sur-Isère (2611)
 Saint-Vallier (2612)
 Tain-l'Hermitage (2613)
 Le Tricastin (2614)
 Valence-1 (2615)
 Valence-2 (2616)
 Valence-3 (2617)
 Valence-4 (2618)
 Vercors-Monts du Matin (2619)

Demographics
The inhabitants of Drôme are known, in French, as Drômois (women: Drômoises).

Drôme has a population, in 2014, of 499,159, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The arrondissement of Valence, with 314,233 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Nyons and Die, have respectively 141,971 and 42,955 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Valence (62,150 inhabitants). The subprefectures of Nyons and Die have, respectively, 6,641 and 4,516 inhabitants.

Evolution of the population in Drôme

The 10 most important cities in the department are:

 City  Population(2014) Arrondissement Valence  62,150  Valence Montélimar  37,193  Nyons Romans-sur-Isère  33,366  Valence Bourg-lès-Valence  19,591  Valence Pierrelatte  13,071  Nyons Bourg-de-Péage  10,171  Valence Portes-lès-Valence  9,973  Valence Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux  8,944  Nyons Livron-sur-Drôme  8,927  Die Crest  8,211  Die

Gallery

Related pages
 Arrondissements of the Drôme department
 Communes of the Drôme department

References

Other websites

 Departamental Council website 
 Prefecture website  
 Drôme Tourisme