Lot (department)

**Lot** () is a French department in the Occitanie region of southern France named after the Lot river. Its prefecture and largest city is Cahors.

## History
Lot is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the old province of Quercy.

The new department had six districts: Cahors, Martel, Gourdon, Figeac, Montauban and Lazorte. The capital (now prefecture) was Cahors.

In 1808, some of the original southeastern cantons were separated from it to form the department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It originally extended much farther to the south and included the city of Montauban.

# The **Segala** (northeast) occupies the eastern border of the Lot department. It is the part of the Massif Central that gets into the department and here is found the highest point of the Lot department in Labastide-du-Haut-Mont, with  high.
# The **Limargue** (center east) separates the Segala from the *Causses* of Quercy. This narrow strip of land is found between the valleys of the Dordogne and Lot rivers. It is known as **Terrefort** around the city of Figeac.
# The '''*Causses* of Quency'* are several limestone plateaus crossed by the valleys of the Dordogne, Lot and Aveyron rivers. From north to south, they are the *Causse* of Martel, the *Causse* of Gramat and the *Causse* of Limogne.
# The **Bouriane** (west). This area is covered with an abundant vegetation and is very different from the near arid plateaus of the *Causses*.
# The **Quercy Blanc** (south) is formed by small white limestone plateaus along valleys where cereals, oilseeds (plants grown to produce vegetable oils), melons, plums and tobacco are grown.
# The *Valley of the Lot river* (south), with many vineyards and vegetable crops.
# The *Valley of the Dordogne river'' (north), with its walnut groves and meadows.

### Climate
The climate in Gourdon, in the north of the department at an altitude of  above sea level, is an oceanic climate with relatively hot summers, mild winters and abundant rainfall, **Cfb** in the Köppen climate classification.

The average amount of precipitation for the year in Gourdon is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with  of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is February with an average of . There are an average of 168.0 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in January with 17.0 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 10.0 days.

The following is a list of the 17 cantons of the Lot department, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

# Cahors-1
# Cahors-2
# Cahors-3
# Causse et Bouriane
# Causse et Vallées
# Cère et Ségala
# Figeac-1
# Figeac-2
# Gourdon
# Gramat
# Lacapelle-Marival
# Luzech
# Marches du Sud-Quercy
# Martel
# Puy-l'Évêque
# Saint-Céré
# Souillac

File:Cahors Chateau.jpg|Cahors *chateau* and vineyard
File:Figeac Nt Dame Puy.jpg|*Notre-Dame-du-Puy* church, at Figeac
File:Gourdon la mairie.jpg|Town Hall, Gourdon

## Demographics
The inhabitants of Lot are known, in French, as *Lotois* (women: *Lotoises*).

Lot has a population, in 2014, of 173,648, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The *arrondissement* of Cahors, with 76,216 inhabitants, is by far the largest. The other two, Figeac and Gourdon, have respectively 54,060 and 43,372 inhabitants.

The city with more people living in it is the capital, Cahors (19,630). The subprefectures of Figeac and Gourdon have, respectively, 9,820 and 4,297 inhabitants.

**Evolution of the population in Lot**

Colors=
  id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)
  id:darkgrey  value:gray(0.7)
  id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
  id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8)

ImageSize = width:500 height:373
PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:180000
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:20000 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10000 start:0
BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo

BarData=
 bar:1968 text:1968
 bar:1975 text:1975
 bar:1982 text:1982
 bar:1990 text:1990
 bar:1999 text:1999
 bar:2008 text:2008
 bar:2014 text:2014

PlotData=
 color:barra width:30 align:left

 bar:1968 from:0 till: 151198
 bar:1975 from:0 till: 150778
 bar:1982 from:0 till: 154533
 bar:1990 from:0 till: 155816
 bar:1999 from:0 till: 160197
 bar:2008 from:0 till: 172796
 bar:2014 from:0 till: 173648

PlotData=
 bar:1968 at: 151198 fontsize:S text: 151,198 shift:(-13,5)
 bar:1975 at: 150778 fontsize:S text: 150,778 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1982 at: 154533 fontsize:S text: 154,533 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1990 at: 155816 fontsize:S text: 155,816 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:1999 at: 160197 fontsize:S text: 160,197 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2008 at: 172796 fontsize:S text: 172,796 shift:(-18,5)
 bar:2014 at: 173648 fontsize:S text: 173,648 shift:(-18,5)

The cities in the department with more of 2,000 inhabitants are:
 river at Marcilhac]]

## Gallery

File:Cahors - place François-Mitterrand -313.jpg|Cahors
File:Cahors - Pont Valentré 03.jpg|Pont Valentré
File:Rocamadour, Lot, Midi-Pyrénées, france.jpg|Rocamadour
File:Le Lot Cahors 2.jpg|The Lot river

## Related pages
* Arrondissements of the Lot department
* Communes of the Lot department

## References
## Other websites
* Departamental Council website 
* Prefecture website  
* Lot Tourisme, Agence de Développement Touristique 
* Le Quercy sur le net 
* Société des Études du Lot