Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

**Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes** (Franco-Provençal: *Ôvèrgne-Rôno-Ârpes*; ) is an administrative region of France that was created on 1 January 2016 from the former French regions Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. It is in the central and eastern parts of southern France.

Its capital is the city of Lyon.

## Geography
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is the third largest region of Metropolitan France, after Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, with an area of . It borders five French administrative regions: Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to the north, Centre-Val de Loire to the northwest, Nouvelle-Aquitaine to the west, Occitanie to the southwest and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur to the southeast. It also borders two countries: Italy to the east and Switzerland to the northeast.

The region has the Massif Central to the east and the Alps to the east, with the valley of the Rhône river between them. Half of the Ain department is occupied by the Jura Mountains.

The extreme points for the region are in the *communes*:
* North : Château-sur-Allier, Allier ()
* East : Bonneval-sur-Arc, Savoie ()
* South : Ferrassières, Drôme ()
* West : Siran, Cantal ()

Its capital, Lyon, is at  to the southwest of Paris, the national capital, at  to the northwest of Marseille and at  to the west of Bordeaux.

The distances from the different departmental capitals to Lyon, the regional capital, are:

* Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) - 
* Moulins (Allier) - 
* Privas (Ardèche) - 
* Aurillac (Cantal) - 
* Valence (Drôme) - 
* Grenoble (Isère) - 
* Saint-Étienne (Loire) - 
* Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) - 
* Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) - 
* Chambéry (Savoie) - 
* Annecy (Haute-Savoie) - 

### Rivers
There are two main drainage basin in the region; some rivers in those basins are:

* Atlantic basin
** Loire
*** Allier

* Mediterranean basin
** Rhône
*** Saône

### Mountains
The Mont Blanc (), at , is the highest mountain of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France, Italy and of Western Europe.

The highest points in the different departments of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region are:

## Departments
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is formed by 13 departments and one territorial collectivity with the same powers as a department.

*Arr.* = Arrondissements&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*Cant.* = Cantons&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*Comm.* = Communes

## Demographics
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region had a population, in 2014, of 7,820,966, for a population density of  inhabitants/km2. The department with more people living in it is Rhône with 1,801,885 inhabitants.

The main cities in the region are:

## Gallery

File:Thain1.jpg|The valley of the Rhône river.
File:Mont Blanc depuis Valmorel 2.jpg|South side of the Mont Blanc.
File:Basilique de Fourvière from Saone (Lyon).jpg|Fourvière Basilica (Lyon) viewed from the Saône river.
File:Lumiere Lyon France.jpg|Overview on Lyon during *Fête des Lumières*.
File:Fontaine trois ordres - Grenoble.JPG|Fountain of the Three Orders, Grenoble

## Related pages
* Auvergne
* Rhône-Alpes
* Regions of France

## References
## Other websites
* Official website of the region 
* Prefecture of the region