Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine is a dÃÂépartement of France, located in Brittany (Bretagne in French), one of the 22 regions of France.
| Ille-et-Vilaine | |
|---|---|
 Details | |
| Information | |
| Region : | Brittany |
| Prefecture : | Rennes |
| Sub-prefectures : | FougÃÂères Redon Saint-Malo |
| Population
- Total (1999) - Density |
867,533 inhab. 128 inh./kmÃÂò |
| Area | 6 775 kmÃÂò |
| Arrondissementss | 4 |
| Cantons | 53 |
| Communes | 352 |
| President of the general council | Marie-Joseph Bissonnier |
| Localisation | |
 | |
The department was created during the French Revolution, on March 4 1790 under the provisions of an Act dated December 22 1789, being formed from a subdivision of the Provinces_de_France|province]] of Brittany.
Background article: History of Ille-et-Vilaine
The Department of Ille-et-Vilaine is a part of the region Bretagne.
It borders the departements of Manche, of Mayenne, of Maine-et-Loire, of Loire-Atlantique, of Morbihan and CÃÂôtes-d'Armor, and has a coastline along the English Channel.
Background article: Ille-et-Vilaine geography
Background article: Economy of Ille-et-Vilaine
The population has grown over the last few decades and was estimated at 903,400 in January 2003.
Background article : Demography of Ille-et-Vilaine
Language
French is the only official language of the French Republic (Article 2 of the French Constitution), and spoken by a very large population of this department as in other metropolitan French departments. Nevertheless, moves are afoot to change the French Constitution to include official recognition for the country's native minority languages (which include Breton, Catalan, and Oc).
Gallo is a historic minority language spoken in Eastern Brittany, in the Roman family of Langues d'OÃÂïl, of which French is an offshoot. However, as Rennes is the capital of the Region of Bretagne where Breton is an important minority
language (notably in Western Brittany and in the rural south East of this departement), Gallo and Breton are both studied in Universities in Rennes.
With regard to Breton, the weighted statistics in the Etude de l'histoire familiale (published by INSEE in 1999) state that there are over 8,500 Breton-speaking people in the Departement. To these one should add
children studying in bilingual schools (some 680 students at the begining of the 2003 school year) and the students of Breton at public secondary schools (over 200 in 2002/2003).
Recent immigration at end of last century has seen the rise of other foreign minority languages.
Foreign language studies are compulsory at secondary school. English is the most commonly studied, but also European languages, notably German, Spanish and Italian, are also studied.
Background article: Culture of Ille-et-Vilaine
History
Geography
Climate
Background article: Climate of Ille-et-VilaineEconomy
Demography
There seems to be no special name for the inhabitants of Ille-et-Vilaine.Culture
Tourism
Background article: Tourism of Ille-et-VilainePolitics
Background article: Politics of Ille-et-VilaineAdministration
Background article: Administration of Ille-et-VilaineMiscellaneous
External links
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