Lozère

Lozère

Coat of arms of the Lozère department
Location

Administration
Department number:	48
Region:	Languedoc-Roussillon
Prefecture:	Mende
Subprefectures:	Florac
Arrondissements:	2
Cantons:	25
Communes:	185
President of the General Council:	Jean-Paul Pourquier
Statistics
Population	Ranked 100th
-1999	73,509
Population density:	14/km²
Land area¹:	5167 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Lozère (in Occitan Losera), is a department in southeast France near the Massif Central.

History

Lozère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.

The Beast of Gévaudan was a creature that terrorized the general area of the former province of Gévaudan, in today's Lozère, in the Margeride Mountains, in the general timeframe of 1764 to 1767.

The cheese of Lozère was praised in Pliny's Natural History:

The kinds of cheese that are most esteemed at Rome, where the various good things of all nations are to be judged of by comparison, are those which come from the provinces of Nemausus, and more especially the villages there of Lesura and Gabalis; but its excellence is only very short-lived, and it must be eaten while it is fresh.

Geography

Lozère is part of the current Languedoc-Roussillon region and is surrounded by the departments of Cantal, Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Gard, and Aveyron.

Economy

The main activities are farming and tourism. The department has one of the lowest unemployment rates in France.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Lozériens. Lozère is the least populated French department.

The low population density (14 inhabitant/km²) is thought to be due to the region's poor soils and to rural depopulation, which was particularly high in the region between 1850 and 1910.

In recent years, the department's population has increased slightly, as it is thought to offer a good quality of life, and due to improved transport networks. However, the population is older than the national average.

Tourism

Tourist activities include caving and a variety of sports, such as skiing and kayaking. Lozère contains a part of the Cévennes National Park. Lozère is considered one of the best areas in France for trout fishing. Rivers such as the Lot, Tarn and Truyère are particularly noted for their trout populations.