² Population sans doubles comptes, i.e. not counting those people already counted in another commune (such as students and military personal). Image File history File links Flag_of_France. ... France is divided into 26 régions: 21 of these are in the continental part of metropolitan France, one is Corse on the island of Corsica (although strictly speaking Corse is in fact a territorial collectivity, not a région, but is referred to as a région in common... Capital Lyon Land area¹ 43,698 km² Regional President Jean-Jack Queyranne (PS) (since 2004) Population  - Jan. ... Template:France divisions levels, Junkyard Willie The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France and many former French colonies, roughly analogous to British counties. ... Ain is a département named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France bordering Switzerland. ... The 100 French départements are divided into 342 arrondissements. ... The arrondissement of Bourg-en-Bresse is an arrondissement of France, located in the Ain département, in the Rhône-Alpes région. ... The canton is an administrative division of France. ... The commune (in French: commune, word appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a gathering of people sharing a common life, from Latin communis, things held in common) is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. ... A mayor (from the Latin maÄ«or, meaning larger,greater) is the politician who serves as chief executive official of some types of municipalities. ... Map of Earth showing lines of longitude, which appear curved and vertical in this projection, but are actually halves of great circles Longitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter λ, describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. ... Latitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter φ, gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the Equator. ... INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). ... A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. ... Estuaries and coastal waters are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, providing numerous ecological, economic, cultural, and aesthetic benefits and services. ...