Do you know the difference between regions, departments and communes?

France is geographically (and sometimes culturally) divided into regions, then departments, then communes.

There are 13 regions, 94 departments and around 36,000 communes.

The regions

94 departments

The department number gives the 1st 2 numbers of your commune’s postcode. And the postcodes are 5 numbers in total eg. 31440 is department 31, commune 31440.

A commune is one or more villages or areas of a town that make up a local administrative area which is overseen by the mayor (Maire), who is based at the town hall (Mairie).