Prefecture of Cher, in Bourges
Location of Cher in France
|Region||Centre-Val de Loire|
|• President of the General Council||Michel Autissier (LR)|
|• Total||7,235 km2 (2,793 sq mi)|
|• Density||42/km2 (110/sq mi)|
|Time zone||UTC+1 (CET)|
|• Summer (DST)||UTC+2 (CEST)|
|^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2|
Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. Most of it was created, along with the adjacent department of Indre from the former province of Berry. The southeastern corner of the department, however, was part of the Duchy of Bourbon.
The inhabitants of the department are called Berrichons from the former province of Berry.
|Union for a Popular Movement||10|
|•||French Communist Party||7|
Current National Assembly representativesEdit
|1st||François Cormier-Bouligeon||La République En Marche!|
|3rd||Loïc Kervran||La République En Marche!|
The Bourges Cathedral of St. Étienne is a major tourist attraction.
Château de Meillant
The historical languages are Berrichon and the northern version of Bourbonnais. These are both dialects of French, or the Langues d'oïl. They are named respectively after the former Province of Berry and the former Duchy of Bourbon. Some 11 communes in the extreme South used to speak Occitan.
The old dialects were in widespread use until the middle decades of the twentieth century and incorporated major regional variations within the department, influenced by the dialects of adjacent regions near the departmental frontiers. During the twentieth century government educational policy promoted a more standardised version of the French language.
In the extreme south of the department influence from the southern Occitan language begins to appear, with "chambrat" being used in place of "grenier a foin" (hayloft), "betoulle" in place of "bouleau" (birch tree) and "aigue" in place of "eau" (water).
- (in French) General Council of Cher
- (in French) Prefecture of Cher
- (in English) Cher at Curlie