Gers
Department of France
Prefecture building in Auch
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Gers in France
Coordinates: 43°39′N 0°35′E  /  43.650°N 0.583°E  / 43.650; 0.583
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Prefecture	Auch
Subprefectures	Condom Mirande
Government
?  President of the Departmental Council	Philippe Dupouy [1] ( PS )
Area 1
? Total	6,257 km 2 (2,416 sq mi)
Population   (2021) [2]
? Total	192,437
? Rank	90th
? Density	31/km 2 (80/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 ( CET )
? Summer ( DST )	UTC+2 ( CEST )
Department number	32
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	17
Communes	461
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries , and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km 2

Gers ( French pronunciation: [???(s)] ; Occitan : Gers or Gerc , [d???s] ) is a department in the region of Occitania , Southwestern France . Gers becoming the largest producer of foie gras in France, known for its rural scene and bastides . Gers is bordered by the departments of Hautes-Pyrenees and Pyrenees-Atlantiques to the south, Haute-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne to the east, Lot-et-Garonne to the north and Landes to the west. ^[3] Named after the Gers River , its inhabitants are called the Gersois and Gersoises in French . In 2019, it had a population of 191,377. ^[4]

History [ edit ]

In the Middle Ages , the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby.

Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony . In 1808 it lost Lavit on its north-eastern side to the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne . ^[5]

Culture [ edit ]

The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as:

• Armagnac brandy;
• Cotes de Gascogne ;
• Floc de Gascogne ;
• Foie gras ;
• Wild mushrooms .

Also, some prominent cultivated crops are corn , colza , sunflowers and grain .

The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan , but it is not widely spoken. The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south. Alexandre Dumas, pere created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan , the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers . A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac .

A horse race at the Auteuil Hippodrome has been named after Andre Boingneres, a notable local race-horse owner and the successful Mayor of Termes-d'Armagnac between 1951 and 1976.

Politics [ edit ]

Departmental Council of Gers [ edit ]

The President of the Departmental Council of Gers is Philippe Dupouy of the Socialist Party since 2022. ^[1] He succeeded Philippe Martin , who had been in office since 2014. The assembly comprises 34 seats, allocated as follow since the 2015 departmental elections :

Members of the National Assembly [ edit ]

Gers elected the following members of the National Assembly during the 2017 legislative election :

Demography [ edit ]

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1801 257,609 ?     1806 287,021 +2.19% 1821 301,336 +0.32% 1831 312,160 +0.35% 1841 311,447 ?0.02% 1851 307,479 ?0.13% 1861 298,931 ?0.28% 1872 284,717 ?0.44% 1881 281,532 ?0.12% 1891 261,084 ?0.75% 1901 238,448 ?0.90% 1911 221,994 ?0.71% 1921 194,406 ?1.32%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1931 193,134 ?0.07% 1936 192,451 ?0.07% 1946 190,431 ?0.11% 1954 185,111 ?0.35% 1962 182,264 ?0.19% 1968 181,577 ?0.06% 1975 175,366 ?0.50% 1982 174,154 ?0.10% 1990 174,587 +0.03% 1999 172,335 ?0.14% 2006 181,375 +0.73% 2011 188,893 +0.82% 2016 190,664 +0.19%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org .
source: [7] [8]

Located in Southwestern France, Gers is often referred to as amongst the least densely populated (30.5 people/km ² in 2016), ^[8] least urban, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe . List of the 10 most populous communes of the department: ^[4]

Climate [ edit ]

The annual rain varies from more than 900 mm in the south-west of the department, to less than 700 mm in the North-East ( Auch , Condom , Lectoure ).

The winters vary, with only occasional freezing temperatures, but the climate remains mild and dry. The amount of sunshine is about 1950 hours/years.

The summers are hot and dry. Auch is, together with Toulouse , Nimes , Carpentras , Ajaccio , Marseille , Toulon and Perpignan , one of the hottest cities in France.

Tourism [ edit ]

According to recent data tourism represents annually:

• 610 000 tourists,
• 5.900.000 nights,
• 22.100 commercial beds,
• 2 400 paid employment related to tourism,
• the tourist represent an equivalent of 17.100 permanent inhabitants,
• their estimated expenditure is €141.000.000 .

• 
  Auch
• 
  Montreal, Gers
• 
  Larressingle
• 
  Barran
• 
  Armagnac
• 
  Moulard duck foie gras with pickled pear

See also [ edit ]

• Cantons of the Gers department
• Communes of the Gers department
• Arrondissements of the Gers department

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

Wikisource has the text of the 1879 American Cyclopædia article Gers .

• (in French) Departmental Council website
• (in French) Prefecture website
• Welcome to the Gers in Gascony Tourisme Gers - Vos vacances en France dans le Gers, coeur du Sud Ouest et de l'Occitanie