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Rhône-Alpes (Region, France)

Flag of the Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes - Image by Ivan Sache, 17 September 2009

Administrative data
Flag of the Regional Council
Former flag of the Regional Council

See also:

Administrative data

Departments: Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Loire, Rhône, Savoie, Haute-Savoie
Bordering Regions: Auvergne, Bourgogne, Franche-Comté, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur
Bordering countries: Italy, Switzerland
Traditional provinces: Burgundy, Dauphiné, Languedoc, Comtat Venaissin, Savoy

Area: 43,698 km²Population (1995): 5,569,200 inhabitants
Regional prefecture: Lyon; seat at Charbonnières-les-Bains, to be relocated at Lyon in 2010

Region Rhône-Alpes lacking geographical and historical homogeneity, the name Rhône-Alpes, associating a river and a mountain, was probably the best default choice. The natural division of the Alps is not respected by the administrative borders, since the limit between the Northern and Southern Alps goes through the department of Drôme. This limit was also the border between Provence and Dauphiny. Since crossing the Rhône was extremely difficult in the past, Ardèche, located on the right bank, belonged to Languedoc and had few contacts with Dauphiné.
The Region has more economical homogeneity, although the departments of Ardèche, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes are less developed than the other ones.
However, some identity developed with time and the neologism rhônalpin was coined, the same way the neologism francilien was coined for Île-de-France.

Ivan Sache, 15 September 2003

Flag of the Regional Council

The Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes changed the logo and flag of the Region in 2005. The flag, white white the Region's logo, is hoisted in front of the building of the Regional Council located at Charbonnières-les-Bains, near Lyon, as shown on a photo taken by Pascal Vagnat.

The logo is presented as follows on the Regional Council's website:

The construction of the logo is mostly of typographic nature, to ensure a perfect lisibility in all circumstances and on all supports. Its visual dynamic is created by the use of oblique ascendant construction lines, which punctuate the writing of an open territory, in continuous evolution. By a visual contraction game, the two words "Rhône" and "Alpes" form a single one, thus contributing to express the link and the territory's unit. Finally, the selected colours, plum colour and green, ensure a sober and elegant harmony, which contributes to the clearly modern graphism adopted for the new visual identity.

Ivan Sache, 17 September 2009

Former flag of the Regional Council

Former flag of the Regional Council - Image by Pierre Gay, 2 November 1996

The flag of the Regional Council, adopted on 2 January 1991, is white with the Region's logo, made of eight vertical lines that symbolize the eight departments of the region.

Jaume Ollé, 2 November 1996

The vertical lines represent the future and the ambitions, while the horizontal lines represent competences and determination. The rainbow colors represent performance, modernism, youth and quality of life.
The blue line represents river Rhône. It shows the coherence of a great European region. The graphism shows also the West to East region's elevation from the plains to the mountains.

Tristan Blaudet, 14 September 2003