Franche Comté
| Franche-Comté | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region of France | |||
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| Country |
 France
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| Prefecture | Besançon | ||
| Departments | |||
| Government | |||
| • President | Marie-Guite Dufay (PS) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 16,202 km2 (6,256 sq mi) | ||
| Population (1 January 2009) | |||
| • Total | 1,168,208 | ||
| • Density | 72/km2 (190/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym(s) | Free Countian | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| ISO 3166 code | FR-I | ||
| GDP (2012) | Ranked 20th | ||
| Total | €28.6 billion (US$36.8 bn) | ||
| Per capita | €24,482 (US$31,501) | ||
| NUTS Region | FR43 | ||
| Website | www.franche-comte.fr | ||
Franche-Comté (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃ʃ kɔ̃te]; literally "Free County", Frainc-Comtou dialect: Fraintche-Comtè; Arpitan: Franche-Comtât; German: Freigrafschaft) is a former administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and the Territoire de Belfort. In 2009, its population was 1,168,208.
The region is named after the Franche Comté de Bourgogne (Free County of Burgundy), definitively separated from the region of Burgundy proper in the fifteenth century. In 2016, these two halves of the historic Kingdom of Burgundy were reunited, as the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
The name "Franche-Comté" is feminine because the word "comté" in the past was generally feminine, although today it is masculine.
The principal cities are the capital Besançon, Belfort and Montbéliard (the last two form the aire urbaine Belfort-Montbéliard-Héricourt-Delle). Other important cities are Dole (the capital before the region was conquered by Louis XIV in the late seventeenh century), Vesoul (capital of Haute-Saône), Arbois (the "wine capital" of the Jura), and Lons-le-Saunier (the capital of Jura).
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