Loire-Atlantique is one of the original 83 departments created during theFrench Revolution on March 4, 1790. Originally, it was namedLoire-Inférieure, but its name was changed in March 9, 1957 to Loire-Atlantique.[3]
After the war these administrative changes were reimplemented in the 1955 boundary changes intended to optimise the management of the regions. There has since been a series ofcampaigns reflecting a strong local mood to have the department reintegrated with Brittany.
Upper Brittany's indigenous language isGallo, a romance language related to French. The number of Gallo language speakers has been in steady decline since the early 20th century. The language is neither official nor taught in primary or secondary education. In the south of thedépartement (Pays de Retz), the local language wasPoitevin dialect.
The capital of the administrative region isRennes, althoughNantes is considered the capital of historic Brittany and is located in Loire-Atlantique. Thereunification of historic Brittany is supported by a majority of Loire-Atlantique and is considered a prerequisite to further autonomy of Brittany as a whole.[7][8]
Thedépartement operates theLila network (fr) of interurban buses, which link its villages, towns and cities. The urban areas ofNantes andSaint-Nazaire operate their own urban transport networks, known asTAN andSTRAN (fr) respectively.
By rail, the regional trains and buses of theTER Pays de la Loire link major towns and cities of thePays de la Loire and adjoining regions, including those of thedépartement. Nantes is on theTGV network, with high speed trains running toParis by theLGV Atlantique in just over 2 hours.
Nantes Atlantique Airport, located 8 km to the southwest of the city of Nantes, serves thedépartement and surrounding areas. It is the biggest airport in northwestern France, linking with several French, North African and European cities, as well asMontreal in Canada.
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