departments of france

ARE departments in France about to be consigned to history? Probably. According to a recent article in the French daily, Le Figaro, no more will you go to Bergerac in the Dordogne on your summer holidays. Gone are the visits to your second home in Villereal in the Lot-et-Garonne. In the future, you'll smply travel to Eymet in Aquitaine.

Some government policy makers believe that departments no longer have a place in Mr. Sarkozy's reform plans on the "liberation of growth" for the stagnant French economy.