French Cerdagne


French Cerdagne is the northern half of Cerdanya, which came under French control as a result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, while the southern half remained in Spain. Catalans often refer to French Cerdagne as Upper Cerdanya. It is the only French territory on the Iberian Peninsula, as it is located on the south side of the Pyrenees Range between France and Spain. For example, the Segre river, which goes west and then south to meet the Ebro, has its source in the French Cerdagne. An inadvertent result of the Treaty of the Pyrenees is the Spanish exclave of Llívia which is sovereign Spanish territory surrounded by French Cerdagne.
File:Catalunya_Comarcas.png|thumb|Map of Catalonia and the historical comarques.
French Cerdagne has no special status inside France, simply forming a physiographic region within the department of Pyrénées-Orientales, unlike the Spanish part of Cerdanya, which is officially a Catalan comarca called simply Cerdanya. In France, the French area is referred to as either Cerdagne française, Haute-Cerdagne or just Cerdagne.
French Cerdagne has a land area of 539.67 km². Its 1999 population was 12,035, resulting in a density of only 22 people per km2. The area has the most cloud-free days in France, and was therefore chosen as the place to build:
There are 26 communes in French Cerdagne, all of them are parts of the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes, in the arrondissement of Prades. Below is a list of the communes in alphabetical order. The population data are extracted from the 1999 French census.
  1. Angoustrine-Villeneuve-des-Escaldes – pop. 549
  2. Bolquère – pop. 730
  3. Bourg-Madame – pop. 1,166
  4. Dorres – pop. 219
  5. Égat – pop. 494
  6. Enveitg – pop. 621
  7. Err – pop. 551
  8. Estavar – pop. 409
  9. Eyne – pop. 127
  10. Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via – pop. 2,003
  11. La Cabanasse – pop. 622
  12. Latour-de-Carol – pop. 367
  13. Llo – pop. 133
  14. Mont-Louis – pop. 270
  15. Nahuja – pop. 63
  16. Osséja – pop. 1,282
  17. Palau-de-Cerdagne – pop. 424
  18. Planès – pop. 27
  19. Porta – pop. 98
  20. Porté-Puymorens – pop. 147
  21. Saillagouse – pop. 820
  22. Saint-Pierre-dels-Forcats – pop. 213
  23. Sainte-Léocadie – pop. 140
  24. Targassonne – pop. 203
  25. Ur – pop. 308
  26. Valcebollère – pop. 49