DEPARMENTS OF FRANCE
For administrative purposes the 22 regions of France are divided into Departments. The Department is then governed by a Prefecture and the villages or towns in each Department are governed in turn by the local Mairie who reports to the Prefecture. There are 100 Departments in France including the Departments overseas. Each Department has both a name and a number. The numbers of the individual Departments are in alphabetical order hence the illogical order on the map. The Departments in Corsica are designated as 2a and 2b, originally it held the number 20 before being split in the 1970's, it still retains the postal codes of the old 20 department. French postal codes start with the department number, followed by 3 further numbers signfiying the locality within the department, several villages can occupy the same postcode, whereas larger towns and cities will be split into several postal codes.
