The decision came after the popular favourite, 'Aquitaine', faced resistance by regional politicians from Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. In June 2016, a working group headed by historian Anne-Marie Cocula, a former vice-president of Aquitaine, proposed the name 'Nouvelle Aquitaine'. The region's interim name Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes was a hyphenated placename, known as ALPC, created by hyphenating the merged regions' names – Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes – in alphabetical order. Toponymy Map of the new region with its twelve départements, colored according to the historical provinces as they existed until 1790. Historically, it is the 'indirect successor' to medieval Aquitaine it extends over a large part of the former Duchy of Eleanor of Aquitaine. The new region includes major parts of Southern France (' Midi de la France'), marked by Basque, Occitan, Poitevin and Saintongeais cultures. Its economy is based on agriculture and viticulture ( vineyards of Bordeaux and Cognac), tourism, a powerful aerospace industry, digital economy and design, parachemical and pharmaceutical industries, financial sector ( Niort) and industrial ceramics ( Limoges). It has three of the four historic resorts on the French Atlantic coast: Arcachon, Biarritz and Royan, as well as several ski resorts (most notably Gourette). New Aquitaine has five universities ( Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Limoges, Poitiers and Pau) and several Grandes Écoles.

The region has 25 major urban areas, among which the most important after Bordeaux are Bayonne (288,000 inhabitants), Limoges (283,000), Poitiers (255,000), Pau (241,000) and La Rochelle (206,000), as well as eleven major clusters. Its prefecture and largest city, Bordeaux, together with its suburbs and satellite cities, forms the seventh-largest metropolitan area of France, with 850,000 inhabitants. It is the largest region in France by area (including overseas regions such as French Guiana), with a territory slightly larger than that of Austria. The new region was established on 1 January 2016, following the regional elections in December 2015. It covers 84,036 km 2 (32,446 sq mi) – or 1⁄ 8 of the country – and has 5,956,978 inhabitants (municipal population on 1 January 2017). The region was created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014 through the merger of three regions: Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. I expected we’d stay a few minutes but instead we stayed well over an hour.Nouvelle-Aquitaine ( French pronunciation: ⓘ Occitan: Nòva Aquitània or Novèla Aquitània Basque: Akitania Berria Poitevin-Saintongeais: Novéle-Aguiéne) is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The walls and ramparts of the castle are intact and thanks to renovations over the past 20 years, it’s remarkably intact. See the great hall, the kitchen and everything else as you tour. There is also a Renaissance staircase and rooms adorned in Renaissance style. You get a better understanding of life in a medieval castle by visiting. The exhibit on Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son, Richard the Lionheart, was excellent. We paid 23 Euro for two to enter and at first I thought that was expensive, but it was in fact a bargain. Note: look for other ways to get to Chateau Parking. Others drove the narrow streets but my rental SUV would have have had a hard time fitting. We parked at the foot of town in P1 and walked the steep incline to the Chateau. Its strategic location above the Dordogne is immediately apparent. This is one of the most complete small Medieval castles in Europe, and is worth a detour.

Charente dordogne map