Gard

For other uses, see Gard (disambiguation).

Gard
Department of France
Template:Photomontage From top down, left to right: Pont du Gard, prefecture building in Nîmes, Cévennes and Arena of Nîmes
Template:Infobox settlement/columns
Location of Gard in France Location of Gard in France
Coordinates: 44°7′41″N 4°4′54″E
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Prefecture	Nîmes
Subprefectures	Alès Le Vigan
Government
• President of the Departmental Council	Françoise Laurent-Perrigot (Template:Polparty)
Area
• Total	Template:Infobox settlement/areadisp
Population  (Template:France metadata Wikidata)Template:France metadata Wikidata
• Total	Template:France metadata Wikidata
• Rank	32nd
• Density	Template:Infobox settlement/densdisp
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	FR-30
Department number	30
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	23
Communes	350
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Gard (fr) is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 770,940 as of 2023; its prefecture is Nîmes.

The department is named after the river Gardon. In recent decades of the twenty-first century, local administration and French speakers have returned to the original Occitan name of the river, Gard (oc). It is part of a revival of Occitan culture.

History

In classical times the Gard area was settled by Romans and their allies. They built the Via Domitia across the region in 118 BC. Centuries later, on 4 March 1790, the Gard was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution. It comprised the ancient province of Languedoc.

Originally this department was to include the canton of Ganges, but Ganges was transferred to the neighbouring department of Hérault. In return, the Gard was assigned the fishing port of Aigues Mortes, which gave the department its own outlet to the Gulf of Lion on the Mediterranean Sea.

During the middle of the nineteenth century the prefecture, traditionally a centre of commerce with a manufacturing sector focused on textiles, was an early beneficiary of railway development, becoming an important railway junction. Several luxurious hotels were built, and the improved market access provided by the railways also encouraged, initially, a rapid growth in wine growing. But many winegrowers were ruined when the vineyards were infected with phylloxera in 1872.

Geography

The Gard is part of the region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Hérault, Lozère, Aveyron, Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse and Ardèche. It has a short coastline to the south on the Mediterranean Sea. The highest point in the department is Mont Aigoual.

In the first quarter of the 21st century, the department has suffered serious flooding. The region has also been subject to some of the highest recorded temperatures in France's history as climate change alters summer heat.

Demographics

Population development since 1791:

The inhabitants of the Gard are called Gardois in French. The most populous commune is Nîmes, the prefecture. As of 2023, there are eight communes that have more than 10,000 inhabitants:

Commune	Population (2023)
Nîmes	151,839
Alès	46,125
Bagnols-sur-Cèze	18,112
Beaucaire	15,692
Saint-Gilles	14,734
Villeneuve-lès-Avignon	13,148
Vauvert	11,671
Pont-Saint-Esprit	10,958

Politics

In the closely contested first round of the 2012 presidential election, the Gard was the only department to vote for the National Front candidate Marine Le Pen by a slim plurality, with 25.51% of the vote. The incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement party received 24.86% of the vote, while Socialist candidate François Hollande received 24.11% of the vote share.

Departmental Council

The President of the Departmental Council has been Françoise Laurent-Perrigot of the Socialist Party (PS) since 2021.

Party		Seats
	The Republicans (LR)	12
•	Socialist Party (PS)	10
	Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI)	7
•	French Communist Party (PCF)	6
•	Miscellaneous left (DVG)	4
	National Rally (FN)	4
•	Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV)	2
	Miscellaneous right (DVD)	1

Current members of the National Assembly

Constituency		Member	Party
	Gard's 1st constituency	Yoann Gillet	National Rally
	Gard's 2nd constituency	Nicolas Meizonnet	National Rally
	Gard's 3rd constituency	Pascale Bordes	National Rally
	Gard's 4th constituency	Pierre Meurin	National Rally
	Gard's 5th constituency	Alexandre Allegret-Pilot	Union of the Right for the Republic
	Gard's 6th constituency	Sylvie Josserand	National Rally

Tourism

The Gard contains a part of the Cévennes National Park. There are important Roman architectural remains in Nîmes, as well as the famous Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard.

The Gard is also home to the source of Perrier, a carbonated mineral water sold both in France and internationally on a large scale. The spring and facility are located just south-east of the commune of Vergèze.

• Aiguèze
  Aiguèze
• Uzès
  Uzès
• Cèze
  Cèze

See also

• Arrondissements of the Gard department
• Cantons of the Gard department
• Communes of the Gard department

External links

• "Gard" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (11th ed.). 1911.
• (In French) Prefecture website
• (In French) Departmental Council website
• (In French, English, and German) Welcome to the Gard
• (In French) Guide Gard