The Area
he Gers is a department in the Midi-Pyrenees region in the southwest of France named after the river Gers. In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby. It is surrounded by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The Gers is often referred to as amongst the least densely populated, or most rural, areas in all of Western Europe.
The Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony. Its inhabitants of the department are called les Gersois. The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken.
Ten of the most important cities of the departement are Auch, Condom, Fleurance, L'Isle-Jourdain, Lectoure , Eauze, Vic-Fesensac, Mirande, Gimont and Pavie, ranging from a population of approximately 20,000 inhabitants (Auch) to 2000 inhabitants (Pavie).
Alexandre Dumas created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac.
The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as:
- Armagnac brandy,
- Côtes de Gascogne,
- Floc de Gascogne,
- foie gras,
- and wild mushrooms.
The prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza, sunflowers and grain.
The annual rain varies from more than 900 mm in the south-west of the department, to less than 700 mm in the North-East (Auch, Condom, Lectoure).
The winters vary, with often negative temperatures, but the climate remains soft all the same and dry, the department is one of sunniest of France. The summers are usually very hot and dry, the temperatures sometimes exceeding 40° in August. Auch, together with Toulouse and Millau, is one of the hottest cities of France, with often more than 300 sunny days in the year.
