Tarn

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Tarn

Coat of arms of the Tarn department
Location

Administration
Department number:	81
Region:	Midi-Pyrénées
Prefecture:	Albi
Subprefectures:	Castres
Arrondissements:	2
Cantons:	46
Communes:	324
President of the General Council:	Thierry Carcenac
Statistics
Population	Ranked 65th
-1999	343,402
Population density:	60/km²
Land area¹:	5758 km²

¹ French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km².

Tarn is a department of 5 758 km² in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the south-west of France, named after the Tarn River. It was formed in 1790 of the three dioceses of Albi, Castres and Lavaur, belonging to the province of Languedoc. In 1906, the population was 330,533. In 1999, it stood at 343,402.

Of particular note in the department are Albi (the capital), Castres, Gaillac, Lavaur, Mazamet and Cordes.

Other places of interest are:

Burlats, which has ruins of an old church and chateau
Lisle d'Albi, a bastide with a church of the 14th century
Penne which has ruins of a fine medieval château.

1 Landscapes
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Landscapes

Tarn's three principal ranges lying to the south-east are: the Mountains of Lacaune, the Sidobre, and the Montagne Noire, belonging to the Cevennes. The stony and wind-blown slopes of the firstnamed are used for pasture. The highest point of the range and of the department is the Pic de Montalet (about 4150 ft.); several other summits are not much short of this. The granite strewn plateaux of the Sidobre, from 1600 to 2000 ft high, separate the valley of the River Agout from that of its western tributary, the River Thoré. The Montagne Noire, on the southern border of the department, derives its name from the forests on its northern slope, and some of its peaks are from 3000 to 3500 ft high.

The limestone and sandstone foot-hills are clothed with vines and fruit trees, and are broken by deep alluvial valleys of particular fertility. With the exception of a small portion of the Montagne Noire, which drains into the River Aude, the whole department belongs to the basin of the Garonne. The eastern portion of the department has the climate of Auvergne, the severest in France, but that of the plain is Girondin.

Tarn is bounded north and east by Aveyron, southeast by Herault, south by Aude, southwest and west by Haute-Garonne, northwest by Tarn-et-Garonne. The slope of the department is from east to west, and its general character is mountainous or hilly.

This includes information from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.^[1]