Normans are ready for reunification and Paris will grow under ambitious plansThe political map of France may be radically redrawn under ambitious, intriguing - and explosive - proposals which will be presented to President Nicolas Sarkozy next week. Paris would become part of a "Greater Paris" of six million people, copying the model of Greater London. Normandy might be unified for the first time in 805 years (since King John carelessly lost William's dukedom to the French in 1204). Brittany could, finally, reclaim its "lost" territory around Nantes and might expand eastwards for another 100 miles. Fury is erupting in Picardy, which would be one of two regions broken into pieces and wiped off from the administrative map. Several other regions may be merged but only one other is threatened with dismemberment and oblivion. This is - perhaps coincidentally - Poitou-Charente, the fiefdom of the unsuccessful Socialist presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal. The ideas will be formally presented to President Sarkozy next week by a committee chaired by the former prime minister Édouard Balladur. The President commissioned the report last year after promising to rationalise the multiple layers of governance in what is the most minutely administered nation in the world (100 départements, 22 regions, 36,000 communes).
The political map of France may be radically redrawn under ambitious, intriguing - and explosive - proposals which will be presented to President Nicolas Sarkozy next week.
Paris would become part of a "Greater Paris" of six million people, copying the model of Greater London. Normandy might be unified for the first time in 805 years (since King John carelessly lost William's dukedom to the French in 1204).
Brittany could, finally, reclaim its "lost" territory around Nantes and might expand eastwards for another 100 miles. Fury is erupting in Picardy, which would be one of two regions broken into pieces and wiped off from the administrative map.
Several other regions may be merged but only one other is threatened with dismemberment and oblivion. This is - perhaps coincidentally - Poitou-Charente, the fiefdom of the unsuccessful Socialist presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal.
The ideas will be formally presented to President Sarkozy next week by a committee chaired by the former prime minister Édouard Balladur. The President commissioned the report last year after promising to rationalise the multiple layers of governance in what is the most minutely administered nation in the world (100 départements, 22 regions, 36,000 communes).
As a descendent of the invading Normans, I think this is only right.
