Ariège (Department, France)

Last modified: 2024-12-21 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: ariege |
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Flag of Ariège - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 18 February 2019

• Administrative data
• Flag of Ariège
• Former flags of the General and Departmental Councils
• Sports flags

See also:

• France
• France: Metropolitan departments
• Clickable map of France (departments)

Administrative data

Code: 09
Region: Occitanie (Midi-Pyrénées until 2014)
Traditional provinces: Comté de Foix, Guyenne-et-Gascogne, Languedoc
Bordering departments: Aude, Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées-Orientales
Bordering countries: Andorra, Spain (Autonomous Community of Catalonia [Province of Lleida])

Area: 4,890 km²
Population (2016): 153,067 inhabitants

Préfecture: Foix
Sous-préfectures: Pamiers, Saint-Girons
Subdivisions: 3 arrondissements, 13 cantons, 331 municipalities.

The department is named after river Ariège (170 km), a tributary to the Garonne.
A proposal made by the General Council to rename the department "Ariège-Pyrénées" was rejected by the State Council in 2005.

Ivan Sache, 11 April 2019

Flag of Ariège

The flag of Ariège (photo) is white with the logo adopted in 2017.
The logo "drastically differs" from the former logo adopted in 1986, features a green map of the department.

The new, modernized signature is composed of four basic elements:
- "Ariège", as the country, the land, the identity;
- "Pyrénées", as the localization, geography and history;
- "le Département", as the collective bound to the land;
- "09" as a wink to this number, cherished by the local people who enjoy showing it on their license plates.
The logo, which reads "Ariège-Pyrénées-Le-Département-09" does not reject, however, its history, since it highlights the green color, which is inscribed in the DNA of Ariège. Green forms the connection with the former logo.

Green is for sure the most common color in Ariège. Duly associated with the plant world that is its better representative, green is a calming, refreshing, and even boosting color (Pantone 334c / CMYK 82 20 63 0).
Blue and its shades (turquoise, cyan...), like the sky covering horizons, is a color strongly connected with dream, wisdom and serenity (Pantone 7702c / CMYK 67 11 23 0).
[Departmental Council website]

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 21 February 2019

Former flags of the General and Departmental Councils

Flags of the former General and Departmental Councils of Ariège - left, before 2015; right, 2015-2017
Images by Olivier Touzeau, 18 February 2019

The flag of the former General Council (photo) was white with the Council's logo.

Olivier Touzeau, 18 February 2019

In 2015, General Councils were renamed to Departmental Councils. The logo was modified with the words "Conseil départemental" and the flag was modified accordingly (photo with text on two lines, 2016).

Olivier Touzeau, 18 December 2024