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France: coats of arms and banners of arms of Départements

Coats of arms of départements
Banners of arms of départements
- Banners of arms in use by the departemental councils (formerly or currently)
- Banners of arms in use locally by other institutions or individuals to represent the department

See also:

Coats of arms of départements

The coat of arms of the French départements are presented in Marques symboliques des départements français, a 85-page typescript released in 1950 by Jacques Meurgey de Turpigny (Curator at the Archives Nationales) and Robert Louis (Symbolist designer at the official services). The booklet was "intended to be offered to official services and should not be either sold or reproduced, even partially, without the authors' consent". It includes a map of France with the arms of the départements, in sepia tones and of low resolution; "a printed edition with large-scale, illuminated symbolic emblems" (color plate) was announced as "in preparation". The same authors published in 1952 a similar booklet representing the coat of arms of the traditional provinces.

The introducing text of the booklet says:

[...]
The division of France in 90 départements proved to be efficient from the administrative point of view, but lacks spirit. While folkloric organizations show their identity by using the coats of arms of the traditional provinces, the départements hitherto lacked any symbolic emblem highlighting their identity.
For several years, a few préfets decided to fill this blank; upon proposal by the Commission d'héraldique départementale and after scholars' works, they prescribed by Order the definition of the symbols of the département to be used. The coat of arms of the départements of Seine, Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Vendée, Vosges and Bas-Rhin were thus established.
The issue soon interested the Presidents of the General Councils. To avoid that particular initiatives drifted away from the general plan, the pushers of the project commissioned Charles Braibant [1889-1976], Director of the Archives de France [1948-1959], to chair the required studies.

It was decided that the symbolic emblems of the départements should be as simple as possible; they should be composed only of the arms of the province or a pays that once used arms, when possible. Only heraldic divisions recalling either the geographical location or making the arms canting could be added to the charges of the provincial coat of arms when several départements were formed from a single province. Elements recalling town arms should be excluded, except when a town uses the arms of a province or a feudal domain.
[...]

Ivan Sache, 7 April 2018

Banners of arms of the départements

Some designs by Robert Louis are already in use, whether they are official or not, and are presented as such in Flags of the World. In some cases, the designs by others (including Mireille Louis, Robert's daughter) were officially adopted while in others, nothing was officially adopted yet, sometimes other proposals existing along with those by Louis. A good overview can be found on Wikipedia [Armorial des départements de France on Wikipedia] and another good source is the late Pascal Vagnat's site [Departments index on emblemes.free.fr, last udpaded in 2016].

Tomislav Todorović, 28 February 2023

Some of the coats of arms assigned to departments by Robert Louis are former provincial coat of arms. Their use in banners of arms is probably not linked to the choices made by Robert Louis.

The only banners of arms that have been or are in use, made after the series of coat of arms designed (or assigned) by Robert-Louis, or after traditional local coats of arms, are listed hereafter.
In the other departments, a banner of the arms proposed by the French heraldist Robert Louis is sometimes seen on flagmakers websites, but the use of this product as a flag in a public context has never been recorded.

Olivier Touzeau, 5 March 2023

Banners of arms or flags with coat of arms in use by the departemental councils (formerly or currently)

Département	Flag	Status of the flag	Observations
03 Allier		Flown together with the official logo flag of the Departmental council (photo)	Banner of arms of Bourbonnais
15 Cantal		Observed in use in front of the seat of the General Council in the years 2000 (photo)	Inverted colors, the coat of arms us blazoned "Or a gonfanon gules fimbriated vert"
2a/2b Corsica		Widely in use in both General/Departmental councils	Traditional flag of Corsica
38 Isère		In official use in the General/Departmental council since at least 2012	Banner of arms of Dauphiné
45 Loiret		Observed in August 2008 inside the General Council's building.	Not a banner of arms, but a white flag charged with the department's greater arms
49 Maine-et-Loire		Ceremonial flag (photo) is in use in the office of the President of the Departmental Council	Not a banner of arms, but a white flag with the coat of arms of the department
57 Moselle		In continuous use, since at least 2011, in front of the buildings of the General and Departmental Council, and by the Departmental Assembly	Banner of the Department's arms with the words "DEPARTEMENT" and "MOSELLE".
65 Hautes-Pyrénées		Spotted in official events organized by the departemental council: photo (2019), photo (2016), photo (2016), sometimes together with the flag of official departmental entities.	Banner of arms of Bigorre
66 Pyrénées-orientales		Widely used in the department and also in the session hall of the departmental council	Flag of Catalonia, the arms of which were assigned to the department by Robert Louis
67 Bas-Rhin		Widely used by the former department, now combined by Alsace with Haut-Rhin	banner of the arms of Lower-Alsace
68 Haut-Rhin		Widely used by the former department, now combined by Alsace with Bas-Rhin	banner of the arms of Upper-Alsace
73 Savoie		Widely used by both departments (sometimes defaced with the name of the department)	Traditional banner of arms of Savoy. These arms appear on an inescutcheon on the arms assigned to Savoie by Robert Louis.
74 Haute-Savoie			Traditional banner of arms of Savoy. These arms appear on an inescutcheon on the arms assigned to Hte-Savoie by Robert Louis
75 Paris		In use by the city and department of Paris	Traditional arms of Paris. The departement of Paris has no emblems of oits own.
83 Var		Ceremonial flag (photo) in use in the Departmental Council	The arms designed by Robert Louis are represented in white on the blue field of the flag
84 Vaucluse		Ceremonial flag (photo ) since at least 2011 in the office of the President of the Council	Coat of arms officially adopted on 4 June 1971 instead of the arms assigned to Vaucluse by Jacques Meurgey de Tupigny & Robert Louis
88 Vosges		In use by the departmental council	Banner of the arms designed by Robert Louis and adopted in 1946
92 Hauts-de-Seine		The first flag was a banner of arms and the coat of arms could still be seen in the first logo and subsequently in the first logo-flag	No flag including the coat of arms currently in use
95 Val-d'Oise		Possible use by the General council a the end of the 1980ies of a white flag with the arms designed by Mireille Louis. Flag spotted in flagmaker's catalogue, unconfirmed	The arms designed by Robert Louis have never been in use.

Olivier Touzeau, 5 March 2023

Banners of arms in use locally by other institutions or individuals to represent the department

Département	Flag	Status of the flag	Observations
01 Ain		Formerly in use at the regional council to symbolize the deparment, never used by the departemental council itself
07 Ardèche		Formerly in use at the regional council to symbolize the deparment, never used by the departemental council itself	Banner of arms of Vivarais
12 Aveyron		In use on some local monuments but not used by the departmental council itself	Banner of arms of Rouergue
18 Cher		Arms on a white field, observed at the airport of Bourges
22 Côtes-d'Armor		Banner of arms with the addition of a golden border, created by the city of Saint-Brieuc to represent the Département in the 1960ies	Flag not in use anymore
23 Creuse		Observed for example in Guéret (photo)	Banner of arms of Marche
24 Dordogne		Sometimes observed locally	Banner of arms of Périgord
37 Indre-et-Loire		Sometimes observed locally	Banner of arms of Touraine
38 Isère		Formerly in use at the regional council to symbolize the deparment, never used by the departemental council itself	Not a banner of the arms assignred by Robert Louis, but including some of its elements.
42 Loire		Formerly in use at the regional council to symbolize the deparment, never used by the departemental council itself
48 Lozère		Sometimes observed locally	Traditional arms of Gévaudan
53 Mayenne		Flown on the castle of La Basmaignée (photo), in Montenay
58 Nièvre		Sometimes observed locally	Traditional arms of Nivernais
59 Nord		Often observed locally, but not to symbolize the deparment itself	Traditional arms of Flanders
69 Rhône		Formerly in use at the regional council to symbolize the deparment, never used by the departemental council itself
87 Haute-Vienne		Sometimes observed locally

Olivier Touzeau, 5 March 2023