Stained glass window of Joan of Arc in Chinon, France.

Loire River Valley

The Loire River

The Loire is at the heart of France, its land and culture. The Loire is the longest river in France. It runs 1,012 kilometres to its mouth at Saint Nazaire, draining over 20% of France's land area into the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean. Its lower valley from Orléans to Nantes is the home of much of French culture, especially its language. The Académie Française considers the form of the French language spoken in the lower Loire valley to be the standard.

How do you speak French correctly?

They way they do along the Loire.

The Académie Française is a French government council founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. It acts as an official authority on the vocabulary, grammar, and use of the language. Part of this is a struggle against encroachments of English. It recommends that the English words like computer and software not be used, as French already had ordinateur and logiciel for those concepts before the technology became popular outside academia.

Map of France in 1911 showing the Loire river.

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