It is one of a handful of so-called "balancing
metropolis" in other words, an artificially created region. A good example of an
artificially created region is Rhône-Alpes, which was
created as the region for Lyon, also now known as the Midi-Pyrénées,
which was created to serve as a region for Toulouse.
Pays de la Loire is a part of Brittany, with its old capital Nantes contained within the
The whole of the former province of Maine is contained inside Pays de la Loire and Maine
is now divided between the Mayenne and Sarthe departments.
The name of the region was chosen by the French government and was based purely on the
geographical location - Pays means "lands" and de la Loire means "of the
Loire River". However it does cause some confusion, since the chateaux of the
Loire valley are actually located in the Centre region and not
within Pays del la Loire!
The departments within Pays del al Loire are: Loire-Atlantique, Mayenne, Sarthe, Vendee