Wikipedia talk:WikiProject French departments

Tarquin, Olivier, do the French departments have a flag or coat of arms? If so, I´d be nice to include these in the table, like is done with the countries at WikiProject Countries.

Some other suggestions:

• Put the department number in the table (maybe in the header, 06 - Alpes-Maritimes or Alpes-Maritimes (06))
• Maybe it's better use English names. Department, prefecture are all perfectly good English words, while département, préfecture and especially sous-préfecture will not be familiar with most readers (though linking it already helps).

Jeronimo

Good point for the flags. In fact, French departments seem to have one, although it is very rarely displayed (being French, I do not even remember having seen the one of my own department). These flags seem to be based on the ones of the ancient provinces where the departments are located.

More often seen in France, though, is the logo of the Conseil General (the governing body of the departement).

I found a list there: http://www.cyber-flag.net, although there might be copyright issue.

Bottom line: flags would be graphically nice, also of very little relevance. Maybe they could be included as Jeronimo suggests, in the table, together with the logos. Or maybe the logos alone would be better.

Regarding the department number. I agree that it would be better to include it in the table. I am still wondering how to explain what this number is about if it is in the table.

I guess that the question about using local vs. English name is a very classic one on Wikipedia. Is there any guideline about this?

- Olivier

If the logos alone are frequently seen, that may be sufficient, flags could be added only if wanted.

If you want to include the number in the table, you may want to link it to an explanatory article about the numbers of departments in France.

The general rule in Wikipedia for local vs. English is to use the generally accepted English term if there is one. However, I'm not a native English speaker, and I don't know if department and prefecture are acceptable English language terms. Jeronimo