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Côte-d'Or (Department, France)

Flag of the General Council of Côte-d'Or - Image by Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 19 December 2001

Administrative data
Flag of the General Council

See also:

France
France: Metropolitan departments
Clickable map of France (departments)
Côte-d'Or (Department, France): Municipal flags

Administrative data

Code: 21
Region: Bourgogne
Traditional provinces: Bourgogne, Champagne
Bordering departments: Aube, Jura, Haute-Marne, Nièvre, Haute-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne

Area: 8,763 km²
Population (1995): 507,300 inhabitants

Préfecture: Dijon
Sous-préfectures: Beaune, Montbard
Subdivisions: 3 arrondissements, 43 cantons, 705 communes.

The department ("Golden Coast") is named after the Côte, the linear fault escarpment on which are located the famous Burgundy vineyards.
When departments were created in 1790, the deputy André-Rémy Arnoult, secretary of the Constituante Assembly, proposed the name Côte-d'Or, highlighting the golden colour of vines in autumn. Other rejected proposals, such as Haute-Seine and Seine-et-Loire, referred to rivers, as it is the case for several other French departments.

Flag of the General Council

The General Council flies a forked gonfanon. The upper part of the flag includes a blue sky with white clouds, in a quasi-photographic style, whereas the lower part is red with Côte d'Or - Conseil Général in yellow and white letters, respectively (on two rows).

The lower part of the flag, but without Conseil Général, is placed on the road shields seen on the highway A6 (Paris-Lyon) when entering the departement of Côte-d'Or (and probably on the other highways crossing the department). However, since this does not seem to appear elsewhere as a real flag, I won't consider the simplified version of the flag of the General Council as the flag of the department.

Ivan Sache, 19 December 2001