Picardy
Picardie (English: Picardy) is one of the 26 régions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.
The modern région of Picardie is larger than the historical province of Picardy. The south of the Aisne département and most of the Oise département were historically part of the province of Île-de-France, while the Somme département and the north of the Aisne département were the province of Picardy proper.
As the historical Picardy was deemed too small to become a région, the French government decided to join it with the north of Île-de-France (specifically, the pays of Beauvaisis, Valois, Noyonnais, Laonnois, Soissonnais, Omois, to name only the most prominent). The name of the historical province of Picardy was given to this new région.
Thus, the Picardie région is somewhat an artificial région, with the south of the Oise département lying inside the metropolitan area of Paris. People in the south of Oise commute to Île-de-France for work, and hardly feel Picard ("Picardy inhabitant").
Although Picardie is somewhat a stagnating région, with the industrial area of Saint-Quentin in the north of Picardie hard hit by economic crisis, the south of the région, at the border with Île-de-France, is booming due to the increasing inflow of Parisians relocating to the distant and greener suburbs of the Oise département.
Between the 1990 and 1999 French censuses, the population of Oise increased at the brisk pace of 0.61% per year (almost twice faster than France as a whole), while the Aisne département lost inhabitants, and the Somme barely grew, at a laggard 0.16% per year. Today, 41.3% of the population of Picardie live inside the Oise département, which historically was not part of Picardy.
Geographically, the artificial character of the région is also apparent. Although Picardy proper is a vast flat plain of open fields, famed for the gruesome Battle of the Somme, the south of Picardie (historically part of Île-de-France) is a very scenic hilly area with large forests.
