The Charente-Maritime is a department located in the South-West of France, falling geographically from "Atlantic Midday" 1. Belonging to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, it is divided into five arrondissementsN 1, and has the number 17 in the French departmental numbering. Its prefecture is La Rochelle and its inhabitants are called Charentais-Maritimes.
If the department does not have a big city strictly speaking, nor of urban center polarizing by itself all the departmental space, it does not have less a balanced network of medium-sized towns whose principal ones are La Rochelle, Saintes , Rochefort Royan and Cognac