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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (January 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Cher (département)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Cher
Department
Prefecture of Cher, in Bourges
Coat of arms
Location of Cher in France
Coordinates: 47°0′N 2°35′E / 47.000°N 2.583°E / 47.000; 2.583Coordinates: 47°0′N 2°35′E / 47.000°N 2.583°E / 47.000; 2.583
Country	France
Region	Centre-Val de Loire
Prefecture	Bourges
Subprefectures	Saint-Amand-Montrond Vierzon
Government
• President of the General Council	Alain Rafesthain (PS)
Area1
• Total	7,235 km2 (2,793 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	311,650
• Rank	73rd
• Density	43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Department number	18
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	19
Communes	290
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Cher (French pronunciation: ​[ʃɛʁ]; Berrichon: Char) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is named after the Cher River.

History

Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. Most of it was created, along with the adjacent department of Indre from the former province of Berry. The southeastern corner of the department, however, was part of the Duchy of Bourbon.

Geography

The department is part of the current administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is surrounded by the departments of Indre, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Nièvre, Allier, and Creuse.

Demographics

The inhabitants of the department are called Berrichons from the former province of Berry.

Politics

The President of the General Council is Alain Rafesthain of the Socialist Party.

Tourism

The Bourges Cathedral of St. Étienne is a major tourist attraction.

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  Bourges Cathedral
  

  
  

  
  


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  Bourges
  

  
  

  
  


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  Apremont-sur-Allier
  

  
  

  
  


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  Noirlac Abbey
  

  
  

  
  


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  Château de Meillant
  

  
  

  
  

See also

• Cantons of the Cher department


• Communes of the Cher department


• Arrondissements of the Cher department


• Coat of arms of Cher

Languages

The historical languages are Berrichon and the northern version of Bourbonais. These are both dialects of French, or the Langues d'oïl. They are named respectively after the former Province of Berry and the former Duchy of Bourbon.
Some 11 communes in the extreme South used to speak Occitan.

The old dialects were in widespread use until the middle decades of the twentieth century and incorporated major regional variations within the department, influenced by the dialects of adjacent regions near the departmental frontiers. During the twentieth century government educational policy promoted a more standardised version of the French language.

In the extreme south of the department influence from the southern Occitan language begins to appear, with "chambrat" being used in place of "grenier a foin" (hayloft), "betoulle" in place of "bouleau" (birch tree) and "aigue" in place of "eau" (water).

External links

• 
  (in French) General Council of Cher
  


• 
  (in French) Prefecture of Cher
  


• 
  (in English) Cher at Curlie
  


• http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/bourges.html


• https://web.archive.org/web/20041204220326/http://www.sitesatlas.com/Europe/France/Bourges.htm


• http://berrichou.free.fr/