Départment……qu’est-ce que c’est?

Snigdha R. 

" Les départements " are an intermediate level of the official administrative structures of France, 'within and below' the larger regions, and above the commune  or local level - see links for more complete discussion, but below is part of the high level description of French administrative and territorial organisation: 

 The newly defined regions are:

Grand-Est (Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine)Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes)Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes)Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Bourgogne and Franche-Comté)Occitanie (Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées)Hauts-de-France (combining Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie)Normandie (combining Basse-Normandie and Haute-Normandie)

In addition to the remaining original regions:

BretagneCorseCentre-Val de LoireÎle-de-FrancePays de la LoireProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Thus, since the 1st of January 2016, there are 18 French Regions — 13 metropolitan Regions and five Overseas Regions. The 13 metropolitan Regions include the 12 mainland Regions and Corsica, while the remaining five Regions include French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion. 

These five islands are defined as both Overseas Regions as well as Overseas Departments with their institutions. 

In addition to these five Overseas Departments, there are 96 mainland departments (including 2 departments in Corsica). In total, therefore, there are 101 Departments and 34 970 Municipalities. Paris, Lyon and Marseille are further divided into arrondissements.  

 https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/France-Introduction.aspx#:~:text=France%20is%20a%20republican%20State,and%20the%20Senate%20(S%C3%A9nat).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_divisions_of_France