Basically, the Ile-de-France is Paris, and a number of far uglier satellite towns, and tranquil rural districts that ring it. You don't expect that Paris is capable of supporting eleven million people while remaining charming ?
These departments make up the Ile-de-France:
  • Paris
  • Seine-et-Marne (home of Eurodisney)
  • Yvelines (which includes Verseilles)
  • Essonne
  • Hauts-de-Seine
  • Seine-Saint-Denis
  • Val-de-Marne
  • Val-d'Oise

    Paris is worth quite a few nodes. The departments that surround Paris (collectively called La Petite Courrone) do include some nice natural landscapes, forests and old villages. However they also contain les banlieux - treeless, grey suburbs of public housing tenancies built in the 1960s when functionaries thought that Le Corbusier could put life into concrete. Many districts are marked by high crime rates, large foreign populations, disconnection with France's social and economic life and general social fragmentation. Le Front National poll here quite well.

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