Drôme
—  Department  —
Coat of arms
Location of Drôme in France
Coordinates: 44°45′N 05°10′E / 44.75°N 5.167°E / 44.75; 5.167Coordinates: 44°45′N 05°10′E / 44.75°N 5.167°E / 44.75; 5.167
Country	France
Region	Rhône-Alpes
Prefecture	Valence
Subprefectures	Die Nyons
Government
• President of the General Council	Didier Guillaume (PS)
Area1
• Total	6,530 km2 (2,520 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Total	473,427
• Rank	53rd
• Density	73/km2 (190/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	26
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	36
Communes	369
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Drôme (French pronunciation: [dʁom]; Droma in Occitan, Drôma in Arpitan), a département in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.

History[link]

St Vallier in Drôme, was the birthplace of one of France's most famous courtesans, the noble-born Diane de Poitiers (1499-1566), long-term mistress of King Henri II (1547-1559).

The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution. The territory formed part of the former French province of Dauphiné.

Geography[link]

Drôme lies within the region of Rhône-Alpes (Rôno-Arpes) and is surrounded by the departments of Ardèche, Isère, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Vaucluse.

The boundaries of the department have changed several times with the incorporation of the Comtat Venaissin in 1792 and the creation of the department of Vaucluse in 1793. Drôme surrounds an enclave of the department of Vaucluse, the Canton of Valréas (Enclave des Papes).

Climate[link]

Economy[link]

Politics[link]

The President of the General Council is Didier Guillaume of the Socialist Party.

Demographics[link]

The inhabitants of the department are called Drômois.

Main cities[link]

(1999 figures)

• Valence: 66,568
• Romans-sur-Isère: 33,665
• Montélimar: 32,896
• Nyons: 6,731

Tourism[link]

Sport activities in Drôme include skiing, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing in winter; during the summer period, excursions, mountain biking in the mountainous area.

See also[link]

• Cantons of the Drôme department
• Communes of the Drôme department
• Arrondissements of the Drôme department

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Drôme.

• (English) Tourism website
• (English) Drôme Tourism Guide
• (French) Prefecture website
• (French) General Council website
• (French) Drome valley website
• (French) Drome Pictures

Cheval's Palais idéal, east façade

Ferdinand Cheval (born 1836 in Charmes-sur-l'Herbasse, Drôme, France; died 19 August 1924) was a French postman who spent thirty-three years of his life building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives.^[1][2][3] The Palace is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture.

Origins[link]

Ferdinand Cheval lived in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, in the Drôme département of France. He had left school at the age of 13 to become a baker's apprentice, but eventually became a postman.^[1][2][3]

Palais idéal[link]

The starting point: the unusually-shaped stone that Cheval tripped over

Cheval began the building in April 1879. He claimed that he had tripped on a stone and was inspired by its shape. He returned to the same spot the next day and started collecting stones.^[4]

For the next thirty-three years, Cheval picked up stones during his daily mail round and carried them home to build the Palais idéal.^[1][2] He spent the first twenty years building the outer walls. At first, he carried the stones in his pockets, then switched to a basket. Eventually, he used a wheelbarrow. He often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp.^[1][2][3]

The Palais is a mix of different styles with inspirations from Christianity to Hinduism. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement.^[1][2][3]

Burial[link]

Cheval's mausoleum.

Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. However, since that is illegal in France, he proceeded to spend eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the Hauterives cemetery. He died on 19 August 1924, about a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.^[1][2][3]

Recognition[link]

Just prior to his death, Cheval began to receive some recognition from luminaries like André Breton and Pablo Picasso. His work is commemorated in an essay by Anaïs Nin. In 1932, the German artist Max Ernst created a collage titled The Postman Cheval. The work belongs to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and is on display there. In 1958, Ado Kyrou made Le Palais idéal, a short film on Cheval's palace.

In 1969, André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, declared the Palais a cultural landmark and had it officially protected.^[3] In 1986 Cheval was put on a French postage stamp.^[3]

It is open for visitors every day except Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Chuck Palahniuk's novel Choke includes a character named Denny who, like Cheval, is an uneducated deliveryman who gradually collects and assembles stones into his "dream home."

Pictures of the Palace[link]

• 

  Palais idéal

• 

  Hindu temple

• 

  Detail of north front

• 

  Swiss chalet

See also[link]

• Visionary environments
• Simon Rodia
• Friedensreich Hundertwasser
• Bunleua Sulilat
• Nek Chand
• Justo Gallego Martinez
• Bishop Castle
• Watts Towers
• KunstHausWien
• Coral Castle: a self-made stone assemblage in Florida

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ferdinand Cheval

• Postman Cheval's website in English and French
• Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval (requires Flash).
• Expo.htm at perso.wanadoo.fr" Expo Coco Peintre du Facteur Cheval-1987 Hauterives France
• Hauterives and Palais Idéal Photogallery
• Album Mon Cheval, a French blog's photogallery.
• Palais Idéal Ferdinand Cheval (feature article).

Coordinates: 45°15′23″N 5°1′43″E / 45.25639°N 5.02861°E / 45.25639; 5.02861