Currently the departement (administrative region), stretching from mountainside to shining Mediterranean is officially titled the Pyrenees Orientales.

BBC: Magazine

In the Haute-Pyrenees departement of France, there is anger that the area has been excluded from France's officially-designated disaster area, reducing the aid available to farmers.

BBC: Dutch raise summer heatwave toll

Part of the Turkish Ottoman empire from the 16th century, Algeria was conquered by the French in 1830 and was given the status of a "departement".

BBC: Algeria profile