Drôme

Road between Die and Aspres in the Alpes du Dauphine, Drôme province, France. Drôme is a fertile agricultural area between the Rhône valley and the Cottian Alps.

Département in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeast France area 6,525 sq km/2,519 sq mi; population (1999 est) 437,800. Drôme extends from the wide and fertile Rhône valley in the west to the edge of the Cottian Alps (Alpes du Dauphiné) in the east. The chief products are maize, potatoes, buckwheat, mulberries, fruit, truffles, and wine (including Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage). There are electrical, aerospace, chemical, foodstuffs, and paper industries. Silk and leather are also produced here. The capital is Valence; other towns are Die, Nyons, Montélimar, Crest, and Romans-sur-Isère.

Many of the mountain valleys of Drôme are steep and irregular; the slopes of the lower hills are partly fertile and wooded, while elsewhere they are dry and barren and support only sheep. Drôme is bounded on the north and northeast by Isère, on the east by Hautes-Alpes, on the southeast by Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, on the south by Vaucluse, and on the west by the River Rhône.

Drôme once formed part of the ancient province of Dauphiné, a private fiefdom of the French royal heir which existed until 1561.