Vendée, La
River in western France, rising near the village of La Châtaigneraie and flowing 72 km/45 mi to join the Sèvre Niortaise 11 km/7 mi east of the Bay of Biscay.
Vendée, La
| Maritime département in the Pays de la Loire region of western France; area 6,720 sq km/2,595 sq mi; population (1999 est) 539,700. The administrative centre is La Roche-sur-Yon, and principal towns include Fontenay-le-Comte and Les Sables-d'Olonne. Its rivers include the Vendée and the Lay. The département is dominated by the Bocage Vendéan, a large area of area of mixed woodland and small hedge-bound fields, but there are marshes in the northwest and a well-cultivated plain in the south. The principal crops are wheat and sugar-beet. Vines are grown, and horses and cattle are bred. |
| The département was formed from part of the old province of Poitou. The Wars of the Vendée took place here in 1793, in which a series of peasant uprisings were brutally suppressed by the Republican government. |
