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It is made up of: * the former French province of Provence * the former papal territory of Avignon, known as Comtat Venaissin * the former Sardinian-Piedmontese county of Nice, whose coastline is known in English as the French Riviera, and in French as the Côte d'Azur * the southeastern part of the former French province of Dauphiné, in the French Alps. It encompasses six departments in south-eastern France, bounded to the east by the Italian border, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and by the principality of Monaco, to the north by Rhône-Alpes, and to the west by Languedoc-Roussillon, with the Rhône river marking its westernmost border. The six departments are: * Alpes-de-Haute-Provence * Hautes-Alpes * Alpes-Maritimes * Bouches-du-Rhône * Var * Vaucluse The region logo displays the coat of arms created in the 1990s and which combines the coats of arms of the old provinces making up Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Economically the region is the third most important in France just behind Île-de-France and Rhône-Alpes. Its GDP in 2006 was - 130,178 million ($US 163,600 million) and per capita GDP was - 27,095 ($US 34,051). |