By Bill Turianski on the 9th of February 2021; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2020–21 Ligue 1 (en.wikipedia.org).
-Ligue 1 – Summary: matches, table, players, etc. (soccerway.com).
-Get French Football…your home of French football in English (getfootballnewsfrance.com).
-Football en France: Histoire, stats et classement sur la Ligue 1 (pari-et-gagne.com). [Recommended.]
…
The map shows the twenty clubs in the current season of the French Ligue 1 [2020-21].
The map features the locations and crests of the 20 current Ligue Un clubs, along with the 10 largest French cities, and the 13 Regions of Metropolitan France (aka European France). {Largest French cities’ metropolitan area populations from 2016 census, here}. The major French rivers are also shown {see further below, at the foot of this post, for more on that}.
Plus, there are two charts on the right-hand side of the map page….
One chart shows Seasons-in-1st-Division [current clubs]. (2020-21 is the 83rd season of Ligue 1.) Marseille has spent the longest in the French top flight, with 71 seasons. Second-most seasons in the French top flight goes to two clubs – Saint-Étienne, and Bordeaux – both with 68 seasons. Also shown on the chart are the consecutive seasons each club has currently spent in the top tier. Reigning champions PSG are the current longest-serving member of Ligue 1, with 47 straight seasons; second-longest top-flight tenure belongs to Lyon, with 32 straight seasons.
The second chart is the All-time French titles list. Saint-Étienne have won the most French titles: 10. But Saint-Étienne’s last title came 40 seasons ago, in 1981. Two clubs have the second-most titles – Marseille, and PSG – with 9. Marseille last won it in 2010. Paris Saint-Germain, as mentioned, are the reigning champions, and are by far the most wealthy club in the country, to the point of making a mockery of any notion of a balanced competition. (PSG is owned by a subsidiary of the slave-owning Gulf state Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.) And PSG have been champions for 7 of the last 8 seasons, and for the last 3 straight seasons.
But PSG might not win the title this season.
Because both Lille and Lyon sit above PSG in the table, currently [9 February 2020]. So the neutral fan is left with the appealing prospect of an actual title race in France right now. Lille has won 6 straight, and seized first place on the last day of January, when PSG stumbled against relegation-threatened Lorient. Meanwhile, Lyon has been at or near the top all season, and beat PSG away, in mid-December. Here are some crucial title-race fixtures…Sunday the 21st of March: Lyon v PSG. Saturday the 3rd of April: PSG v Lille. Saturday the 24th of April: Lyon v Lille.
Here is a recent article on current league-leaders Lille, from the Guardian/football site…Lille were Ligue 1 title contenders. Now they look like the favourites (by Adam White and Eric Devin on 4 Feb 2021 at theguardian.com/football).
…
…
Major Rivers in France
Since I could not find a suitable blank map of France which featured major rivers, I drew in the rivers on the map here myself, using a variety of sources. I took extra care in plotting the rivers through the two largest French cities of Paris and Lyon. The 10 longest rivers in France are shown, and are listed at the foot of the map. Due to conflicting interpretations of river-lengths, I could not find a definitive list of the longest rivers in France online, except for the Google-search result of that {here/see the 10 images across the top of the search-result}. I then confirmed the numbers, using both Wikipedia and the online Encyclopædia Britannica, and a few other sources. Below, I have reproduced the text at the foot of the map…
Longest Rivers in France
1. Rhine (1,230 km/760 mi): rises in the Swiss Alps in eastern Switzerland. Flows through Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Austria, Germany, France & Netherlands. Empties into the North Sea, near Rotterdam, Netherlands.
2. Loire (1,006 km/629 mi): rises in the SE Massif Centrale. Longest river wholly in France. It flows north to Orléans, then swings west. Empties into the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean), near Nantes.
3. Meuse (925 km/575 mi): flows through NE France, Belgium & Netherlands. Drains into the North Sea via the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta in southern Netherlands.
4. Rhône (813 km/575 mi): rises in the Rhône Glacier in the southern Swiss Alps. Flows through Switzerland & SE France, passing through Lyon. Empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille.
5. Seine (775 km/482 mi): rises at Source-Seine, 30 km (19 mi) NW of Dijon. Flows generally north-west, passing through the capital, Paris. Empties into the English Channel at Le Havre.
6. Moselle (545 km/339 mi): a left-bank tributary of the Rhine that flows through NE France, Luxembourg and western Germany. It joins the Rhine at Koblenz, Germany.
7. Garrone (529 km/329 mi): rises in the Spanish Pyrenees. Flows through northern Spain and SW France, passing through Toulouse. Empties into the Gironde estuary at Bordeaux.
8. Marne (514 km/319 mi): a right-bank tributary of the Seine. It runs north, and then bends west, and joins the Seine 6 km (4 mi) S of central Paris, at Charenton-le-Pont.
9. Lot (485 km/301 mi): a right-bank tributary of the Garonne that rises in the southern Massif Centrale. It joins the Garonne 95 km (59 mi) SE of Bordeaux, at Aiguillon.
10. Dordogne (483 km/300 mi): rises on the flanks of the Puy de Sancy (the highest point in the the Massif Centrale). Flows west to join the Gironde estuary just north of Bordeaux.
…
___
Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of France by Superbenjamin at File:France location map-Regions and departements-2016.svg (en.wikipedia.org).
-Seasons-in-1st-division data, from pari-et-gagne.com/[Bilan historique Ligue 1].
-Longest rivers in France, from worldatlas.com/[longest-rivers-in-france].
-Largest French cities (2016 census figures of metropolitan-areas), from insee.fr via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area_(France)#List_of_France’s_aires_urbaines_(metropolitan_areas).
-2020–21 Ligue 1 (en.wikipedia.org and fr.wikipedia.org).
