About this postcard
Charente-Maritime is a département in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region on the southwestern coast of France. Named after the river Charente, its prefecture is La Rochelle. Previously a part of the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original département created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. On 4 September 1941, during World War II, it was renamed as Charente-Maritime. When the département was first organised, the commune of Saintes was designated as the prefecture of the département (Saintes had previously been the capital of Saintonge). This changed in 1810 when Napoleon passed an imperial decree to move the prefecture to La Rochelle.