This is a list of the 130 departments (French: départements), the conventional name for the administrative subdivisions of the First French Empire at the height of its territorial extent, circa 1811.
Note that the Illyrian Provinces were also part of France, but were not organised into departments, and so are not included in this list. Similarly, four additional French departments were also created in Catalonia (the part of Spain annexed in 1812); their juridical status remained incomplete until Spain was lost by the First French Empire in 1814. Those departments were: Bouches-de-l'Èbre, Montserrat, Sègre and Ter.
| Ain | Cher | Haut-Rhin | Maine-et-Loire | Roer |
| Aisne | Corrèze | Haute-Garonne | Manche | Rome |
| Allier | Corse | Haute-Loire | Marengo | Sambre-et-Meuse |
| Alpes-Maritimes | Côte-d'Or | Haute-Marne | Marne | Saône-et-Loire |
| Apennins | Côtes-du-Nord | Haute-Saône | Mayenne | Sarre |
| Ardèche | Creuse | Haute-Vienne | Méditerranée | Sarthe |
| Ardennes | Deux-Nèthes | Hautes-Alpes | Meurthe | Seine |
| Ariège | Deux-Sèvres | Hautes-Pyrénées | Meuse | Seine-et-Marne |
| Arno | Doire | Hérault | Meuse-Inférieure | Seine-et-Oise |
| Aube | Dordogne | Ille-et-Vilaine | Mont-Blanc | Seine-Inférieure |
| Aude | Doubs | Indre | Mont-Tonnerre | Sésia |
| Aveyron | Drôme | Indre-et-Loire | Montenotte | Simplon |
| Bas-Rhin | Dyle | Isère | Morbihan | Somme |
| Basses-Alpes | Ems-Occidental | Jemmape(s) | Moselle | Stura |
| Basses-Pyrénées | Ems-Oriental | Jura | Nièvre | Tarn |
| Bouches-de-l'Elbe | Ems-Supérieur | Landes | Nord | Tarn-et-Garonne |
| Bouches-de-l'Escaut | Escaut | Léman | Oise | Taro |
| Bouches-de-l'Yssel | Eure | Lippe | Ombrone | Trasimène |
| Bouches-de-la-Meuse | Eure-et-Loir | Loir-et-Cher | Orne | Var |
| Bouches-du-Rhin | Finistère | Loire | Ourte | Vaucluse |
| Bouches-du-Rhône | Forêts | Loire-Inférieure | Pas-de-Calais | Vendée |
| Bouches-du-Weser | Frise | Loiret | Pô | Vienne |
| Calvados | Gard | Lot | Puy-de-Dôme | Vosges |
| Cantal | Gênes | Lot-et-Garonne | Pyrénées-Orientales | Yonne |
| Charente | Gers | Lozère | Rhin-et-Moselle | Yssel-Supérieur |
| Charente-Inférieure | Gironde | Lys | Rhône | Zuyderzée |
The names of departments formed from territories annexed to France after 1791 have been colour-coded as follows:
| Former territory of the Kingdom of Sardinia, annexed in 1792 (Duchy of Savoy) and 1793 (County of Nice) | |
| Former territory of the Austrian Netherlands and other territories (Liège, Stavelot-Malmedy and Thorn), annexed in 1795 | |
| Former territory of the Holy Roman Empire on the left bank of the Rhine, annexed on various dates between 1795 and 1801 | |
| Former territory of the Cisrhenian Republic, annexed in 1802 | |
| Former territory of the Subalpine Republic (annexed in 1802) and the Ligurian Republic (annexed in 1805) | |
| Former territory of the Kingdom of Etruria (annexed in 1807) and the Duchy of Parma (annexed in 1808) | |
| Former territory of the Papal States, annexed in 1809 | |
| Former territory of various German states, annexed in 1810 | |
| Former territory of the Kingdom of Holland, annexed in 1810 | |
| Former territory of the Rhodanic Republic, annexed in 1810 |
Famous quotes containing the words departments, french and/or empire:
“A man sees only what concerns him.... How much more, then, it requires different intentions of the eye and of the mind to attend to different departments of knowledge! How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The French Revolution gave birth to no artists but only to a great journalist, Desmoulins, and to an under-the-counter writer, Sade. The only poet of the times was the guillotine.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)