Pays de la Loire (; ) is one of the 18
regions of France. It is one of the regions created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital,
Nantes, one of a handful so-called "balancing metropolises" (
métropoles d'équilibre)¹. Other examples of "artificially created" regions include
Rhône-Alpes, which was created as the region for
Lyon, and
Midi-Pyrénées, which was created as the region for
Toulouse.