ABSTRACT
France has an important legacy of historic towns and cities but mass urbanization occurred rather more recently than in neighbouring countries of North-West Europe (Pitte 1983). In 1950, 46% of the French population lived in the countryside and 28% of the labour force worked the land. During the next two decades strong emphasis was placed on essentially urban matters, such as establishing provincial growth poles and constructing suburban housing to cope with the flood of urbanization that was under way. But rural matters were not forgotten, with successive national plans encouraging agricultural modernization and favouring the creation of special rural development corporations. Very significant legislation was passed in 1960 (the Loi d'Orientation Agricole) and 1962 (the Loi Complémentaire) to stimulate structural reform in agriculture and to enhance the living conditions of country dwellers. As in earlier decades, cityward migration and rural depopulation remained powerfully at work, raising profound questions about the desirable distribution of population throughout the nation (Berger 1975).
