Pays de la Loire (French: [pe.i d(ə) la lwaʁ]; lit. 'Loire Lands'; Breton: Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18
regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (métropoles d'équilibre)