St Barthelemy - what country is it a part of?

I'm confused! St Barthelemy seems to be a part of the "French West
Indies", but the French West Indies do not appear in lists of
countries of the world. Nor does St Barthelemy on its own (unlike,
say, Guadeloupe). Can anyone clear this up?

Dave Wheeler wrote:
> I'm confused! St Barthelemy seems to be a part of the "French West
> Indies", but the French West Indies do not appear in lists of
> countries of the world. Nor does St Barthelemy on its own (unlike,
> say, Guadeloupe). Can anyone clear this up?

St. Barts one of the nine islands that make up the country of
Guadeloupe. The Guadeloupe island group is one of the overseas
departments of France. This means the inhabitants of St. Barts carry
French passports and vote in French elections.

Karen Selwyn

Karen, First I heard St. Barts was part of Guadaloupe?? I thought it
was a French island as is Martininque and others..well
well..interesting..

nb318@************ wrote:
>
> Karen, First I heard St. Barts was part of Guadaloupe??

While I'm sharing surprising factoids, the French half of Saint Martin
is also part of Gaudeloupe.

> I thought it was a French island as is Martininque and others..well
> well..interesting..

Well, St. Barts is a French island. The citizens carry French passports
and are governed by the French constitution. The only difference is that
Martinique is by itself a Department of France whereas Guadeloupe is an
archipelago of nine islands that constitute the Department of Guadeloupe.

FYI, I wouldn't know any of this except for the fact that we just got
back from a cruise including a port call at St. Barts.

Karen Selwyn

"Dave Wheeler" <davewheeler1@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:9a2670a.0503090320.64406550@*****************co m...
> I'm confused! St Barthelemy seems to be a part of the "French West
> Indies", but the French West Indies do not appear in lists of
> countries of the world. Nor does St Barthelemy on its own (unlike,
> say, Guadeloupe). Can anyone clear this up?

St Barths, French St Martin, and the islands close to Guadeloupe form
the Oversea Department [DOM*] of Guadeloupe and also the Region of
Guadeloupe. They are an integral part of the French Republic much like
Hawaii and the USA.

France is organized on a multilevel basis.

At the top is the Republic headed by a President elected for 7 years.
The legislative bodies are the House of Deputies and the Senate.

Next down are the Regions - most are composed of a number of
Departments. Each Region has an assembly.

Below Regions are the Departments. Guadeloupe and Martinique are
unique in
each being both a Department and a Region.

There are about 100 Departments, each numbered as well as named. I
suspect every Frenchman knows the number of most departments. It is in
the postal code, auto license plates, etc. They were originally
numbered in alphabetical order after the Revolution. There have been
some changes so the scheme is no longer "pure". For example
Guadeloupe and Martinique were once lumped into 97 - but are now 971
and 972, etc. Corsica used to be 20 but was divided and is now 2A and
2B.... Paris is 75 and the new departments around Paris are well up in
the 90s.

Below Departments are various local subdivisons.

The Region level was inserted a decade or so after WW2 in a attempt to
reduce the concentration of authority in Paris. Used to be that even
relatively minor things had to get approval from Paris - maybe they've
decentralized somewhat. IMO, the Regions were to be modeled somewhat
like the US states (but with far less power).

* DOM = Department Outre Mer