THE monumental neoclassical headquarters of Languedoc-Roussillon is a model of statement architecture. With defiant, muscular authority, it stands across the river from the historical centre of Montpellier, its plate glass glistening in the sun. It also towers over an assembly of faux-Greek esplanades and avenues, the outsized legacy of a former regional president, George Frêche. Under Frêche, who for 27 years was Montpellier’s Socialist mayor, the regional government made its mark, and not just in buildings. Between 2005 and 2010, the region’s annual payroll costs ballooned from €22m to €108m ($143m). Now, however, Montpellier is to lose its position as regional capital. As part of an efficiency drive in a country notorious for its millefeuille of administrative layers, the government plans to shrink the regions from 22 to 13 in January 2016. Some will keep existing borders, including Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, where Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, grand-daughter of the now shunned Jean-Marie Le Pen, may be the National Front’s regional presidential candidate in December. Others are to be reunified, such as the two...
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