Editing Picardy (section)

=== Picardy today ===

[[File:Pierre Puvis de Chavannes - "Ludus Pro Patria" - Walters 3716.jpg|right|thumb|This painting by [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]] recalls the "Golden Age" in the history of the province of Picardy.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[The Walters Art Museum]] |url=http://art.thewalters.org/detail/20168 |title=Ludus Pro Patria}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum.]]
In 2009, the Regional Committee for local government reform proposed to reduce the number of [[Regions of France|French regions]] and cancel additions of new regions in the near future. Picardy would have disappeared and each department would have joined a nearby region. The Oise would have been incorporated in the [[Île-de-France (region)|Île-de-France]], the Somme would have been incorporated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Aisne would have been incorporated in the Champagne-Ardenne. The vast majority of Picards were opposed to this proposal and it was scrapped in 2010 (see newspaper: "Courrier Picard").

Today, the modern region of Picardy no longer includes the coastline from Berck to Calais, via Boulogne (Boulonais), that is now in the [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]] region but does incorporate the ''pays'' of [[Beauvaisis]], Valois, Noyonnais, Laonnois, Soissonnais, Omois among other [[departments of France]]. The older definition of Picardy survives in the name of the [[Picard language]] which applies not only to the dialects of Picardy proper but also to the [[Romance languages|Romance]] dialects spoken in the [[Nord-Pas de Calais]] [[région|region]], north of Picardy proper, and parts of the [[Belgium|Belgian]] [[province of Hainaut]].