"Le Diagonal du vide" or “the Empty Diagonal.” is so devoid of people that it invites comparisons to an actual desert. The Diagonal cuts right across France, from the Meuse department, on the Belgian border in the northeast, to the Landes department in the southwest, near the Spanish border. Population density in the Diagonal is generally around or below 30 inhabitants per square km, much lower than the French average of 119 people/sq km. France’s countryside started emptying out around the middle of the 19th century, prompted by industrialization, urbanization, and low fertility rates. Those phenomena hit France earlier than most other European countries. Why? In a word: Paris.
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