Why do I need to know Dom-Tom?
Because you might end up in a bit of a geographical muddle if you don't know what it means.
What does it mean?
Dom-Tom is an acronym, also written DOM-TOM and more recently substituted with DROM-COM.
It stands for Départements d'outre-mer et Territoires d'outre-mer. These days the correct formation is DROM-COM (Départements et regions d'outre mer et collectivities d'outre mer) but as often happens with official language changes the old formation lingers and is probably more widely used outside of government communications.
Either way, they all refer to the same thing - France's overseas territories.
A legacy of empire, France has territoires d'outre-mer, which are largely self-governing, and départements d'outre-mer which are as much a part of France as Lyon, Lille or Lorient.
READ ALSO 'Confetti of an empire' - a look at France's overseas territories
For this reason, data and information from the départements d'outre-mer are included in French statistics and reports. It's important to realise the difference, however, unless you want to find yourself 9,000km away in the Indian Ocean (La Réunion) or 6,000km away in the Caribbean (Martinique).
Announcements about policies for France sometimes contain the caveat hors Dom-Tom - which means that different policies apply for the overseas areas.
For the sake of convenience, maps often show the DOMs on the left of the map, such as this one showing vaccination rates.
Sur cette carte c’est plus flagrant, en rouge les départements sous-vaccinés et en bleu les départements sur-vaccinés (par rapport à la moyenne nationale) pic.twitter.com/xKCP6gFpkS
— GRZ (@GuillaumeRozier) July 28, 2021
However, this does not mean that they are located off the coast of La Rochelle (some cruel commentators have suggested that the British government fell into this trap when it classified mainland France as 'amber plus' for travel because of the presence of the beta variant of Covid on the island of La Réunion, which is near Madagascar).
Use it like this
Les cas de Covid sont en baisse dans l'hexagone, mais en hausse dans les Dom-Tom - Covid cases are falling in the hexagon [mainland France] but rising in the overseas territories
Emmanuel Macron a annoncé un scénario d'urgence dans les Dom-Tom - Emmanuel Macron has announced a state of emergency in France's overseas territories
Les régions les plus ensoleillées de France sont la Provence et la Côte d'Azur, et les Dom-Tom - The sunniest areas of France are Provence and the Côte d'Azur, and the overseas territories
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