It takes a brave person to meddle with the map of France. Napoleon had a tinker with it in the early 1800s, reducing the number of small "communes", but even he stopped short of a wide-ranging administrative overhaul, reports The Guardian.
Over the centuries, others have struggled and been largely defeated by the depth and complexity, not to mention vested interests, of France's local government – nicknamed mille-feuille after the puff-pastry dessert of many layers and lashings of cream.
On Tuesday, President François Hollande, a man known to prefer consensus to conflict, entered the historic fray by announcing that he had redrawn the country's internal borders.
In a bid to reduce France's notorious bureaucracy and save €15bn (£12.2bn), Hollande proclaimed that as of late 2015 – if parliament approves the measure – France will no longer be divided into 22 regions but 14 "super-regions".
This, he hopes, will eliminate some of the overlapping responsibilities, red tape and wasteful costs and make life somewhat simpler for citizens and businesses alike.
"This is where we will learn who are the real reformers and who are the conservatives," Hollande had said in an earlier television broadcast announcing the measure.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.