Historically, Nantes, the sixth largest city in France (after Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Nice), was part of the Duchy of Brittany. When the modern Regions of France were first created by the 1982 'Law of Decentralisation', Nantes was excluded from Brittany and placed in the Region of Pay de la Loire. This decision was, and remains, hugely controversial. Despite that, Nantes is still, to this day, a Breton city, and signs of that are everywhere, most notably, and literally, in its street signs, which are in both French and Breton.