Descartes is a commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Indre-et-Loire

Indre-et-Loire

Indre-et-Loire is a department in west-central France named after the Indre and the Loire rivers.-History:Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 départements created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 department in central France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It is approximately 13 miles east of Richelieu and about 24 miles east of Loudun, on the banks of the Creuze River.

History

Initially called La Haye en Touraine, the town was the birthplace of the philosopher René Descartes

René Descartes

René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...

(1596–1650), although his family home was in nearby Chattellerault. Descartes left La Haye in approximately 1606 to attend the College Henri IV at La Fleche. The town was renamed La Haye-Descartes in 1802 in his honor, and then renamed again to Descartes in 1967.

The town is notable in Acadian genealogy as the birthplace of the Heberts.