The Geography section of the Source Variables for the 1962 and 1968 French censuses seems truncated. Under geography F-N there are many urban-rural indicators but the only administrative units are listed under the Harmonized variable section, and here only at very aggregated (regional) level. I had hoped that these microdata would be reported at least at the Department level. Were the original data only released to IPUMS at the regional level?
The level of geographic detail identified in IPUMS International data varies by sample. That is correct; the original data obtained by IPUMS included the region (GEO1_FR/ENUTS2) as the finest geographic identifier and did not identify the department. This is noted in the sample characteristics page as well under smallest geography. Sample-specific urban/rural indicators (FR1962A_URBAN and FR1968A_URBAN) are harmonized across time and space into the URBAN variable.