Nord (French department)
Nord is a department in the far north of France. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of Flanders and Hainaut, the Bishopric of Cambrai; the modern coat of arms was inherited from the County of Flanders. Nord is the country's most populous department, it contains the metropolitan region of Lille, the fifth-largest urban area in France after Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. Within the department is located the part of France where the French Flemish dialect of Dutch is still spoken as a native language. Like Dutch, the dialect of Ch'ti is still spoken. Tribes of the Belgae, such as the Menapii and Nervii were the first peoples recorded in the area known as Nord. During the 4th and 5th Centuries, Roman rulers of Gallia Belgica secured the route from the major port of Bononia to Colonia, by co-opting Germanic peoples north-east of this corridor, such as the Tungri. In effect, the area known as Nord became an isogloss between the Germanic and Romance languages. Saxon colonisation of the region from the 5th to the 8th centuries shifted the isogloss further south so that, by the 9th century, most people north of Lille spoke a dialect of Old Dutch.
This has remained evident in the place names of the region. After the County of Flanders became part of France in the 9th century, the isogloss moved north and east. During the 14th Century, much of the area came under the control of the Duchy of Burgundy and in subsequent centuries was therefore part of the Habsburg Netherlands and the Spanish Netherlands. Areas that constituted Nord were ceded to France by treaties in 1659, 1668, 1678, becoming the Counties of Flanders and Hainaut, part of the Bishopric of Cambrai. On 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution, Nord became one of the original 83 departments created to replace the counties. Modern government policies making French the only official language have led to a decline in use of the Dutch West Flemish dialect. There are 20,000 speakers of a sub-dialect of West Flemish in the arrondissement of Dunkirk and it appears that this particular sub-dialect will be extinct within decades. There is, however. Nord is part of the current Hauts-de-France region and is surrounded by the French departments of Pas-de-Calais and Aisne, as well as by Belgium and the North Sea.
Situated in the north of the country along the western half of the Belgian frontier, the department is unusually long and narrow. Its principal city is Lille, which with nearby Roubaix and Villeneuve d'Ascq constitutes the center of a cluster of industrial and former mining towns totalling over a million inhabitants. Other important cities are Valenciennes and Dunkirk; the principal rivers are the following: Yser, Escaut, Sambre Nord is the most populated department, with a population of 2,617,939 and an area of 5,743 km². The President of the Departmental Council is the unaffiliated right-winger Jean-René Lecerf; the first President of the Fifth Republic, General Charles de Gaulle, was born in Lille in the department on 22 November 1890. At the forefront of France's 19th century industrialisation, the area suffered during World War I and now faces the economic and environmental problems associated with the decline of coal mining with its neighbours following the earlier decline of the Lille-Roubaix textile industry.
Until the department was dominated economically by coal mining, which extended through the heart of the department from neighbouring Artois into central Belgium. Cantons of the Nord department Communes of the Nord department Arrondissements of the Nord department French Flemish Université Lille Nord de France INSEE Prefecture website General Council website Nord at Curlie
Legion of Honour
The Legion of Honour is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all French governments and régimes. The order's motto is Honneur et Patrie, its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris; the order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier, Commandeur, Grand officier, Grand-croix. During the French Revolution, all of the French orders of chivalry were abolished, replaced with Weapons of Honour, it was the wish of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul, to create a reward to commend civilians and soldiers. From this wish was instituted a Légion d'honneur, a body of men, not an order of chivalry, for Napoleon believed that France wanted a recognition of merit rather than a new system of nobility. However, the Légion d'honneur did use the organization of the old French orders of chivalry, for example the Ordre de Saint-Louis; the insignia of the Légion d'honneur bear a resemblance to those of the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which used a red ribbon.
Napoleon created this award to ensure political loyalty. The organization would be used as a façade to give political favours and concessions; the Légion d'honneur was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, commanders, regional "cohorts" and a grand council. The highest rank was not a Grand Cross but a Grand aigle, a rank that wore the insignia common to a Grand Cross; the members were paid, the highest of them generously: 5,000 francs to a grand officier, 2,000 francs to a commandeur, 1,000 francs to an officier, 250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, "You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led... Do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning? Never; that is good only for the scholar in his study. The soldier needs glory, rewards." This has been quoted as "It is with such baubles that men are led." The order was the first modern order of merit. Under the monarchy, such orders were limited to Roman Catholics, all knights had to be noblemen.
The military decorations were the perks of the officers. The Légion d'honneur, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted; the new legionnaire had to be sworn into the Légion d'honneur. It is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion d'honneur is a secular institution; the badge of the Légion d'honneur has five arms. In a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted; this decoration, a cross on a large sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand aigle, in 1814 as the Grand cordon. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, award of the Légion d'honneur gave right to the title of "Knight of the Empire"; the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the Légion d'honneur among his family and his senior ministers.
This collar was abolished in 1815. Although research is made difficult by the loss of the archives, it is known that three women who fought with the army were decorated with the order: Virginie Ghesquière, Marie-Jeanne Schelling and a nun, Sister Anne Biget; the Légion d'honneur was visible in the French Empire. The Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time; the king of Sweden therefore declined the order. Napoleon's own decorations were captured by the Prussians and were displayed in the Zeughaus in Berlin until 1945. Today, they are in Moscow. Louis XVIII changed the appearance of the order. To have done so would have angered the 35,000 to 38,000 members; the images of Napoleon and his eagle were removed and replaced by the image of King Henry IV, the popular first king of the Bourbon line. Three Bourbon fleurs-de-lys replaced the eagle on the reverse of the order. A king's crown replaced the imperial crown. In 1816, the grand cordons were renamed grand crosses and the legionnaires became knights.
The king decreed. The Légion d'honneur became the second-ranking order of knighthood of the French monarchy, after the Order of the Holy Spirit. Following the overthrow of the Bourbons in favour of King Louis Philippe I of the House of Orléans, the Bourbon monarchy's orders were once again abolished and the Légion d'honneur was restored in 1830 as the paramount decoration of the French nation; the insignia were drastically altered. In 1847, there were 47,000 members, yet another revolution in Paris brought a new design to the Légion d'honneur. A nephew of the founder, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was elected president and he restored the image of his uncle on the crosses of the order. In 1852, the first recorded woman, Angélique Duchemin, an old revolutionary of the 1789 uprising against the absolute monarchy, was admitted into the order. On 2 December 1851, President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte staged a coup d'état with the help of the armed forces, he made himself Emperor of the French one year on 2 December 1852, after a successful plebiscite.
An Imperial crown was added. During Napoleon III's reign, the first American was admitted
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It aired from September 28, 1987 to May 23, 1994 on syndication, spanning 178 episodes over the course of seven seasons; the third series in the Star Trek franchise, it is the second sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of a Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise-D, in its exploration of the Milky Way galaxy. After the cancellation of The Original Series in 1969, the Star Trek franchise had continued with Star Trek: The Animated Series and a series of films, all featuring the original cast. In the 1980s, franchise creator Roddenberry decided to create a new series, featuring a new crew embarking on their mission a century after that of The Original Series; the Next Generation featured a new crew that starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as counselor Deanna Troi, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, a new Enterprise.
An introductory statement featured at the beginning of each episode's title sequence stated the ship's purpose in language similar to the opening statement of the original Star Trek series, but was updated to reflect an ongoing mission and to be gender-neutral: Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise, its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Roddenberry, Maurice Hurley, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor served as executive producers at various times throughout its production; the show was popular, reaching 12 million viewers in its 5th season, with the series finale in 1994 being watched by over 30 million viewers. TNG premiered the week of September 28, 1987, drawing 27 million viewers, with the two-hour pilot "Encounter at Farpoint". In total, 176 episodes were made, ending with the two-hour finale "All Good Things..." the week of May 23, 1994. The series was broadcast in first-run syndication with dates and times varying among individual television stations.
Several Star Trek series followed The Next Generation: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery. The series formed the basis for the seventh through the tenth of the Star Trek films, is the setting of numerous novels, comic books, video games. In its seventh season, Star Trek: The Next Generation became the first and only syndicated television series to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series; the series received a number of accolades, including 19 Emmy Awards, two Hugo Awards, five Saturn Awards, "The Big Goodbye" won a Peabody Award. Some of the highest rated episodes were the pilot, the finale, the two-part "Unification", "Aquiel", "A Matter of Time", "Relics". Four episodes featured actors DeForest Kelley, Mark Lenard, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan from the original Star Trek reprising their original roles; the Star Trek franchise originated in the late 1960s, with the Star Trek television show which ran from 1966-1969.
Star Trek: The Next Generation would mark the return of Star Trek to live-action broadcast television. As early as 1972, Paramount Pictures started to consider making a Star Trek film because of the show's popularity in syndication. However, with 1977's release of Star Wars, Paramount decided not to compete in the science fiction movie category and shifted their efforts to a new Star Trek television series; the Original Series actors were approached to reprise their roles. By 1986, 20 years after the original Star Trek's debut on NBC, the franchise's longevity amazed Paramount Pictures executives. Chairman Frank Mancuso Sr. and others described it as the studio's "crown jewel", a "priceless asset" that "must not be squandered". The series was the most popular syndicated television program 17 years after cancellation, the Harve Bennett-produced, Original Series-era Star Trek films did well at the box office. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's salary demands for the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home caused the studio to plan for a new Star Trek television series.
Paramount executives worried that a new series could hurt the demand for the films, but decided that it would increase their appeal on videocassette and cable, that a series with unknown actors would be more profitable than paying the films' actors' large salaries. Roddenberry declined to be involved, but came on board as creator after being unhappy with early conceptual work. Star Trek: The Next Generation was announced on October 10, 1986, its cast in May 1987. Paramount executive Rick Berman was assigned to the series at Roddenberry's request. Roddenberry hired a number of Star Trek veterans, including Bob Justman, D. C. Fontana, Eddie Milkis and David Gerrold. Early proposals for the series included one in which some of the original series cast might appear as "elder statesmen", Roddenberry speculated as late as October 1986 that the new series might not use a spaceship, as "people might travel by some means" 100 years after the USS Enterpris
Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion and the arts; the City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €681 billion in 2016, accounting for 31 percent of the GDP of France, was the 5th largest region by GDP in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, ahead of Zurich, Hong Kong and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong-Kong, in 2018; the city is a major rail and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly.
Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily, is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2018, with 10.2 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe; the historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site. Popular landmarks in the centre of the city include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, both on the Île de la Cité. Paris received 23 million visitors in 2017, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the UK, Germany and China.
It was ranked as the third most visited travel destination in the world in 2017, after Bangkok and London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris; the 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris will host the 2024 Summer Olympics; the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the 1960, 1984, 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in the city and, every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes there. The name "Paris" is derived from the Celtic Parisii tribe; the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. Paris is referred to as the City of Light, both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
Gas lights were installed on the Place du Carousel, Rue de Rivoli and Place Vendome in 1829. By 1857, the Grand boulevards were lit. By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps. Since the late 19th century, Paris has been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in French as Parisiens, they are pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité; the Parisii minted their own coins for that purpose. The Romans began their settlement on Paris' Left Bank; the Roman town was called Lutetia. It became a prosperous city with a forum, temples, an amphitheatre. By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum "Montmartre", from where he walked headless to the north of the city.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île-de-la-Citie failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges prevent
Lawrence of Arabia (film)
Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 British epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence, it was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel through his British company Horizon Pictures, with the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson and starring Peter O'Toole in the title role. The film depicts Lawrence's experiences in the Arabian Peninsula during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council, its themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army, his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes. The film stars Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy. Lawrence of Arabia was nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards in 1963, it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Outstanding British Film.
In the years since, it has been recognised as one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. The dramatic score by Maurice Jarre and the Super Panavision 70 cinematography by Freddie Young are highly acclaimed. In 1991, Lawrence of Arabia was deemed "culturally or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the US Library of Congress National Film Registry. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed it 5th on their 100 Years...100 Movies list, 7th on their 2007 updated list. In 1999, the British Film Institute named the film the third-greatest British film of all time; the film is presented in two parts, divided by an intermission. The film opens in 1935. At his memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, a reporter tries to gain insights into this remarkable, enigmatic man from those who knew him; the story moves backward to the First World War, where Lawrence is a misfit British Army lieutenant, notable for his insolence and education. Over the objections of General Murray, Mr. Dryden of the Arab Bureau sends him to assess the prospects of Prince Faisal in his revolt against the Turks.
On the journey, his Bedouin guide, Tafas, is killed by Sherif Ali for drinking from his well without permission. Lawrence meets Colonel Brighton, who orders him to keep quiet, make his assessment, leave. Lawrence ignores Brighton's orders, his outspokenness piques the prince's interest. Brighton advises Faisal to retreat after a major defeat, but Lawrence proposes a daring surprise attack on Aqaba; the town is fortified against a naval assault but only defended on the landward side. He convinces Faisal to provide fifty men, led by a sceptical Sherif Ali. Teenage orphans Daud and Farraj attach themselves to Lawrence as servants, they cross the Nefud Desert, considered impassable by the Bedouins, travelling day and night on the last stage to reach water. One of Ali's men, succumbs to fatigue and falls off his camel unnoticed during the night; when Lawrence discovers him missing, he turns back and rescues Gasim—and Sherif Ali is won over. He gives Lawrence Arab robes to wear. Lawrence persuades Auda abu Tayi, the leader of the powerful local Howeitat tribe, to turn against the Turks.
Lawrence's scheme is derailed when one of Ali's men kills one of Auda's because of a blood feud. Howeitat retaliation would shatter the fragile alliance, so Lawrence declares that he will execute the murderer himself, he is stunned to discover that the culprit is Gasim, the man whom he risked his own life to save in the desert, but he shoots him anyway. The next morning, the Arabs overrun the Turkish garrison. Lawrence heads to Cairo to inform the new commander, General Allenby, of his victory. While crossing the Sinai Desert, Daud dies. Lawrence is promoted to given arms and money for the Arabs, he is disturbed, confessing that he enjoyed executing Gasim, but Allenby brushes aside his qualms. He asks Allenby whether there is any basis for the Arabs' suspicions that the British have designs on Arabia; when pressed, the general states. Lawrence launches a guerrilla war, harassing the Turks at every turn. American war correspondent Jackson Bentley publicises Lawrence's exploits. On one raid, Farraj is badly injured.
Unwilling to leave him to be tortured by the enemy, Lawrence shoots him dead before fleeing. When Lawrence scouts the enemy-held city of Deraa with Ali, he is taken, along with several Arab residents, to the Turkish Bey. Lawrence is stripped and prodded. For striking out at the Bey, he is flogged before being thrown into the street; the experience leaves Lawrence shaken. He does not fit in. A short time in Jerusalem, General Allenby urges him to support the "big push" on Damascus. Lawrence hesitates to return but relents. Lawrence recruits an army, motivated more by money than by the Arab cause, they sight a column of retreating Turkish soldiers. One of Lawrence's men is from Tafas; when Lawrence hesitates, the man is killed. Lawrence takes up the dead man's battle cry. Afterwards, he regrets his actions. Lawrence's men take Damascus ahead of Allenby's forces; the Arabs set up a council to administer the city, but the dese
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795 associated with PSL Research University. It is situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of France; the Conservatoire offers instruction in music and drama, drawing on the traditions of the "French School". In 1946 it was split in two, one part for acting and drama, known as the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique, the other for music and dance, known as the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris. Today the conservatories operate under the auspices of the Ministry of Communication. On 3 December 1783 Papillon de la Ferté, intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, proposed that Niccolò Piccinni should be appointed director of a future École royale de chant; the school was instituted by a decree of 3 January 1784 and opened on 1 April with the composer François-Joseph Gossec as the provisional director. Piccinni did join the faculty as a professor of singing; the new school was located in buildings adjacent to the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs at the junction of the rue Bergère and the rue du Faubourg Poissonnière.
In June, a class in dramatic declamation was added, the name was modified to École royale de chant et de déclamation. In 1792, Bernard Sarrette created the École gratuite de la garde nationale, which in the following year became the Institut national de musique; the latter was installed in the facilities of the former Menus-Plaisirs on the rue Bergère and was responsible for the training of musicians for the National Guard bands, which were in great demand for the enormous, popular outdoor gatherings put on by the revolutionary government after the Reign of Terror. On 3 August 1795, the government combined the École royale with the Institut national de musique, creating the Conservatoire de musique under the direction of Sarrette; the combined organization remained in the facilities on the rue Bergère. The first 351 pupils commenced their studies in October 1796. By 1800, the staff of the Conservatory included some of the most important names in music in Paris, besides Gossec, the composers Luigi Cherubini, Jean-François Le Sueur, Étienne Méhul, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, as well as the violinists Pierre Baillot, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode.
A concert hall, designed by the architect François-Jacques Delannoy, was inaugurated on 7 July 1811. The hall, which still exists today, was in the shape of a U, it held an audience of 1055. The acoustics were regarded as superb; the French composer and conductor Antoine Elwart described it as the Stradivarius of concert halls. In 1828 François Habeneck, a professor of violin and head of the Conservatory's orchestra, founded the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; the Society held concerts in the hall continuously until 1945, when it moved to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The French composer Hector Berlioz premiered his Symphonie fantastique in the conservatory's hall on 5 December 1830 with an orchestra of more than a hundred players; the original library was created by Sarrette in 1801. After the construction of the concert hall, the library moved to a large room above the entrance vestibule. In the 1830s, Berlioz became a part-time curator in the Conservatory library and was the librarian from 1852 until his death in 1869, but never held a teaching position.
He was succeeded as librarian by Félicien David. Sarrette was dismissed on 28 December 1814, after the Bourbon Restoration, but was reinstated on 26 May 1815, after Napoleon's return to power during the Hundred Days. However, after Napoleon's fall, Sarrette was compelled to retire on 17 November; the school was closed in the first two years of the Bourbon Restoration, during the reign of Louis XVIII, but reopened in April 1816 as the École royale de musique, with François-Louis Perne as its director. In 1819, François Benoist was appointed professor of organ; the best known director in the 19th century was Luigi Cherubini, who took over on 1 April 1822 and remained in charge until 8 February 1842. Cherubini maintained high standards and his staff included teachers such as François-Joseph Fétis, Fromental Halévy, Le Sueur, Ferdinando Paer, Anton Reicha. Cherubini was succeeded by Daniel-François-Esprit Auber in 1842. Under Auber, composition teachers included Adolphe Adam, Halévy, Ambroise Thomas.
In 1852, Camille Urso, who studied with Lambert Massart, became the first female student to win a prize on violin. The Conservatory Instrument Museum, founded in 1861, was formed from the instrument collection of Louis Clapisson; the French music historian Gustave Chouquet became the curator of the museum in 1871 and did much to expand and upgrade the collection. In the Franco-Prussian War, during the siege of Paris, the Conservatory was used as a hospital. On 13 May 1871, the day after Auber's death, the leaders of the Paris Commune appointed Francisco Salvador-Daniel as the director – however Daniel was shot and killed ten days by the troops of the French Army, he was replaced by Ambroise Thomas, who remained in the post until 1896. Thomas's rather conservative directorship was vigorously criticized by many of the students, notably Claude Debussy. During this period César Franck was ostensibly the organ teacher, but was giving classes in composition, his classes were attended by several st
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris, France. With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Père Lachaise is located in the 20th arrondissement and notable for being the first garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery in Paris, it is the site of three World War I memorials. The cemetery is on Boulevard de Ménilmontant; the Paris Métro station Philippe Auguste on Line 2 is next to the main entrance, while the station named Père Lachaise, on both Line 2 and Line 3, is 500 metres away near a side entrance. Many tourists prefer the Gambetta station on Line 3, as it allows them to enter near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and walk downhill to visit the rest of the cemetery; the cemetery of Père Lachaise opened in 1804. The cemetery takes its name from the confessor to Louis XIV, Père François de la Chaise, who lived in the Jesuit house rebuilt during 1682 on the site of the chapel; the property, situated on the hillside from which the king watched skirmishing between the armies of the Condé and Turenne during the Fronde, was bought by the city during 1804.
Established by Napoleon during this year, the cemetery was laid out by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and extended. Napoleon, proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate that "Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion”; as the city graveyards of Paris filled, several new, large cemeteries, outside the precincts of the capital, replaced them: Montmartre Cemetery in the north, Père Lachaise in the east, Montparnasse Cemetery in the south. Near the middle of the city is Passy Cemetery. At the time of its opening, the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted few funerals. Moreover, many Roman Catholics refused to have their graves in a place that had not been blessed by the Church. During 1804, the Père Lachaise contained only 13 graves; the administrators devised a marketing strategy and during 1804, with great fanfare, organized the transfer of the remains of Jean de La Fontaine and Molière.
The next year there were 44 burials, with 49 during 1806, 62 during 1807 and 833 during 1812. In another great spectacle of 1817, the purported remains of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil were transferred to the cemetery with their monument's canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine; this strategy achieved its desired effect: people began clamoring to be buried among the famous citizens. Records show that the Père Lachaise contained more than 33,000 graves during 1830. Père Lachaise was expanded five times: during 1824, 1829, 1832, 1842 and 1850. Presently there are more than 1 million bodies buried there, many more in the columbarium, which holds the remains of those who had requested cremation; the Communards' Wall, located within the cemetery, was the site where 147 Communards, the last defenders of the workers' district of Belleville, were shot on May 28, 1871. That day was the last of the "Bloody Week". Today, the site is a traditional rallying point for members of the French political Left.
Adolphe Thiers, the French president who directed "Bloody Week," is interred in the cemetery, where his tomb has been subject to vandalism. A funerary chapel was erected during 1823 by Étienne-Hippolyte Godde at the exact place of the ancient Jesuit house; this same Neoclassical architect created the monumental entrance a few years later. A columbarium and a crematorium of a Neo-Byzantine style were designed in 1894 by Jean-Camille Formigé. Père Lachaise is still an operating cemetery and accepting new burials. However, the rules to be buried in a Paris cemetery are rather strict: people may be buried in one of these cemeteries if they die in the French capital city or if they lived there. Being buried in Père Lachaise is more difficult nowadays as there is a waiting list: few plots are available; the grave sites at Père Lachaise range from a simple, unadorned headstone to towering monuments and elaborate mini chapels dedicated to the memory of a well-known person or family. Many of the tombs are about the size and shape of a telephone booth, with just enough space for a mourner to step inside, kneel to say a prayer, leave some flowers.
The cemetery manages to squeeze an increasing number of bodies into a finite and crowded space. One way it does. At Père Lachaise, it is not uncommon to reopen a grave after a body has decomposed and inter another coffin; some family mausoleums or multi-family tombs contain dozens of bodies in several separate but contiguous graves. Shelves are installed to accommodate them. During recent times, the Père Lachaise has adopted a standard practice of issuing 30-year leases on grave sites, so that if a lease is not renewed by a family, the remains can be removed, space made for a new grave, the overall deterioration of the cemetery minimized. Abandoned remains are boxed and moved to Aux Morts ossuary, in Père Lachaise cemetery. Plots can be bought in perpetuity or for 50, 30 or 10 years, the last being the least expensive option. For the case of mausoleums and chapels, coffins are most of the time below ground. Although some sources incorrectly estimate the number of interred as 300,000 in Père Lachaise, according to the official website of
