1.
Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
2.
Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Regions of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
5.
Moulins, Allier
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The city of Moulins is a commune in central France, capital of the Allier department. It is located on the Allier River, among its many tourist attractions are the Maison Mantin, the Anne de Beaujeu Museum and The National Center of Costume and Scenography. Moulins is located on the banks of the Allier River, before the French Revolution, Moulins was the capital of the province of Bourbonnais and the seat of the Dukes of Bourbon. It appears in documented records at least as far back as the year 990, in 1232, Archambaud VIII, Sire de Bourbon granted a franchise to the villages inhabitants. The town achieved greater prominence in 1327, when Charles IV elevated Louis I de Clermont to Duke of Bourbon, either Louis or the later Peter II, Duke of Bourbon and of Auvergne moved the capital of the province from Bourbon-lArchambault to Moulins. Note, This article in French suggests Pierre II moved the capital and this was the birthplace of the great 19th-century operatic baritone and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure. In the 20th century, Coco Chanel went to school in Moulins as an orphan, before moving to Paris, montbeugny Airport is a small airport located near Moulins
6.
Subprefectures in France
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In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement. The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title commissaire adjoint de la République. Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the municipal arrondissements of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) are divisions of the city rather than the prefecture, and so are not arrondissements in the same sense
7.
Vichy
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Vichy is a city in the Allier department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the seat of government of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944, the term Vichyste indicated collaboration with the Vichy regime, often carrying a pejorative connotation. Today, the inhabitants are called Vichyssois. Up until the 18th century they were more known as les Vichois which stems from the Occitan name of the town. The writer Valery Larbaud uses the term Vicaldiens after the Ancient Roman Latin name for the community, the city enjoys an inland oceanic climate that incorporates some characteristics of a mountain climate because of the nearby Massif Central and Alps. Heavy snows in the Massif Central often make roads impassable, rainfall is moderate around Vichy, averaging about 779.5 millimetres annually. Vichy lies on the banks of the Allier River, the source of the Allier is in the nearby Massif Central plateau which lies only a few miles to the south, near the regions capital, Clermont-Ferrand. The historical existence of volcanic activity in the Massif Central is somewhat visually evident, volcanic eruptions have happened for at least 150,000 years, but all volcanoes there have been dormant for at least 112 years. Volcanic activity in the area is the cause of the many thermal springs that exist in. This city is accessible from departmental road 2209, former route nationale 209, the RD 906e, former RD906 from Thiers, Vichy is situated 20 km from the A719 autoroute and 35 km from the A89 autoroute. Currently, this city has no expressways, the expressway A719 and the northwest and west loops will be the first to directly connect to Vichy. The inclusion of access to the A719 expressway, opened in 1997, in 2014, only regional two-lane highways pass through the urban ring of Vichy. The RD67 is a loop to the north of the city created to limit traffic jams, Vichy is served by the following train lines, TER and Intercités to destinations, Paris Gare de Lyon/Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand/Lyon Part-Dieu and by TER, Vichy/Pont-de-Dore/Arlanc. MobiVie is the network of transport for 6 communes of Vichy Val dAllier intercommunality. This network is composed of nine lines as of 2014, mobival is an on-call transportation service for Vichy and its neighborhood. This service offers the local communes a reliable service for areas that are not served by the MobiVie network. Created in October 2004, it has 10 lines, Vichy is 5 kilometres from Vichy — Charmeil Airport, and 90 kilometres from the larger Clermont-Ferrand Auvergne Airport. In 52 BC, on returning from their defeat at the Battle of Gergovia by the Gallic legions of Vercingetorix and these Roman settlers had acknowledged the therapeutic value of the springs in the area and were eager to exploit them
8.
Union of Democrats and Independents
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The Union of Democrats and Independents is a centre-right political party in France founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary group of the same name. The party is composed of eight political parties who retain their independence. The former UDIs president and leader Jean-Louis Borloo claims to have 50,000 members, the president is Jean-Christophe Lagarde, who was elected at the congress of the party on 15 November 2014, after the resignation of Jean-Louis Borloo on 6 April 2014 for health reasons. On 9 October 2012, the leaderships of the making up the UDI parliamentary group announced the creation of a new political party. On 21 October, an assembly was convened at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris. The UDI became a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party on 2 December 2016, the National Centre of Independents and Peasants was expelled after its leader and only deputy Gilles Bourdouleixs resigned for allegedly saying Adolf Hitler had not killed enough Romani people. Pending the founding congress, a leadership structure ensures the drafting of the partys statutes
9.
List of French departments by population
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This table lists the 101 French departments in descending order of population, area and population density. The figures include, population without double counting for 1999, municipal population published in decree No, 2010-1723 of 30 December 2010 as amended by Decree No. 2011-343 of 28 March 2011 which corresponds to data compiled as at 1 January 2008, municipal population The total population takes into account double counting. Guadeloupe has seemingly lost population between 1999 and 2008, however, this diminution of the legal population is due to the creation of the overseas communities of Saint Barthelemy and Saint-Martin. In the 1999 census, the population of Guadeloupe without the arrondissement of Saint-Martin-Saint-Barthélemy was 386,566 inhabitants, the departments population has actually increased by more than 15,000 people over the period based on a constant territory
10.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
11.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
12.
Communes in France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them
13.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
14.
Allier (river)
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The Allier is a river in central France. It is a tributary of the Loire. Its source is in the Massif Central, in the Lozère department and it joins the Loire west of the city of Nevers. It is 421 km long, and has a basin of 14,350 km2. Grayling like to live in shoals and are sensitive to pollution, in the Allier these fish are more abundant in the stretch between Langogne and Brioude. They are economically important, being appreciated for food and fished for sport
15.
Duchy of Bourbonnais
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Bourbonnais was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponded to the modern département of Allier, along with part of the département of Cher. The title of the ruler of Bourbonnais between 913 and 1327, was Sire de Bourbon, the first lord of Bourbonnais known by name was Adhémar. Aymons father was Aymar, sire of Souvigny, his son with Ermengarde. Aymar lived during the reign of Charles the Simple who, in 913 and he acquired the castle of Bourbon. Almost all early lords took the name dArchambaud, after the palace, the first House of Bourbon ended in 1196, with the death of Archambault VII, who had only one heir, Mathilde of Bourbon. She married Guy II of Dampierre, who added Montlucon to the possessions of the lords of Bourbon, the second house of Bourbon started in 1218, with Archambault VIII, son of Guy II and Mahaut, and brother of William II of Dampierre. He was followed by his son Archambaut IX, who died in Cyprus in 1249, the House of Burgundy then acquired Bourbonnais. In 1272, Beatrice of Burgundy, Lady of Bourbon, married Robert de France, Count of Clermont, thus began the long-lasting House of Bourbon, which would provide the kings of France from Henry IV to Louis-Phillipe in 1848, when France abolished its monarchy. The Bourbons had concluded an alliance with the royal power and they put their forces at the service of the king, thus benefitting from the geographic position of Bourbonnais, located between the royal fidemesne and the duchies of Aquitaine and Auvergne. This alliance, as well as the marriage of Béatrix de Bourgogne and Robert de France, aided the rise, in 1327, King Charles elevated Boubonnais to the status of a duchy. Sire de Bourbon MonBourbonnais, Site de découverte du patrimoine du Bourbonnais
16.
Cher (department)
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Cher is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is named after the Cher River, Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. Most of it was created, along with the adjacent department of Indre from the province of Berry. The southeastern corner of the department was part of the Duchy of Bourbon, the department is part of the current administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is surrounded by the departments of Indre, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Nièvre, Allier, the inhabitants of the department are called Berrichons from the former province of Berry. The President of the General Council is Alain Rafesthain of the Socialist Party, the Bourges Cathedral of St. Étienne is a major tourist attraction. Cantons of the Cher department Communes of the Cher department Arrondissements of the Cher department The historical languages are Berrichon and these are both dialects of French, or the Langues doïl. They are named respectively after the former Province of Berry and the former Duchy of Bourbon, some 11 communes in the extreme South used to speak Occitan. During the twentieth century government educational policy promoted a more standardised version of the French language
17.
Loire (department)
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Loire is a department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loires upper reaches. Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two and this was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon which, by population, was the countrys second largest city. By splitting Rhône-et-Loire the government sought to protect the French Revolution from the potential power, the River Loire traverses the department from south to north. The inhabitants of the department are called Ligériens, the industrial city of Saint-Étienne with its suburbs contains some 290,000 of the areas 728,542 inhabitants
18.
Creuse
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Creuse (French pronunciation, , is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from the former province of La Marche. The County of Marche was a medieval French county, approximately corresponding to the modern département of Creuse. Marche first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century, when William III, Duke of Aquitaine, gave it to one of his vassals named Boso, in the 12th century, the countship passed to the family of Lusignan. They also were sometimes counts of Angoulême and counts of Limousin, with the death of the childless Count Guy in 1308, his possessions in La Marche were seized by Philip IV of France. In 1316 the king made La Marche an appanage for his youngest son the Prince, several years later in 1327, La Marche passed into the hands of the House of Bourbon. The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons, in 1527 La Marche was seized by Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute Marche and Basse Marche, the estates of the former continuing until the 17th century, from 1470 until the Revolution, the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris. In 1886 Bourganeuf ville lumière, located in a part of Creuse. The achievement was crowned with the regions first telephone line, installed in order to permit instant communication between the station and the newly illuminated town. Creuse is part of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cher and it is in the Massif Central and permeated by the Creuse and its tributaries. The river is dammed at several locations both for water supply and hydroelectricity generation, as is typical for an inland area of continental Europe, Creuse has relatively cold winters with some snowfall into April, but also hot summers. Rain falls throughout the year because of the high elevation. The topography is rolling hills intersected by often steep valleys. The terrestrial ecology is typically cool temperate with a species mix common in the western UK, with oak, ash, chestnut, hazel, much of the farming is beef cattle, Charolais and Limousin, and also sheep. The inhabitants of the department are called Creusois, the population peaked at 287,075 in 1851, after which it declined gently until the First World War. By 1921 the registered population had slumped by almost 38,000 in ten years to 228,244, the President of the General Council is Jean-Jacques Lozach of the Socialist Party. The Creuse Cake is a named after the region
19.
Gannat
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Gannat is a commune in the Allier department in central France. Gannat was a sub-prefecture until 1926, with a population of around 5,800 inhabitants, there is a castle, two churches of which one is partly Romanesque with a 9th-century Gospel Book. The Cultures du Monde Festival is held every July, the patron saint of Gannat is Saint Procule. The most ancient discoveries in Gannat, ancestors of the rhinoceros from the end of the Oligocene and start of the Miocene, Gannat seems to have been a veritable cemetery for these creatures, so many of their remains have been discovered. Also found are fossils of fish, reptiles, tortoises, crocodiles, galliform birds, mammals, marsupials, insectivores, rodents, the site is particularly rich in rhinoceros. From 1854, Duvernoy has even described a specimin as Acerotherium gannatense, the most complete rhinoceros skeleton was discovered in 1993 when significant fossils were uncovered at the Sichaux quarry by paleontologist François Escuillié. The Rhinopolis Association is still active in the Gannat quarries and, Gannat is a very important locality for paleontology. Studies on the fauna of the Oligocene and early Miocene of the region have been significant not just regionally but throughout France, Europe. From primitive occupation to the Gallo-Roman period Motorway building work around Gannat has allowed the discovery of works which date back 800,000 years. Deposits at Clos de Montsala have revealed bifaces and bone fragments indicating the presence of hunters around 300,000 years ago. After the resistance of the Gauls at Gergovie and the defeat of Vercingétorix at Alésia in 52BC and they developed cultivation by draining the soil. The Gauls were Romanised little by little and many Gallo-Roman structures can be found in surrounding communes, Artisans flourished to satisfy Roman demand. Discoveries from the first century AD include thirty moulds, vases, construction materials were imported and exchanged for local craft or agricultural products. Urban centres developed, as well as roads, linking Clermont to Menat, Biozat, Vichy, Gannat, Bègues, Gannat is situated on the D2009 between Moulins and Clermont-Ferrand), D2209 to Vichy and D998 to Néris-les-Bains. It is 18 kilometres west of Vichy and 43 kilometres north of Clermont-Ferrand, Gannat is linked to the A71 autoroute by the 24 km-long A719 autoroute. Gannat is served by the Montluçon - Lapeyrouse and Clermont-Ferrand to Lyon, château de Gannat Communes of the Allier department INSEE Virlogeux, Louis. Etudes et documents sur Gannat. Nul ne sy frotte sans gantelet, commercant et Artisans du XVIII siecle. Note sur le couvent des Capucins, le process de la Dime Melín, León
20.
Bourbon-l'Archambault
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Bourbon-lArchambault is a spa town and a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France. It is the place of origin of the House of Bourbon, in 1300, Louis Bourbon built this city when he was made Grand Chambrier of France. In 1681, Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Tours, over three decades later, on 26 May 1707, Mme de Montespan also died in Bourbon-lArchambault. In 1915, mathematician André Lichnerowicz was born here
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Commentry
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Commentry is a commune in the department of Allier in central France. It lies 42 miles southwest of Moulins in the valley of the Œil and it is within 8 km of one of the geographic centres of France. The film actress Yvonne Rozille was born in Commentry, Commentry was the first commune ever to elect a socialist mayor, Christophe Thivrier was elected the 6th of June 1882. The Socialist Party of France was founded in Commentry in September 1902, Commentry gave its name to a coal field over 21 square kilometres in extent, and had important foundries and forges. Charles Brongniart discovered many fossils near Commentry, communes of the Allier department INSEE This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Commentry
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Cusset
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Cusset is a commune in the department of Allier, in central French region of Auvergne. Situated in the foothills of the Bourbonnaise Mountains, the city is a suburb of Vichy, the city includes fifty or so Lieux-dit, the most important are Presle, Puy-Besseau, the Bartins, Champcourt, Chantegrelet, Chassignol and Viermeux. Following the boundary changes of 2014, only one canton shall remain in 2015, the surface area of the municipality 7890 acres, its altitude varies between 837 and 1584 feet. The climate in this region is continental, the climate records come from the nearest weather station located in Charmeil, close to the airport. In 2011 the city was exposed to the sun for a total of 88 days, the municipality registered a rainfall of 23 inches and the maximal speed of the wind reached 52 mph. Star Wars themed fan convention Générations Star Wars et Science Fiction occurs every year in the main auditorium Espace Chambon. Communes of the Allier department Town hall website INSEE
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Bourbon l'Archambault
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Bourbon-lArchambault is a spa town and a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France. It is the place of origin of the House of Bourbon, in 1300, Louis Bourbon built this city when he was made Grand Chambrier of France. In 1681, Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Tours, over three decades later, on 26 May 1707, Mme de Montespan also died in Bourbon-lArchambault. In 1915, mathematician André Lichnerowicz was born here
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Neris-les-Bains
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Néris-les-Bains is a commune in the Allier department in the Auvergne region in central France. The name Néris comes from the Gaul God Nérios, a deity personifying the local thermal spring,8 kilometers southeast of Montluçon, the town is on departmental road 2144, which links Clermont-Ferrand to Bourges via Montluçon, and follows the trail of the ancient Roman way. The town is at 352 meters of altitude, on the first foothills of the Massif central, at that time, Néris was called Nériomagos. It was a village with a trade, at the crossroads of two major ways. Nérios was Latinized into Nérius, and Nériomagos became Aquae Nerii, the spring was used for therapeutic purposes and two luxurious thermal baths were created. Numerous monuments were built, including temples and villas, the 8th legion Augusta stationed there at the end of the 1st century. A circle theater was built to offer circus games and stage performances to the soldiers, many relics remain from that golden age. Around 275 C. E. the Germanic invasions destroyed a part of the town, in the 4th century, the thermal baths and the houses were partly rearranged and occupied again. A new wave of invasions destroyed the town again, and the ruins were used as a gravel-pit by the Merovingian population. Stone blocks belonging to the buildings were thus used for the sarcophaguses now located under the glass pyramid on the church square. Saint Patrocle evangelized Néris in the 6th century and built a church, the current romanesque church dates back to the 11th or 12th century and was built in the same place as the original 6th-century basilica, which was erected upon the ruins of a Roman building. The Carolingian king Pépin the First of Aquitaine, Charlemagnes grandson, rabelais mentioned them in Pantagruel, and Nicolas de Nicolay, King Charles the Ninth of France geographer, cited the Baings de Nérys in 1569. Néris new golden age began when the Dauphine, Duchess of Angoulême, the hotels, the casino and the theater were built. Among the famous people who followed a course of treatment in Néri were Chateaubriand, Musset, Lamartine. At that time, archaeological excavations began to discover the Roman Aquae Neriis infrastructure, society life was in full swing, and grand parties were organized. Néris became a town during the first World War, where injured soldiers were taken care of. By the end of the war, the baths were prosperous again. In 1930, the line between Néris and Montluçon entered service, as did the train station in Néris, with its pink sandstone and its multicolored roof
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Bocage
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Bocage is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture. Bocage is a Norman word that comes from the Old Norman boscage, the Norman place names retain it as Bosc-, -bosc, Bosc-, pronounced traditionally or. The suffix -age means a general thing, the boscage form was used in English for leafy decoration such as is found on eighteenth-century porcelain. Similar words occur in Scandinavian and other Germanic languages, the root is thought to be the Proto-Germanic *bŏsk-. The boscage form seems to have developed its meaning under the influence of eighteenth-century romanticism and it is the sort of landscape found in England in Devon. The 1934 Nouveau Petit Larousse defined bocage as a bosquet, a wood, an agreeably shady wood and a bosquet as a little wood. Bocage may also refer to a small forest, an element of leaves, or a type of rubble-work. In Southeast England, in spite of a soil which would not fit this landscape. England developed in the 17th century an ambitious sea policy and it imported Russian wheat, cheaper than English wheat. The enclosures favoured sheep husbandry and limited English cereal production, as a consequence of this policy, the rural exodus was amplified, accelerating the Industrial Revolution. The surplus of workers migrated to the cities to work in factories. In Normandy, the bocage acquired a significance in the Chouannerie and during the Battle of Normandy. In response, the Rhino tank was developed, a modification added to the front of tanks to aid them cut a hole through the bocage, American personnel usually referred to bocage as hedgerows. The German army also used sunken lanes to implement strong points and defenses to stop the American troops on the Cotentin peninsula, oxford English Dictionary Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré Petit Larousse Illustré2007
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Sioule
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The Sioule is a 167 kilometres long river in central France, left tributary of the river Allier. Its source is near the village Orcival, north of Mont-Dore, the Sioule has cut a deep gorge, especially in its upper course. Its main tributaries are the Sioulet and the Bouble, the Fades viaduct, the tallest bridge in France, is located on the Sioule. Http, //www. geoportail. fr The Sioule at the Sandre database
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Cher (river)
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The Cher is a river in central France, left tributary to the river Loire. Its source is in the Creuse département, north-east of Crocq and it joins the river Loire in Villandry, west of Tours. The river suffered a flood in 1940, which damaged Château de Chenonceau, which spans the river. Http, //www. geoportail. fr The Cher at the Sandre database
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Limagne
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The Limagne is large plain in the Auvergne region of France in the valley of the Allier river, on the edge of the Massif Central. It lies entirely within the département of Puy de Dôme, the name is derived from the Latin Lacus Magnus, or large lake. The Limagne plain is a graben, downthrown from the Massif Central by a series of faults that border the western edge of the plain. It contains about 2 km of sediments, and the amount of stretching of the crust is estimated as 1. 2–1.3, the rifting started in the Late Eocene and the main phase of subsidence continued into the Late Oligocene. Volcanism accompanied the rifting and continued into the Pleistocene, the sediments deposited in the basin are affected by numerous intrusions. The area was the first where peperites were described, from an intrusion into lacustrine limestone. The Limagne is a fertile plain and is mainly an area of cereal production, with some tobacco. Vineyards are found along the borders of the plain on the edge of the Massif Central, particularly at Corent and Châteaugay
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Allier River
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The Allier is a river in central France. It is a tributary of the Loire. Its source is in the Massif Central, in the Lozère department and it joins the Loire west of the city of Nevers. It is 421 km long, and has a basin of 14,350 km2. Grayling like to live in shoals and are sensitive to pollution, in the Allier these fish are more abundant in the stretch between Langogne and Brioude. They are economically important, being appreciated for food and fished for sport
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Loire
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The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of 1,012 kilometres, it drains an area of 117,054 km2, or more than a fifth of Frances land area, and is the 171st longest river in the world. Its main tributaries include the rivers Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre on its bank, and the rivers Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne. The Loire gives its name to six departments, Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, the central part of the Loire Valley, located in the Centre-Val de Loire region, was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2,2000. Vineyards and chateaux are found along the banks of the river throughout this area, gallic rule ended in the valley in 56 BC when Julius Caesar conquered the adjacent provinces for Rome. Christianity was introduced into this valley from the 3rd century AD, as missionaries, in this period, settlers established vineyards and began producing wines. They were originally created as feudal strongholds, over centuries past, the name Loire comes from Latin Liger, which is itself a transcription of the native Gaulish name of the river. The Gaulish name comes from the Gaulish word liga, which means silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium, a word that gave French lie, as in sur lie, which in turn gave English lees. Liga comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *legʰ-, meaning to lie, lay as in the Welsh word Lleyg which gave many words in English, such as to lie, to lay, ledge, law, etc. At a certain point during the history of uplift in the Paris Basin. The former bed of the Loire séquanaise is occupied by the Loing, the Loire Valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period from 40–90 ka. Neanderthal man used stone tools to fashion boats out of tree trunks, modern man inhabited the Loire valley around 30 ka. By around 5000 to 4000 BC, they began clearing forests along the edges and cultivating the lands. They built megaliths to worship the dead, especially from around 3500 BC, the Gauls arrived in the valley between 1500 and 500 BC, and the Carnutes settled in Cenabum in what is now Orléans and built a bridge over the river. By 600 BC the Loire had already become an important trading route between the Celts and the Greeks. A key transportation route, it served as one of the highways of France for over 2000 years. The Phoenicians and Greeks had used pack horses to transport goods from Lyon to the Loire to get from the Mediterranean basin to the Atlantic coast, during the Roman period, they successfully subdued the Gauls in 52 BC and began developing Cenabum, which they named Aurelianis. They also began building the city of Caesarodunum, now Tours, the Romans used the Loire as far as Roanne, around 150 km downriver from the source
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association 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 hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also 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 areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Burkina Faso since 2002.
SOURIRES since 2006.
Niafunké (Mali) since 1988.
Khemisset (Morocco) since 2009.
Uvurkhangai (Mongolia) since 2000.
Cluj (Romania) since 2002.
Yzeure Kafountine (Senegal) since 2011.
Cusset (Togo) since 2011.
