1.
Versailles, Yvelines
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According to the 2008 census, the population of the city is 88,641 inhabitants, down from a peak of 94,145 in 1975. A new town, founded by the will of King Louis XIV, it was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789, before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution. After having lost its status of city, it became the préfecture of Seine-et-Oise département in 1790, then of Yvelines in 1968. Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War and this word formation is similar to Latin seminare which gave French semailles. From May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, during the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France. Versailles was made the préfecture of the Seine-et-Oise département at its inception in March 1790, Versailles was made the préfecture of the Yvelines département, the largest chunk of the former Seine-et-Oise. At the 2006 census the Yvelines had 1,395,804 inhabitants, Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles is subordinate to the archdiocese of Paris, in 1975, Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris. Since 1972, Versailles has been the seat of one of Frances 30 nationwide académies of the Ministry of National Education. Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy with, for instance, the palace of Versailles is in the out-skirts of the city. Versailles is located 17.1 km west-southwest from the centre of Paris, the city of Versailles has an area of 26.18 km2, which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris. In 1989, Versailles had a density of 3, 344/km2, whereas Paris had a density of 20. Born out of the will of a king, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets, by the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington, the name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the end of the 11th century, the village curled around a medieval castle, the 14th century brought the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, and with it death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years War in the 15th century, in 1561, Martial de Loménie, secretary of state for finances under King Charles IX, became lord of Versailles. He obtained permission to four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays. The population of Versailles was 500 inhabitants, Martial de Loménie was murdered during the St. Bartholomews Day massacre
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
Suburb
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A suburb is a residential area or a mixed use area, either existing as part of a city or urban area or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city. In some areas, such as Australia, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and a few U. S. states, new suburbs are routinely annexed by adjacent cities. In others, such as Arabia, Canada, France, and much of the United States, Suburbs first emerged on a large scale in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of improved rail and road transport, which led to an increase in commuting. Suburbs tend to proliferate around cities that have an abundance of adjacent flat land, the English word is derived from the Old French subburbe, which is in turn derived from the Latin suburbium, formed from sub and urbs. The first recorded usage of the term in English, was made by John Wycliffe in 1380, in Australia and New Zealand, suburbs have become formalised as geographic subdivisions of a city and are used by postal services in addressing. In rural areas in both countries, their equivalents are called localities, the terms inner suburb and outer suburb are used to differentiate between the higher-density suburbs in proximity to the city center, and the lower-density suburbs on the outskirts of the urban area. The term middle suburbs is also used, Suburbs, in this sense, can range from areas that seem more like residential areas of a city proper to areas separated by open countryside from the city centre. In large cities such as London, suburbs include formerly separate towns and villages that have been gradually absorbed during a growth and expansion. In the United States and Canada, suburb can refer either to an residential area of a city or town or to a separate municipality or unincorporated area outside a town or city. The earliest appearance of suburbs coincided with the spread of the first urban settlements, large walled towns tended to be the focus around which smaller villages grew up in a symbiotic relationship with the market town. The word suburbani was first used by the Roman statesman Cicero in reference to the large villas, as populations grew during the Early Modern Period in Europe, urban towns swelled with a steady influx of people from the countryside. In some places, nearby settlements were swallowed up as the city expanded. The peripheral areas on the outskirts of the city were generally inhabited by the very poorest, by the mid-19th century, the first major suburban areas were springing up around London as the city became more overcrowded and unsanitary. A major catalyst in suburban growth came from the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in the 1860s, the line joined the capitals financial heart in the City to what were to become the suburbs of Middlesex. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street. Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, in 1912, it was suggested that a specially formed company should take over from the Surplus Lands Committee and develop suburban estates near the railway. However, World War I delayed these plans and it was only in 1919, with expectation of a housing boom. The term Metro-land was coined by the Mets marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide and this promoted the land served by the Met for the walker, visitor and later the house-hunter
4.
City
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A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
5.
City proper
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A city proper is the area contained within city limits. A city proper is not limited to a city, it can describe the area of any locality that fits the definition. The United Nations defines the term as the political jurisdiction which contains the historical city centre. City proper is one of the three basic concepts used to urban areas and populations. The other two are urban agglomeration, and the metropolitan area, in some countries, city limits that act as the demarcation for the city proper are drawn very wide, in some very narrow. This can be cause for recurring controversy, in its strict sense, city proper is used as a technical term in demography, the statistical study of human populations. Under the title World Urbanization Prospects, the United Nations issues every two years estimates and projections of the urban and rural populations of all countries of the world, the book defines the population of a city proper as the population living within the administrative boundaries of a city. In demography, city proper is one of the three basic concepts used to urban areas and populations. The other two are urban agglomeration, and the metropolitan area, in addition, there are Census Statistical Areas and permutations thereof. However, many areas have grown far beyond the limits of the city proper. An urban agglomeration is the de facto population contained within the contours of a territory inhabited at urban density levels without regard to administrative boundaries’. Urban agglomerations are thus determined by density, the ends where the density of settlement drops below some critical threshold. A still more comprehensive concept is the metropolitan area, in short, there is no right manner to define a city or municipality, city proper is just one manner. The term is a combination of city in the sense of an administrative district. The Free Dictionary Being within the limited sense, as of a term designating something. Especially when translated from the English or back, city proper sometimes takes on different meanings in different parts of the world, the United Nations Demographic Yearbook is compiled using questionnaires dispatched annually to more than 230 national statistical offices. These questionnaires ask for the definition of urban areas, rural areas. In its data however, the United Nations Demographic Yearbook affords the individual countries considerable leeway over the definition of city proper, in Tokyo, data for city proper refer to 23 wards of the old city
6.
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
7.
French Third Republic
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It came to an end on 10 July 1940. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy, thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic and it consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s the form of government that divides France least, however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution, on the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France, after Napoleons capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president and this first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, French territories occupied by Prussia at this time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters. The new government negotiated a settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities. The following repression of the communards would have consequences for the labor movement. The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch in 1830, his grandson Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. The Bonapartists were marginalized due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of his family, the Bonaparte family. Legitimists and Orléanists came to a compromise, eventually, whereby the childless Comte de Chambord would be recognised as king, consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution in order to restore the unity between the monarchy and the nation, which the revolution had sundered apart. Compromise on this was if the nation were to be made whole again
8.
Lyon
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Lyon or Lyons is a city in east-central France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, about 470 km from Paris and 320 km from Marseille. Inhabitants of the city are called Lyonnais, Lyon had a population of 506,615 in 2014 and is Frances third-largest city after Paris and Marseille. Lyon is the capital of the Metropolis of Lyon and the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the metropolitan area of Lyon had a population of 2,237,676 in 2013, the second-largest in France after Paris. The city is known for its cuisine and gastronomy and historical and architectural landmarks and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Lyon was historically an important area for the production and weaving of silk. It played a significant role in the history of cinema, Auguste, the city is also known for its famous light festival, Fête des Lumières, which occurs every 8 December and lasts for four days, earning Lyon the title of Capital of Lights. Economically, Lyon is a centre for banking, as well as for the chemical, pharmaceutical. The city contains a significant software industry with a focus on video games. Lyon hosts the headquarters of Interpol, Euronews, and International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lyon was ranked 19th globally and second in France for innovation in 2014 and it ranked second in France and 39th globally in Mercers 2015 liveability rankings. These refugees had been expelled from Vienne by the Allobroges and were now encamped at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers, dio Cassius says this task was to keep the two men from joining Mark Antony and bringing their armies into the developing conflict. The Roman foundation was at Fourvière hill and was officially called Colonia Copia Felix Munatia, a name invoking prosperity, the city became increasingly referred to as Lugdunum. The earliest translation of this Gaulish place-name as Desired Mountain is offered by the 9th-century Endlicher Glossary, in contrast, some modern scholars have proposed a Gaulish hill-fort named Lugdunon, after the Celtic god Lugus, and dúnon. It then became the capital of Gaul, partly due to its convenient location at the convergence of two rivers, and quickly became the main city of Gaul. Two emperors were born in city, Claudius, whose speech is preserved in the Lyon Tablet in which he justifies the nomination of Gallic senators. Today, the archbishop of Lyon is still referred to as Primat des Gaules, the Christians in Lyon were martyred for their beliefs under the reigns of various Roman emperors, most notably Marcus Aurelius and Septimus Severus. Local saints from this period include Blandina, Pothinus, and Epipodius, in the second century AD, the great Christian bishop of Lyon was the Easterner, Irenaeus. Burgundian refugees fleeing the destruction of Worms by the Huns in 437 were re-settled by the commander of the west, Aëtius. This became the capital of the new Burgundian kingdom in 461, in 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, Lyon, with the country beyond the Saône, went to Lothair I
9.
Lille
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Lille is a city in northern France, in French Flanders. On the Deûle River, near Frances border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BC, most notably in the modern-day quartiers of Fives, Wazemmes, and Vieux Lille. The legend of Lydéric and Phinaert puts the foundation of the city of Lille at 640, in the 8th century, the language of Old Low Franconian was spoken here, as attested by toponymic research. Lilles Dutch name is Rijsel, which comes from ter ijsel, the French equivalent has the same meaning, Lille comes from lîle. From 830 until around 910, the Vikings invaded Flanders, after the destruction caused by Norman and Magyar invasion, the eastern part of the region was ruled by various local princes. The first mention of the dates from 1066, apud Insulam. At the time, it was controlled by the County of Flanders, the County of Flanders thus extended to the left bank of the Scheldt, one of the richest and most prosperous regions of Europe. A notable local in this period was Évrard, who lived in the 9th century and participated in many of the days political, there was an important Battle of Lille in 1054. From the 12th century, the fame of the Lille cloth fair began to grow, in 1144 Saint-Sauveur parish was formed, which would give its name to the modern-day quartier Saint-Sauveur. Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders was imprisoned and the county fell into dispute, it would be his wife, Jeanne, Countess of Flanders and Constantinople and she was said to be well loved by the residents of Lille, who by that time numbered 10,000. He pushed the kingdoms of Flanders and Hainaut towards sedition against Jeanne in order to recover his land and she called her cousin, Louis VIII. He unmasked the imposter, whom Countess Jeanne quickly had hanged, in 1226 the King agreed to free Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders. Count Ferrand died in 1233, and his daughter Marie soon after, in 1235, Jeanne granted a city charter by which city governors would be chosen each All Saints Day by four commissioners chosen by the ruler. On 6 February 1236, she founded the Countesss Hospital, which one of the most beautiful buildings in Old Lille. It was in her honour that the hospital of the Regional Medical University of Lille was named Jeanne of Flanders Hospital in the 20th century, the Countess died in 1244 in the Abbey of Marquette, leaving no heirs. The rule of Flanders and Hainaut thus fell to her sister, Margaret II, Countess of Flanders, then to Margarets son, Lille fell under the rule of France from 1304 to 1369, after the Franco-Flemish War. The county of Flanders fell to the Duchy of Burgundy next, after the 1369 marriage of Margaret III, Countess of Flanders, Lille thus became one of the three capitals of said Duchy, along with Brussels and Dijon. By 1445, Lille counted some 25,000 residents, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was even more powerful than the King of France, and made Lille an administrative and financial capital
10.
Bordeaux
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Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France. The municipality of Bordeaux proper has a population of 243,626, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Bordeaux is the centre of the Bordeaux Métropole. With 749,595 inhabitants and 1,178,335 in the area, it is the fifth largest in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department and its inhabitants are called Bordelais or Bordelaises. The term Bordelais may also refer to the city and its surrounding region, Bordeaux is the worlds major wine industry capital. It is home to the main wine fair, Vinexpo. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century, the historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble of the 18th century. After Paris, Bordeaux has the highest number of preserved buildings of any city in France. In historical times, around 300 BC it was the settlement of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges Vivisci, the name Bourde is still the name of a river south of the city. In 107 BC, the Battle of Burdigala was fought by the Romans who were defending the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe allied to Rome, the Romans were defeated and their commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus, was killed in the action. The city fell under Roman rule around 60 BC, its importance lying in the commerce of tin, later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine, flourishing especially during the Severan dynasty. In 276 it was sacked by the Vandals, further ravage was brought by the same Vandals in 409, the Visigoths in 414 and the Franks in 498, beginning a period of obscurity for the city. In the late 6th century, the city re-emerged as the seat of a county and an archdiocese within the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks, the city started to play a regional role as a major urban center on the fringes of the newly founded Frankish Duchy of Vasconia. Around 585, a certain Gallactorius is cited as count of Bordeaux, the city was plundered by the troops of Abd er Rahman in 732 after storming the fortified city and overwhelming the Aquitanian garrison. After Duke Eudess defeat, the Aquitanian duke could still save part of its troops, the following year, the Frankish commander descended again over Aquitaine, but clashed in battle with the Aquitanians and left to take on hostile Burgundian authorities and magnates. In 745, Aquitaine faced yet another expedition by Charles sons Pepin and Carloman against Hunald, Hunald was defeated, and his son Waifer replaced him, who in turn confirmed Bordeaux as the capital city. During the last stage of the war against Aquitaine, it was one of Waifers last important strongholds to fall to King Pepin the Shorts troops. Next to Bordeaux, Charlemagne built the fortress of Fronsac on a hill across the border with the Basques, in 778, Seguin was appointed count of Bordeaux, probably undermining the power of the Duke Lupo, and possibly leading to the Battle of Roncevaux Pass that very year
11.
Seine-Saint-Denis
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Seine-Saint-Denis is a French department located in the Île-de-France region. Locally, it is referred to colloquially as quatre-vingt treize or neuf trois. The learned and rarely used demonym for the inhabitants is Séquano-Dionysiens, Seine-Saint-Denis is located to the northeast of Paris. It has an area of only 236 km², making it one of the smallest departments in France. Seine-Saint-Denis and two other departments, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne, form a ring around Paris, known as the Petite Couronne. They form, together with Paris the Greater Paris since January 1st 2016, Seine-Saint-Denis is made up of three departmental arrondissements and 40 communes, Seine-Saint-Denis was created in January 1968, through the implementation of a law passed in July 1964. It was formed from the part of the Seine department to the north and north-east of the Paris ring road, Seine-Saint-Denis has a history as a veritable left-wing stronghold, belonging to the ceinture rouge of Paris. The French Communist Party especially has maintained a strong presence in the department. A commune of Seine-Saint-Denis, Clichy-sous-Bois, was the scene of the death of two youths which sparked the riots of autumn 2005. In October - November,9,000 cars were burned and 3,000 rioters were arrested, Seine-Saint-Denis is the French department with the highest proportion of immigrants,21. 7% at the 1999 census. This figure does not include the children of immigrants born on French soil as well as some native elites from former French colonies, the ratio of ethnic minorities is difficult to estimate accurately as French law prohibits the collection of ethnic data for census taking purposes. However estimates suggest there are 500,000 Muslims out of a population of 1.53 million. Saint-Denis is home to the Union of French Islamic Organizations in the Bourget district, in 2005,56. 7% of young people under 18 were of foreign origin including 38% of African origin. Islam is believed to be the most practiced religion in the department, Seine-Saint-Denis was scheduled to be the site of a 2004 International Exhibition. Website of the General council Prefecture website Seine-Saint-Denis Tourist Board
