1.
Cantal cheese
–
Cantal cheese is a type of firm cheese produced in the Auvergne region of central France, more particularly in the département of Cantal as well as in certain adjoining districts. Cantal cheese was granted Appellation dOrigine Contrôlée certification in 1956, one of the oldest cheeses in France, Cantal dates back to the times of the Gauls. It came to prominence when Marshal Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre served it at the table of Louis XIV of France, senneterre is also responsible for the introduction of Saint-Nectaire and Salers. There are two types of Cantal cheese, Cantal Fermier is a farmhouse cheese made of raw milk. Cantal Laitier is the commercial, mass-produced version from pasteurized milk, Cantal is shaped like a cylinder. Cantal is made from raw or pasteurized milk of the Salers breed. For Cantal, the milk of cows that are fed on hay is used and this semi-hard cheese is aged for several months. The form is massive, and the cheese has a soft interior and its flavor, which is somewhat reminiscent of Cheddar, is a strong, tangy butter taste and grows with age. A well ripened Cantal has a taste, while a young cheese has the sweetness of raw milk. Its smell is of earth and pasture lands, and is reminiscent of the pasture land of the Auvergne region it originates from. According to the time of aging, three varieties are distinguished, Cantal jeune Cantal entre-deux or Cantal doré Cantal vieux and these are all available as fermier and laitier. Most Cantal is of the first two varieties, Cantal vieux is already a hard cheese, if kept properly, it can last up to a year and a half without spoiling. It is not produced in large quantities, much loved in the Cantal region, Cantal vieux is quite rarely exported due to its strong taste, and can usually be found only in specialist stores. Cantal cheese has a fat content of 45% and it is used in soups, salads, aligot potatoes cheese fondue and gratins. List of ancient dishes and foods
Cantal cheese
–
Cantal
2.
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
Departments of France
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Geometrical proposition rejected
Departments of France
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The 101 departments of France
Departments of France
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The three Algerian departments in 1848
3.
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
Prefectures in France
–
Petite Couronne
4.
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
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
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
Regions of France
6.
Aurillac
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Aurillac is a French commune, capital of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne region of south-central France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Aurillacois or Aurillacoises, the commune has been awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom. Aurillac is at 600 metres above sea level and located at the foot of the Cantal mountains in a small Sedimentary basin, the city is built on the banks of the Jordanne, a tributary of the Cère. It is 558 km south of Paris and 223 km north of Toulouse, Aurillac was part of a former Auvergne province called Haute-Auvergne and is only 20 km away from the heart of the Auvergne Volcano Park. The Figeac-Arvant railway passes through the commune with a station in the centre of town, about 50% of the commune is urbanised with farmland to the east and west of the urban area. Aurillac – Tronquières Airport is located in the south of the commune with its runway extending beyond the commune boundary and it is connected to Paris by two daily flights by the Air France subsidiary HOP. The Jordanne river flows through the heart of the commune north to south where it joins the Cère just south of the commune. Boudieu on the N122, which is called the Route de Sansac-de-Marmiesse or de Toulouse, is a farm with a house from the 1900s. Boudieu-Bas on the N122 is a set of houses built in the 1960s with some buildings used commercially or for crafts, gueret on the N122 is a farm with two houses and two agricultural buildings. This hamlet is traversed by an old road from a place formerly called Julien from which name for the SNCF Julien Bridge comes. The former Julien is towards the Chateau of Tronquières in the area on Avenue Charles de Gaulle opposite the Medico-Surgical Centre. This farm with its house and barn were absorbed by the city on the creation of a district in the 1970s until the mid 1980s, the agricultural buildings were demolished to make room for a shop. La Sablère on the RN122 is a set of dwellings mostly from the 1980s and this place spreads over two communes, Aurillac and Arpajon-sur-Cere with the majority of the buildings in Arpajon-sur-Cere. Le Barra near the avenue Aristide Briand, also called the Ancienne route de Vic or the old N120 and this is a farm and houses. Les Quatre Chemins at the intersection of the D120 and the D922 on the borders of Aurillac, Naucelles and it is a complex of commercial buildings and residences on the crossroads of the two former National highways. Originally it was a farm with a chateau but the chateau, today it is a grouping of housing units specializing in housing assistance for the integration of disabled people and the airport. It is the area for travellers to the city and a former landfill. Before the construction of the airport the meadows were areas for grazing for nearby farms such as the Boudieu farm
Aurillac
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The church of Saint-Géraud and surrounding buildings, in Aurillac
Aurillac
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Houses along the Jordanne
Aurillac
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The Station at Aurillac in 1898
Aurillac
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Boutique Gentiane Couderc
7.
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
Subprefectures in France
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A subprefecture in
Verdun,
Meuse
Subprefectures in France
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A subprefecture in
Langon,
Gironde
8.
Mauriac, Cantal
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Mauriac is a commune in the Cantal department in the Auvergne region in south-central France. It lies 39 miles north-northwest of Aurillac by rail, Mauriac is situated in the northwest of Cantal, close to the border with the Corrèze and Limousin departments. Mauriac is in hilly terrain, with the populated area falling into a zone at an altitude of about 350–450 metres. Childebert, daughter of Clovis I, reported that she had had a vision of the Virgin Mary, carrying the infant Christ and this led her to found a chapel at the side of the Rieu Mauri, the small stream now known as the ruisseau Saint-Jean. This was later grew into the Benedictine abbey of Saint Peter, increasing wealth allowed the abbey to begin construction of a considerable Romanesque church in the 11th century, commencing with the choir. The nave and belfry followed in the 12th century, and the process culminated in the building of a great west portal, surmounted by an Ascension of Christ, in the 13th. The belfry fell into disrepair during the French Wars of Religion and during the French Revolution, requiring reconstruction in 1625, the two towers were 17th century additions. The abbey itself was dissolved during the Revolution and the land sold off in lots, the remains of the abbey buildings were incorporated into houses and municipal buildings. A large part of remains, including the chapter house, were purchased by the town in 1984. The town became notable during the Revolutionary period for the work of Catherine Jarrige and she was especially noted for concealing refractory priests, who refused to compromise with state control of the Church, as embodied in Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790. She remains closely associated with the church and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1996. The church, now known as Notre-Dame-des-Miracles, was promoted to the status of basilica in 1921, under Pope Benedict XV and it remains a place of pilgrimage, and its fine furnishings and fittings attract considerable interest. Mauriac is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance, the present mayor is a member of the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. Inhabitant of the area are known as Mauriacois, the Mauriac area is a stronghold of the Auvergnat dialect of the Occitan language, which has about 1.5 million speakers, mostly in the Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal départements. Although all of the population also speak French, Auvergnat is still the mother tongue in many homes and its lexis, grammar and phonology are also likely to influence the usage of spoken French. The place-name Mauriac has precisely the same form in both languages, but is pronounced as Mouria by Auvergnat-speakers. Mauriac is the market town and shopping centre of the arrondissement. It still attracts pilgrims, as well as tourists because of its proximity to the Dordogne River valley, the countryside of Mauriac and its neighbouring communes is known as the Pays de Salers, and is marketed under this name
Mauriac, Cantal
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Notre-Dame-des-Miracles basilica
Mauriac, Cantal
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Choir of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles.
Mauriac, Cantal
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The Hôtel de Ville or
town hall, situated on the main square at right angles to the church.
9.
Saint-Flour, Cantal
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Saint-Flour is a commune in the Cantal department in the Auvergne region in south-central France. The upper city of Saint-Flour is located on the abrupt volcanic dike Planèze, there are numerous dolmens in the neighborhood and scattered traces of Bronze Age occupation. Roman occupation is signalled by two Roman villas of middling importance, one near the station, the other a modest Augustan-age villa near the hamlet of Roueyre. The Roman name of this small vicus was Indiciacum or Indiciacus, which evolved into Indiciat in the sub-Roman period, a reference to the landmark of Planèze. The present town called Indiciac took shape only around the millennium, clustered around the monastery founded on the rock in 996. The diocese of Saint-Flour was established in August 1317 by the Avignon pope, during the Revolution the commune took several successive names, de-Christianized as Fort-Cantal, Fort-Libre then Mont-Flour before retrieving its ancient historic designation in an II. The territory of the commune was never changed, briefly, between 1790 and 1795 it served as the préfecture of the newly created département, before Aurillac succeeded to that position. The annual École dEté de Probabilités de Saint-Flour has resulted in a series of volumes concerning probability theory
Saint-Flour, Cantal
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A general view of Saint-Flour
Saint-Flour, Cantal
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Saint-Flour Cathedral
Saint-Flour, Cantal
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Tourist office
Saint-Flour, Cantal
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The upper part of the town with its wall
10.
Union for a Popular Movement
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The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was renamed and succeeded by the Republicans, Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of the UMP, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by PS candidate François Hollande in a run-off five years later. After the November 2012 party congress, the UMP experienced internal fractioning and was plagued by scandals which forced its president, Jean-François Copé. After his re-election as UMP president in November 2014, Sarkozy put forward an amendment to change the name of the party into The Republicans, since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1981 and 1988 legislative elections, before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the centrist Union for French Democracy formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, who was eventually elected, and supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR, before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move. After Chiracs re-election, in order to contest the election jointly. It was renamed Union for a Popular Movement and as established as a permanent organisation. In the UMP four major French political families were represented, Gaullism, republicanism, Christian democracy. Chiracs close ally Alain Juppé became the partys first president at the founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79. 42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the partys Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, and three other candidates. During the partys earlier years, it was marked by tensions, in the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP also suffered another heavy blow, winning 16. 6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, and only 16 seats. Juppé resigned the presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy rapidly announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the presidency with 85. 09% of the votes against 9. 1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5. 82% for Christine Boutin. Having gained control of what had been Chiracs party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery, however, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election
Union for a Popular Movement
–
Nicolas Sarkozy speaking at a UMP party congress in 2004
Union for a Popular Movement
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Union for a Popular Movement Union pour un mouvement populaire
Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
11.
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
List of French departments by population
–
Population Density by Department
12.
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
Daylight saving time
–
Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
–
G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
–
Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
–
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
13.
Central European Summer Time
–
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
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
14.
Communes in France
–
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
Communes in France
–
Road sign marking the end of the village of
Y in the
Somme department of
Picardy
Communes in France
–
Map of the 36,569 communes of metropolitan France
Communes in France
–
Mittelhausbergen in
Alsace
Communes in France
–
Vacqueyras in
Provence, showing double French/
Provençal name
15.
Estuary
–
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
Estuary
–
Estuary of the
Klamath River in
Northern California
Estuary
–
River Exe estuary
Estuary
–
River Nith estuary
Estuary
–
Estuary mouth located in
Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia
16.
France
–
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
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
17.
French language
–
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
French language
–
The
"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in
Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.
French language
–
Regions where French is the main language
French language
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Town sign in
Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of
Rechmaya in
Lebanon.
French language
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An obsolete 100
Lebanese pound note with the French language inscriptions "Banque du Liban" and "Cent livres".
18.
Haute-Loire
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Haute-Loire is a department in south-central France named after the Loire River. Haute-Loire is part of the current region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Cantal, the inhabitants of the department are called Altiligériens. The department covers the upper reaches of the Loire and consists of the Loire Valley and it is one of the original 83 departments of France created in 1790 during the French Revolution. Parts of the department are included in the Livradois-Forez Regional Natural Park, the first known inhabitants of this region were hunter-gatherers and it was later occupied by pastoralists, shepherds living in caves or simple huts. It later came under the control of a Gaulish tribe called Vellavi and at the time of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars, the area became a Roman province in 121 BC, originally under the name Gallia Transalpina. The name distinguished it from Cisalpine Gaul on the side of the Alps to Rome. In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate, Lepidus was given responsibility for Narbonese Gaul, after the Gothic takeover, the Visigothic dominions were generally known as Septimania. The king of the Visigoths, Alaric I was killed at the Battle of Vouillé in 507, a battle won by Clovis I and Velay came under Frankish rule. On Clovis death in 511, his kingdom was divided among his four sons and these subdivisions were united under the auspices of his longest surviving son Chlothar I, only to be split again under his four sons at his death. It was reunited once more under Chlothar II who became the ruler of the Frankish people in 613. In about 928, the became a fiefdom of the Count of Toulouse. In 1137, Eleanor of Aquitaine succeeded to the Duchy of Aquitaine and her marriage to Henry, Duke of Normandy, by the end of the thirteenth century the area was known as the Dauphiné d’Auvergne. Haute-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, the new departments were to be uniformly administered and approximately equal to one another in size and population. Haute-Loire was formed parts of the former provinces of Auvergne, Languedoc. Two thirds of the department, centred on Le Puy-en-Velay, used to be part of the province of Languedoc and is known as Velay. The geographical distance from Toulouse had allowed this region to enjoy a great deal of autonomy, Haute-Loire is a department in south central France and is part of the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The capital and largest town in the department is Le Puy-en-Velay, to the north of Haute-Loire lie Puy-de-Dôme and Loire, to the east lies Ardèche, to the south lies Lozère and to the west lies Cantal. The river Loire rises in the part of the department and flows northwards
Haute-Loire
–
Le Puy-en-Velay
Haute-Loire
–
Location of Haute-Loire in France
Haute-Loire
–
Lavaudieu
Haute-Loire
–
Brioude
19.
Aveyron
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Aveyron is a department located in the north of the Occitanie region of southern France named after the Aveyron River. The inhabitants of the department are known as Aveyronnais or Aveyronnaises, the inhabitants of Rodez are called Ruthénois, based on the first Celtic settlers, the rutenii. Aveyron is the centre of a formed by the cities of Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand. The department approximately follows the outline of the province of Rouergue. It is the 5th largest department in metropolitan France in terms of area, the department comes under the jurisdiction of the Academy of Toulouse and the Montpellier Court of Appeal. The INSEE and Post Code is 12, Aveyron is located in the south of the Massif Central. The highest point in the department is the summit of Le Signal de Mailhebiau at 1469m on the Plateau of Aubrac, the Aveyron department is divided into several natural regions such as the Grand Causses and Rougiers. Aveyron department consists of an ancient high plateau of great geological diversity. The Truyère, Lot, Aveyron, and Tarn rivers have carved a lot of deep gorges, the department is surrounded by the departments of Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot, Hérault, Gard, Lozère, and Cantal. The Lac de Villefranche-de-Panat is used as a reservoir to provide drinking water supplies for the region, Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. During the medieval and early periods, and until the 1790s. In 1797, Victor of Aveyron was found wandering the woods in the area, the story of Victor is told in the film The Wild Child. In 1817, a local prosecutor Antoine Bernardin Fualdès was assassinated, the sordid circumstances of his death, following which his body was found floating in the Aveyron River, led to the matter becoming publicised as a cause célèbre. Recent studies have indicated that he met his end at the initiative of a right wing royalist organisation known as the Chevaliers de la Foi, in 2010, the department had 276,805 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the censuses conducted in the department since 1793. This table shows the towns of Aveyron including second homes. Source INSEE, data from 1 January 2008, the President of the General Council is Jean-Claude Luche of the Union for a Popular Movement. The regional sub-dialect spoken in Aveyron is a form of Languedoc Occitan called Rouergat, faced with the risk of disappearance of the language several associations asked the State and political communities for an ambitious language policy
Aveyron
–
Prefecture building of the Aveyron department, in Rodez
Aveyron
–
Ruteni coin, 5th–1st century BCE.
Aveyron
–
Victor of Aveyron in 1800
Aveyron
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Rodez Cathedral
20.
Lot (department)
–
Lot is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot River. Lot is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 and it was created from part of the province of Quercy. In 1808 some of the original southeastern cantons were separated from it to form the department of Tarn-et-Garonne and it originally extended much farther to the south and included the city of Montauban. Lot is part of the region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Corrèze, Cantal, Aveyron, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, for a full list, see Communes of the Lot department. Settlements in the Lot include, Cahors - The prefecture of the department and it lies in a wide loop of the Lot River and is famous for its medieval bridge, the Pont Valentre. Figeac - a medieval town where Champollion, the first translator of Egyptian hieroglyphics, was born, figeac is a sub-prefecture of the department. Gourdon - a medieval town with a well preserved centre. There are many painted caves nearby, notably the Grottes de Cougnac. Gourdon is also a sub-prefecture of te department, cantons of the Lot department Communes of the Lot department French singer-songwriter Léo Ferré lived in the Lot for a while
Lot (department)
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Prefecture building of the Lot department, in Cahors
Lot (department)
–
Cahors
Lot (department)
–
Pont Valentré
Lot (department)
–
Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
21.
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
Creuse
–
Prefecture building of the Creuse department, in Guéret
Creuse
–
Creuse landscape
Creuse
–
Famous
pacifist World War I
memorial in Gentioux
Creuse
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Villemonteix Castle in winter
22.
Monts Dore
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The Monts Dore are the remnant peaks of a volcanic massif situated near the center of the Massif Central, in the Auvergne region of France. They form a picturesque mountainous region, dotted with lakes, thermal springs, the massif is an integral part of the Parc des Volcans dAuvergne, and is known for its alpine ski areas and hiking trails. The massif is much older than the nearby chaîne des Puys and it is a deeply eroded stratovolcano, similar to the Cantal massif to the south, but more reduced in area and volume. Its history began about 3 Mya with a Plinian eruption that created a large caldera and this eruption resulted in the emission of ignimbrite rhyolitic pumice that covered over 100 km2 of land. Afterwards, phonolite domes were emplaced on the exterior of the caldera, the region is dotted with lakes of volcanic origin. Some are maars that have filled with water, while others are the result of streams whose courses have been blocked by volcanic activity
Monts Dore
–
Peaks in the northern Monts Dore
23.
Allier (river)
–
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
Allier (river)
–
Allier
Allier (river)
–
Grayling in a sunny pool
Allier (river)
–
The bridge Le Guétin.
24.
Lot (river)
–
The Lot, pronounced, originally the Olt, is a river in France. It is a tributary of the Garonne. It rises in the Cévennes, flowing west through Quercy, where it flows into the Garonne near Aiguillon and it gives its name to the departments of Lot and Lot-et-Garonne. The Lot is prone to flooding in the winter and spring, Olt is also the name of a river in Romania. A reliable route was not provided until the 17th century when Jean-Baptiste Colbert ordered new works, by 1776, the river had 12 locks. New construction was begun in 1835 for some 297 kilometres and 76 locks, four tunnels were included at this time with lengths from 139 to 364 metres. Railway competition caused the abandonment of Lot navigation in 1926, over the next 60 years, there were no repairs or maintenance of the canal. Repairs in the Lower Lot began in the end of the 1990s and this portion of the Lot is a 71. 5-kilometre route, with 7 locks, from Nicole to Lustrac. The lower Lot is open to traffic and is being extended upstream with the objective of some day being connected to the upper Lot and it was reopened to boats in May 1990
Lot (river)
–
The Lot in Cahors
Lot (river)
–
Canalized Lot River
Lot (river)
–
Entire Lot River - origin to
Garonne
25.
Rhue (river)
–
The Rhue is a 56. 6-kilometre long river in the Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Corrèze départements, south central France. Its source is at Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise, near Super Besse, in the parc naturel régional des volcans dAuvergne,4.5 kilometres southeast of the puy de Sancy and it is a left tributary of the Dordogne into which it flows at Bort-les-Orgues. Its main tributaries are the Santoire, the petite Rhue and the Tarentaine, http, //www. geoportail. fr The Rhue at the Sandre database
Rhue (river)
–
The Rhue at Égliseneuve-d'Entraigues.
26.
Dordogne (river)
–
The Dordogne is a river in south-central and southwest France. The Dordogne and its watershed were designated Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO on July 112012, contrary to appearances, the name of the Dordogne is not a recent word resulting from the frequent names of the Dore and the Dogne. It comes from an ancient Durānius, derived from a Pre-Celtic root dur-, dor-, the medieval forms adopted a redoubled suffix -ononia, Dorononia fluvius, Dornonia that evolves in Dordonia by a phenomenon of dissimilation, giving the impression of an etymology *Dore-Dogne. The Dordogne is one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit the phenomenon of a tidal bore, the upper valley of the Dordogne is a series of deep gorges. The cliffs, steep banks, fast flowing water and high bridges attract both walkers and drivers, in several places the river is dammed to form long, deep lakes. Camp sites and holiday homes have proliferated wherever the valley floor is wide enough to accommodate them, below Argentat and around Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne, the valley widens to accommodate fertile farmland, well-watered pasture and orchards. In the towns, which are major tourist attractions because of their history and architecture, in Périgord, the valley widens further to encompass one of Frances main gastronomic regions, with vineyards, poultry farms and truffle-rich woodlands. The main season for tourism in the Valley of the Dordogne is from June to September, with July, the lifestyle and culture of the Dordogne valley attract both visitors and incomers from all over France, but also from many other countries, particularly Britain and Germany. The Dordogne at the Sandre database The Dordogne Valley in the Lot department The Dordogne Valley UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
Dordogne (river)
–
The Dordogne in
Périgord, near
Castelnaud-la-Chapelle
Dordogne (river)
–
Location of the Dordogne River in France
Dordogne (river)
–
Canoeing on Dordogne River
Dordogne (river)
–
River Dordogne at
Argentat in
Corrèze, part of the Limousin region
27.
Alluvial plain
–
An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. As the highlands due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, as the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths. These processes, over time, will form the plain. The NCSS glossary instead suggests flood plain
Alluvial plain
–
Floodplain (center) within the alluvial plain of the
Waimakariri River,
New Zealand.
Alluvial plain
–
A small,
incised alluvial plain from
Red Rock Canyon State Park (California).
28.
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of
Portugal
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean, not including
Arctic and
Antarctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
–
The Atlantic Ocean as seen from
Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Atlantic Ocean
–
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.
29.
Weather forecast
–
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, hence, forecasts become less accurate as the difference between current time and the time for which the forecast is being made increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus help narrow the error, there are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life, forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to traders within commodity markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days, on an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by rain, snow and wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events. In 2014, the US spent $5.1 billion on weather forecasting, for millennia people have tried to forecast the weather. In 650 BC, the Babylonians predicted the weather from cloud patterns as well as astrology, in about 340 BC, Aristotle described weather patterns in Meteorologica. Later, Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs, chinese weather prediction lore extends at least as far back as 300 BC, which was also around the same time ancient Indian astronomers developed weather-prediction methods. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, ancient weather forecasting methods usually relied on observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition. For example, it might be observed if the sunset was particularly red. This experience accumulated over the generations to produce weather lore, however, not all of these predictions prove reliable, and many of them have since been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing. It was not until the invention of the telegraph in 1835 that the modern age of weather forecasting began. Before that, the fastest that distant weather reports could travel was around 100 miles per day, the two men credited with the birth of forecasting as a science were officer of the Royal Navy Francis Beaufort and his protégé Robert FitzRoy. Beaufort developed the Wind Force Scale and Weather Notation coding, which he was to use in his journals for the remainder of his life. He also promoted the development of reliable tide tables around British shores, Robert FitzRoy was appointed in 1854 as chief of a new department within the Board of Trade to deal with the collection of weather data at sea as a service to mariners. This was the forerunner of the modern Meteorological Office, all ship captains were tasked with collating data on the weather and computing it, with the use of tested instruments that were loaned for this purpose. Fifteen land stations were established to use the new telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service and his warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861, with the use of telegraph communications
Weather forecast
–
The Royal Charter sank in an 1859 storm, stimulating the establishment of modern weather forecasting.
Weather forecast
–
Forecast of surface pressures five days into the future for the north Pacific, North America, and north Atlantic ocean.
Weather forecast
–
Weather map of Europe, 10 December 1887.
Weather forecast
–
George Cowling (above) presented the first in-vision forecast on 11 January 1954 for the BBC.
30.
Haute-Auvergne
–
Cantal is a department in south-central France, with its capital at Aurillac. Its residents are known as Cantalians and its principal towns are Aurillac, Saint-Flour, and Mauriac. Cantal is part of the current region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and borders the departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Aveyron, Lot, Lozère, the department is named for the Plomb du Cantal, the central peak of the bare and rugged Monts du Cantal mountain chain which traverses the area. Cantal lies in the middle of Frances central plateau, the Cantal range is a group of extinct and eroded volcanic peaks. Its highest point is the Plomb du Cantal, which reaches an elevation of 1,858 meters and its neighbors are Puy Mary and Puy Chavaroche. To their north lie the Cézallier and Dore ranges and the arid Artense Plateau, immediately to their east is the fertile Planèze Plateau, bound on its east by the Monts de la Margeride. The principal rivers are the Alagnon, which is tributary to the Allier, the Celle and Truyère, tributary to the Lot, at an elevation of 250 meters above sea level, the low point of the province lies in the Lot valley. The Truyère valley skirts the Planèze on the south and divides it from the Monts dAubrac, the western area of the department consists of grassy plateaus and beautiful river valleys. At first, Cantal was divided into four arrondissements—Aurillac, Mauriac, Murat, Murat was later merged into the others. The climate of the department varies considerably, prevailing winds and mountain ranges divide Cantal into four climatic zones, The west is subject to oceanic winds which bring rains. The mountains of the Cantal and the Cézallier create a shadow, it rains. The Planèze of Saint-Flour and the region of Massiac receive less precipitation, the plateaux of the Margeride and the Aubrac have harsh winters and pleasant summers. Generally, the weather is mild and dry in the plain between Murat and St-Fleur and around Aurillac, while summer storms and winters can be long and severe in the northern. The west—nearer precipitation coming in from the Atlantic—is well watered, there is abundant snowfall which can remain up to six months on the mountaintops. Winter temperatures can fall to below −15 °C, whereas in summer 25 °C is often reached, the southern part of the department, on its borders with Aveyron and Lot, is the hottest region. Aurillac averaged 2080 hours of sunlight per year over the period from 1991 to 2000, fog is rare and disappears quickly. Wind is usually not very strong, but the lightning flashes in this department are among the most spectacular in France, televised French weather forecasts often note Aurillac as the coldest city in France in the mornings. This status should be understood in light of their derivation from temperature readings by Météo France, of the 30 cities included on its maps, Aurillac is by far the one with the highest altitude, at 640 m above sea level
Haute-Auvergne
–
Prefecture building of the Cantal department, in Aurillac
Haute-Auvergne
–
Aubrac Cows on the
Plomb du Cantal
Haute-Auvergne
–
Truyère river
Haute-Auvergne
–
Château de Val
31.
Auvergne (province)
–
The history of the Auvergne dates back to the early Middle Ages, when it was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne, christianized by Saint Austremoine, Auvergne was quite prosperous during the Roman ages. After a short time under the Visigoths, it was conquered by the Franks, during the earlier medieval period, Auvergne was a county within the duchy of Aquitaine and as such part of the Angevin Empire until the 13th century. In 1225, Louis VIII of France granted Poitou and Auvergne to his third son Alfonso, on Alfonsos death in 1271, Auvergne along with the County of Toulouse, Poitou and the Comtat Venaissin reverted to the royal domain. The Middle Ages, especially the 10th to 13th centuries, were a period of development for Auvergne, with the building of famous abbeys. In the year 1095, the historic Council of Clermont was held there and its wide autonomy was ended by King Philippe-Auguste of France, who linked it to the royal possessions. The region is famed for its charcuterie, which is celebrated in La Mangona festivals in many Auvergnat villages, for its cheeses, Auvergne is also the site of several major hydroelectric projects, mainly located on the Dordogne, Cère, and Truyère rivers. The region is also quite touristic, thanks to its landscapes, Auvergnat, a variety of the Occitan language, was historically spoken in the Auvergne. Aubrac oxen, a breed, are raised in the Aubrac hills. The Auvergne emigrants, together with other Aveyron and Italian emigrants, composer Joseph Canteloube based Songs of the Auvergne, his well-known piece for voice and orchestra, on folk music and songs from the Auvergne. Singer-songwriter Georges Brassens composed Chanson pour lAuvergnat, composer Camille Saint-Saëns composed Rhapsodie dAuvergne in 1884, based upon folk songs from the Auvergne. Vercingetorix, King of the Arverni, leader of the Gallic resistance against Julius Caesar. Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, born in Auvergne, was a hero in both France and the United States for his roles in the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution. Pierre-Andre Coffinhal, Jacobin leader and vice-president of the Revolutionary Tribunal, was born in Auvergne, a close friend of Robespierre, he was executed following the events of the 9 Thermidor. Jean-Baptiste Carrier was a French Revolutionary born in Yolet of Auvergne and he was famous for his brutality towards his enemies. In 1794, he was guillotined upon the conviction of the National Convention, sylvester II, pope and scholar, born Gerbert of Aurillac, a significant player in the transition from the Carolingians to the Capetians. The Dalfi dAlvernha or Dauphin dAuvergne, troubadour and patron of troubadours, Count of Clermont and Montferrand Joseph Canteloube, French composer. Guy Debord, writer and leader of the Situationist International, acquired a house in the region in 1975
Auvergne (province)
–
Statue of Vercingetorix in
Clermont-Ferrand
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne (province)
–
Brooklyn Museum - Landscape in Auvergne - Auguste-François Bonheur
32.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
French Revolution
–
The
August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.
French Revolution
–
The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.
French Revolution
–
Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.
French Revolution
–
The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.
33.
First World War
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
First World War
–
Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the
Battle of the Somme,
Mark V tanks cross the
Hindenburg Line,
HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a
mine in the
Dardanelles, a British
Vickers machine gun crew wears
gas masks during the Battle of the Somme,
Albatros D.III fighters of
Jagdstaffel 11
First World War
–
Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the
Austrian annexation in 1908.
First World War
–
This picture is usually associated with the arrest of
Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.
First World War
–
Serbian Army
Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.
34.
Clermont-Ferrand
–
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 141,569. Its metropolitan area had 467,178 inhabitants at the 2011 census and it is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Olivier Bianchi is its current mayor, Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it, the famous dormant volcano Puy de Dôme is one of the highest of these and well known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away. Clermont-Ferrands most famous square is Place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse. The inscription reads, Jai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous and this statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty. Clermont-Ferrands first name was Augusta Nemetum and it was born on the central knoll where the cathedral is situated today, known then as Nemossos. It overlooked the capital of Gaulish Avernie, the fortified castle of Clarus Mons gave its name to the whole town in 848, to which the small episcopal town of Montferrand was attached in 1731, together taking the name of Clermont-Ferrand. The old part of Clermont is delimited by the route of the ramparts, the town of Clermont-Ferrand came about with the joining together of two separate towns, Clermont and Montferrand, which was decreed by Louis XIII and confirmed by Louis XV. Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France, the first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the metropolis of the Arverni. The city was at that time called Nemessos – a Gaulish word for a sacred forest and it was somewhere in the area around Nemossos that the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix was born in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, after the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15, 000–30,000 in the 2nd century and it then became Arvernis in the 3rd century, and expanded until the mid 3rd century. The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clermont went through a period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, a generation later, it became part of the Kingdom of the Franks. On 8 November 535 the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis, with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Nizier of Lyons and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits, in 570, Bishop Avitus offered the Jews of his town the alternatives of baptism or expulsion
Clermont-Ferrand
–
The Place of Jaude The Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption of Clermont, The tramway Translohr; The Statue of Vercingétorix The Opera of Clermont-Ferrand.
Clermont-Ferrand
–
Statue of
Vercingétorix by
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi on the main square of the city
Clermont-Ferrand
–
Galeries of Jaude
35.
Diocese of Saint-Flour
–
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Flour is a Diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the department of Cantal, erected in 1317, the diocese was suffragan of the Archdiocese of Bourges until 2002. With the general reorganization of the structure of the French church by Pope John Paul II, the seat of the bishop is located in Saint-Flour, Cantal. The current bishop is Bruno Grua, who was appointed in March 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI, like many French bishops, he was compelled to face the problem created by the dwindling number of priests in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1970 in Saint-Flour there were 264 priests, in 2010 there were 85, the number of parishes was 161 in 2010, and half did not have a full-time priest. Bishop Grua therefore reorganized the structure, reducing the number of parishes from 161 to 32 to ensure that every Catholic had a priest who was responsible for his/her spiritual needs. In 2014 there was one priest for every 1,914 Catholics, the diocese is named after St. Florus, who is said to have been the first Bishop of Lodève and to have died at Indiciat while evangelizing Haute-Auvergne. These traditions have been the subject of numerous discussions, Flour is already considered as belonging to the Apostolic times, and the Speculum sanctorale of Bernard Gui in 1329 relates at length the legend of this disciple of Christ. Marcellin Boudet believes it likely that St. Flour lived in the fifth century. At the close of the century there was already a monastery at Indiciat. Amblard de Brezons, his nephew, surnamed le Mal Hiverné, seized the monastery, amblard and Astorg, from 1010 to 1013, gave this church and its fief to St. Pope Urban II, after the Council of Clermont, consecrated the church of this new monastery. Pope Callistus II passed some time there, on 1 and 2 June 1119, the church collapsed in 1396, and no remains of it exist. The diocese of Saint-Flour was particularly hit by the Black Death of 1348–1353. The mortality rate was over 50%, during the French Revolution, the National Constituent Assembly reformed the Church in France, drawing up the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. All clergy were obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, thereby entering into a schism with the Papacy. Saint-Flour was one of the dioceses to be suppressed and these revisions were contrary to the procedures of the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church. In the Haut-Auvergne, the new Constitutional diocese was to be called Cantal, the legitimate bishop of Saint-Flour, Ruffo de Bonneval refused to take the oath to the Constitution, and therefore his seat was declared vacant. The electors of Cantal were convened at Aurillac in March 1791, half of the eligible electors refused to participate, and the remaining voters took some time to sort out the candidates
Diocese of Saint-Flour
–
Saint-Flour Cathedral
36.
Concordat of 1801
–
The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905 and it sought national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics and solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France, with most of its civil status restored. The hostility of devout Catholics against the state had now largely been resolved and it did not restore the vast church lands and endowments that had been seized upon during the revolution and sold off. Catholic clergy returned from exile, or from hiding, and resumed their positions in their traditional churches. Very few parishes continued to employ the priests who had accepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, while the Concordat restored much power to the papacy, the balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in Napoleons favour. He selected the bishops and supervised church finances, Napoleon and the pope both found the Concordat useful. Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by Napoleon, especially Italy, at the time, the nationalized Gallican Church was the official church of France, but it was essentially Catholicism. The Civil Constitution caused hostility among the Vendeans towards the change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French government, subsequent laws abolished the traditional Gregorian calendar and Christian holidays. The Concordat was drawn up by a commission with three representatives from each party, Pope Pius VII appointed Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, Cardinal Giuseppe Spina, archbishop of Corinth, and his theological adviser, Father Carlo Francesco Maria Caselli. The French bishops, whether still abroad or returned to their own country, had no part in the negotiations, the concordat as finally arranged practically ignored them. Napoleon understood the utility of religion as an important factor of social cohesion and he could now win favor with French Catholics while also controlling Rome in a political sense. Napoleon once told his brother Lucien in April 1801, Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests and they can both contain them and use them. As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles, the Church was to be free to exercise its worship in public in accordance with police regulations that the Government deems necessary for the public peace. The Papacy had the right to depose bishops, but this made little difference, the state would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the state. The Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790, Sunday was reestablished as a festival, effective Easter Sunday,18 April 1802. The rest of the French Republican Calendar, which had abolished, was not replaced by the traditional Gregorian Calendar until 1 January 1806. According to Georges Goyau, the law known as The Organic Articles, promulgated in April,1802, the document claimed Catholicism was the religion of the majority of Frenchman, and still gave state recognition to Protestants and Jews as well. The Concordat was abrogated by the law of 1905 on the separation of Church, Napoleon and the Jews Concordat in Alsace-Moselle Aston, Nigel
Concordat of 1801
–
Allegory of the Concordat of 1801, by
Pierre Joseph Célestin François
Concordat of 1801
–
Leaders of the Catholic Church taking the civil oath required by the Concordat.
37.
Pasture
–
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, the vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs. Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay for animal fodder. Pasture in a wider sense additionally includes rangelands, other unenclosed pastoral systems, soil type, minimum annual temperature, and rainfall are important factors in pasture management. Sheepwalk is an area of grassland where sheep can roam freely, the productivity of sheepwalk is measured by the number of sheep per area. This is dependent, among other things, on the underlying rock, sheepwalk is also the name of townlands in County Roscommon, Ireland and County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Unless factory farming, which entails in its most intensive form entirely trough-feeding, in more humid regions, pasture grazing is managed across a large global area for free range and organic farming. Grassland Heathland Machair Maquis Moorland Potrero Prairie Rangeland Rough pasture Savanna Steppe Wood pasture Veld Transhumance
Pasture
–
A pasture in the
East Riding of Yorkshire in
England
Pasture
–
Snowy pasture at
Bosco Chiesanuova in
Italy
Pasture
–
Grazing cattle on a pasture near
Hradec nad Moravicí in the
Czech Republic
38.
Aubrac cattle
–
The Aubrac is a French breed of domestic beef cattle. It originates on the Plateau de lAubrac in the Massif Central in central southern France and it has a wheat-coloured coat and dark hooves, switch, muzzle and eyes. Some limited cross-breeding took place in the century, with the Mézine, now extinct, 1935–1945, with the Maraîchine, 1945–1955. The conservation status of the Aubrac is not at risk.143 In 2014 the population was reported at about 170000 head, the Aubrac is robust, frugal, fertile and long-lived, and is well adapted to the mountain environment of the Massif Central. It is reported to be resistant to trypanosomiasis, the sleeping-sickness transmitted by tsetse flies, the Aubrac has a uniformly wheaten coat, with black skin and black hooves, black muzzle, tongue, switch, and natural openings. Bulls may carry darker markings to the coat, the horns are lyre-shaped and tipped with black. Bulls stand about 140 cm at the withers and weigh about 950 kg, cows stand some 128 cm, the Aubrac is raised for principally for meat. Bullocks weigh about 310 kg when weaned, some milk from Aubrac cows is used in the production of Laguiole cheese, it is hoped that this proportion may reach 10%. Media related to Aubrac cattle at Wikimedia Commons
Aubrac cattle
–
Aubrac cow near Sébazac, Aveyron
Aubrac cattle
–
Aubrac Cattle in the Aubrac
39.
Salers (cattle)
–
The Salers is a breed of cattle which originated in Cantal in the Massif Central of France. They are a breed, with the female weighing between 700 and 750 kg and standing 1.40 metres tall. They have a thick mahogany red or black coat, and long, a small percentage are naturally born without horns. In the 19th century, the breeder Ernest Tyssandier dEscous set about to better the breed by selective breeding. Originally bred for work, this dual purpose cow was especially appreciated for its ability to withstand extreme variations in temperature, its fertility, its ease of breeding, its milk and its meat. In Cantal, the farmers practise mountain pasture, with the herd passing summer at altitude in the mountains, a female can produce almost 3,000 kg of fat-rich milk each year of her life. The milk is used to produce Appellation dOrigine Contrôlée cheese such as Cantal. The Salers is also used to produce veal calves by cross breeding with Charolais cattle, currently, there are about 300,000 head of Salers in France. They are exported to more than 25 countries in Europe, North America, Africa, union for the promotion and selection of Salers http, //www. ansi. okstate. edu/breeds/cattle/salers/
Salers (cattle)
–
Salers cattle
40.
Cattle
–
Cattle—colloquially cows—are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, cattle are raised as livestock for meat, as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals. Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel, in some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious meaning. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago, according to an estimate from 2011, in 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mapped genome. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raiding consequently one of the earliest forms of theft. Cattle were originally identified as three species, Bos taurus, the European or taurine cattle, Bos indicus, the zebu, and the extinct Bos primigenius. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle and these have been reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with three subspecies, Bos taurus primigenius, Bos taurus indicus, and Bos taurus taurus. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu, but also one or both of these and some other members of the genus Bos – yaks, banteng. Hybrids such as the breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos. However, cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo, the aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed. Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals and it was borrowed from Anglo-Norman catel, itself from medieval Latin capitale principal sum of money, capital, itself derived in turn from Latin caput head. Cattle originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, the word is a variant of chattel and closely related to capital in the economic sense. The term replaced earlier Old English feoh cattle, property, which today as fee. The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon cū, from Common Indo-European gʷōus = a bovine animal, compare Persian gâv, Sanskrit go-, Welsh buwch. The plural cȳ became ki or kie in Middle English, and a plural ending was often added, giving kine, kien. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, kine, the Scots language singular is coo or cou, and the plural is kye
Cattle
–
Cattle
Cattle
–
Żubroń, a cross between
wisent and cattle
Cattle
–
An
Ongole bull
Cattle
–
A
Hereford bull
41.
Sheep
–
The sheep is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female sheep is referred to as a ewe, a male as a ram or occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe, one of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleece, meat and milk. A sheeps wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones, Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science. Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, in the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production. Sheepraising has a lexicon of unique terms which vary considerably by region. Use of the sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap. A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob, many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age. Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, as livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, in both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals. Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool, domestic sheep differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all, or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a pair, but a few breeds may have several. Another trait unique to domestic sheep as compared to wild ovines is their variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited, colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald
Sheep
–
Domestic sheep
Sheep
–
Head of polled, domesticated sheep in the long grass
Sheep
–
Skull
Sheep
–
Suffolks are a medium wool, black-faced breed of meat sheep that make up 60% of the sheep population in the U.S.
42.
Horse
–
H. O. R. S. E. is a form of poker commonly played at the high-stakes tables of casinos. It consists of rounds of cycling among, Texas Hold em, Omaha hi-low split-eight or better, Razz, Seven card Stud. H. O. R. S. E. is a limit game, however, in some tournament situations, the final table is no-limit hold em. C. H. O. R. S. E adds Chowaha or Crazy Pineapple to the mix and this is convenient at such team events as BARGE, when it helps to have as many flop games as stud games. T. H. O. R. S. E. H. A. is another 8-Game Mix which includes more games than most other mixed poker games, pokerStars started offering this game in 2008. It consists of limit 2-7 Triple Draw, limit Texas hold em, limit Omaha Hi-Lo, limit Razz, limit Seven-card Stud, limit Seven card Stud Hi-Lo, no limit Texas hold em and pot limit Omaha. 10-Game, the latest variation on the poker games, overtook T. H. O. R. S. E. H. A. in the extent of its game inclusion. Full Tilt Poker also offers the 9-Game, which includes all poker variants from the 10-Game with the exception of Badugi, a 12 Game Mix has also been proposed as a variation and as an extension to the 10-Game mix. A13 Game Mix can also be constructed by adding No Limit Holdem to the games of the 12 Game Mix, made its debut at the World Series of Poker in 2002 with a $2,000 buy-in. John Hennigan won the event, earning $117,320, tournament made its debut at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Chip Reese won the event, earning $1,716,000 for first place, after Reese died at the end of 2007, the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy was created in his honor. The trophy is awarded to the winner of the $50,000 championship event since the 2008 World Series of Poker. The $50,000 buy-in tournament returned for the 2007 WSOP, the $50,000 event, which awarded $2,276,832 to first place, was won by professional player Freddy Deeb. Events with $2,500 and $5,000 buy-ins were also on the 2007 WSOP program, the 2008 $50,000 H. O. R. S. E event was won by Scotty Nguyen, who received $1,989,120 for his victory. This was also the first time that the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy had been awarded to the winner of the competition, event was won by David Bach, for $1,276,802. World Championship event was replaced by The Poker Players Championship, with an identical buy-in, event, the final table was no-limit hold em. Michael Mizrachi won the first Players Championship and with it the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, the 2010 WSOP also featured a new $10,000 H. O. R. S. E. Championship, joining already-existing events with $1,500 and $3,000 buy-ins
Horse
43.
Dairy industry
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A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing of animal milk – mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffaloes, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is located on a dedicated dairy farm or in a section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned with the harvesting of milk. For example, in the United States, the dairy farm is commonly called a dairy. The building or farm area where milk is harvested from the cow is called a milking parlor or parlor. The farm area where milk is stored in tanks is known as the farms milk house. Milk is then hauled to a plant, also referred to as a dairy. In New Zealand, farm areas for milk harvesting are also called milking parlours, as in the United States, sometimes milking sheds are referred to by their type, such as herring bone shed or pit parlour. Parlour design has evolved from simple barns or sheds to large structures in which the workflow is very efficiently handled. This on-site processing is a method of producing specialist milk products. In New Zealand English the singular use of the word dairy almost exclusively refers to a corner shop and this usage is historical as such shops were a common place for the public to buy milk products. As an attributive, the word refers to milk-based products, derivatives and processes. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products and these establishments constitute the global dairy industry, a component of the food industry. Milk producing animals have been domesticated for thousands of years, initially, they were part of the subsistence farming that nomads engaged in. As the community moved about the country, their animals accompanied them, protecting and feeding the animals were a big part of the symbiotic relationship between the animals and the herders. In the more recent past, people in agricultural societies owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic and local consumption, the animals might serve multiple purposes. In this case the animals were normally milked by hand and the size was quite small. These tasks were performed by a dairymaid or dairyman, the word dairy harkens back to Middle English dayerie, deyerie, from deye and further back to Old English dæge. With industrialisation and urbanisation, the supply of milk became an industry, with specialised breeds of cattle being developed for dairy
Dairy industry
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Old mountain pasture dairy in
Schröcken,
Vorarlberg, Austria in the
Bregenz Forest
Dairy industry
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Farmer milking a cow by hand
Dairy industry
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Wawa Dairy Farms in
Pennsylvania
Dairy industry
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A rotary dairy shed
44.
Roquefort cheese
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Roquefort is a sheep milk blue cheese from the south of France, and together with Bleu dAuvergne, Stilton, and Gorgonzola is one of the worlds best known blue cheeses. The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist and it has characteristic odor and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid, the blue veins provide a sharp tang. It has no rind, the exterior is edible and slightly salty, a typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between 2.5 and 3 kilograms, and is about 10 cm thick. Each kilogram of finished cheese requires about 4.5 liters of milk to produce, Roquefort is known in France as the king of cheeses. Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes milk cheese, abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few later, the mold had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort. In 1411, Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of the cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they had been doing for centuries, in 1925, the cheese was the recipient of Frances first Appellation dOrigine Contrôlée when regulations controlling its production and naming were first defined. The mold that gives Roquefort its distinctive character is found in the soil of the local caves, traditionally, the cheesemakers extracted it by leaving bread in the caves for six to eight weeks until it was consumed by the mold. The interior of the bread was dried to produce a powder. In modern times, the mold can be grown in a laboratory, the mold may either be added to the curd or introduced as an aerosol through holes poked in the rind. Roquefort is made entirely from the milk of the Lacaune breed of sheep, prior to the AOC regulations of 1925, a small amount of cow’s or goat’s milk was sometimes added. A total of around 4.5 L of milk is required to one kilogram of Roquefort. The cheese is produced throughout the département of Aveyron and part of the nearby départements of Aude, Lozère, Gard, Hérault, as of 2009, there are seven Roquefort producers. The largest by far is Roquefort Société made by the Société des Caves de Roquefort, which holds several caves and opens its facilities to tourists, Roquefort Papillon is also a well-known brand. The five other producers, each holding only one cave, are Carles, Gabriel Coulet, Fromageries occitanes, Vernières, around three million cheeses were made in 2005 making it, after Comté, Frances second most popular cheese. Production of Roquefort cheese entails 4,500 people who herd special ewes on 2,100 farms producing milk, in a carefully defined oval grazing area across the Larzac Plain and up and down nearby hills and valleys. Total production in 2008 of about 19,000 tons was reported, the proportion of Roquefort exported to the United States remained small, only 450 tons out of 3,700 in total exports. Spain, with purchases of 1,000 tons, was by far the largest foreign customer, the tariff was suspended several months later as the US and EU settled the dispute
Roquefort cheese
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Roquefort
Roquefort cheese
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A Lacaune flock in France
45.
Salers cheese
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Salers is a French semi-hard cheese from the volcanic region in the mountains of Auvergne, central France. It is a pressed, uncooked cheese made from Salers cows milk between the fifteenth of April and the fifteenth of November and it came to prominence when Maréchal de Senneterre served it at the table of Louis XIV of France. Maréchal de Senneterre is also responsible for the introduction of Saint-Nectaire, Salers has benefited from the Appellation dorigine contrôlée since 1961. It is best eaten between September and March, after a time of nine months, but it is also excellent all year round. Salers de Buron Traditional is only made up in the chalet in the months with milk exclusively from the Salers cow. It must also be made in the traditional wooden gerle and it is circular in shape, weighing around 40 kilograms. 1,112 tonnes were produced in 1998, all was made in local farms from unpasteurized milk by about one hundred producers
Salers cheese
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Salers
Salers cheese
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For other uses, see
Salers (disambiguation).
46.
Coal
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Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
Coal
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Anthracite coal
Coal
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Bituminous coal
Coal
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Coastal exposure of the Point Aconi Seam (Nova Scotia)
Coal
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Coal miner in Britain, 1942
Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "Cantal", Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 (9th ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 27–28
Baynes, T.S., ed. (1878), "
