1.
Departments of France
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In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
2.
Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Regions of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
5.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
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Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the largest administrative region in France, located in the southwest of the country. The region was created by the reform of French Regions in 2014 through the merger of three regions, Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. It covers 84,061 km2 – or 1⁄8 of the country – and has approximately 5,800,000 inhabitants, the new region was established on 1 January 2016, following the regional elections in December 2015. It is the largest region in France by area, with a slightly larger than that of Austria. Its largest city, Bordeaux, together with its suburbs and satellite cities, forms the 7th-largest metropolitan area of France, with 850,000 inhabitants. The region has 25 major urban areas, among which the most important after Bordeaux are Bayonne, Limoges, Poitiers, Pau, after Île-de-France, New Aquitaine is the premier French region in research and innovation, with five universities and several Grandes Ecoles. Many companies specializing in surfing and related sports have located along the coast, in terms of culture, the new region includes major parts of Southern France, marked by Basque, Occitan and Oïl cultures. Historically, it is the successor to medieval Aquitaine. In June 2016, a group headed by historian Anne-Marie Cocula. The decision came after the favorite, Aquitaine, faced resistance by regional politicians from Limousin. The other popular favorite, Grande Aquitaine, was rejected for its connotation with a feeling of superiority, alain Rousset, president of the region, concurred with the working groups conclusion, reaffirming that he considered the acronym ALPC no choice at all. On 27 June 2016, just a few days ahead of the 1 July deadline, frances Conseil dÉtat approved New-Aquitaine as the new name of the region on 28 September 2016, effective 30 September 2016. Nouvelle-Aquitaine is delimited by four other French regions, three communities in Spain to the south, and the North Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its largest city and only metropolis is Bordeaux, in the heart of an agglomeration of nearly one million inhabitants. Taking into consideration the area, the new region is home to six of the fifty largest metropolitan areas of French territory. It is part of five watersheds facing the Atlantic Ocean, Loire, Charente, Garonne and Dordogne and Adour, giving rivers bordering land dedicated mostly to viticulture and to agriculture. This diverse area is the area of the oyster, mussel, the Landes forest, by far the most extensive, covering almost one million hectares, making it the largest artificial forest of Western Europe. The Landes forest is included in the Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park
6.
Subprefectures in France
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In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement. The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title commissaire adjoint de la République. Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the municipal arrondissements of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) are divisions of the city rather than the prefecture, and so are not arrondissements in the same sense
7.
Cognac, France
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Cognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department, Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has built on the rivers left bank. The town is situated on one of the routes to Santiago de Compostela. Cognac is 400 kilometres southwest of Paris, unknown prior to the 9th century, the town was subsequently fortified. During the Hundred Years War, the town changed sides on several occasions as the result of fighting and treaties in the region. Francis I granted the town the right to trade salt along the river, guaranteeing strong commercial success, the inhabitants of the town are known as Cognaçais. The towns medieval quarter Vieux Cognac runs from the Tours Saint-Jacques, alongside the river, the area contains many unusual buildings, built between the 15th and 18th centuries, situated on narrow cobbled streets. Many contain sculptures of the salamander, the symbol of King François I, as well as gargoyles, the Château des Valois, an important medieval trading post. The town gives its name to one of the worlds best-known types of brandy or eau de vie, drinks must be made in certain areas around the town of Cognac and must be made according to strictly-defined regulations to be granted the name Cognac. Cognac is a spirit in that it is double-distilled. This process can be viewed in one of the many Grande Marque Cognac houses which all have visitor centres, most central in the town are Hennessy, Martell, Otard, Camus and Remy Martin. About 15 km East of Cognac is Jarnac, home to Courvoisier and it is the Cellar masters skill that ensures that a brands Cognac is recognisable regardless of when it is produced since he can blend multiple eaux de vie to achieve the right taste for his house. Different qualities of Cognac are produced by all brands, and include VS, VSOP and these are controlled by the length of time the Cognac is allowed to mature in oak barrels, a minimum time being required at each grade level. The longer the Cognac matures in the barrel the smoother it will generally become, once it is bottled no further development takes place. Most houses still have barrels of Cognac dating back to the 19th century sitting in their cellars waiting for fine blending by the Cellar Master, francis I was born in the towns castle in 1494. The towns main square is named after him and a statue of the king on horseback towering over his enemies stands at the centre, the French poet Octavien de Saint-Gelais was born in Cognac in 1468. Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, born in Cognac in 1838 discovered the elements Gallium in 1875, jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union was born in Cognac in 1888
8.
Confolens
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Confolens is a commune in southwestern France. It is one of the two sub-prefectures of the Charente department, Confolens is the administrative center of a largely rural district, which has seen the development of tourism in recent years. On 1 January 2016, the former commune Saint-Germain-de-Confolens was merged into Confolens, Confolens is located at the confluence of the Vienne and Goire rivers. This location is at the origin of its name, Confolens is also at the point where the Charente and Limousin regions meet, hence the name sometimes used to describe the area of Charente Limousine. Confolens was built around a fortress first mentioned in the eleventh century and it still has picturesque remnants of its medieval past, including city walls and several houses dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It also features a bridge first mentioned in the fourteenth century and it has several handsome nineteenth century administrative buildings, some of which were built by Paul Abadie, who was very active in the region. There has been limited further urbanization in the twentieth century, the population of the town has aged, and the number of agriculture and industrial jobs have declined. British and Dutch have been acquiring property in and around the town, one of the most prominent people to have hailed from Confolens is Émile Roux, a physician and immunologist who was a close collaborator of Louis Pasteur. The former Confolens high school was named for Roux, Confolens is the home of the Festival de Folklore, one of Frances largest and best known folklore festivals, which takes place annually in August. Communes of the Charente department Pitlochry INSEE http, //www. festivaldeconfolens. org/ http, //www. fdlbedandbreakfast. com http, //www. leboisdepommeau. com http, //www. charenteholidays. com
9.
Socialist Party (France)
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The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France, and the largest party of the French centre-left. The PS is one of the two major political parties in France, along with the Republicans. The Socialist Party replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers International in 1969, the PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, the Socialist International and the Progressive Alliance. The PS first won power in 1981, when its candidate François Mitterrand was elected President of France in the 1981 presidential election, under Mitterrand, the party achieved a governing majority in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993. In 2007, the candidate for the presidential election, Ségolène Royal, was defeated by conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. Then, the Socialist party won most of regional and local elections, in 2016, the party had 42,300 members. In 2014, the party had 60,000 members, in 2012 the party had 173,486 members. The defeat of the Paris commune greatly reduced the power and influence of socialist movements in France and its leaders were killed or exiled. Frances first socialist party, the Federation of the Socialist Workers of France, was founded in 1879 and it was characterised as possibilist because it promoted gradual reforms. Two parties split off from it, in 1882, the French Workers Party of Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, at the same time, the heirs of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a symbol of the French revolutionary tradition, created the Central Revolutionary Committee led by Édouard Vaillant. There were also some declared socialist deputies such as Alexandre Millerand, in 1899, the participation of Millerand in Pierre Waldeck-Rousseaus cabinet caused a debate about socialist participation in a bourgeois government. In 1905, during the Globe Congress, the two merged in the French Section of the Workers International. Leader of the group and director of the party paper LHumanité. The party was hemmed in between the liberals of the Radical Party and the revolutionary syndicalists who dominated the trade unions. Together with the Radicals, who wished to install laicism, the SFIO was a component of the Left Block without to sit in the government, in 1906, the General Confederation of Labour trade union claimed its independence from all political parties. The French socialists were strongly anti-war, but following the assassination of Jaurès in 1914 they were unable to resist the wave of militarism which followed the outbreak of World War I and they suffered a severe split over participation in the wartime government of national unity. In 1919 the anti-war socialists were heavily defeated in elections, the right wing, led by Léon Blum, kept the old house and remained in the SFIO. In 1924 and in 1932, the Socialists joined with the Radicals in the Coalition of the Left, the question of the possibility of a government participation with Radicals caused the split of neosocialists at the beginning of the 1930s
10.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
11.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
12.
Communes in France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them
13.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
14.
Saintongeais dialect
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Although many of the same words are used in both Charente départements, they differ in many respects, i. e. in what they mean or in how they are pronounced. Saintongeais has significantly influenced the Acadian and Cajun dialects of French spoken in the United States, however, Québécois has been influenced by three dialects of langues doïl, Norman, Francien and Saintongeais. Today, Saintongeais is no longer widely spoken except in the countryside and it is still used in shows, magazines, and radio. Some words from Saintongeais are still used in the region, words like since are so widespread that they can be wrongly considered to be French. Along with French, Saintongeais is used in the magazine Xaintonge, country doctor Athanase Jean also wrote several plays in the dialect and helped promote the Saintonge culture
15.
Occitan
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Occitan, also known as lenga dòc by its native speakers, is a Romance language. It is spoken in southern France, Italys Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spains Val dAran, collectively, Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese. However, there is controversy about the unity of the language, others include Catalan in this family, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. In fact, Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century, today, Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val dAran. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the preferred language for use in the Val dAran. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish, there is no written standard language called Occitan. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility, the long-term survival of Occitan is in grave doubt. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are considered severely endangered. The name Occitan comes from lenga dòc, òc being the Occitan word for yes and this was not, of course, the only defining characteristic of each group. The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud, Old Catalan, and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc. Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, thus, etc. such as Spanish sí, Eastern Lombard sé, Sicilian and Italian sì, or Portuguese sim. French uses si to answer yes in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense, the name Occitan is sometimes considered a neologism, however, it was attested around 1300 as occitanus, a crossing of oc and aquitanus. For many centuries, the Occitan dialects were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, after Frédéric Mistrals Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. The term first came into fashion in Italy, currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, NO·L LI TOLRÀ NO·L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO LEN DECEBRÀ. Nec societatem non AURÀ, si per castellum recuperare NON O FA, et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ, carolingian litanies, both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience. Occitan was the vehicle for the poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises, At that time
16.
Charente (river)
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The Charente is a 381-kilometre long river in southwestern France. Its source is in the Haute-Vienne département at Chéronnac, a village near Rochechouart. It flows through the departments of Haute-Vienne, Charente, Vienne, the river flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Rochefort. The Charente was navigable for many years, but navigation has only recently restored after the river had been virtually abandoned by commercial shipping in the middle of the 20th century. Recreational vessels have now taken possession of the waterway of which the navigability has been restored as far upstream as Angoulême. Flowing through cities like Cognac, Jarnac, Saintes and Rochefort, the river has been equipped upstream from Saintes, and it has locks of a fairly modest size—some 34 by 6 metres. Marinas along the river boats for hire and mooring as well. fr The Charente at the Sandre database
17.
French Revolution
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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
18.
Provinces of France
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The Kingdom of France was organized into provinces until March 4,1790, when the establishment of the department system superseded provinces. The provinces of France were roughly equivalent to the counties of England. In some cases, several regions or departments share names with the historic provinces. The list below shows the provinces of France at the time of their dissolution during the French Revolution. Capital cities are shown in parentheses, bold indicates a city that was also the seat of a judicial and quasi-legislative body called either a parlement or a conseil souverain. In some cases, this body met in a different city than the capital, comtat Venaissin, a Papal fief 36. Imperial Free City of Mulhouse 37, montbéliard, a fief of Württemberg Partial display of historical provincial arms, Ancien Régime in France Gallery of French coats of arms Coat of arms Heraldry
19.
Angoumois
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Angoumois was a county and province of France. Its capital was Angoulême, and it corresponded to the Charente Department. Baynes, T. S. ed. Angoumois, Encyclopædia Britannica,2, New York, Charles Scribners Sons, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Angoumois, Encyclopædia Britannica,2, Cambridge University Press, p.42. Castaignes 1845 Essai dune bibliothèque historique de lAngoumois
20.
Saintonge
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Saintonge, historically spelled Xaintonge and Xainctonge, is a former province of France located on the west central Atlantic coast. Other principal towns include Saint-Jean-dAngély, Jonzac, Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan, Royan, Marennes, Pons, today, four fifths of the historical Saintonge province occupies the modern département of Charente-Maritime. Most of the fifth is in Charente, and a small section extends north into Deux-Sèvres. The province derives its name from the Santones, an ancient Gallic tribe that inhabited the area. During antiquity, Saintonge was part of the Roman province of Gallia Aquitania, the region fell under the control of the kings and dukes of Aquitaine, the counts of Anjou, then the counts of Poitiers, before becoming integrated for centuries in the new Duchy of Aquitaine. Saintonge was primarily attached to Anglo-Aquitaine until the mid-fourteenth century, Saintonge was the birthplace of French explorer Jean Allefonsce in 1484, and Samuel de Champlain in 1574, who explored the New World and founded Quebec. It also was one of the centers of French Huguenots, Protestants, the distinctive Saintongeais dialect was once spoken throughout Saintonge, as well as in the provinces of Aunis and Angoumois. The region is famous for its grapes, which are used to produce cognac and this area is famous for its medieval pottery, which was widely exported. Sherds of it have been found in quantities in medieval excavations throughout Ireland. These shards are from vessels made and exported as a by-product of the Bordeaux wine trade and this ware has been found on Irish excavations from the later 12th century but it is most commonly uncovered in 13th-century contexts. They consist of an off-white micaceous fabric with moderate amounts of quartz and they are glazed on the external surface only, with a clear lead glaze. In Saintonge Green wares, the addition of copper filings, or copper oxide to the lead glaze. Many forms of Saintonge wares were produced, including Saintonge Polychrome, Saintonge Green, slipped Saintonge is more consistent in colour and appearance than unslipped, having the benefit of an undercoating to regulate the process. The most common forms of vessel produced in this ware were wine jugs and these were characteristically tall, with slightly ovoid bodies, flat bases, parrot-beak spouts and strap handles. Saintonge was exported well through the 17th century, acadians and French colonists in Quebec and Eastern Canada imported many Saintonge ceramics, including bowls, plates, mugs and other types. Many Saintonge ceramic fragments have been found in context with 17th-century colonists and are used as evidence of pre-British occupation of these areas. Saintonge Regiment Derœux, D. & Dufournier, D.1991, réflexions sur la diffusion de la céramique très decorée d’origine française en Europe du nord-ouest XIII-XIVe siècles, Archéologie médiévale 21, p. 163–77
21.
Cognac
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Cognac, named after the town of Cognac, France, is a variety of brandy. It is produced in the region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departements of Charente. For a brandy to bear the name Cognac, an Appellation dorigine contrôlée, in particular, it must be made from specified grapes, of which Ugni blanc, known locally as Saint-Emilion, is the one most widely used. The brandy must be distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais. Cognac matures in the way as whiskies and wine when aged in barrels. The six zones are, Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois, a blend of Grande and Petite Champagne Cognacs, with at least half coming from Grande Champagne, is known as Fine Champagne. Cognac is a type of brandy and, after the distillation and it is produced by doubly distilling white wines produced in any of the designated growing regions. The white wine used in making cognac is very dry, acidic, though it has been characterized as virtually undrinkable, it is excellent for distillation and aging. It may be only from a strict list of grape varieties. After the grapes are pressed, the juice is left to ferment for two or three weeks, with the native, wild yeasts converting the sugar into alcohol, neither sugar nor sulfur may be added. At this point, the wine is about 7% to 8% alcohol. Distillation takes place in traditionally shaped Charentais copper stills, also known as an alembic, two distillations must be carried out, the resulting eau-de-vie is a colourless spirit of about 70% alcohol. Once distillation is complete, it must be aged in Limousin oak casks for at least two years before it can be sold to the public and it is typically put into casks at an alcohol by volume strength of about 70%. As the cognac interacts with the oak barrel and the air, because the alcohol dissipates faster than the water, the alcohol concentration drops to about 40% over time. The cognac is then transferred to large glass carboys called bonbonnes, since oak barrels stop contributing to flavor after four or five decades, longer aging periods may not be beneficial. The age of the cognac is calculated as that of the youngest component used in the blend, the blend is usually of different ages and from different local areas. This blending, or marriage, of different eaux-de-vie is important to obtain a complexity of flavours absent from an eau-de-vie from a distillery or vineyard. Each cognac house has a master taster, who is responsible for blending the spirits, so that cognac produced by a company will have a consistent house style, in this respect it is similar to the process of blending whisky or non-vintage Champagne to achieve a consistent brand flavor
22.
Phylloxera
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These almost microscopic, pale yellow sap-sucking insects, related to aphids, feed on the roots and leaves of grapevines. On Vitis vinifera L. the resulting deformations on roots and secondary infections can girdle roots, gradually cutting off the flow of nutrients. American vine species have evolved to have natural defenses against phylloxera. The roots of the American vines exude a sap that repels the nymph form when it tries to feed from the vine by clogging its mouth. Currently there is no cure for phylloxera and unlike other grape diseases such as powdery or downy mildew, the only successful means of controlling phylloxera has been the grafting of phylloxera resistant American rootstock to more susceptible European vinifera vines. The phylloxera aphid has a complex life-cycle of up to 18 stages, that can be divided into four forms, sexual form, leaf form, root form. The sexual form begins with male and female eggs laid on the underside of young grape leaves, the male and female at this stage lack a digestive system, and once hatched, they mate and then die. Before the female dies, she lays one egg in the bark of the vines trunk. This egg develops into the leaf form and this nymph, the fundatrix, climbs onto a leaf and lays eggs parthenogenetically in a leaf gall that she creates by injecting saliva into the leaf. The nymphs that hatch from these eggs may move to other leaves, in this form they perforate the root to find nourishment, infecting the root with a poisonous secretion that stops it from healing. This poison eventually kills the vine and this nymph reproduces by laying eggs for up to seven more generations each summer. These offspring spread to other roots of the vine, or to the roots of other vines through cracks in the soil, the generation of nymphs that hatch in the autumn hibernate in the roots and emerge next spring when the sap begins to rise. In humid areas, the nymphs develop into the winged form and these nymphs start the cycle again by either staying on the vine to lay male and female eggs on the bottom side of young grape leaves, or flying to an uninfected vine to do the same. In the late 19th century the phylloxera epidemic destroyed most of the vineyards for wine grapes in Europe, phylloxera was introduced to Europe when avid botanists in Victorian England collected specimens of American vines in the 1850s. Because phylloxera is native to North America, the grape species are at least partially resistant. By contrast, the European wine grape Vitis vinifera is very susceptible to the insect, the epidemic devastated vineyards in Britain and then moved to the European mainland, destroying most of the European grape growing industry. In 1863, the first vines began to deteriorate inexplicably in the southern Rhône region of France, the problem spread rapidly across the continent. In France alone, total wine production fell from 84.5 million hectolitres in 1875 to only 23.4 million hectolitres in 1889, some estimates hold that between two-thirds and nine-tenths of all European vineyards were destroyed
23.
Alpes-Maritimes
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Alpes-Maritimes is a department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in the extreme southeast corner of France. The inhabitants of the department are called Maralpins, but are referred to as Azuréens. The Alpes-Maritimes department is surrounded by the departments of Var in the southwest, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the north-west, Italy, and it surrounds the Principality of Monaco on the west, north, and east. The highest point of the department is the Cime du Gélas on the Franco-Italian border which dominates the Vallée des Merveilles further east, in fact the summit of Monte Argentera is certainly higher at 3297 m above sea level but it is located in Italian territory. There is also Mount Mounier which dominates the south of the vast Dôme de Barrot which is formed of a mass of more than 900 m thick red mudstones deeply indented by the gorges of Daluis and Cians. Except in winter, four passes allow passage to the north of the Mercantour/Argentera mountain range whose imposing 62 km long barrier covered in snow which is visible from the coast. From the west the Route des Grandes Alpes enters the Cayolle Pass first on the way to the Alps, then the route follows the Col de la Bonette - the highest pass in Europe at 2715 m - to connect to the valley of the Tinée then the Ubaye. Further east, the Lombard pass above Isola 2000 allows access to the shrine of Saint-Anne de Vinadio in Italy, finally, at its eastern end, the Col de Tende links with Cuneo in Italy. The rivers in order are, It is the climate that made the Côte dAzur famous. The coastal area has a Mediterranean climate, towards the interior, especially in the north, a mountain climate. One of the attractions of the department is its level of sunshine,300 days per year, despite this the department is also the most stormy of France with an average of 70 to 110 thunderstorm days per year. Alpes-Maritimes is divided into 2 arrondissements, the Grasse and the Nice,27 cantons and 163 communes, in 2002 there were 14 intercommunalities. At its greatest extent in AD297, the province reached north to Digne, a first French département of Alpes-Maritimes existed in the same area from 1793 to 1814. Its boundaries differed from those of the department, however. In 1793 Alpes-Maritimes included Monaco and San Remo, but not Grasse which was part of the départment of Var. Sanremo, cantons, Sanremo, Bordighera, Dolceacqua, Pigna, Taggia, Triora, Puget-Théniers, cantons, Puget-Théniers, Beuil, Gilette, Guillaumes, Roquesteron, Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée and Villars-sur-Var. Its population in 1812 was 131,266, and its area was 322,674 hectares, the department was reconstituted in 1860 when the county of Nice was annexed by France. It included the county of Nice as well as the independent towns of Menton and Roquebrune
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Aquitaine Basin
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The Aquitaine Basin is, after the Paris Basin, the second largest Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary basin in France, occupying a large part of the countrys southwestern quadrant. Its surface area covers 66,000 km2 onshore and it formed on Variscan basement which was peneplained during the Permian and then started subsiding in the early Triassic. The basement is covered in the Parentis Basin and in the Subpyrenean Basin — both sub-basins of the main Aquitaine Basin — by 11,000 m of sediment. The Aquitaine Basin, named after the French region Aquitaine, is roughly funnel-shaped with its opening pointing towards the Atlantic Ocean, here it meets for 330 km the straight, more or less north-south trending Atlantic coastline but continues offshore to the continental slope. To the south, it is delimitated for 350 km by the westnorthwest–eastsoutheast trending Pyrenees, in the southeast, the basin reaches the Seuil de Naurouze between the Montagne Noire on its northern side and the Mouthoumet range in the south. Just west of Narbonne, the basin is overridden by Pyrenean thrusts, the northeastern boundary of the basin is formed by the arcuate basement outcrops of the Massif Central. Via the 100 km wide Seuil du Poitou in the northeast, in the far north, the basin abuts the east-west oriented Variscan basement of the Vendée, the southernmost part of the Armorican Massif. The Aquitaine Basin is an asymmetric foreland basin. It reaches its deepest part of 11 km just in front of the North Pyrenean Thrust, the tabular platform in the north contains only a much reduced sedimentary succession that is gently undulating and occasionally faulted. The folding intensity in the region increases steadily towards the south. This somewhat simplified structural subdivision gets complicated by the Parentis Basin which extends out into the Atlantic, the Parentis Basin is situated in the Golfe de Gascogne and also reaches 11 km depth, it is a symmetrical basin oriented east-west and comes ashore near Arcachon. This sub-basin is underlain on its far side by oceanic crust dated at 100-95 million years BP. It is bounded by dextral wrench faults and probably represents a pull-apart basin, structural and sedimentological investigations of the basin have been carried out in over 70 drilled wells that encountered the Variscan basement sometimes below 6,000 m of sedimentary cover. The sedimentary evolution in the Aquitaine Basin begins in the Lower Triassic close to the North Pyrenean Thrust, from here, it slowly started spreading farther north. During the Upper Triassic evaporites continued being precipitated, crowned by ophitic lava flows, the sediments are typically germanotype in character, i. e. very similar to the Triassic succession in Germany. In the north of the Aquitanian plateau, only a continental Upper Triassic is preserved, in the south, the sediments are marine and show their full development. The Triassic marine transgression probably invaded the southern Aquitaine Basin from the southeast or from the south via the then still immersed Pyrenean region, the sediments indicate a restricted shallow marine environment with drying-up periods that created evaporites. The Triassic sediments can attain a thickness of 1,000 m
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Massif Central
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The Massif Central is an elevated region in the middle of southern France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers approximately 15 percent of the country, the region was a barrier to transport within France until the opening of the A75 motorway, which not only made north-south travel easier, but also opened up the Massif Central itself. The Massif Central is an old massif, formed during the Variscan orogeny and it was powerfully raised and made to look geologically younger in the eastern section by the uplift of the Alps during the Paleogene period and in the southern section by the uplift of the Pyrenees. These tectonic movements created faults and are maybe at the origin of the volcanism in the Massif Central, in fact, above the crystalline foundation, we can observe many volcanoes of many different types and ages, volcanic plateaus, stratovolcanoes, and small, very recent monogenic volcanoes. The entire region contains a concentration of approximately 450 extinct volcanoes. The strip of Chaîne des Puys, running north to south and less than 60 square miles long, the Auvergne Volcanoes National Park is in the massif. In the south, one region, made up of features called causses in French. The most famous of these is the canyon of Tarn, the following régions are part of the Massif Central, Auvergne, Limousin. Part of the following régions are in the Massif Central, Languedoc-Roussillon, the largest cities are Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Étienne
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Charente-Maritime
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Charente-Maritime is a department on the southwestern coast of France named after the Charente River. Previously a part of Saintonge and Aunis, Charente-Inférieure was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, on 4 September 1941, it was renamed Charente-Maritime. When first created, the commune of Saintes was assigned as the prefecture of the department and this changed in 1810 when Napoléon passed an imperial decree which moved the prefecture to La Rochelle. During World War II, the department was invaded by the German army, to provide defence against a possible beach landing, the Organisation Todt constructed a number of sea defences in the area. Defences such as pillboxes are particularly noticeable on the beaches of the presquîle dArvert, at the end of the war there were only two pockets of German resistance, La Rochelle, in the north and Royan in the south. Despite being almost completely destroyed during an RAF bombing raid on 5 January 1945, La Rochelle was finally captured on 9 May 1945. Charente-Maritime is part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine administrative region and it has a land area of 6864 km² and 628,733 inhabitants as of 2012. The department includes the islands of Île de Ré, Île dAix, Ile dOléron, the department forms the northern part of the Aquitaine Basin. It is separated from the Massif Armoricain by the Marais Poitevin to the north-west, the highest point in the department is in the woods of Chantemerlière, near the commune of Contré in the north-east, and rises to 173 m. Charente-Maritime is surrounded by the departments of Gironde, Charente, Deux-Sèvres, Dordogne, average extreme temperatures vary from 38 °C in summer to−5 °C in winter. The economy of Charente-Maritime is based on three sectors, tourism, maritime industry, and manufacturing. Cognac and pineau are two of the agricultural products with maize, corn and sunflowers being the others. During the summer months, families flock from all over Europe to bask in the sun, Charente-Maritime is the headquarters of the major oyster producer Marennes-Oléron. Oysters cultivated here are shipped across Europe, Rochefort is a shipbuilding site and has been a major French naval base since 1665. La Rochelle is a seat of major French industry, just outside the city is a factory for the French engineering giant Alstom, where the TGV, the cars for the Paris and other metros are manufactured. It is a venue for tourism, with its picturesque medieval harbour. The inhabitants of the department are called Charentais-Maritimes, the President of the General Council is Dominique Bussereau of the Union for a Popular Movement. Popular destinations include, La Rochelle, Royan, Saintes, St Jean dAngely, Rochefort, Île dAix, Île de Ré, the department is served by the TGV at Surgères and La Rochelle
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Limousin
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Limousin is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Nouvelle Aquitaine and it was composed of three departments, Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne. Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1,2010, forming part of the southwest of France, Limousin is bordered by the regions of Centre to the north, Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine to the west, Midi-Pyrénées to the south and Auvergne to the east. Limousin is also part of Occitania, the modern region of Limousin is essentially composed of two historical French provinces, Limousin, the department of Corrèze in its entirety and the central and southeastern part of Haute-Vienne. The entire old province of Limousin is contained within the modern Limousin, Marche, most of the department of Creuse and the north of Haute-Vienne. The old province of Marche is almost entirely contained within the region of Limousin. Limoges, the capital and largest city of the province of Limousin, is the capital of the Limousin administrative region. With a slowly rising population of just under 750,000, the population of Limousin is aging and, until 1999, was declining. The department of Creuse has the oldest population of any in France, between 1999 and 2004 the population of Limousin increased slightly, reversing a decline for the first time in decades. Brive-la-Gaillarde Guéret Limoges Panazol Saint-Junien Tulle Ussel Limousin is a rural region. Famed for some of the best beef farming in the world, the region is also a major timber producing area. It is a partnership that is over 100 years old, the regional capital, Limoges, was once an industrial power base, world-renowned for its porcelain and still a leader and innovator in electric equipment factories. However, large factories are now few in number, some of the rivers belonging to the Loire basin run through the north, west and east of the region, waterways belonging to that of the Dordogne through the south. The region is crossed by three rivers, the Vienne, the Dordogne and the Charente. The region is known for the high quality of its water. The Limousin region is almost entirely an upland area, the lowest land is in the northwest of the region and the highest land is roughly in the southeast. However, the part of the region is above 350 m. Limousin is one of the provinces of France
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Poitou
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Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century, there is a marshland called the Poitevin Marsh on the Gulf of Poitou, on the west coast of France, just north of La Rochelle and west of Niort. By the Treaty of Paris of 1259, King Henry III of England recognized his loss of continental Plantaganet territory to France. During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries Poitou was a hotbed of Huguenot activity among the nobility, many of the Acadians who settled in what is now Nova Scotia beginning in 1604, and later in New Brunswick, came from the region of Poitou. After the Acadians were deported by the British beginning in 1755, a large portion of these refugees were also deported to Louisiana in 1785 and eventually became known as Cajuns. The common thread connecting both phenomena is an assertion of a local identity and opposition to the central government in Paris, whatever its composition. Large parts of the Angelique series of novels are set in 17th century Poitou. Count of Poitiers for a list of the Comtes de Poitou, poitou-Charentes for the present-day région including Poitiers. Poitevin, the French regional language spoken in Poitou
29.
Dordogne
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Dordogne is a department in southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. The department is located in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, and is named after the great Dordogne river that runs through it and it roughly corresponds with the ancient county of Périgord. The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls and it was originally home to four tribes, the name for four tribes in the Gaulish language was Petrocore. The area eventually known as the county of Le Périgord. The Petrocores took part in the resistance against Rome, the earliest cluzeaux, artificial caves either above or below ground, can be found throughout the Dordogne. These subterranean refuges and lookout huts were large enough to shelter entire local populations, according to Julius Caesar the Gauls took refuge in these caves during the resistance. After Guienne province was transferred to the English Crown under the Plantagenets following the remarriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the county had been torn apart and, as a consequence, that modeled its physiognomy. During the calmer periods of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the finest Gothic and Renaissance residences were built in Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat. In the countryside, the nobility had the majority of the more than 1200 chateaux, manors, at the time, Bergerac was one of the most powerful Huguenot strongholds, along with La Rochelle. and even Josephine Baker. A number of ruins have retained the memory of the tragedies took place within their walls. Several of the castles and châteaux are open to visitors and some of such as Bourdeilles and Mareuil. Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, Connezac, Saint-Jean-de-Côle, La Roque-Gageac and many others are real jewels of architecture, as for the old quarters of Périgueux or Bergerac, restored and developed into pedestrian areas, they have regained their former charm. A number of towns, such as Brantôme, Issigeac, Eymet. A special mention should be made in respect to Sarlat. Dordogne is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 during the French Revolution and it was included from the former province of Périgord, the county of Périgord. Its borders would continue to change over the subsequent decades, in 1793 the communes of Boisseuilh, Coubjours, Génis, Payzac, Saint-Cyr-les-Champagnes, Saint-Mesmin, Salagnac, Savignac, Saint-Trié and Teillots were transferred from Corrèze to Dordogne. In 1794 Dordogne ceded Cavarc to Lot-et-Garonne, later in 1794 Dordogne gained Parcoul from Charente-Inférieure. Following the restoration, in 1819, the commune of Bonrepos was suppressed and merged with the adjacent commune of Souillac in Lot, but at some stage the victim died, and following a trial four individuals identified as culpable were in turn condemned to die by guillotine
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Haute-Vienne
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Haute-Vienne is a French department named after the river Vienne. It is one of the 12 departments that constitute the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The neighbouring departments are, Creuse, Corrèze, Dordogne, Charente, Vienne, the chief and largest city in the department is Limoges, the other towns in the department each having fewer than twenty thousand inhabitants. Haute-Vienne is part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and it is bordered by six departments, Creuse lies to the east, Corrèze to the south, Dordogne to the southwest, Charente to the west, Vienne to the northwest and Indre to the north. The department has two rivers which cross it from east to west, the Vienne, on which the two main cities, Limoges and Saint-Junien, are situated, and the Gartempe, a tributary of the Creuse. To the southeast of the department lies the Massif Central, the source of the Charente is in the department, in the commune of Chéronnac, near Rochechouart. Artefacts from the Bronze Age include axe heads found at Châlus, with the coming of the Romans, trade was opened up and gold and tin were mined. Agriculture developed and grapes were grown, amphorae for storing wine were found at Saint-Gence, during the reign of Augustus, the city of Augustoritum was founded at a strategic ford across the Vienne. The Romans built roads from here to Brittany, Lyon and the Mediterranean, the city declined in the 3rd Century when barbarian invasions of the region took place. The domination of the Visigoths was short-lived and Clovis I seized control of Limousin after the battle of Vouillé in 507, by 674, the region was attached to the duchy of Aquitaine, and the Viscount of Limoges was created. There followed a period with various powers vying for control. In 1199, Richard Cœur de Lion was mortally wounded during the siege of the Château de Châlus-Chabrol, the region was much involved in the Hundred Years War and at the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, France granted England a large area of territory comprising much of Limousin. Limoges city rebelled and gave its allegiance to the French crown, after a revolt by the peasants, Henri IV brought peace and prosperity to the region of Limousin. He visited Limoges in 1607 and was greeted enthusiastically, the Counter-Reformation led to the creation of numerous convents and religious orders, especially in Limoges. In 1761, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot was appointed intendent of Limoges and he negotiated a reduction in taxes payable by the region and developed fairer methods of collecting taxes, as well as improving the road system and encouraging agricultural development. Around 1765, kaolin was discovered near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in the south of the department, at first it was given the number 81, but in the nineteenth century, the number was changed to the 87th department, when further land to the east and northeast was added. It takes its name from the reaches of the Vienne which flows through it. In 1998, the southwest part of the department, together with the part of the region of Périgord was designated as the Parc Naturel Régional Périgord-Limousin
31.
Vienne
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Vienne is a department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne, established on March 4,1790 during the French Revolution, Vienne is one of the original 83 departments. It was created from parts of the provinces of Poitou, Touraine, and Berry. The original Acadians, who settled in and around what is now Nova Scotia, kennedy argues that the emigrants carried to Canada their customs and social structure. They were frontier peoples, who dispersed their settlements based on kinship and they optimized use of farmland and emphasized trading for a profit. They were hierarchical and politically active, Édith Cresson, Frances first woman Prime Minister from 1991-1992, was a deputy for the department. It has three arrondissements, Poitiers, the prefecture, and the subprefectures Châtellerault and Montmorillon, the capital Poitiers is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers, which pastorally serves the department. Goat cheese making is an important industry of Vienne
32.
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
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French Communist Party
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The French Communist Party is a communist party in France. Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains an influence in French politics. In 2012, the PCF claimed 138,000 members including 70,000 who have paid their membership fees and this would make it the third largest party in France in terms of membership after the Republicans and the Socialist Party. It was also once the largest French left-wing party in a number of elections, from 1945 to 1960. The PCF has lost further ground to the Socialists since that time, since 2009 the PCF has been a leading member of the Left Front, alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchons Left Party. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, the new SFIC defined itself as revolutionary and democratic centralist. The 1920s saw a number of splits within the party over relations with other left-wing parties, the party entered the French parliament, but also promoted strike action and opposed colonialism. Pierre Sémard, leader from 1924 to 1928, sought party unity and alliances with other parties, with the rise of Fascism after 1934 the PCF supported the Popular Front, which came to power under Léon Blum in 1936. The party supported the Spanish Republicans, and opposed the 1938 Munich agreement with Hitler, PCFs Members of Parliament vote declaration of war against Germany in 1939. But the party was banned after German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact by the government of Édouard Daladier, the leadership, threatened with execution, fled abroad. After the German invasion of 1940 the party began to organise opposition to the occupation, at the same time the PCF began to work with de Gaulles Free France government in exile, and later took part in the National Council of the Resistance. By the time the German occupation ended in 1944, the party had become a force in many parts of France. It was among the parties in elections in 1945 and 1946, and entered into the governing Tripartite alliance. However, amid concerns within France and abroad over the extent of communist influence, under pressure from Moscow, the PCF thereafter distanced itself from other parties and focussed on agitation within its trade union base. For the rest of the Fourth Republic period the PCF, led by Thorez and Jacques Duclos, remained isolated, still taking a Stalinist line. Although the PCF opposed de Gaulles formation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the years saw a rapprochement with other left-wing forces. With Waldeck Rochet as its new secretary-general, the party supported François Mitterrands unsuccessful presidential bid in 1965, during the student riots and strikes of May 1968, the party supported the strikes while denouncing the revolutionary student movements. Under the Common Programme, however, the PCF steadily lost ground to the PS, initially allotted a minor share in Mitterrands government, the PCF resigned in 1984 as the government turned towards fiscal orthodoxy
"Charente". Encyclopædia Britannica. 5 (11th ed.). 1911.
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