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.
Centre-Val de Loire
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Centre-Val de Loire, French for Centre-Loire Valley), is one of the 18 administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior of the country, the administrative capital is Orléans, but the largest city is Tours. Like many contemporary regions of France, the region of Centre was created from parts of three provinces, Touraine, Orléanais, and Berry. Proposed names for the region included Val de Loire after the Loire Valley or Cœur de Loire, on 17 January 2015, as part of the reorganization of French regions, the regions official name was changed to Centre-Val de Loire. A new logo was also created and this ensures a mission of economic promotion, international support to regional companies and enhancement promotion of regional agrofood products via a regional signature, © du Centre
6.
Bourges
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Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the province of Berry. The name of the city derives either from the Bituriges, the name of the inhabitants, or from the Germanic Burg. The Celts called it Avaricon, Latin-speakers, Avaricum, following the siege of Avaricum in the winter of 52 BC, Julius Caesars forces destroyed the city and killed all but 800 of its inhabitants. Rome reconstructed Avaricum as a Roman city, with a gate, aqueducts, thermae. The massive walls surrounding the late Roman city, enclosing 40 hectares, were built in part with stone re-used from earlier public buildings, the third-century AD Saint Ursinus, also known as Saint Ursin, is considered the first bishop of the city. Bourges is the seat of an archbishopric, during the 8th century Bourges lay on the northern fringes of the Duchy of Aquitaine and was therefore the first town to come under Frankish attacks when the Franks crossed the Loire. The Frankish Charles Martel captured the town in 731, but Duke Odo the Great of Aquitaine immediately re-took it, the Gothic Cathedral of Saint Etienne, begun at the end of the twelfth century, ranks as a World Heritage Site. It is considered as one of the earliest examples of the High Gothic style of the thirteenth century, during the Middle Ages, Bourges served as the capital of the Viscounty of Bourges until 1101. In the fourteenth century it became the capital of the Duchy of Berry, the future king of France, Charles VII, sought refuge there in the 1420s during the Hundred Years War. His son, Louis XI, was there in 1423. In 1438, Charles VII decreed the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, during this period, Bourges was also a major capital of alchemy. The city has a tradition of art and history. Apart from the cathedral, other sites of importance include the 15th-century Palace of Jacques Cœur, Bourges sits at the river junction where the Auron flows into the Yèvre. The disused Canal de Berry follows alongside the course of the Auron through Bourges, the A71 motorway connects Bourges with Orléans and Clermont-Ferrand. Bourges Airport is a regional airport. Bourges principal football team are Bourges Football 18 and it is also home to the womens basketball club CJM Bourges Basket, which has won multiple titles in domestic and European basketball. Bourges XV is the rugby team in the region, currently playing in French National Division
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
8.
Saint-Amand-Montrond
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Saint-Amand-Montrond is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France and le Berry. It is sourouned by the French countryside but has Le Châtre nearby, firstly the Berry Canal runs through it and now small electronic boats can be hired to ride briefly on the canal. In the outskirts is a glass pyramid le cité dor it is a museum dedicated to the global history of gold around the world. In the town there are two town squares, one has the bandstand with public toilets underneath, surrounded by a car park. The town centre has a variety of shops in the beautiful, charming. Saint-Amand-Montrond literally translates to Saint Amand round hill, despite not being on a round hill, a small town of farming and a little light industry situated some 26 miles southeast of Bourges, at the junction of the D951 with the D300 and D2144 roads. The town was built in the basin of the banks of the Cher River which separates it from the commune of Orval. A small river, the Marmande, joins the Cher here, some flooding is common because of the nearby marshes. The town is the capital of the region of Boischaut, known for its woodland. The settlement of Saint-Amand goes back to prehistoric times, evidence of Roman occupation has also been discovered here. An abbey was founded here around the year 620 by a monk called Theodulph, the church of Saint Amandus, dating from the eleventh century. Several houses dating from the fifteenth century, the church of a Carmelite convent dating from the fifteenth century. A chapel from the convent, nowadays the town hall, château de Montrond, a thirteenth-century castle, a historic site. Vestiges of the castle of Saint-Amand-le-Chatel. Louis Lecoin, pacifist and libertarian, was born in Saint-Amand-Montrond, maurice Papon, mayor of Saint-Amand-Montrond and collaborator during World War II. Serge Vinçon, college professor and politician was born here, jean Godin des Odonais, cartographer and explorer, lived here. The town is noted for its goldsmiths and jewellers and it has 9 companies specialising in gold work as well as a professional school dedicated to jewellery. Two large printing companies, Bussière and Clerc, produce large volumes of books and magazines
9.
Vierzon
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Vierzon is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France. A medium-sized town by the banks of the Cher River with some light industry and it is situated some 33 kilometres northwest of Bourges, at the junction of the D2020, D2076 and the D918 roads. Motorways encircle the town on three sides, the A85 and A71 on the north and east and the A20 on the north, railways reached Vierzon in 1847 and a central SNCF hub, serving local and nation rail traffic, has been developed here ever since. Little evidence remains of any occupation, and the Romans themselves didn’t leave much trace of their occupation. Not until 926, when a Benedictine monastery was built are there any records, the monks came from the abbey of Deuvre, at Saint-Georges-sur-la-Prée, after the abbey was sacked by the Normans in 903. They brought with them the relics of St. Perpetua and these relics were again transferred to the church of Notre-Dame de Vierzon in 1807, where they remain today. Also in the 10th century, the Normans built a castle atop a feudal motte and they became the seigneurs of Vierzon and the city developed within the western ramparts of the castle. The Plantagenets, under Richard I Lionheart in 1196, and later Edward, bertrand du Guesclin drove the Plantagenets out in 1370 and restored Vierzon to the crown of France. It became a centre for the armies of Joan of Arc. Vierzon suffered during the wars of religion, but remained Catholic, the French Revolution of 1789 saw no major shocks except that the parish of Vierzon was divided into two communes, the urban part and the rural, at the request of the rural inhabitants of the parish. In 1887, the part of town on the bank of the river was split into Vierzon-Bourgneuf. In 1937, following an inquiry and a prefectoral decision. Vierzon has not been too troubled by more recent wars, in 1870-1871, a vanguard of Uhlan soldiers marched through the city but withdrew quickly. If Vierzon was spared by the First World War, it was tried during World War II. The Cher river was the border that divided the city two, the south of the city being in the Free French zone whilst the north was in the German-occupied area. In July 1944, a massive Allied bombardment destroyed a portion of the city. From the late 18th century until the middle of the twentieth century, iron and steel farming tools were produced here, then glasswork and ceramics and later, agricultural machinery, notably tractors. With the demise of many factories in the town during the 1970s and 1980s and this has since been reduced to the national average
10.
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
11.
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
12.
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
13.
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
14.
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
15.
Cher (river)
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The Cher is a river in central France, left tributary to the river Loire. Its source is in the Creuse département, north-east of Crocq and it joins the river Loire in Villandry, west of Tours. The river suffered a flood in 1940, which damaged Château de Chenonceau, which spans the river. Http, //www. geoportail. fr The Cher at the Sandre database
16.
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
17.
Indre
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Indre is a department in the centre of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens, Indre is part of the current region of Centre-Val de Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Cher, Creuse, Vienne, and Haute-Vienne. The préfecture is Châteauroux and there are three subpréfectures at Le Blanc, La Châtre and Issoudun, Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be administered and approximately equal in size. The department was created from part of the province of Berry. Before the Roman conquest, the Celtic Bituriges tribe occupied an area that included Indre, Cher and their capital was Avaricum, and another important settlement was at Argenton-sur-Creuse. The area then part of Roman Gaul after its conquest by Julius Caesar around 58 BC. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the Frankish tribes living in Gaul were united under the Merovingians, from this time, the Franks controlled most of Gaul and the Carolingian Empire was the last stage of their rule. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak with the crowning of Charlemagne and after his death in 814, the Carolingian territories were divided into three sections in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun, and the area that is now the department of Indre, became part of West Francia. In 869, the king of Middle Francia died without leaving a legitimate heir, a castle was built at Châteauroux in the late tenth century. In the eleventh century, the lords of Châteauroux were powerful in the region, Indre is a department in central France and is part of the region of Centre-Val de Loire. The capital and largest town in the department is Châteauroux, to the north of Indre lies Loir-et-Cher, to the east Cher, to the south lies Creuse and Haute-Vienne, to the southwest lies Vienne, and to the northwest lies Indre-et-Loire. Most of the department is relatively level plains in the broad Loire Valley, the area of the department is 2,269 square miles and it is some 60 miles from north to south and some 54 miles wide. The land is undulating and slopes gently towards the northwest, the main rivers are the Creuse, the Claise and the Indre. The Creuse, a tributary of the Vienne, is 264 kilometres long and has been impounded in places, at the time it was built in 1926. The Claise is 88 kilometres long and is a tributary of the Creuse, the Indre is a longer waterway and flows centrally through the department from south to north, through the major towns of La Châtre, Châteauroux and Loches. It is a tributary of the Loire, joining it at Chinon in the department of Loir-et-Cher. The highest point of the department is near the town of Pouligny-Notre-Dame where the land rises to 459 m above sea level, the remaining land is heathland, urban land and waterways
18.
Berry, France
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Berry is a region located in the center of France. It was a province of France until the provinces were replaced by départements on 4 March 1790, the Berry region now consists of the départements of Cher, Indre and parts of Creuse. The capital of Berry was Bourges, Berry is notable as the birthplace of several kings and other members of the French royal family. In the Middle Ages it was the centre of the Duchy of Berry and it is also known for an illuminated manuscript produced in the 14th–15th century called Les Très riches heures du Duc de Berry. by the monks of the local abbeys for pisciculture. Saint-Benoît-du-Sault Media related to Berry at Wikimedia Commons Pictures Accommodation Flag of Berry Columbia Encyclopedia article on Berry
19.
Bourbonnais
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Bourbonnais was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponded to the modern département of Allier, along with part of the département of Cher. The title of the ruler of Bourbonnais between 913 and 1327, was Sire de Bourbon, the first lord of Bourbonnais known by name was Adhémar. Aymons father was Aymar, sire of Souvigny, his son with Ermengarde. Aymar lived during the reign of Charles the Simple who, in 913 and he acquired the castle of Bourbon. Almost all early lords took the name dArchambaud, after the palace, the first House of Bourbon ended in 1196, with the death of Archambault VII, who had only one heir, Mathilde of Bourbon. She married Guy II of Dampierre, who added Montlucon to the possessions of the lords of Bourbon, the second house of Bourbon started in 1218, with Archambault VIII, son of Guy II and Mahaut, and brother of William II of Dampierre. He was followed by his son Archambaut IX, who died in Cyprus in 1249, the House of Burgundy then acquired Bourbonnais. In 1272, Beatrice of Burgundy, Lady of Bourbon, married Robert de France, Count of Clermont, thus began the long-lasting House of Bourbon, which would provide the kings of France from Henry IV to Louis-Phillipe in 1848, when France abolished its monarchy. The Bourbons had concluded an alliance with the royal power and they put their forces at the service of the king, thus benefitting from the geographic position of Bourbonnais, located between the royal fidemesne and the duchies of Aquitaine and Auvergne. This alliance, as well as the marriage of Béatrix de Bourgogne and Robert de France, aided the rise, in 1327, King Charles elevated Boubonnais to the status of a duchy. Sire de Bourbon MonBourbonnais, Site de découverte du patrimoine du Bourbonnais
20.
Loir-et-Cher
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Loir-et-Cher is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region, France. Its name is originated from two rivers which cross it, the Loir on the North and the Cher on the South, the INSEE and La Poste gave it the number 41. The department of Loir-et-Cher covers a territory which had a population during the prehistoric period. However, politically, the region remains quartered between the earldoms and the duchies neighbouring, in 1397, the House of Orleans becomes the possession of the Comté of Blois. In 1497, Louis d’Orleans was crowned with the name of Louis XII, it’s the beginning of the importance of Blois and of the Blaisois in the politic life of the French, impressive especially under the last Valois. After that, there were religion’s wars which were extremely ferocious under Charles IXs reign, in 1576 and 1588, the General Estates get together in Blois. L’Orléanais, le Berry, la Touraine, le Perche et le Maine occupied le Loir-et-Cher, the Loir-et-Cher’s birth as a department was very difficult and laborious. The 29th September 1789, the advisory board made a report in which he wanted to attribute one of the 80 departments to Blois. However, some cities and canton capitals disagreed, such as Tours, inside of the department, Montrichard turns to Amboise and Tours, Saint-Aignan wants to turn to the Berry and Salbris to Vierzon. Finally, Orleans gives Blois an important part of the Sologne except Beaugency, the department is founded 4 March 1790, in accordance with the law of 22 December 1789. It is constituted of some old provinces of the Orleanais and of the Touraine along with a Berry’s plot. The department’s constriction in its centre and the maximum stretching out in its surface area beyond the Loir on the North, after the victory of the Coalises during the Waterloo’s battle, the Prussian’s troops occupied the department from June 1815 to November 1818. The poet Pierre de Ronsard, the inventor Denis Papin and the historian Augustin Thierry come from over here, others well-known people attached also to this department, like François the First, Gaston d’Orleans, the Marshall Maunoury, and the abbot Gregoire. In the artistic domain, there is the compositor Antoine Boesset, musician in the Louis XII de France’s court, the Loir-et-Cher’s department is a part of the Centre Region. It is adjacent of these departments, the Eure-et-Loir, the Loiret, the Cher, the Indre, the Indre-et-Loire, due to its surface area of 6343 km², it is on the 31st national place in the size’s domain. It has a privileged geographical situation because it is in the center of the Centre region, an axe lively and dynamic, brings Blois closer of the both tall urban conglomerations near it, Orleans and Tours. Located on the boundaries of the Perche, the Beauce, the Sologne, cut in its middle by the Loire, it shows an image of balance and diversity. Loir-et-Cher is a part of the region of Centre-Val de Loire
21.
Loiret
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Loiret is a department in north-central France. The department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire, the capital of the department is Orléans, which is about 110 km southwest of Paris. As well as being the capital, it is a historic city on the banks of the Loire. It has a central area with many historic buildings and mansions. The Loire Valley is famous for its several châteaux, Loiret is one of the original 83 departments that was created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be administered and approximately equal to one another in size. It was created from the province of Orléanais which was too large to continue in its previous form. The Loire Valley was occupied in Palaeolithic times as attested by archaeological sites in the department. The Celts were here, bringing crafts and trades, and the Romans occupied the area after the Gallic Wars and they built roads and founded cities such as Cenabum, on the site of present-day Orléans, and Sceaux-du-Gâtinais. Around 451, the Huns invaded the region but were repelled before reaching Cenabum, the Franks reached the Loire and Clovis I reigned in the area. A time of peace and prosperity ensued during the reign of Charlemagne, the department of Loiret was historically in the province of Orléans in north central France, and along with the departments of Loir-et-Cher and Eure-et-Loir now forms the region Centre-Val de Loire. To the north of Loiret lie the departments of Eure-et-Loir, Essonne and Seine-et-Marne, to the east lies Yonne, to the southeast Nièvre, to the south Cher, the department consists of mostly flat low-lying land through which flows the River Loire. This river enters the department near Châtillon-sur-Loire in the southeast, flows northwestwards to Orleans where it turns to south west. The Canal dOrléans connects the Loire River at Orléans to a junction with the Canal du Loing, the River Loire and these canals formed important trading routes before the arrival of the railways. The River Loiret, after which the department is named, is 12 km long and its source is at Orléans-la-Source, and its mouth at Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin. Other rivers in the department, are the River Loing, a tributary of the Loire. The department has an area of 6,757 km2 and is 119 km from west to east and 77 km from north to south. Large parts of the land are used for agriculture, and these are separated by low wooded hills, the northwestern part of the department is in the wheat-growing region known as Beauce, an undulating plateau with some of Frances best agricultural land
22.
Allier
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Allier (French pronunciation, , is a French department located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France named after the river Allier. Moulins is the prefecture and the INSEE and Post Code is 03, the inhabitants of the department are known as Elavérins or Elavérines Allier department is composed of almost all of the former Duchy of Bourbonnais. It is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and borders the departments of Cher, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dome, and Creuse. The Bourbonnais Bocage To the north and just over 500 metres above sea level, almost all of the southern area consists of Combrailles which is sometimes called High Bourbonnais, in an area that goes beyond the departmental boundaries of Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme. This area of the department rises to 778 metres at Bosse, the rivers Sioule, Bouble, and Cher have carved the most picturesque gorges in Allier. Limogne, together with Sioule and Allier, is part of the Gannat / Escurolles / Saint-Pourçain triangle while Forterre covers the Canton of Varennes-sur-Allier ending near Jaligny, as noted Atlantic winds are dominant from the west, northwest, or southwest. The influence of topography, especially in the valleys of Cher and Allier, the history of Allier corresponds to the Duchy of Bourbon with which it shares almost the entire territory. Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais. In 1940, the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain chose the town of Vichy as its capital, Vichy also became the departments second sub-prefecture in 1940, since the department now found itself split by the demarcation line between the occupied and free zones of France. On 1 January 1997 the population of Allier was estimated at 357,100 inhabitants which represented an average density of 50 people/km², many areas have a density less than 20 people/km². Since the early 1980s Allier has faced many demographic handicaps, the ratio of older people is important and with low fertility rates the natural growth is negative. Meanwhile, net migration has become very negative, at 1 January 2009 the legal population was 343,046 inhabitants. Allier has three cities, Montlucon, Vichy, and Moulins by size. The rest of the department includes some towns and villages scattered mainly along the rivers. The few villages are far from other and it is generally a sparsely populated department. Until the end of the 19th century, however, the population was increasing through the development of its cities compensated by the rural exodus, the department then passed 420,000 inhabitants. After the population losses of the First World War the population stabilized, since then, due to the continuing rural exodus and especially the decline of old industries, the population has decreased and aged steadily from 386,533 inhabitants in 1968 to 343,046 in 2009. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the censuses conducted in the communes of the department since 1793
23.
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
24.
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
25.
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
26.
Bourges Cathedral
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Bourges Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located in Bourges, France. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Bourges, the present Cathedral was built as a replacement for a mid-11th-century structure, traces of which survive in the crypt. The date when construction began is unknown, although a document of 1195 recording expenditure on rebuilding works suggests that construction was underway by that date. The main phase of construction is therefore roughly contemporaneous with Chartres Cathedral, as with most Early- and High-Gothic cathedrals, the identity of the architect or master-mason is unknown. The choir was in use by 1214 and the nave was finished by 1255, the building was finally consecrated in 1324. Most of the west façade was finished by 1270, though work on the towers proceeded more slowly, partly due to the rock strata beneath the site. Structural problems with the South tower led to the building of the adjoining buttress tower in the mid-14th century, the North tower was completed around the end of the 15th century but collapsed in 1506, destroying the Northern portion of the façade in the process. The North tower and its portal were subsequently rebuilt in a contemporary style. Generally the cathedral suffered far less than some of its peers during the French Wars of Religion and its location meant it was also relatively safe from the ravages of both World Wars. The cathedral was added to the list of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1992, Bourges Cathedral covers a surface of 5,900 square meters. The cathedrals nave is 15 m wide by 37m high, its arcade is 20m high, the aisle is 21.3 m. The use of flying buttresses was employed to help the structure of the building, however, since this was a fairly new technique, one can easily see the walls were still made quite thick to take the force. Sexpartite vaults are used to span the nave, the double aisles continue without interruption beyond the position of the screen to form a double ambulatory around the choir. This design, with its distinctive cross section, was subsequently copied at Toledo Cathedral. The flying buttresses surrounding the cathedral are relatively slender and efficient, particularly compared to the contemporary and their steep angle helps to channel the thrust from the nave vaults and the wind loading on the roof to the outer buttress piers more effectively. The west façade is on a grand scale when compared to earlier cathedrals. The four side aisles and central nave each have their own portal reflecting the scale of the spaces beyond, the north portals were destroyed when the tower collapsed but surviving fragments indicate that their sculptural programmes were dedicated to the life and death of the Virgin. Unifying all five portals is a screen of gabled niches which stretches the whole width of the façade
27.
Apremont-sur-Allier
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Apremont-sur-Allier is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France. The river forms the boundary between the commune and the department of Nièvre, the church, dating from the 13th century. The castle, dating from the 12th century and the surrounding Parc Floral gardens, a museum, in the stables of the castle. The village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France association, communes of the Cher department INSEE Official website of Apremont-sur-Allier Apremont-sur-Allier on the Quid website
28.
Meillant
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Meillant is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France. An area of lakes and streams, forestry and farming comprising the village and several hamlets, situated some 22 miles south of Bourges, at the junction of the D10, D92, the church of St. Aubin, dating from the sixteenth century. The thirteenth-century château de Meillant, once the home of the house of Amboise, several houses dating from the sixteenth century. A seventeenth-century washhouse at the hamlet of Saint-Rhamble, the sixteenth-century chapel at the chateau. Some parts of the convent of Saint Catherine, communes of the Cher department INSEE Meillant on the Quid website
29.
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
30.
Language policy in France
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France has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, the perceived threat from anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France. Besides French, there exist many other minority languages of France. These languages are recognized by article 75-1 of the French constitution, in France proper, Corsican, Breton, Gallo, Basque, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, and Catalan have an official status in the regions where they are spoken. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 made French the administrative language of the kingdom of France for legal documents, previously, official documents were written in medieval Latin, which was the language used by the Roman Catholic Church. Its recommendations however carry no legal power and are sometimes disregarded even by governmental authorities, in recent years the Académie has tried to prevent the Anglicisation of the French language. Prior to the French Revolution of 1789, French kings did not take a position on the language spoken by their subjects. However, in sweeping away the old provinces, parlements and laws, other languages were seen as keeping the peasant masses in obscurantism. The new idea was expounded in the Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois, the lack of ability of the population to understand the language in which were the political debates and the administrative documents was then seen as antidemocratic. The report resulted the same year in two laws which stated that the only tolerated in France in public life and in schools would be French. Within two years, the French language had become the symbol of the unity of the French State. However, the Revolutionaries lacked both time and money to implement a language policy, the only language allowed in primary school was French. All other languages were forbidden, even in the schoolyard, after 1918, the use of German in Alsace-Lorraine was outlawed. In 1925, Anatole de Monzie, Minister of public education, stated that for the unity of France. In neighbouring Belgium, a policy to expand the use of standard French also took place. The 1950s were also the first time the French state recognised the right of the languages to exist. A law allowed for the teaching of languages in secondary schools. The Breton language began to appear in the media during this time, the French government allowed in 1964 for the first time one and a half minutes of Breton on regional television
31.
Langue d'oc
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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
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DMOZ
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DMOZ was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were known as the Open Directory Project. It was owned by AOL but constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors, DMOZ used a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic were grouped into categories which included smaller categories. It was announced on February 28,2017 that DMOZ would close down on March 14,2017, DMOZ was founded in the United States as Gnuhoo by Rich Skrenta and Bob Truel in 1998 while they were both working as engineers for Sun Microsystems. Skrenta had developed TASS, an ancestor of tin, the popular threaded Usenet newsreader for Unix systems, the original category structure of the Gnuhoo directory was based loosely on the structure of Usenet newsgroups then in existence. The Gnuhoo directory went live on June 5,1998, then objected to the use of Hoo in the name, prompting a proposed name change, to ZURL. Prior to switching to ZURL, NewHoo was acquired by Netscape Communications Corporation in October 1998, Netscape released Open Directory data under the Open Directory License. Netscape was acquired by AOL shortly thereafter and DMOZ was one of the assets included in the acquisition, by the time Netscape assumed stewardship, the Open Directory Project had about 100,000 URLs indexed with contributions from about 4500 editors. On October 5,1999, the number of URLs indexed by DMOZ reached one million, according to an unofficial estimate, the URLs in DMOZ numbered 1.6 million in April 2000, surpassing those in the Yahoo. DMOZ achieved the milestones of indexing two million URLs on August 14,2000, three million listings on November 18,2001 and four million on December 3,2003. As of April,2013 there were 5,169,995 sites listed in over 1,017,500 categories, on October 31,2015, there were 3,996,412 sites listed in 1,026,706 categories. In January 2006, DMOZ began publishing reports to inform the public about the development of the project. The first report covered the year 2005, monthly reports were issued subsequently until September 2006. These reports gave greater insight into the functioning of the directory than the statistics provided on the front page of the directory. The number of listings and categories cited on the front page included Test and Bookmarks categories, there were about 7330 active editors during August 2006. 75,151 editors had contributed to the directory as of March 31,2007, as of April 2013, the number of contributing editors had increased to 97,584. On October 20,2006, DMOZs main server suffered a failure that prevented editors from working on the directory until December 18,2006
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Ain
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Ain is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône and it has an excellent transport network and benefits from the proximity to the international airports of Lyon and Geneva. Ain is composed of four different areas which – each with its own characteristics – contribute to the diversity. In the Bresse agriculture and agro-industry are dominated by the cultivation of cereals, cattle breeding, milk, in the Dombes, pisciculture assumes greater importance as does wine making in the Bugey. The high diversification of the industry is accompanied by a strong presence of the plastics sector in. Due to its industrial character and the cooperation of small and medium enterprises. Its unemployment rate lies far beneath the national and regional average, besides the export-oriented SMEs, several large enterprises, with a prominent position on national and international markets, have settled in the department. The first inhabitants settled in the territory of todays Ain about 15000 BC, the menhir of Pierrefiche in Simandre-sur-Suran dates from the mid-Neolithic era, in the fourth or third millennium BC, it is the sole standing stone in Burgundy. The late-second century BC Calendar of Coligny bears the longest surviving Gaulish inscription, in the year 58 BC Julius Caesars military action against the Helvetians advancing through Gaul on the territory of todays Ain marked the beginning of the Gallic Wars. Under the Merovingians, the four regions of the modern département belonged to the Kingdom of Burgundy. In the beginning of the 6th century AD the diocese of Belley was created, abbeys of the order of Saint Benedict were established in the valleys. In 843 the Treaty of Verdun assigned the territories that comprise the Ain to the kingdom of Lothar I, the first big fiefdoms emerge between 895 and 900 in Bâgé-le-Châtel, which formed the nucleus of the pays of Bresse, and in Coligny. Numerous castles were erected in a low rolling terrain that was not otherwise easily defended, in the 12th century the Romanesque architecture prospered. In the 11th century the Counts of Savoy and Valromey settled in the region of Belley, in the beginning of the 15th century almost the whole region of Ain is united under the house of Savoy. New monasteries are founded in the cities, churches are constructed or reshaped according to the Gothic style of architecture. In the beginning of the 16th century – the Duchy of Savoy was at the peak of its power – Ain was inherited by Margaret of Habsburg, in Brou she erected a church and a monastery in late-Gothic style. The Treaty of Lyon of 17 January 1601 ends finally the conflict, in the 17th century sculpture, painting and literature prosper. During the 18th century streets and small industries emerge, on 28 March 1762 the Count of Eu, son of the Duke of Maine, cedes the region of Dombes to Louis XV
