The Floréal class is a type of light "surveillance frigates" designed for the needs of the French Navy in low-threat environments ordered in 1989. The ships are named after months of the Republican Calendar. They use construction standards of commercial ships. The frigates were built between 1990 and 1993 by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, France. The six French ships of the class, Floréal, Prairial, Nivôse, Ventôse, Vendémiaire and Germinal, remain in active service.
Frigate Vendémiaire of the French Navy
Germinal at Cherbourg
Ventôse
Floréal at Bora-Bora
French Republican calendar
The French Republican calendar, also commonly called the French Revolutionary calendar, was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871, and meant to replace the Gregorian calendar.
French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by Philibert-Louis Debucourt
A copy of the French Republican Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne
L AN 2 DE LA REPUBLIQUE FR (Year 2 of the French Republic) on a barn near Geneva, dating to 1793 or 1794
French Revolutionary pocket watch showing ten-day décade names and thirty-day month numbers from the Republican Calendar, but with duodecimal time. On display at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Neuchâtel) In Switzerland.
