1.
Communes of France
–
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them
Communes of France
–
Road sign marking the end of the village of
Y in the
Somme department of
Picardy
Communes of France
–
Map of the 36,569 communes of metropolitan France
Communes of France
–
Mittelhausbergen in
Alsace
Communes of France
–
Vacqueyras in
Provence, showing double French/
Provençal name
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
4.
Regions of France
–
France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
Regions of France
5.
Departments of France
–
In the administrative divisions of France, the department is one of the three levels of government below the national level, between the administrative regions and the commune. There are 96 departments in metropolitan France and 5 overseas departments, each department is administered by an elected body called a departmental council. From 1800 to April 2015, they were called general councils, the departments were created in 1791 as a rational replacement of Ancien Régime provinces with a view to strengthen national unity, the title department is used to mean a part of a larger whole. Almost all of them were named after geographical features rather than after historical or cultural territories which could have their own loyalties. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson and they have inspired similar divisions in many countries, some of them former French colonies. Most French departments are assigned a number, the Official Geographical Code. Some overseas departments have a three-digit number, the number is used, for example, in the postal code, and was until recently used for all vehicle registration plates. For example, inhabitants of Loiret might refer to their department as the 45 and this reform project has since been abandoned. The first French territorial departments were proposed in 1665 by Marc-René dArgenson to serve as administrative areas purely for the Ponts et Chaussées infrastructure administration, before the French Revolution, France gained territory gradually through the annexation of a mosaic of independent entities. By the close of the Ancien Régime, it was organised into provinces, during the period of the Revolution, these were dissolved, partly in order to weaken old loyalties. Their boundaries served two purposes, Boundaries were chosen to break up Frances historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences, Boundaries were set so that every settlement in the country was within a days ride of the capital of the department. This was a security measure, intended to keep the national territory under close control. This measure was directly inspired by the Great Terror, during which the government had lost control of rural areas far from any centre of government. The old nomenclature was carefully avoided in naming the new departments, most were named after an areas principal river or other physical features. Even Paris was in the department of Seine, the number of departments, initially 83, was increased to 130 by 1809 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the First French Empire. Following Napoleons defeats in 1814-1815, the Congress of Vienna returned France to its pre-war size, in 1860, France acquired the County of Nice and Savoy, which led to the creation of three new departments. Two were added from the new Savoyard territory, while the department of Alpes-Maritimes was created from Nice, the 89 departments were given numbers based on their alphabetical order. The department of Bas-Rhin and parts of Meurthe, Moselle, Vosges and Haut-Rhin were ceded to the German Empire in 1871, following Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
Departments of France
–
Geometrical proposition rejected
Departments of France
–
The 101 departments of France
Departments of France
–
The three Algerian departments in 1848
6.
Var (department)
–
The Var is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in Provence in southeastern France. It takes its name from the river Var, which used to flow along its eastern boundary, Toulon is the largest city and administrative capital of the Var. Other important towns in the Var include Fréjus, Saint-Raphaël, Draguignan, Brignoles, Hyères, the Department of the Var was created at the time of the French Revolution, on March 4,1790, from a portion of the former Royal province of Provence. Its capital was originally Toulon, but this was moved to Grasse in 1793 to punish the Toulonnais for having handed the town to the British in 1793, subsequently the capital was moved to Brignoles in 1795, then to Draguignan in 1797. It was not returned to Toulon until 1974,1815 - Following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo the department was occupied by Austrian troops until November 1818. 1854 – The first railroad reaches Toulon and this move also shifted the Var River, which had given the department its name, to the new Department. 1884 – A cholera epidemic struck Toulon, the leader of the fight against the epidemic was Georges Clemenceau, a doctor and a member of the National Assembly for the Seine region. He was elected Deputy from the Var from 1888 to 1893 and Senator from 1902 to 1920, 1914–1918 – The First World War stimulates growth in shipyards and military industries in the region, but weakens the agricultural and food industry. 1942 – The German Army moves from Occupied France into the Unoccupied Zone, the French Fleet is sabotaged in Toulon Harbor to keep it from falling into German hands. The Maquis Vallier, a group of resistance fighters, is active. August 15,1944 – American and Free French forces land at Cap Nègre, at Trayas, at Saint-Tropez, at Sainte-Maxime, the Free French fleet arrived at Toulon on September 13. 1960s – About one hundred thousand French citizens were repatriated from Algeria following the Algerian War of Independence, the Department of the Var has a surface area of 6,032 km2, and 420 km of coastline, including the offshore islands. 56% of the Var is covered with forest and its geological formations are divided into two regions, one composed of limestone to the north-west of a line between Toulon and Draguignan, and of crystalline rock to the south-east. The department is in the foothills of the Alps and is largely mountainous, the major mountains include, Massif des Maures and Massif de lEsterel, along the coast, are made of quartz rock. The Sainte-Baume mountain ridge, which lies in the west, mountain of Lachens, in the northwest of the department, and the highest point in the Var. The Plateau of Canjuers is located in the northeast of the Var, in the south and west there are several plateaus, such as the plateau of Siou Blanc to the north of Toulon, which rise from 400 to 700 metres in altitude. The Canyon du Verdon, the gorges of the Verdon River, is a place for hikers, kayakers. The Îles dHyères is a group of three islands off Hyères The islands are named Porquerolles, Port-Cros, and Île du Levant, together, they make up an area of 26 km2
Var (department)
–
The Place de la Liberté in
Toulon
Var (department)
–
Location of Var in France
Var (department)
–
Bormes-les-Mimosas
Var (department)
–
the Vieux Port of
Saint-Tropez
7.
National Front (France)
–
The National Front is a right-wing populist and nationalist political party in France. As an anti-European Union party, the FN has opposed the European Union since its creation, most political commentators place the FN on the far-right but other sources suggest that the partys position on the political spectrum has become more difficult to clearly define. The party was founded in 1972 to unify a variety of French nationalist movements of the time, Jean-Marie Le Pen was the partys first leader and the undisputed centre of the party from its start until his resignation in 2011. Marine Le Pen, his daughter, was elected as the current leader, while the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, since 1984 it has been the major force of French nationalism. The 2002 presidential election was the first in France to include a National Front candidate in the run-off, in the run-off, he finished a distant second to Jacques Chirac. Due to the French electoral system, the representation in public office has been limited. While her father was nicknamed the Devil of the Republic by mainstream media and they, once again, came out in 1st place in the last regional elections with a historic result of just under 28% of the votes. The FN springs from a tradition in France that dates back to the French Revolution of 1789. In the 1965 presidential election, Le Pen unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate the right-wing vote around the presidential candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the French far-right consisted mainly of small movements such as Occident, Groupe Union Défense. While the ON had competed in local elections since 1970. The party was launched on 5 October 1972 under the name National Front for French Unity, the FN adopted a French version of the MSI tricolour flame as its logo. Le Pen was chosen to be the first president of the party, the National Front fared poorly in the 1973 legislative elections, receiving 0. 5% of the national vote. In 1973 the party created a movement, the Front national de la jeunesse. The rhetoric used in the campaign stressed old far-right themes and was largely uninspiring to the electorate at the time, otherwise, its official program at this point was relatively moderate, differing little from the mainstream right. Le Pen sought the total fusion of the currents in the party, the more radical elements of the ON were not persuaded, and reverted to hard activism. They were banned from the party later that year, Le Pen soon became the undisputed leader of the party, although this cost it many leading members and much of its militant base. In the 1974 presidential election, Le Pen failed to find a theme for his campaign
National Front (France)
–
Jean-Marie Le Pen (2001), the long-time leader of the FN.
National Front (France)
–
Bruno Mégret and his faction broke out from the FN to form the MNR party.
National Front (France)
–
Logo for Le Pen's 2002 presidential campaign
National Front (France)
–
National advertisement in
Marseille for Le Pen's 2007 presidential bid
8.
Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
–
Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
–
G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
–
Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
–
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
9.
Central European Summer Time
–
It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
10.
Occitan language
–
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
Occitan language
–
Main cities of Occitania, written in the Occitan language
Occitan language
–
Occitan
Occitan language
–
"Speak French, Be Clean" written across the wall of a Southern French school
Occitan language
–
This bilingual street sign in
Toulouse, like many such signs found in historical parts of the city, is maintained primarily for its antique charm; it is typical of what little remains of the lenga d'òc in southern French cities.
11.
Malpasset Dam
–
The Malpasset Dam was an arch dam on the Reyran River, located approximately 7 km north of Fréjus on the French Riviera, southern France, in the Var département. It collapsed on December 2,1959, killing 423 people in the resulting flood, the damage amounted to an equivalent total of $68 million. The dam was a doubly curved equal angle arch type with variable radius and it was built to supply drinking and irrigation water for the region. Construction began in April 1952 and was finished in 1954, another source reports that construction began as early as 1941. Delays due to lack of funding and labor strikes interrupted construction a few times, the project was led by well-known French engineer André Coyne. Construction cost 580 million francs, and was funded and owned by Var département, concurrent with the dam construction, the A8 autoroute was also being built 1,400 meters further down the course of the Reyran from the dam location. The dam was breached at 21,13 on December 2,1959, the entire wall collapsed with only a few blocks remaining on the right bank. Pieces of the dam are still scattered throughout the area, various small roads and railroad tracks were also destroyed, water flooding the western half of Fréjus and finally reaching the sea. Geological and hydrological studies were conducted in 1946 and the dam location was considered suitable, due to lack of proper funding, however, the geological study of the region was not thorough. The lithology underlying the dam is a rock called gneiss. This rock type is known to be relatively impermeable, meaning there is no significant groundwater flow within the rock unit. On the right side, was also rock, and a wing wall was constructed to connect the wall to the ground. A tectonic fault was found as the most likely cause of the disaster. Other factors contributed as well, the pressure was aimed diagonally towards the dam wall. As a consequence, water collected under a wall and was unable to escape through the due to the impermeability of the gneiss rock underneath the dam. Finally, another theory quotes a source stating that explosions during building of the highway might have caused shifting of the base of the dam. Weeks before the breach, some cracking noises were heard, and it is not clear when the cracking noises started. The right side of the dam had some leaks in November 1959, between November 19 and December 2, there was 50 centimetres of rainfall, and 13 centimetres in 24 hours before the breach
Malpasset Dam
–
The ruins of the dam
12.
Reyran River
–
The Reyran is a torrent of the Var department in Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, France and a tributary of the Argens. It is a stream,26.8 km long. The Reyran flows only three months a year and can be dry the rest of the year, the annual rate is 22.70 million m3 and once every 30 years reaches to only 15.75 million m3. The rate is highest during the months of December, January, the flow rate is sometimes zero during July and August. During the summer months, the bed may present a series of isolated ponds that decrease in size by the day. The bed of the Reyran is made of sand and gravel up to 30–40 cm. Their lithology is that of surrounding rocks, sandstone, gneiss, pegmatite, the Reyran is piped in through the city of Fréjus. A concrete canal was built after the Malpasset Dam dam failure and these are preventive measures of the city against flood risks. The Reyran does not cause flood plain, as Argens, but rather exceptional torrential floods and urban run-offs as the Garonne and Valescure to the neighboring town of Saint-Raphael. A flood of this occurred in 2012 and destroyed the concrete ford located just downstream from the highway bridge. The Frejus runs north to south and empties into the Argens at the Naval Air Base of Frejus-Saint Raphael
Reyran River
–
Reyran
13.
Merovingian
–
The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a region known as Francia in Latin, beginning in the middle of the 5th century. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior and the southern part of Germania. The Merovingian dynasty was founded by Childeric I, the son of Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, after the death of Clovis there were frequent clashes between different branches of the family, but when threatened by its neighbours the Merovingians presented a strong united front. During the final century of Merovingian rule, the kings were increasingly pushed into a ceremonial role, the Merovingian rule ended in March 752 when Pope Zachary formally deposed Childeric III. Zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, confirmed and anointed Pepin the Short in 754, the Merovingian ruling family were sometimes referred to as the long-haired kings by contemporaries, as their long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short. The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to the semi-legendary Merovech, leader of the Salian Franks, the victories of his son Childeric I against the Visigoths, Saxons, and Alemanni established the basis of Merovingian land. Childerics son Clovis I went on to unite most of Gaul north of the Loire under his control around 486, when he defeated Syagrius, the Roman ruler in those parts. He won the Battle of Tolbiac against the Alemanni in 496, at time, according to Gregory of Tours. He subsequently went on to defeat the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507. After Cloviss death, his kingdom was partitioned among his four sons, leadership among the early Merovingians was probably based on mythical descent and alleged divine patronage, expressed in terms of continued military success. In 1906 the British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie suggested that the Marvingi recorded by Ptolemy as living near the Rhine were the ancestors of the Merovingian dynasty, upon Cloviss death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom included all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania magna except Saxony. To the outside, the kingdom, even when divided under different kings, maintained unity, after the fall of the Ostrogoths, the Franks also conquered Provence. After this their borders with Italy and Visigothic Septimania remained fairly stable, internally, the kingdom was divided among Cloviss sons and later among his grandsons and frequently saw war between the different kings, who quickly allied among themselves and against one another. The death of one king created conflict between the brothers and the deceaseds sons, with differing outcomes. Later, conflicts were intensified by the personal feud around Brunhilda, however, yearly warfare often did not constitute general devastation but took on an almost ritual character, with established rules and norms. Eventually, Clotaire II in 613 reunited the entire Frankish realm under one ruler, later divisions produced the stable units of Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitania. The frequent wars had weakened royal power, while the aristocracy had made great gains and these concessions saw the very considerable power of the king parcelled out and retained by leading comites and duces. Very little is in fact known about the course of the 7th century due to a scarcity of sources, clotaires son Dagobert I, who sent troops to Spain and pagan Slavic territories in the east, is commonly seen as the last powerful Merovingian King
Merovingian
–
Signet ring of
Childeric I.
Monnaie de Paris.
Merovingian
–
Francia expanded from
Austrasia, established by the Merovingian dynasty.
Merovingian
–
Frankish gold
Tremissis, imitation of
Byzantine Tremissis, mid-6th century.
Merovingian
–
Coin of
Chlothar II, 584-628.
British Museum.
14.
Celtic nations
–
The Celtic nations are territories in western Europe where Celtic languages or cultural traits have survived. The term nation is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common identity, the six territories widely considered Celtic nations are Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man, commonly referred to as the Celtic fringe. In each of the six nations a Celtic language is spoken, before the expansions of Ancient Rome and the Germanic and Slavic tribes, a significant part of Europe was dominated by Celts, leaving behind a legacy of Celtic cultural traits. Unlike the others, however, no Celtic language has been there in modern times. Each of the six nations has its own Celtic language, in the latter two regions, however, language revitalization movements have led to the adoption of these languages by adults and produced a number of native speakers. Generally these communities are in the west of their countries and in isolated upland or island areas. The term Gàidhealtachd historically distinguished the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland from the Lowland Scots areas, more recently, this term has also been adopted as the Gaelic name of the Highland council area, which includes non-Gaelic speaking areas. Hence, more terms such as sgìre Ghàidhlig are now used. In Wales, the Welsh language is a curriculum subject. Additionally, 20% of school children in Wales go to Welsh medium schools, parts of the northern Iberian Peninsula, namely Galicia, Cantabria, Asturias and Northern Portugal, also lay claim to this heritage. Notably, the music features extensive use of bagpipes, an instrument common in Celtic music. Musicians from Galicia and Asturias have participated in Celtic music festivals, such as the Breton Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Northern Portugal, part of ancient Gallaecia, also has traditions quite similar to Galicia. However, no Celtic language has been spoken in northern Iberia since probably the Early Middle Ages, Irish was once widely spoken on the island of Newfoundland before largely disappearing there by the early 20th century. Vestiges remain in some words found in Newfoundland English, such as scrob for scratch, knowledge seems to be largely restricted to memorized passages, such as traditional tales and songs. Canadian Gaelic dialects of Scottish Gaelic are still spoken by Gaels in other parts of Atlantic Canada, primarily on Cape Breton Island and adjacent areas of Nova Scotia. In 2011, there were 1,275 Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia, patagonian Welsh is spoken principally in Y Wladfa in the Chubut Province of Patagonia with sporadic speakers throughout Argentina by Welsh Argentines. Estimates of the number of Welsh speakers range from 1,500 to 5,000, the chart below shows the population of each Celtic nation and the number of people in each nation who can speak Celtic languages. The total number of residing in the Celtic nations is 19,596,000 people and, of these
Celtic nations
–
Pipers at the
Festival Interceltique de Lorient
Celtic nations
–
Ireland
Celtic nations
–
Principal sites in Roman Britain, with indication of the Celtic tribes.
15.
Ligures
–
The Ligures were an ancient Indo-European people who appear to have originated in, and gave their name to, Liguria, a region of north-western Italy. Elements of the Ligures appear to have migrated to areas of western Europe. It is generally believed to have been an Indo-European language with particularly strong Celtic affinities, only some proper names have survived, such as the desinence -asca or -asco village. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, according to Plutarch, the Ligurians called themselves Ambrones, which could indicate a relationship with the Ambrones of northern Europe. Strabo tells that they were of a different race from the Celts, aeschylus represents Hercules as contending with the Ligures on the stony plains, near the mouths of the Rhone, and Herodotus speaks of Ligures inhabiting the country above Massilia. Thucydides also speaks of the Ligures having expelled the Sicanians, an Iberian tribe, from the banks of the river Sicanus, the Ligures seem to have been ready to engage as mercenary troops in the service of others. Ligurian auxiliaries are mentioned in the army of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar in 480 BC, greek leaders in Sicily continued to recruit their mercenary forces from the same quarter as late as the time of Agathocles. Roman sources describe the Ligurians as smaller framed than the Gauls, people with Ligurian names were living south of Placentia, in Italy, as late as 102 AD. Traditional accounts suggested that the Ligures represented the northern branch of a ethno-linguistic layer older than, and very different to and it was widely believed that that a Ligurian-Sicanian culture occupied an wide area of southern Europe, stretching from Liguria to Sicily and Iberia. In the 19th century, the origins of the Ligures drew renewed attention from scholars, italian geologist and paleontologist Arturo Issel considered Ligurians as being direct descendants of the Cro-Magnon men which lived throughout Gaul from the Mesolithic period. Dominique-François-Louis Roget, Baron de Belloguet, claimed a Gallic origin of the Ligurians, during the Iron Age the spoken language, the main divinities and the workmanship of the artifacts unearthed in the area of Liguria were similar to those of Celtic culture in both style and type. Jubainvilles Celto-Ligurian hypothesis, as it became known, was significantly expanded in the second edition of his initial study. It inspired a body of contemporary research, as well as some archaeological work. The Celto-Ligurian hypothesis became associated with the Funnelbeaker culture and expanded to much of Central Europe. Julius Pokorny adapted the Celto-Ligurian hypothesis into one linking the Ligures to the Illyrians, under this theory the Ligures-Illyrians became associated with the prehistoric Urnfield peoples. May have been either Iberian or Ligurian or a Ligurian-Iberian tribe, titiani Venacini Alpine race Ancient peoples of Italy Torrean civilization ARSLAN E. A. 2004b, LVI.14 Garlasco, in I Liguri. Un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Catalogo della Mostra, Milano-Ginevra, Liguri e Galli in Lomellina, in I Liguri. Un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Saggi Mostra, raffaele De Marinis, Giuseppina Spadea, Ancora sui Liguri
Ligures
–
Peoples of
Cisalpine Gaul 391–192 BC.
Ligures
–
Iron Age groups within the Italian peninsula.
16.
Phocaeans
–
Phocaea, or Phokaia was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC, Phocaea was the northernmost of the Ionian cities, on the boundary with Aeolis. Phocaea had two natural harbours within close range of the settlement, both containing a number of small islands, Phocaeas harbours allowed it to develop a thriving seafaring economy, and to become a great naval power, which greatly influenced its culture. Recent archaeological surveys have shown that the city of Phocaea was large for the archaic period, Herodotus gives an idea of the size of Phocaea by describing the walls of Phocaea as having a length of several stadia. A 4th century BC Persian Tomb, known as Tas Kule and this funerary monument was carved out of solid rock with a lower 2.7 meter high rectangular story surmounted by a second 1.9 meter high story. Four steps between the two levels suggest strong Persian influence and most archaeologists believe this tomb was built for a Persian aristocrat or local leader serving the Persians, compare the style of the tomb of Cyrus the Great. Pottery remains indicate Aeolian presence as late as the 9th century BC, from this an approximate date of settlement for Phocaea can be inferred. According to Herodotus the Phocaeans were the first Greeks to make long sea-voyages, having discovered the coasts of the Adriatic, Tyrrhenia, to the south they probably conducted trade with the Greek colony of Naucratis in Egypt, which was the colony of their fellow Ionian city Miletus. To the north, they helped settle Amisos on the Black Sea. However Phocaeas major colonies were to the west and these included Alalia in Corsica, Emporiae and Rhoda in Spain, and especially Massalia in France. Rather than submit to Persian rule, the Phocaeans abandoned their city, some may have fled to Chios, others to their colonies on Corsica and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with some eventually returning to Phocaea. Many however became the founders of Elea, around 540 BC, in 500 BC, Phocaea joined the Ionian Revolt against Persia. Indicative of its prowess, Dionysius, a Phocaean was chosen to command the Ionian fleet at the decisive Battle of Lade. However, indicative of its fortunes, Phocaea was only able to contribute three ships, out of a total of three hundred and fifty three. The Ionian fleet was defeated and the revolt ended shortly thereafter, after the defeat of Xerxes I by the Greeks in 480 BC and the subsequent rise of Athenian power, Phocaea joined the Delian League, paying tribute to Athens of two talents. In 412 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, with the help of Sparta, the Peace of Antalcidas, which ended the Corinthian War, returned nominal control to Persia in 387 BC. In 343 BC, the Phocaeans unsuccessfully laid siege to Kydonia on the island of Crete, during the Hellenistic period it fell under Seleucid, then Attalid rule. In the Roman period, the town was a center for ceramic vessels
Phocaeans
–
The theatre of Phocaea
Phocaeans
–
Map of Aegean showing the location of Phocaea.
Phocaeans
–
Electrum coinage of Phocaea, 340-335 BC.
17.
Marseille
–
Marseille, also known as Marseilles in English, is a city in France. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region, Marseille is now Frances largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia and it hosted the European Football Championship in 2016, and will be the European Capital of Sport in 2017. The city is home to campuses of Aix-Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris and the centre of the third largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, further east still are the Sainte-Baume, the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the artists colony of lEstaque, further west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion. The airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre, the citys main thoroughfare stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Further out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château dIf, the main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the fountain of Place Castellane. To the south west are the hills of the 7th arrondissement, the railway station—Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles—is north of the Centre Bourse in the 1st arrondissement, it is linked by the Boulevard dAthènes to the Canebière. Marseille has a Mediterranean climate with mild, humid winters and warm to hot, december, January, and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C during the day and 4 °C at night. Marseille is officially the sunniest major city in France with over 2,900 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in France is around 1,950 hours, less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent, over 50% of years do not experience a single snowfall, Massalia, whose name was probably adapted from an existing language related to Ligurian, was the first Greek settlement in France. It was established within modern Marseille around 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The connection between Massalia and the Phoceans is mentioned in Thucydidess Peloponnesian War, he notes that the Phocaean project was opposed by the Carthaginians, the founding of Massalia has also been recorded as a legend. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage, at the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice
Marseille
–
Clockwise from top:
Notre-Dame de la Garde •
Old Port •
La Joliette with
CMA CGM Tower •
Calanque of Sugiton
Marseille
–
View of the "Petit Nice" on the Corniche with
Frioul and
Château d'If in the background
Marseille
–
Marseille seen from Spot Satellite
Marseille
–
View from Marseille's
Old Port (Vieux-Port) towards
Notre-Dame de la Garde
18.
Via Julia Augusta
–
The Via Giulia Augusta is the name given to the Roman road formed by the merging of the Via Aemilia Scauri with the Via Postumia. The road runs from Placentia to Arelate, initially westward along the edge of the plain of the River Po to Derthona, there it formed a continuous route westward along the precipitous descent of the Ligurian mountains into the sea. This takes it to Vada Sabatia, Albingaunum and Album Intimilium, continuing to La Turbie, later it was extended, taking a route away from the coast via the valley of the River Laghet, north of Nice and westward to Arles where it joined the Via Domitia. It was begun in 13 BCE by Augustus, and its works were repeatedly renewed by later emperors. By about 420 CE, when Rutilius Namatianus returned to Gaul from Italia, in 1764 Tobias Smollett similarly travelled by sea rather than use the seaside tracks, fit only for mules and foot passengers. Road access was not restored until the time of Napoleon, for an overview of the location of Roman bridges, see List of Roman bridges
Via Julia Augusta
–
Via Julia Augusta leading across the
Pont Flavien in southern France
Via Julia Augusta
–
Via Aemilia
19.
Marseilles
–
Marseille, also known as Marseilles in English, is a city in France. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region, Marseille is now Frances largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia and it hosted the European Football Championship in 2016, and will be the European Capital of Sport in 2017. The city is home to campuses of Aix-Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France. Marseille is the second largest city in France after Paris and the centre of the third largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, further east still are the Sainte-Baume, the city of Toulon and the French Riviera. To the north of Marseille, beyond the low Garlaban and Etoile mountain ranges, is the 1,011 m Mont Sainte Victoire. To the west of Marseille is the artists colony of lEstaque, further west are the Côte Bleue, the Gulf of Lion. The airport lies to the north west of the city at Marignane on the Étang de Berre, the citys main thoroughfare stretches eastward from the Old Port to the Réformés quarter. Two large forts flank the entrance to the Old Port—Fort Saint-Nicolas on the south side and Fort Saint-Jean on the north. Further out in the Bay of Marseille is the Frioul archipelago which comprises four islands, one of which, If, is the location of Château dIf, the main commercial centre of the city intersects with the Canebière at rue St Ferréol and the Centre Bourse. To the south east of central Marseille in the 6th arrondissement are the Prefecture and the fountain of Place Castellane. To the south west are the hills of the 7th arrondissement, the railway station—Gare de Marseille Saint-Charles—is north of the Centre Bourse in the 1st arrondissement, it is linked by the Boulevard dAthènes to the Canebière. Marseille has a Mediterranean climate with mild, humid winters and warm to hot, december, January, and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C during the day and 4 °C at night. Marseille is officially the sunniest major city in France with over 2,900 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in France is around 1,950 hours, less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent, over 50% of years do not experience a single snowfall, Massalia, whose name was probably adapted from an existing language related to Ligurian, was the first Greek settlement in France. It was established within modern Marseille around 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The connection between Massalia and the Phoceans is mentioned in Thucydidess Peloponnesian War, he notes that the Phocaean project was opposed by the Carthaginians, the founding of Massalia has also been recorded as a legend. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage, at the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice
Marseilles
–
Clockwise from top:
Notre-Dame de la Garde •
Old Port •
La Joliette with
CMA CGM Tower •
Calanque of Sugiton
Marseilles
–
View of the "Petit Nice" on the Corniche with
Frioul and
Château d'If in the background
Marseilles
–
Marseille seen from Spot Satellite
Marseilles
–
View from Marseille's
Old Port (Vieux-Port) towards
Notre-Dame de la Garde
20.
Cicero
–
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy family of the Roman equestrian order. According to Michael Grant, the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature, Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Though he was an orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars, following Julius Caesars death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. His severed hands and head were then, as a revenge of Mark Antony. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, according to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity. Cicero was born in 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers southeast of Rome and his father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life, although little is known about Ciceros mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household. Ciceros brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife, Ciceros cognomen, or personal surname, comes from the Latin for chickpea, cicer. Plutarch explains that the name was given to one of Ciceros ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is likely that Ciceros ancestors prospered through the cultivation. Romans often chose down-to-earth personal surnames, the family names of Fabius, Lentulus, and Piso come from the Latin names of beans, lentils. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this name when he entered politics. During this period in Roman history, cultured meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek, Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite, according to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Ciceros fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the latter two became Ciceros friends for life, and Pomponius would become, in Ciceros own words, as a second brother, with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence. Cicero wanted to pursue a career in politics along the steps of the Cursus honorum
Cicero
–
A first century AD bust of Cicero in the
Capitoline Museums, Rome
Cicero
–
The Young Cicero Reading by
Vincenzo Foppa (fresco, 1464), now at the
Wallace Collection
Cicero
–
Cicero Denounces Catiline,
fresco by
Cesare Maccari, 1882–88
Cicero
–
Cicero's death (France, 15th century)
.svg)
Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA
Triberg, Germany
Dumbéa, France
Paola, Italy
Tabarka, Tunisia
"Fréjus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (11th ed.). 1911.
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