1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
France
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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
3.
Rothschild family
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During the 19th century, the Rothschild family possessed the largest private fortune in the world, as well as the largest private fortune in modern world history. The Rothschild family has frequently been the subject of conspiracy theories, the first member of the family who was known to use the name Rothschild was Izaak Elchanan Rothschild, born in 1577. The name is derived from the German zum rothen Schild, meaning with the red sign, the familys ascent to international prominence began in 1744, with the birth of Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was the son of Amschel Moses Rothschild, a money changer who had traded with the Prince of Hesse, the family motto appears below the shield, Concordia, Integritas, Industria. Paul Johnson writes he Rothschilds are elusive, there is no book about them that is both revealing and accurate. Libraries of nonsense have been written about them, a woman who planned to write a book entitled Lies about the Rothschilds abandoned it, saying, ‘It was relatively easy to spot the lies, but it proved impossible to find out the truth. Their assets were held in financial instruments, circulating through the world as stocks, bonds, changes made by the Rothschilds allowed them to insulate their property from local violence, Henceforth their real wealth was beyond the reach of the mob, almost beyond the reach of greedy monarchs. Another essential part of Mayer Rothschilds strategy for success was to control of their banks in family hands. By this means, Jewish financiers obtained a share of international finance during the middle. The head of the group was the Rothschild family. It also states, Of more recent years, non-Jewish financiers have learned the same method, and, on the whole. Mayer Rothschild successfully kept the fortune in the family with carefully arranged marriages, by the late 19th century, however, almost all Rothschilds had started to marry outside the family, usually into the aristocracy or other financial dynasties. The surname Rothschild is rare in Germany, the German surname Rothschild is not related to the Protestant surname Rothchilds from the United Kingdom. Another line, of the British branch of the family, was elevated by Queen Victoria, research conducted by GreatGameIndia Magazine has revealed that the Rothschild family was one of the controller families of the East India Company. The Rothschilds already possessed a significant fortune before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815 alone, the Rothschilds provided £9.8 million in subsidy loans to Britains continental allies. The brothers helped coordinate Rothschild activities across the continent, and the family developed a network of agents, in one instance, the family network enabled Nathan to receive in London the news of Wellingtons victory at the Battle of Waterloo a full day ahead of the governments official messengers. It was then repeated in popular accounts, such as that of Morton. The basis for the Rothschilds most famously profitable move was made after the news of British victory had made public
4.
Rue de Rivoli
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Rue de Rivoli is one of the most famous streets of Paris, a commercial street whose shops include the most fashionable names in the world. It bears the name of Napoleons early victory against the Austrian army, at the battle of Rivoli, the rue de Rivoli marked a transitional compromise between an urbanism of prestige monuments and aristocratic squares, and the forms of modern town planning by official regulation. The new street that Napoleon Bonaparte pierced through the heart of Paris took for one side the north wing of the Louvre Palace, which Napoleon extended, for the first time ever, a handsome, regular, wide street would face the north wing of the old palace. Napoleons original section of the street opened up eastward from the Place de la Concorde, the result was a pleasing uniformity, and Napoleons planners extended a similar program, which has resulted in the famous arcaded facades that extend for almost a mile. The restored Bourbon King Charles X continued the rue de Rivoli eastwards from the Louvre, finally, Emperor Napoleon III extended it on into the 17th-century quarter of the Marais. Beneath the rue de Rivoli runs one of the main brick-vaulted oval-sectioned sewers of Paris much-imitated system, at the rear of the garden is the older branch of the Bibliothèque Nationale, in rue Richelieu. North of the rue de Rivoli, at the point where the Grands Boulevards crossed a new square. The Opera Garnier is a magnificent monument to the construction of the Second Empire, just behind the opera house can be found the largest department stores, like the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. A little further along, towards the Place de la Concorde and he began the building of the street in 1802, it was completed in 1865. A plaque at no.144 commemorates the assassination there of the Huguenot leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre of 1572, webMuseum Paris History, Rue de Rivoli
5.
Place de la Concorde
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The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring 8.64 hectares in area, it is the largest square in the French capital and it is located in the citys eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. The place was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon between the Champs-Elysées to the west and the Tuileries Garden to the east, decorated with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time. At the north end, two magnificent identical stone buildings were constructed, separated by the rue Royale, these structures remain among the best examples of Louis Quinze style architecture. Initially, the building served as the French Naval Ministry. Shortly after its construction, the building became the opulent home of the Duc dAumont. It was later purchased by the Comte de Crillon, whose family resided there until 1907, the famous luxury Hôtel de Crillon, which currently occupies the building, took its name from its previous owners. During the French Revolution the statue of Louis XV of France was torn down, the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine in the square, and it was here that King Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793. In 1795, under the Directory, the square was renamed Place de la Concorde as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the French Revolution. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, the name was changed back to Place Louis XV, after the July Revolution of 1830 the name was returned to Place de la Concorde and has remained that way since. To the west of the Place is the famous Champs-Élysées, to the east of the Place are the Tuileries Gardens. The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume and the Musée de lOrangerie, the eastern one houses the French Naval Ministry, and the western one is the Hôtel de Crillon. The Rue Royale leads to the de la Madeleine. The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II and it is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time, in the 1990s, President François Mitterrand gave the second obelisk back to the Egyptians. The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple, the self-declared Khedive of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3, 300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris on 21 December 1833, three years later, on 25 October 1836, King Louis Philippe had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde. The obelisk, a granite column, rises 23 metres high, including the base
6.
Joseph Paxton
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Paxton was born in 1803, the seventh son of a farming family, in Milton Bryan, Bedfordshire. Some references, incorrectly, list his year as 1801. This is, as he admitted in later life, a result of misinformation he provided in his teens and he became a garden boy at the age of fifteen for Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner at Battlesden Park, near Woburn. After several moves, he obtained a position in 1823 at the Horticultural Societys Chiswick Gardens, the Horticultural Societys gardens were close to the gardens of William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick House. The duke met the young gardener as he strolled in his gardens and became impressed with his skill and he offered the 20-year-old Paxton the position of head gardener at Chatsworth, which was considered one of the finest landscaped gardens of the time. Although the duke was in Russia, Paxton set off for Chatsworth on the Chesterfield coach arriving at Chatsworth at half past four in the morning and he married Bown in 1827, and she proved capable of managing his affairs, leaving him free to pursue his ideas. He enjoyed a relationship with his employer who recognised his diverse talents. One of Paxtons first projects was to redesign the garden around the new wing of the house. He became skilled at moving mature trees, the largest, weighing about eight tons, was moved from Kedleston Road in Derby. Among several other projects at Chatsworth were the rock garden. At the time the use of houses was in its infancy. The next great building at Chatsworth was built for the first seeds of the Victoria regia lily which had sent to Kew from the Amazon in 1836. Although they had germinated and grown they had not flowered and in 1849 a seedling was given to Paxton to try out at Chatsworth. He entrusted it to Eduard Ortgies, a gardener and within two months the leaves were 4.5 ft in diameter, and a month later it flowered. It continued growing and it became necessary to build a larger house. Inspired by the waterlilys huge leaves – a natural feat of engineering – he found the structure for his conservatory which he tested by floating his daughter Annie on a leaf, the secret was in the rigidity provided by the radiating ribs connecting with flexible cross-ribs. Constant experimentation over a number of years led him to devise the design that inspired the Crystal Palace. With a cheap and light frame, the conservatory design had a ridge-and-furrow roof to let in more light
7.
Mentmore Towers
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Mentmore Towers, historically known simply as Mentmore, is a 19th-century English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. The mansion has been described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era, Mentmore was the first of what were to become virtual Rothschild enclaves in the Vale of Aylesbury. Baron Mayer de Rothschild began purchasing land in the area in 1846, later, other members of the family built houses at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott, Aston Clinton, Waddesdon and Halton. Much of the parkland was sold in 1944, but Mentmore remained with family until 1977, in 1999, it was sold to investor Simon Halabi, who planned to build additional hotel and conference facilities. Mentmore Towers is a Grade I listed building, with its park, baron Rothschild hired Sir George Paxton, who had previously designed the much-admired Crystal Palace, to design Mentmore. The builder was the London firm George Myers, frequently employed by members of the Rothschild family, the design is closely based on that of Robert Smythsons Wollaton Hall. Baron Mayer de Rothschild and his wife did not live long after the Towers completion, after the Baronesss death it was inherited by her daughter Hannah, later Countess of Rosebery. Following her death from Brights Disease in 1890 at age 39, in the late 1920s, the fifth earl gave the estate to his son Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, Lord Dalmeny, who in 1929 on the death of his father, became the sixth Earl. Both earls bred numerous winners of horse races at the two stud farms on the estate, including five Epsom Derby winners. These were Ladas, Sir Visto, and Cicero from the Crafton Stud, plus Ocean Swell, the second wife of the sixth Earl, Eva Primose, Countess of Rosebery, was interested in the arts and was acquainted with Kenneth Clark and other national art museum directors. As a result of Lady Roseberys friendships, Mentmore was chosen by the British government to store part of the British national art collections during the Second World War. The collections of the National Portrait Gallery were subsequently stored at Mentmore for the duration of the war, along with pieces from the Royal Collection, including the Gold State Coach. Further works transferred to Mentmore included the portraits from Speakers House in the Palace of Westminster, the collection was stored in the battery room subsequently nicknamed the refuge, part of the gas house, a group of outbuildings where gas and electric light were supplied for the estate. Four men guarded the refuge at night, and two during the day, the government refused to spend such large sums from the fund, and the sale fell through. The government was offered the house and contents for UK £2 million, after three more years of fruitless discussion, the executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction, and the large collection lost. The estate made over £6,000,000, but a fraction of its estimated worth today. Among the paintings sold were works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Boucher, Drouais, Moroni and other known artists. Also represented were the finest German and Russian silver- and goldsmiths and this Rothschild/Mentmore collection is said to have been one of the finest ever to be assembled in private hands, other than the collections of the Russian and British royal families
8.
Golf
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Golf is a club and ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not utilize a standardized playing area, the game is played on a course with an arranged progression of 18 holes. Each hole on the course must contain a tee box to start from, there are other standard forms of terrain in between, such as the fairway, rough, sand traps, and hazards but each hole on a course is unique in its specific layout and arrangement. Stroke play is the most commonly seen format at all levels, while the modern game of golf originated in 15th-century Scotland, the games ancient origins are unclear and much debated. Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica, one theory asserts that paganica spread throughout Europe as the Romans conquered most of the continent, during the first century BC, and eventually evolved into the modern game. Others cite chuiwan as the progenitor, a Chinese game played between the eighth and 14th centuries, the game is thought to have been introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages. Another early game that resembled modern golf was known as cambuca in England, the Persian game chaugán is another possible ancient origin. In addition, kolven was played annually in Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the assassin of Floris V, a year earlier. The modern game originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James IIs banning of the game in 1457, as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery. James IV lifted the ban in 1502 when he became a golfer himself, with golf clubs first recorded in 1503-1504, to many golfers, the Old Course at St Andrews, a links course dating to before 1574, is considered to be a site of pilgrimage. In 1764, the standard 18-hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes. Golf is documented as being played on Musselburgh Links, East Lothian, Scotland as early as 2 March 1672, which is certified as the oldest golf course in the world by Guinness World Records. The oldest surviving rules of golf were compiled in March 1744 for the Company of Gentlemen Golfers, later renamed The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York. The levels of grass are varied to increase difficulty, or to allow for putting in the case of the green, while many holes are designed with a direct line-of-sight from the teeing area to the green, some holes may bend either to the left or to the right. This is commonly called a dogleg, in reference to a dogs knee, the hole is called a dogleg left if the hole angles leftwards and dogleg right if it bends right. Sometimes, a holes direction may bend twice, this is called a double dogleg, a regular golf course consists of 18 holes, but nine-hole courses are common and can be played twice through for a full round of 18 holes. Early Scottish golf courses were laid out on links land. This gave rise to the golf links, particularly applied to seaside courses
9.
Austrian nobility
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The Austrian nobility is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. The nobles are still part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific privileges, austrias system of nobility was very similar to Germanys, as both countries were previously part of the Holy Roman Empire. Any noble living in the Habsburg-ruled lands, and who owed their allegiance to the dynasty and this applied to any member of the Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish, Croatian, and other nobilities in the Habsburg dominions. Attempting to differentiate between ethnicities can be difficult, especially for nobles during the eras of the Holy Roman Empire, a noble from Galicia, for instance, such as the Count Jordan-Rozwadowksi, could call himself a Polish noble, but he also rightfully belonged to the Austrian nobility. From 1453, the Archduke of Austria had the right to bestow titles and ranks upon non-nobles, as did the Archbishop of Salzburg, besides the Holy Roman Emperor, only a few territorial rulers within the Empire had this right. In an era of Absolutism, the nobility residing in the cities slowly turned itself into the court nobility, service at the court became the primary goal of the nobility. This in turn initiated an interest in education and the interests of the court, within the court, a close inner circle, called the 100 Familien, possessed enormous riches and lands. They also had influence at the court and thus played an important role in politics. Some of the noble families even obtained the right to be seated in the Herrenhaus, nobles from previously sovereign states such as those in northern Italy were also recognized by the authorities and were allowed to keep their titles and rights. On the former status of nobility in Burgenland, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1921, a few very wealthy Jewish families were ennobled after the Toleranzedikt vom 1782 decreed by Emperor Joseph II. Under this Edict, very wealthy Jewish bankers, and later entrepreneurs, Jews had been ennobled mostly with no title or lower-ranking titles, such as Freiherr or Ritter. The few Jewish families elevated into the nobility were not required to forswear their faith, Jews could not freely choose the place and duration of their stay and had to regularly ask for permission from the authorities. This placed a burden on Jewish families, if the head of the family died. The right to purchase real estate was forbidden to Jews, even if they belonged to the nobility and this regulation stayed in place until 1860, when it was abolished by Emperor Franz Joseph I and Jewish citizens were given equal rights. When the banker and protector of arts Raymund Karl Wetzlar von Plankenstern was created a Reichsfreiherr by Empress Maria Theresia and his mansion in Vienna was a center of the fine arts and he was a close friend of Mozart, as his son Alexander was of Ludwig van Beethoven. The elevation into the nobility of wealthy Jews also started the process of assimilation of Jewish families into the Austrian upper class. In other monarchies of Europe, Austrian noble families may use their titles as well as aristocratic particles such as von and zu in their names. This may sometimes be confusing, as descendants of nobles are sometimes referred to with noble names abroad, also, members of noble families often hold multiple citizenships, as was the case for Otto von Habsburg, who was also a citizen of Germany
10.
University of Paris
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The University of Paris, metonymically known as the Sorbonne, was a university in Paris, France. Emerging around 1150 as an associated with the cathedral school of Notre Dame de Paris. Vast numbers of popes, royalties, scientists and intellectuals were educated at the University of Paris, following the turbulence of the French Revolution, education was suspended in 1793 whereafter its faculties were partly reorganised by Napoleon as the University of France. In 1896, it was renamed again to the University of Paris, in 1970, following the May 1968 events, the university was divided into 13 autonomous universities. Others, like Panthéon-Sorbonne University, chose to be multidisciplinary, in 1150, the future University of Paris was a student-teacher corporation operating as an annex of the Notre-Dame cathedral school. The university had four faculties, Arts, Medicine, Law, the Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest, as students had to graduate there in order to be admitted to one of the higher faculties. The students were divided into four nationes according to language or regional origin, France, Normandy, Picardy, the last came to be known as the Alemannian nation. Recruitment to each nation was wider than the names might imply, the faculty and nation system of the University of Paris became the model for all later medieval universities. Under the governance of the Church, students wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure, students followed the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the kings laws or courts. This presented problems for the city of Paris, as students ran wild, students were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years. Three schools were especially famous in Paris, the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, the decline of royalty brought about the decline of the first. The other two were ancient but did not have much visibility in the early centuries, the glory of the palatine school doubtless eclipsed theirs, until it completely gave way to them. These two centres were much frequented and many of their masters were esteemed for their learning, the first renowned professor at the school of Ste-Geneviève was Hubold, who lived in the tenth century. Not content with the courses at Liège, he continued his studies at Paris, entered or allied himself with the chapter of Ste-Geneviève, and attracted many pupils via his teaching. Distinguished professors from the school of Notre-Dame in the century include Lambert, disciple of Fulbert of Chartres, Drogo of Paris, Manegold of Germany. Three other men who added prestige to the schools of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève were William of Champeaux, Abélard, humanistic instruction comprised grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. To the higher instruction belonged dogmatic and moral theology, whose source was the Scriptures and it was completed by the study of Canon law. The School of Saint-Victor arose to rival those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève and it was founded by William of Champeaux when he withdrew to the Abbey of Saint-Victor
