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.
Paris
–
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
Paris
–
In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
Paris
Paris
–
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Paris
–
The
Palais de la Cité and
Sainte-Chapelle, viewed from the Left Bank, from the
Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (month of June) (1410)
3.
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.
4.
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.
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Grand Paris
–
The Métropole du Grand Paris is an administrative structure for cooperation covering the City of Paris and its nearest suburbs. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometers and has a population of 7 million persons, the Métropole is administered by a Metropolitan Council of 210 members, not directly elected, but chosen by the councils of the member Communes. Its responsibilities include urban planning, housing, and protection of the environment, the Métropole du Grand Paris should not be confused with the Grand Paris Express, a new transportation system being developed independently to connect the Departments in the Paris suburbs. The Métropole du Grand Paris was defined by the law of 27 January 2014 on the modernization of public territorial action and affirmation of cities as part of Act III of decentralization. The plans were modified in December 2015, and the passage into action in two competences, economic development and protection of the environment, was delayed from 2016 to 2017. The project was organized by the French state, with the Minister of Culture, in 2008 an international urban and architectural competition for the future development of metropolitan Paris was launched. The Métropole of Grand Paris is developing a metropolitan project, the residents are associated with its development according to the guidelines determined by the metropolitan council as laid down by the development council. This metropolitan project defines the guidelines of the policy pursued by the Métropole of Grand Paris. It forms part of the implementation of the scheme of the Ile-de-France region. It includes a general, social, economic and environmental analysis of the metropolitan area, independently to the process described above, a position of Minister for Le Grand Paris was created and Christian Blanc was appointed to occupy it. Blanc and his team prepared a plan, announced on April 29,2009. The Île-de-France region had already published its own transportation plan, later, the architects of the consultation joined together to present a third transportation plan. After much negotiation, a compromise between the government the Île-de-France regional government was announced in January 2011 and the final plan subsequently approved. The transport plan will be carried out in ten years, at a cost of 35 billion euros funded by the state, local governments, another 14 billion euros will be spent in the extension and re-equipment of existing metro, regional and suburban lines. In October 2011, Delanoë stated that the President is trying to claim for himself an urban dynamic begun long ago by the local governments, political opposition was also strong from the Green Party, led in the Île-de-France region by Cécile Duflot
Grand Paris
–
The map of Grand Paris
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.
Department 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
Department of France
–
Geometrical proposition rejected
Department of France
–
The 101 departments of France
Department of France
–
The three Algerian departments in 1848
11.
Kilometre Zero
–
In many countries, Kilometre Zero or similar terms in other languages is a particular location, from which distances are traditionally measured. They were markers where drivers could set their odometers to follow directions in early guide books, a similar notion also exists for individual roads, and for individual cities. The most famous such marker of any part survives from ancient times is the Milliarium Aureum of the Roman Empire. Argentina marks Kilometre Zero with a monolith in Plaza Congreso in Buenos Aires. The work of the brothers Máximo and José Fioravanti, the structure was placed on the side of Plaza Lorea on October 2,1935. Highways in Australia are usually built and maintained by the states and territories, in the state of New South Wales, highway distances were traditionally measured from a sandstone obelisk in Macquarie Place in Sydney, designed by Francis Greenway in 1818. The obelisk lists the distances to locations in New South Wales at the time. For the railway, it is located at platform 1 of Sydney Central Station, the Byzantine Empire had an arched building, the Milion of Constantinople, as the starting-place for the measurement of distances for all the roads leading to the other cities. In the 1960s, some fragments were discovered and erected in its location, now in the district of Eminönü, Istanbul. The kilometre zero marker of the origin of the Trans-Canada Highway is located in St. Johns. Coordinates, 47°33′39. 78″N 52°42′44. 33″W Altitude,14.02 m The western origin of the Trans-Canada Highway in Victoria, Mile zero of the Trans Canada Trail is located adjacent to the Railway Coastal Museum in St. Johns, Newfoundland. Coordinates, 47°33′14. 0″N 52°42′50. 5″W Altitude,4.5 m Mile zero for the Alaska Highway is located in Dawson Creek, all national distances from Santiago originate at the Km.0 plaque, located at the Plaza de Armas main square in downtown Santiago. Chiles Autopista Central – Eje Norte-Sur has its Kilometre Zero at the intersection with the Alameda del Libertador Bernardo OHiggins, China Railways 0 km is located at the entrance to the Fengtai Yard on the Jingguang Line just outside Beijing. This point was historically the start of the line, the marker is a concrete marker. The kilometre zero point for highways is located at Tiananmen Square and it is marked with a plaque in the ground, with the four cardinal points, four animals, and Zero Point of Highways, China in English and Chinese. Cubas Kilometre Zero is located in its capital Havana in El Capitolio, embedded in the floor in the centre of the main hall is a replica 25 carat diamond, which marks Kilometre Zero for Cuba. It was replaced in El Capitolio by a replica in 1973, dR-1, DR-2, and DR-3 all depart from Kilometre Zero from Santo Domingos Parque de Independencia. Kilometre Zero in Egypt is located at the Attaba Square Post Office in 1st of Abdel Khaliq Sarwat Pasha Street, Cairo
Kilometre Zero
–
Kilometre Zero, Buenos Aires
Kilometre Zero
–
Reconstruction of Constantinople's Milion based on historical accounts and surviving fragments.
Kilometre Zero
–
The Mile 0 point for the
Alaska Highway in
Dawson Creek
Kilometre Zero
–
Kilometre Zero at Plaza de Armas in
Santiago, Chile.
12.
Quartier Asiatique
–
The Quartier Asiatique, also called Triangle de Choisy or Petite Asie, is the largest commercial and cultural center for the Asian community of Paris. It is located in the southeast of the 13th arrondissement in an area that contains many apartment buildings. Despite its status as a Chinatown, the neighborhood also contains significant Vietnamese, the first wave of Asian immigrants to the neighborhood consisted of ethnic Vietnamese refugees from the Vietnam War during the late 1970s. Later waves of migrants consisted of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and this left the neighborhood having a larger ethnic Chinese presence, and thus led to a creation of the present-day Chinatown. The Quartier Asiatique forms an area roughly the shape of a triangle bounded by Avenue de Choisy, Avenue dIvry and Boulevard Masséna, within this neighborhood, commercial activity is dominated by Chinese and Vietnamese businesses, with a smaller number of Laotian and Cambodian establishments. The large French Asian specialty market chains of Tang Frères and Paristore also have their locations within the quarter. The annual Lunar New Year parade within the neighborhood is largest in Paris, unlike other Chinatowns in the Western world, Chinese architecture is not highly visible in the area, with an exception being the several Buddhist temples located throughout the district. The area is populated by nearly 50,000 people, largely of Chinese, Vietnamese, languages used among immigrant groups in the community include the Cantonese and Teochew dialects of the Chinese language, as well as Vietnamese, Lao and Khmer. Ethnic Chinese refugees are often conversant in one of the three languages in addition to their native Chinese dialect, due to their origins from Indochina. Paris also hosts three other Asiatic districts within its limits, the most notable is that of the Belleville neighborhood in the 20th arrondissement. Unlike Chinatown and the 13th arrondissement, ethnic Chinese from Indochina form a minority of the neighborhoods overall, ethnic groups from Indochina also do not have a significant presence in the Belleville community. Instead, the vast majority of Bellevilles ethnic Chinese population consists of those with origins from the eastern Chinese coastal city of Wenzhou, meanwhile, the oldest but smallest Asian neighborhood in Paris is located in the 3rd arrondissement, near the Musée des Arts et Métiers. It is bounded roughly by Rue au Maire, Rue Volta, Rue du Temple, the district was established in the early 1900s, when Chinese migrants specializing in the leather and Chinese porcelain industries arrived in Paris from the Wenzhou region. During World War I, a number of Chinese laborers. The small number who decided to stay in France after the war settled in the district. SInce the 1990s, a Japanese quarter has been developing along Rue Sainte-Anne in the 1st arrondissement near the Pyramides Métro station, the area hosts a number of Japanese restaurants and specialty boutiques, along with branch offices of the Japan National Tourism Organization and Japan Airlines. In recent years, a Korean presence has also established in the same area. Belleville, Paris Chinese diaspora in France Vietnamese people in France
Quartier Asiatique
–
The Olympiades towers with the pagoda roof shopping centre.
Quartier Asiatique
–
Mix of culture in the Triangle de Choisy.
Quartier Asiatique
–
Chinese New Year parade in 2015.
Quartier Asiatique
–
Chinese New Year parade.
13.
13th arrondissement of Paris
–
The 13th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. The neighborhood features a concentration of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese businesses. The 13th arrondissement also hosts the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and the newly built district of Paris Rive Gauche. The 13th arrondissement is still growing in population, mainly because of an influx of Asian immigrants, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first wave of Vietnamese refugees from the Vietnam War settled in the arrondissement, largely concentrated near Masséna Boulevard. Later waves of refugees and Asian immigrants transitioned from being exclusively ethnic Vietnamese to include ethnic Chinese from Vietnam and these migrants largely settled in the southern area of the arrondissement, creating an Asian quarter and establishing a commercial district and community institutions. Teochew, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Lao and Khmer are spoken by residents in the community. At the last census in 1999, the population was 171,533, the 13th arrondissement is also rapidly growing in business activity, thanks to the new business district of Paris Rive Gauche. In 1999, the arrondissement contained 89,316 jobs, the head office of Accor, including the companys executive management, is in the Immeuble Odyssey in the 13th arrondissement. This facility is the registered office. Ubisoft has its business office in the arrondissement, the teaching and learning center is settled at the number 151. Pariss main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique, also called la Triangle de Choisy or la petite Asie, is located in the southeast of the arrondissement. The following can be found in area, Les Olympiades, Super-Italie and various other towers among the tallest in Paris Tang Frères and Paristore Asian supermarkets. Chinese community in Paris Vietnamese community in Paris 13th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
13th arrondissement of Paris
–
Main campus in
Paris (1912).
13th arrondissement of Paris
–
Paris and its closest suburbs
13th arrondissement of Paris
–
City hall in the 13th arrondissement
13th arrondissement of Paris
–
Public housing built in the first half of the 20th century
14.
Vietnamese people in France
–
The Vietnamese people in France consists of people of Vietnamese ancestry who were born in or immigrated to France. Their population was over 300,000 as of 2014, unlike other overseas Vietnamese communities in the West, the Vietnamese population in France had already been well-established before the Fall of Saigon and diaspora that resulted from it. They make up half of the Vietnamese population in Europe. France was the first Western country to where Vietnamese migrants settled due to the colonization of Vietnam by France, the French assistance to Nguyễn Ánh in 1777 was one of earliest formal political relations between the two nations. During the colonial period, there was a significant representation of Vietnamese students in France, professional and blue-collar workers also migrated from Vietnam during this period, with some settling permanently. The onset of World War I and World War II saw the French Empire recruit soldiers, roughly 50,000 and 20,000 Vietnamese migrated to France during these periods respectively. The wave of migrants who came during World War I was the first major presence of Vietnamese people in France, by 1939, there were an estimated 93,000 French residents of Vietnamese descent, largely consisting of workers and soldiers, as well as students. During the interwar period, a Vietnamese community began to be concentrated in Marseilles in southern France, vietnamese-owned rice farms were also established in southeastern France, and second and third-generation French Vietnamese started to run their own commercial firms or work in professional sectors. Hundreds of families who were evacuated out of Vietnam by the French government were largely settled in camps in the southwest of France. The most notable was in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot near Bordeaux, which hosted the Centre dAccueil des Français dIndochine, most of these camps were structured in a similar layout as a traditional town in Vietnam, with a Buddhist temple, markets, schools and medical facilities. During the 1950s to the 1970s, including the Vietnam War, although many initially returned home, as the war situation worsened, a majority decided to resettle permanently in France and brought their families along. It was during this period that Vietnamese community institutions were established to serve both new immigrants and expatriates, as well as established generations of Vietnamese in France. The largest influx of Vietnamese people arrived in France as refugees after the Fall of Saigon, France received the third highest number of refugees from Vietnam after the United States and Australia, numbering over 100,000 between 1975 and 1990. By the beginning of the 1990s, refugees had accounted for slightly over three-quarters of the Vietnamese population in France, the last of Vietnamese refugees arrived in the mid-1990s, when the remaining refugee camps closed. Earlier Vietnamese migrants also settled in the cities of Lille and Bordeaux, the community is still strongly attached to its homeland while being well-integrated in the French society. Unlike Canada, the United States or other European countries, the system in France does not emphasise a multicultural society. Members of the third or later generations of Vietnamese born in France have largely blended into French society culturally, Vietnamese is the eighth most spoken language of immigrant origin and most spoken Asian language in France. However, a number of French-born Vietnamese are unable to speak and/or understand it
Vietnamese people in France
–
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Vietnamese people in France
–
Temple du Souvenir Indochinois
Vietnamese people in France
–
Ngô Bảo Châu
Vietnamese people in France
–
A
pho restaurant in the Paris Quartier Asiatique neighborhood
15.
Vietnam War
–
It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
Vietnam War
–
Clockwise, from top left: U.S. combat operations in
Ia Drang, ARVN Rangers defending
Saigon during the 1968
Tet Offensive, two
Douglas A-4C Skyhawks en route for airstrikes against North Vietnam after the
Gulf of Tonkin incident, ARVN recapture
Quảng Trị during the 1972
Easter Offensive, civilians fleeing the
1972 Battle of Quảng Trị, burial of 300 victims of the 1968
Huế Massacre.
Vietnam War
–
A Japanese naval officer surrenders his sword to a British Lieutenant in Saigon on 13 September 1945.
Vietnam War
–
The
Geneva Conference, 1954
Vietnam War
–
U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles greet President
Ngô Đình Diệm of
South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957.
16.
French Communist Party
–
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
French Communist Party
–
PCF rallying for a 6th republic, 2012 in Paris
French Communist Party
–
French Communist Party Parti communiste français
17.
Mayor (France)
–
In France, a mayor is chairperson of the municipal council, which organizes the work and deliberates on municipal matters. The mayor also has significant powers and his or her own responsibilities, such as the responsibility for the activities of municipal police, the mayor is also the representative of the state in the commune. As such the mayor is an officer of the State. The term of office for a mayor is six years, from 1789 to 1799 municipal officials were directly elected for 2 years and re-elected by the active citizens of the commune with taxpayers contributing at least 3 days of work to the commune. Those who were eligible could instead pay a tax equivalent to not less than 10 days of work. In 1799 the constitution of 22 Frimaire year VIII revoked the direct election of the mayor and this constitution established the nomination of mayors and councilors. After 1831 mayors were appointed, but councilors were elected for six years, from 3 July 1848 to 1851 mayors were elected by the municipal council for communes with less than 6,000 inhabitants. From 1851 to 1871 mayors were appointed by the prefect for communes with less than 3000 inhabitants, since 1871 mayors have been elected by their peers by the municipal council following their election by universal suffrage. There are, however, six French communes that do not elect their mayor by universal suffrage with the mayor being appointed by the Prefect. Specifically these are villages which were devastated during the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and never rebuilt because of large amounts of unexploded ordnance and these are Bezonvaux, Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, Haumont-près-Samogneux and Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre. The mayor is the chairman of the municipal council and he is elected by secret ballot of municipal councilors during the first meeting of the Municipal Council that must be held between Friday and Sunday following the municipal elections. If no candidate obtains a majority after two rounds of voting the election proceeds to a third round which requires only a simple majority. In case of a tie, the oldest candidate wins, as for other councilors, the mayor must be at least 18 years of age when he is elected to office. The mayor must be a French national, councilors can be citizens of a member country of the European Union. Volunteer firefighters can not be elected mayor of a commune of 3,500 inhabitants or more, the law on dual mandates allows a mayor to hold a single elective office in addition to his municipal office. The office of municipal councilor is not considered as an office for this purpose. Currently a member of the government can serve as Mayor, however, in 1997 and 2007, since various prime ministers had demanded ministers and state secretaries resign their mayoral offices, most of them then became first deputy mayors. The Municipal Council also elects the deputy mayor having determined, by resolution and these appointees are elected by the municipal council according to the same rules as those applicable to the election of the mayor
Mayor (France)
–
France
18.
Twin towns and sister cities
–
In recent times, town twinning has increasingly been used to form strategic international business links between member cities. In the United Kingdom, the twin towns is most commonly used. In mainland Europe, the most commonly used terms are twin towns, partnership towns, partner towns, the European Commission uses the term twinned towns and refers to the process as town twinning. Spain uses the term ciudades hermanadas that means sister cities, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic use Partnerstadt / Miasto Partnerskie / Partnerské město, which translate as Partner Town or City. France uses Ville Jumelée, and Italy has Gemellaggio and Comune gemellato, in the Netherlands, the term is Stedenband. In Greece, the word αδελφοποίηση has been adopted, in Iceland, the terms vinabæir and vinaborgir are used. In the former Soviet Bloc, twin towns and twin cities are used, the Americas, South Asia, and Australasia use the term sister cities or twin cities. In China, the term is 友好城市, sometimes, other government bodies enter into a twinning relationship, such as the agreement between the provinces of Hainan in China and Jeju-do in South Korea. The Douzelage is a twinning association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union. In recent years, the term city diplomacy has gained increased usage and acceptance, particularly as a strand of paradiplomacy and public diplomacy. It is formally used in the workings of the United Cities and Local Governments, the importance of cities developing their own foreign economic policies on trade, foreign investment, tourism and attracting foreign talent has also been highlighted by the World Economic Forum. The earliest known town twinning in Europe was between Paderborn, Germany, and Le Mans, France, in 836, starting in 1905, Keighley in West Yorkshire, England, had a twinning arrangement with French communities Suresnes and Puteaux. The first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord in Nord, France, in 1920 following the end of the First World War and this was initially referred to as an adoption of the French town, formal twinning charters were not exchanged until 1986. The practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to promote mutual understanding, for example, Coventry twinned with Stalingrad and later with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, all three cities having been heavily bombed during the war. Similarly, in 1947, Bristol Corporation sent five leading citizens on a mission to Hanover. Reading in 1947 was the first British town to form links with an enemy city – Düsseldorf. Since 9 April 1956 Rome and Paris have been exclusively and reciprocally twinned with other, following the motto, Only Paris is worthy of Rome. Within Europe, town twinning is supported by the European Union, the support scheme was established in 1989
Twin towns and sister cities
–
Twin towns sign in
Oskarshamn,
Sweden
Twin towns and sister cities
–
An example of a 'gemellaggio' (twinning) agreement between
Castellabate, Italy and
Blieskastel, Germany
Twin towns and sister cities
–
Column dedicated to
Paris in
Rome. Since April 9, 1956 Rome and Paris are exclusively and reciprocally twinned with each other, following the motto: "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris."
Twin towns and sister cities
–
The painting of Gagny
19.
Bishop Auckland
–
Bishop Auckland /ˈbɪʃəp ˈɔːklənd/ is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in north east England. It is located about 12 miles northwest of Darlington and 12 miles southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless. According to the 2001 census, Bishop Auckland has a population of 24,392, much of the towns early history surrounds the bishops of Durham and the establishment of a hunting lodge, which later became the main residence of the Bishops of Durham. This link with the Bishops of Durham is reflected in the first part of the towns name, during the Industrial Revolution, the town grew rapidly as coal mining took hold as an important industry. The subsequent decline of the mining industry in the late twentieth century has been blamed for a fall in the towns fortunes in other sectors. Today, the largest sector of employment in the town is manufacturing, since 1 April 2009, the towns local government has come from the Durham County Council Unitary Authority. The unitary authority replaced the previous Wear Valley District Council and Durham County Council, Bishop Auckland is located in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency. The town has a town-twinning with the French town of Ivry-sur-Seine, the first part of the name, Bishop, refers to the land being owned by and the town being the residence of the Bishop of Durham. However, the derivation of Auckland is more complex, the present form of the name almost certainly comes from Old Norse Aukland meaning additional land. This could refer to the area being extra land granted to the Bishop of Durham by King Canute in around 1020, however, the name is attested in an earlier, Cumbric form, Alclit. This is similar to Alclut, an early, Cumbric name for Dumbarton which means rock on the Clyde or cliff on the Clyde. It is believed that Clyde may have been an earlier Celtic name for the river known as the Gaunless. Thus before being Norseified as Aukland, Alclit meant rock of the Clut, Auckland is also used in the settlements of St Helen Auckland, West Auckland and St Andrew Auckland, an old name for South Church, all of which are along the path of the Gaunless. The name Gaunless itself is of later Norse origin, meaning useless and it is believed that this derives from the rivers inability to power a mill, sustain fish or create fertile floodplains. The earliest known reference to Bishop Auckland itself is around 1000AD as land given to the Earl of Northumberland for defending the church against the Scots and it is also mentioned in 1020 as a gift given to the Bishop of Durham by King Canute. Furthermore, the Romans had a look-out post where Auckland Castle is sited today, there is also evidence of possible Iron Age settlements around the town, together with finds of Bronze Age, Neolithic and Mesolithic artefacts. Much of the towns history surrounds its links with the Bishops of Durham, in 1083, Bishop William de St-Calais expelled a number of canons from Durham. Some of these settled in the area and established a collegiate church, around 1183 Bishop Pudsey established a manor house in the town, with a great hall being completed in 1195 on the site occupied by St Peters Chapel today
Bishop Auckland
–
Bishop Auckland Town Hall
Bishop Auckland
–
Sir Arthur Hazelrig
Bishop Auckland
–
St Peter's chapel. Originally the castle's great hall, it was converted to a chapel after the
restoration of the monarchy.
Bishop Auckland
–
Bishop Barrington
20.
Medieval Latin
–
Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, medieval Latin should not be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin. There is no consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends. Medieval Latin had a vocabulary, which freely borrowed from other sources. Greek provided much of the vocabulary of Christianity. The various Germanic languages spoken by the Germanic tribes, who invaded southern Europe, were major sources of new words. Germanic leaders became the rulers of parts of the Roman Empire that they conquered, other more ordinary words were replaced by coinages from Vulgar Latin or Germanic sources because the classical words had fallen into disuse. Latin was also spread to such as Ireland and Germany. Works written in the lands, where Latin was a language with no relation to the local vernacular, also influenced the vocabulary. English words like abstract, subject, communicate, matter, probable, the high point of the development of medieval Latin as a literary language came with the Carolingian renaissance, a rebirth of learning kindled under the patronage of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. On the other hand, strictly speaking there was no form of medieval Latin. Every Latin author in the period spoke Latin as a second language, with varying degrees of fluency, and syntax, grammar. For instance, rather than following the classical Latin practice of placing the verb at the end. Unlike classical Latin, where esse was the auxiliary verb, medieval Latin writers might use habere as an auxiliary, similar to constructions in Germanic. The accusative and infinitive construction in classical Latin was often replaced by a clause introduced by quod or quia. This is almost identical, for example, to the use of que in similar constructions in French. In every age from the late 8th century onwards, there were learned writers who were familiar enough with classical syntax to be aware that these forms and usages were wrong, however the use of quod to introduce subordinate clauses was especially pervasive and is found at all levels. That resulted in two features of Medieval Latin compared with Classical Latin. First, many attempted to show off their knowledge of Classical Latin by using rare or archaic constructions
Medieval Latin
–
Carmina Cantabrigiensia, Medieval Latin manuscript
Medieval Latin
–
Europe, 1000 AD
Medieval Latin
–
An
illuminated manuscript of a
Book of Hours contains prayers in medieval Latin.
Medieval Latin
–
The
Prüfening dedicatory inscription of 1119, composed in medieval Latin.
21.
Gauls
–
The Gauls were Celtic peoples inhabiting Gaul in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their Gaulish language forms the branch of the Continental Celtic languages. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as the bearers of the La Tène culture north of the Alps, Gaul was never united under a single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their forces in large-scale military operations. They reached the peak of their power in the early 3rd century BC, after this, Gaul became a province of the Roman Empire, and the Gauls were culturally assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture, losing their tribal identities by the end of the 1st century AD. The Gauls of Gallia Celtica according to the testimony of Caesar called themselves Celtae in their own language, the name Gaul itself may be derived from Latin Galli, or it may be derived from the Germanic word Walha. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC, the Urnfield culture represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC, the Hallstatt culture evolved into the La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area, Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. Following the climate deterioration in the late Nordic Bronze Age, Celtic Gaul was invaded in the 5th century BC by tribes later called Gauls originating in the Rhine valley. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC and raided Italy as far as Sicily. A large number of Gauls served in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars, in the Aegean world, an invasion of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. However, according to the Roman legend of the gold of Delphi. One king Cerethrius invaded the Thracians, while another Gallic king Bolgios invaded Macedonia and Illyria where he killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos, in 278 BC Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the number of women and children. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war,4,000 Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 270 BC. According to Pausanias, soon after arrival the Celts plotted “to seize Egypt, ”, Galatians also participated at the victorious in 217 BC Battle of Raphia under Ptolemy IV Philopator, and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic Dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor, after the defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor
Gauls
–
Bronze cuirass, weighing 2.9 kg,
Grenoble, end of 7th century – early 6th century BCE
Gauls
–
A map of
Gaul in the 1st century BC, showing the relative positions of its three tribes: Celtae (Galli), Belgae and Aquitani. The region corresponds to what is now
Belgium,
France,
Switzerland,
Netherlands,
Western Germany and
Northern Italy.
Gauls
–
Celtic sword and
scabbard circa 60 BC
Gauls
–
Agris helmet. Discovered in
Agris,
Charente, France. 350 BC
22.
Gallo-Roman
–
This article covers the culture of Romanized areas of Gaul. For the political history of the brief Gallic Empire of the third century, the term Gallo-Roman describes the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire. This was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman morals, the well-studied meld of cultures in Gaul gives historians a model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other, less-studied Roman provinces. The barbarian invasions beginning in the fifth century forced upon Gallo-Roman culture fundamental changes in politics, in the economic underpinning. The Gothic settlement of 418 offered a double loyalty, as Western Roman authority disintegrated at Rome, the plight of the highly Romanized governing class is examined by R. W. Mathisen, the struggles of bishop Hilary of Arles by M. Heinzelmann. Into the seventh century, Gallo-Roman culture would persist particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania, Cisalpine Gaul and to a lesser degree, the formerly Romanized north of Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks, would develop into Merovingian culture instead. Based on mutual intelligibility, David Dalby counts seven languages descended from Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Wallon, French, Franco-Provençal, Romansh, Ladin, Friulian, however, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing the Rhaeto-Romance languages, Occitano-Romance languages, and Gallo-Italic languages. Over the course of the Roman period, a proportion of Gauls gained Roman citizenship. In 212 the Constitutio Antoniniana extended citizenship to all men in the Roman Empire. During the Crisis of the Third Century, from 260 to 274, in reaction to local problems the Gallo-Romans appointed their own emperor Postumus. The capital was Trier which was used as the northern capital of the Roman Empire by many emperors. The Gallic Empire ended when Aurelian decisively defeated Tetricus I at Chalons, assimilation was eased by interpreting indigenous gods in Roman terms, such as with Lenus Mars or Apollo Grannus. Otherwise, a Roman god might be paired with a goddess, as with Mercury. In at least one case – that of the equine goddess Epona – a native Gallic goddess was also adopted by Rome, eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on. These included the cults of Orpheus, Mithras, Cybele, some of the communities had origins that predated the third-century persecutions. The exhibition of Gallo-Roman silver highlighted specifically Gallo-Roman silver from the treasures found at Chaourse, Mâcon, Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt, Notre-Dame dAllençon, the two more Romanized of the three Gauls were bound together in a network of Roman roads that linked cities. Via Domitia, reached from Nîmes to the Pyrenees, where it joined the Via Augusta at the Col de Panissars, via Aquitania reached from Narbonne, where it connected to the Via Domitia, to the Atlantic Ocean through Toulouse to Bordeaux. Via Scarponensis connected Trier to Lyon through Metz, Lyon, the capital of Roman Gaul, is now the site of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon, associated with the remains of the theater and odeon of Roman Lugdunum
Gallo-Roman
–
Gallo-Roman figures found in
Ingelheim
Gallo-Roman
–
Northern Gaul "
sou ", 440-450, 4240mg.
Hotel de la Monnaie.
Gallo-Roman
–
A
Gallic warrior dressed in Roman hamata with a cloak over it whilst wearing a
torc
Gallo-Roman
–
Gallo-Roman Christian
sarcophagus,
Rignieux-le-Franc (
Ain), end of fourth century.
Louvre Museum.
23.
Seine
–
The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Source-Seine,30 kilometres northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and it is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea. There are 37 bridges within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside the city, examples in Paris include the Pont Alexandre III and Pont Neuf, the latter of which dates back to 1607. Outside the city, examples include the Pont de Normandie, one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in the world, the Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about 30 kilometres northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864, a number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, on the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the dea Sequana Seine goddess and other ex voti found at the place are now exhibited in the Dijon archeological museum. The Seine is dredged and oceangoing vessels can dock at Rouen,120 kilometres from the sea, commercial riverboats can use the river from Bar-sur-Seine,560 kilometres to its mouth. At Paris, there are 37 bridges, the river is only 24 metres above sea level 446 kilometres from its mouth, making it slow flowing and thus easily navigable. The Seine Maritime,105.7 kilometres from the English Channel at Le Havre to Rouen, is the portion of the Seine used by ocean-going craft. The tidal section of the Seine Maritime is followed by a section with four large multiple locks until the mouth of the Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Multiple locks at Bougival / Chatou and at Suresnes lift the vessels to the level of the river in Paris, upstream from Paris seven locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès, where the Loing mouth is situated. Through an eighth lock the river Yonne is reached at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, from the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue upstream to Nogent-sur-Seine. From there on, the river is only by small craft. All navigation ends abruptly at Marcilly-sur-Seine, where the ancient Canal de la Haute-Seine used to allow vessels to continue all the way to Troyes and this canal has been abandoned for many years. The average depth of the Seine today at Paris is about 9.5 metres. Until locks were installed to raise the level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower within the city most of the time, today the depth is tightly controlled and the entire width of the river between the built-up banks on either side is normally filled with water. The average flow of the river is low, only a few cubic metres per second
Seine
–
The Seine in Paris
Seine
–
Seine source
Seine
–
The
Pont de Normandie over the Seine, between
Le Havre and
Honfleur, on the
Normandy coast
Seine
–
The Seine and Eiffel Tower
24.
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry
–
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was a French Air Force lieutenant-colonel and military air weaponry engineer. He was the creator of the Nord SS. 10/SS.11 missiles and he attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following de Gaulles decision to accept Algerian independence. Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad in France, though the assassination attempt came very close to claiming de Gaulles life, the President and his entire entourage escaped without injury. The event is chronicled in detail in the 1971 work The Day of the Jackal and the 1973 film adaptation of the same name, Bastien-Thiry was born to a family of Catholic military officers in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His father had known de Gaulle in the 1930s and was a member of the Gaullist RPF and he attended the École polytechnique, followed by the École nationale supérieure de lAéronautique, then entered the French Air Force where he specialized in the design of air-to-air missiles. In 1957, he was promoted to military air engineer. He was married to Geneviève Lamirand, the daughter of Georges Lamirand, the latter had been Vichy France General Secretary of Youth from September 1940 to March 1943, but the rest of the family was Free French. He had three daughters with her, since 1848, French Algeria had been considered an integral part of France. After having returned to power with the intention of maintaining the French Départements of Algeria, in September 1959, de Gaulle reversed his policy. Until this time, Bastien-Thiry had been a Gaullist, now he became an opponent, due to this new policy, two referendums on self-determination were held, one in 1961 and the second on 8 April 1962. According to Dr Pérez, OAS chief of intelligence and operations section, Vieil État Major messenger Jean Bichon met him in Algiers, Bastien-Thiry never had contact with the OAS organization and he never stated that his direct chief was Jean Bichon, arrested later. Bastien-Thiry led the most prominent of several attempts on de Gaulle. His group made preparations in the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart, on 22 August 1962, de Gaulles car and some nearby shops were raked with machine-gun fire. De Gaulle, his wife and entourage escaped, uninjured and this event was fictionalized in the 1971 book The Day of the Jackal. De Gaulle credited the unusual abilities of the DS vehicle with saving his life though the shots had punctured two of the armoured tires, the car escaped at full speed. Bastien-Thiry was arrested when he came back from a mission in the United Kingdom and he was brought to trial before a military tribunal presided over by General Roger Gardet, which ran from 28 January to 4 March 1963. He was defended by a team consisting of attorneys Jacques Isorni, Richard Dupuy, Bernard Le Coroller. The only would-be assassin to escape was OAS member Georges Watin, as president, de Gaulle had the power of clemency
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry
–
Mug shot of Bastien-Thiry
25.
James Joyce
–
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde and is regarded as one of the most influential, other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners, and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake. His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism and his published letters, Joyce was born in 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin—about half a mile from his mothers birthplace in Terenure—into a middle-class family on the way down. He went on to attend University College Dublin, in 1904, in his early twenties, Joyce emigrated permanently to continental Europe with his partner Nora Barnacle. They lived in Trieste, Paris and Zurich, Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. In the particular is contained the universal, James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 to John Stanislaus Joyce and Mary Jane May Murray, in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar. He was baptised according to the Rites of the Catholic Church in the nearby St Josephs Church in Terenure on 5 February by Rev. John OMulloy and his godparents were Philip and Ellen McCann. He was the eldest of ten surviving children, two of his siblings died of typhoid and his fathers family, originally from Fermoy in County Cork, had once owned a small salt and lime works. Joyces father and paternal grandfather both married into families, though the familys purported ancestor, Seán Mór Seoighe was a stonemason from Connemara. In 1887, his father was appointed rate collector by Dublin Corporation, around this time Joyce was attacked by a dog, which engendered in him a lifelong cynophobia. He also suffered from astraphobia, as an aunt had described thunderstorms to him as a sign of Gods wrath. In 1891 Joyce wrote a poem on the death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Party had dropped Parnell from leadership. But the Vaticans role in allying with the British Conservative Party to prevent Home Rule left an impression on the young Joyce. The elder Joyce had the printed and even sent a part to the Vatican Library. In November of that year, John Joyce was entered in Stubbs Gazette. In 1893, John Joyce was dismissed with a pension, beginning the familys slide into poverty caused mainly by his drinking and general financial mismanagement. Joyce had begun his education at Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school near Clane, County Kildare and this came about because of a chance meeting his father had with a Jesuit priest who knew the family and Joyce was given a reduction in fees to attend Belvedere. In 1895, Joyce, now aged 13, was elected to join the Sodality of Our Lady by his peers at Belvedere, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas continued to have a strong influence on him for most of his life
James Joyce
–
Joyce in
Zurich, c. 1918
James Joyce
–
Joyce's birth and baptismal certificate
James Joyce
–
Joyce aged six, 1888
James Joyce
–
Bust of Joyce on
St Stephen's Green, Dublin
26.
Lucia Joyce
–
Lucia Anna Joyce was a professional dancer and the daughter of Irish writer James Joyce and Nora Barnacle. Once treated by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, Joyce was diagnosed as schizophrenic in the mid 1930s, in 1951 Joyce was transferred to St Andrews Healthcare in Northampton, where she remained until her death in 1982. Lucia Anna Joyce was born in the Ospedale Civico di Trieste on July 26,1907 and she was the second child of Irish writer James Joyce and his partner Nora Barnacle, after her brother Giorgio. Her parents being expatriates living in Trieste, Lucias first language was Italian, in her younger years, she trained as a dancer at the Dalcroze Institute in Paris. Joyce studied dancing from 1925 to 1929, training first with Jacques Dalcroze, followed by Margaret Morris, in 1927, she danced a short duet as a toy soldier in Jean Renoir’s film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersens La Petite marchande d’allumettes. She furthered her studies under Lois Hutton, Hélène Vanel, and Jean Borlin, in 1928, she joined Les Six de rythme et couleur, a commune of six female dancers that were soon performing at venues in France, Austria, and Germany. After a performance in La Princesse Primitive at the Vieux-Colombier theatre and she has James Joyce’s enthusiasm, energy, and a not-yet-determined amount of his genius. When she reaches her full capacity for rhythmic dancing, James Joyce may yet be known as his daughter’s father, on 28 May 1929, she was chosen as one of six finalists in the first international festival of dance in Paris held at the Bal Bullier. Although she did not win, the audience - which included her father and her relationship with Samuel Beckett was one of unrequited affection. Allegedly, when Lucia was twenty-one, she and Beckett, who was her fathers secretary for a time, became lovers. At the age of twenty-two, Joyce, after years of dedication and long hours of practice. Announcing she would become a teacher, she turned down an offer to join a group in Darmstadt. Her biographer Carol Shloss, however, argues that it was her father who finally put an end to her dancing career, James reasoned that the intense physical training for ballet caused her undue stress which in turn exacerbated the long-standing animosity between her and her mother, Nora. The resulting incessant domestic squabbles prevented work on Finnegans Wake, James convinced her she should turn to drawing lettrines to illustrate his prose and forgo her own deep-seated artistic inclinations. To his patron Harriet Shaw Weaver, James Joyce wrote that this resulted in a month of tears as she thinks she has thrown away three or four years of work and is sacrificing a talent. In May 1930 while her parents were in Zurich, she invited Beckett to dinner and he flatly rejected her, explaining that he was only interested in her father and his writing. As the year wore on, her condition had deteriorated to the point that James had Carl Gustav Jung take her in as a patient, soon after, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich. In 1936, James consented to have his daughter undergo blood tests at St Andrews Hospital in Northampton
Lucia Joyce
–
Lucia Joyce dancing at Bullier Ball - Paris, May 1929
27.
Samuel Beckett
–
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century, Becketts work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour, and became increasingly minimalist in his later career. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and he was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. The Becketts were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland, the family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuels father, William. Samuel Beckett was born on Good Friday,13 April 1906, to William Frank Beckett, a quantity surveyor and descendant of the Huguenots, and Maria Jones Roe, a nurse, Beckett had one older brother, Frank Edward Beckett. At the age of five, Beckett attended a local playschool, where he started to learn music, in 1919, Beckett went to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. A natural athlete, Beckett excelled at cricket as a left-handed batsman, later, he was to play for Dublin University and played two first-class games against Northamptonshire. As a result, he became the only Nobel literature laureate to have played first class cricket, Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927. He was elected a Scholar in Modern Languages in 1926, Beckett graduated with a BA and, after teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast, took up the post of lecteur danglais at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris from November 1928 to 1930. While there, he was introduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy and this meeting had a profound effect on the young man. Beckett assisted Joyce in various ways, one of which was research towards the book that became Finnegans Wake, in 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay entitled Dante. Becketts close relationship with Joyce and his family cooled, however, Becketts first short story, Assumption, was published in Jolass periodical transition. In 1930, Beckett returned to Trinity College as a lecturer, in November 1930, he presented a paper in French to the Modern Languages Society of Trinity on the Toulouse poet Jean du Chas, founder of a movement called le Concentrisme. It was a parody, for Beckett had in fact invented the poet and his movement that claimed to be at odds with all that is clear. Beckett later insisted that he had not intended to fool his audience, when Beckett resigned from Trinity at the end of 1931, his brief academic career was at an end. He spent some time in London, where in 1931 he published Proust, two years later, following his fathers death, he began two years treatment with Tavistock Clinic psychoanalyst Dr. Wilfred Bion. Aspects of it became evident in Becketts later works, such as Watt, in 1932, he wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, but after many rejections from publishers decided to abandon it
Samuel Beckett
–
Beckett in 1977
Samuel Beckett
–
Samuel Beckett Walk, Paris (France).
Samuel Beckett
–
Portrait of Samuel Beckett by
Reginald Gray, painted in Paris, 1961 (from the collection of Ken White, Dublin).
Samuel Beckett
–
Tomb of Samuel Beckett at the Cimetière de
Montparnasse
28.
Fnac
–
Fnac is a large French retail chain selling cultural and electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its head office is in Le Flavia in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris, Fnac is an abbreviation of Fédération Nationale d’Achats des Cadres. The companys founders, André Essel and Max Théret were both part of Frances Young Socialist movement, musicians playing in these concerts have included Yann Tiersen, Ben Harper, Keane and David Bowie. Each year a Book Fair is held with discussions among writers, politicians, topics related to literature, culture, society and the sciences are discussed. Since 2001 the company has annually presented an award, Le prix du roman Fnac. Dominique Mainard, Pierre Charras, Pierre Charras and Pierre Péju are among those who have won and these events are shown on the company website fnaclive. com. The company claims to be committed to defending the diversity of music, in February 2002 Fnac published with UPFI Manifeste pour la diversité musicale, as a prelude to a policy of favorable treatment for independent labels and their artists. Fnac publishes Indétendances, a compilation of ten artists bimonthly published by independent labels, Max Théret had a passion for photography which began in 1932. Hunted by the Gestapo, Théret left the Occupied Zone in 1942, moving to Grenoble, after the war, he trained as a photo laboratory technician, founded his own laboratory, and later constructed the first colour-processing machine in France. In 1951, while working for the company, he founded Economie Nouvelle. In 1953, Théret and André Essel conceived a new magazine-based buyers club, founded 1954, Fnac was a members-only discount buyers club, offering sharp discounts on commercial and consumer products, based on the founders socialist principles. Their aim was to improve the lives of the workers, not through higher salaries, the first shop was opened in a sublet, a second-floor apartment on the rue de Sebastopol in Paris on July 31,1954. The brand positioning of the company continued with the training of assistants in their product categories. Furthermore, all products were tested in the companys independent test centre before sale, by the end of its first full year of operation the company saw revenues of 50 million old francs. In 1957, it was selling televisions, hi-fis, recording equipment, radios, in 1966, the Fnac store was opened to non-members and began to expand, opening its second store, also in Paris on the avenue de Wagram, near the Arc de Triomphe in 1969. By this time, the company had 580 employees, the founders of the company sold 40 percent of the company to insurance firm Union des Assurances to raise money to fund growth. In turn, the firm sold 16 percent of its shares to investment bank Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas. This prompted government action in 1982 with the so-called anti-Fnac law, in 1975, videos were added to the product range
Fnac
–
26-30
Avenue des Ternes,
17th arrondissement of Paris,
France.
Fnac
–
"Agitateur de curiosité"
Fnac
–
Fnac in Plaza de Callao,
Madrid,
Spain
Fnac
–
Fnac in
Porto (
Portugal)
29.
E.Leclerc
–
E. Leclerc is a French cooperative society and hypermarket chain, headquartered in Ivry-sur-Seine. E. Leclerc was established on 1 January 1948 by Édouard Leclerc, E. Leclerc currently has more than 500 locations in France and 114 stores outside of the country, as of 2012. The chain enables semi-independent stores to operate under the Leclerc brand, own brand ranges come under the Marque Repère and Eco+ banners. Some larger hypermarkets have a separate section, under the name of Espace Culturel. 1948, Edouard Leclerc opens the first self-service grocery store in Landerneau, Brittany 1956, Start of E. Leclercs clothing range 1960, The 60th E
E.Leclerc
–
Édouard Leclerc head office, 26 quai Marcel Boyer, Ivry-sur-Seine
E.Leclerc
–
E.Leclerc in
Miranda de Ebro,
Spain
E.Leclerc
–
E.Leclerc in Wrocław, Poland
