1.
Loire-Atlantique
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Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean. Loire-Atlantique is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790, originally, it was named Loire-Inférieure, but its name was changed in 1957 to Loire-Atlantique. The area is part of the historical Duchy of Brittany, and contains what many still consider to be Brittanys capital. However, when the system of French Regions was reviewed by the Vichy Government, whilst these administrative changes were reversed after the war, they were re-implemented in the 1955 boundary changes intended to optimise the management of the regions. There has since been a series of reflecting a strong local mood to have the department reintegrated with Brittany. Loire-Atlantique is part of the current region of Pays-de-la-Loire and is surrounded by the department of Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, Maine-et-Loire, Upper Brittanys indigenous language is Gallo, a romance language related to French. The number of Gallo language speakers has been in decline since the early 20th century. The language is neither official nor taught in primary or secondary education, the Breton language, a Celtic language, native to Lower Brittany, was historically spoken in the western area of Loire-Atlantique, and up to 1920 in Batz-sur-Mer. This area has a rather Breton toponymy, for instance, Guérande originates from the Breton Gwenn Rann, the folklore and musical traditions of eastern or Lower Brittany are generally similar to those of western or Upper Brittany. The département operates the Lila network of buses, which link its villages, towns. The urban areas of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire operate their own urban transport networks, by rail, the regional trains and buses of the TER Pays de la Loire link major towns and cities of the Pays de la Loire and adjoining regions, including those of the département. Nantes is on the TGV network, with high speed trains running to Paris by the LGV Atlantique in just over 2 hours, Nantes Atlantique Airport, located 8 km to the southwest of the city of Nantes, serves the département and surrounding areas. It is the biggest airport in northwestern France, linking with several French, North African and European cities and it is currently planned that this airport will be replaced by a new Aéroport du Grand Ouest, situated 30 km to the north-west of Nantes in the commune of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The €580 million project was approved in February 2008, with construction expected to start in 2012 and an opening date in 2015
2.
Montparnasse Cemetery
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Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the citys 14th arrondissement. Created from three farms in 1824, the cemetery at Montparnasse was originally known as Le Cimetière du Sud, cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the closure, owing to health concerns, of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786. At the heart of the city, and today sitting in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, is Passy Cemetery, Montparnasse Cemetery is the resting place of many of Frances intellectual and artistic elite as well as publishers and others who promoted the works of authors and artists. There are also graves of foreigners who have made France their home, as well as monuments to police. The cemetery is divided by Rue Émile Richard, the small section is usually referred to as the small cemetery and the large section as the big cemetery. Although Baudelaire is buried in this cemetery, there is also a cenotaph to him, because of the many notable people buried there, it is a highly popular tourist attraction. Divisions 5 and 30 were originally Jewish enclosures and contain many Jewish graves, the main entrance to the cemetery is on Boulevard Edgar Quinet which leads to the big cemetery. There are smaller entrances to both the big and small cemeteries on Rue Émile Richard, list of burials at Montparnasse Cemetery A list of many buried at the cemetery Montparnasse Cemetery at Find a Grave Information and help in touring Montparnasse cemetery In English
3.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
4.
Nantes
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Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River,50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with almost 300,000 inhabitants within its limits. Together with Saint-Nazaire, a located on the Loire estuary. Nantes is the seat of the Loire-Atlantique département and of the Pays de la Loire région. Historically and culturally, Nantes belongs to Brittany, a former duchy, the fact that it is not part of the modern administrative Brittany région is subject to debate. Nantes appeared during the Antiquity as a port on the Loire and it became the seat of a bishopric at the end of the Roman era, before being conquered by the Breton people in 851. Nantes was the residence of the dukes of Brittany in the 15th century. The French Revolution was a period of turmoil resulted in an economic decline. Nantes managed to develop a strong industry after 1850, chiefly in ship building, however, deindustrialisation in the second half of the 20th century pushed the city to reorient its economy towards services. In 2012, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Nantes as a Gamma- world city and it is the fourth highest ranking city in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseilles. The Gamma- category gathers other large cities such as Algiers, Orlando, Porto, Turin, Nantes has often been praised for its quality of life and it was awarded the European Green Capital Award in 2013. The settlement is mentioned in Ptolemys Geography as Κονδηούινϰον and Κονδιούινϰον, during the Gallo-Roman period, this name was latinised and adapted as Condevincum, Condevicnum, Condivicnum, Condivincum, etc. Condevincum seems to be related to the Gaulish word condate meaning confluence, at the end of the Roman period, Condevincum became known as Portus Namnetum and civitas Namnetum. This phenomenon can be observed on most of the ancient cities of France throughout the 4th century, for instance, Lutecia became Paris, city of the Parisii, Darioritum became Vannes, city of the Veneti. Portus Namnetum evolved in Nanetiæ and Namnetis in the 5th century, the name of the Namnetes people could either come from the Gaulish root *nant-, from the pre-Celtic root *nanto or from the other tribe name Amnites, which could mean men of the river. The name Nantes is pronounced and the city inhabitants are called Nantais, in Gallo, the romance dialect traditionally spoken in the region around Nantes, the city is called Naunnt or Nantt, according to the various spelling systems. The Gallo pronunciation is the same as the French one, although northern speakers pronounce it with a long, in Breton language, Nantes is known as Naoned or An Naoned. The latter, meaning the Nantes, is common and reflects the fact that articles are more frequent in Breton toponyms than in French ones
5.
Catherine Deneuve
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Catherine Deneuve is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model and producer. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof, mysterious beauties for various directors, including Luis Buñuel, Francois Truffaut, in 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, Frances national symbol of liberty. A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffauts The Last Metro and she is also noted for her support for a variety of liberal causes. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Belle de Jour, and she also won the 1998 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Place Vendôme. Other films include Scene of the Crime, My Favourite Season,8 Women and her English-language films include The April Fools, Hustle, The Hunger and Dancer in the Dark. In 2015, she starred in The Brand New Testament and Standing Tall, Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris, France, the daughter of French stage actors Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot. Deneuve was her mothers name, which she chose for her stage name. Her work for Buñuel would be her most famous, further prominent films from this early time in her career included Jean-Paul Rappeneaus A Matter of Resistance, and Demys musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort. Her starring roles at the time were featured in films as A Slightly Pregnant Man with Marcello Mastroianni. She made her film as a producer in 1988, Drôle dendroit pour une rencontre. In 1997, Deneuve was the protagonist in the video for the song NOubliez Jamais sung by Joe Cocker. In 1998 she won acclaim and the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Place Vendôme. In the late 1990s, Deneuve continued to appear in a number of films such as 1999s five films Est-Ouest, Le temps retrouvé, Pola X, Belle maman. In 2000, Deneuves part in Lars von Triers musical drama Dancer in the Dark alongside Icelandic singer Björk was subject to critical scrutiny. The film was selected for the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival and she made another foray into Hollywood the following year, starring in The Musketeer for Peter Hyams. In 2002, she shared the Silver Bear Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in 8 Women. In 2005, Deneuve published her diary A lombre de moi-meme, in it she writes about her experiences shooting the films Indochine and she also provided the voice role of Marjane Satrapis mother in Satrapis animated autobiographical film Persepolis, based on the graphic novel of the same name. In 2008, she appeared in her 100th film, Un conte de Noël, during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival with Ali Naderzad, Deneuve was asked which was her own favorite film
6.
Kurt Vonnegut
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Kurt Vonnegut /kɜːrt ˈvʌnəɡət/, in full Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels and he is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut attended Cornell University, as part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and he was interned in Dresden and survived the Allied bombing of the city by taking refuge in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, with whom he had three children and he later adopted his sisters three sons, after she died of cancer and her husband died in a train accident. Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952, the novel was reviewed positively, but was not commercially successful. In the nearly 20 years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were marginally successful, such as Cats Cradle and God Bless You. Vonneguts magnum opus, however, was his successful sixth novel. The books antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, after its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards, later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essays and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death, and A Man Without a Country. After his death, he was hailed as a morbidly comical commentator on the society in which he lived, Vonneguts son Mark published a compilation of his fathers unpublished compositions, titled Armageddon in Retrospect. Numerous scholarly works have examined Vonneguts writing and humor, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born on November 11,1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the youngest of three children of Kurt Vonnegut Sr. and his wife Edith and his older siblings were Bernard and Alice. Vonneguts mother was born into Indianapolis high society, as her family, thus, they did not teach their youngest son German or introduce him to German literature and tradition, leaving him feeling ignorant and rootless. Vonnegut later credited Ida Young, his familys African-American cook and housekeeper for the first 10 years of his life, for raising him, gave me decent moral instruction and was exceedingly nice to me. So she was as great an influence on me as anybody, Vonnegut described Young as humane and wise, adding that the compassionate, forgiving aspects of beliefs came from her. The financial security and social prosperity that the Vonneguts once enjoyed were destroyed in a matter of years, the Lieberss brewery was closed in 1921 after the advent of Prohibition in the United States. When the Great Depression hit, few people could afford to build, Vonneguts brother and sister had finished their primary and secondary educations in private schools, but Vonnegut was placed in a public school, called Public School No
7.
Gene Kelly
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Eugene Curran Gene Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director, producer and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his looks. Best known today for his performances in such as An American in Paris, Anchors Aweigh. He starred in musical films throughout the 1940s, including For Me and My Gal, Du Barry Was a Lady, Thousands Cheer, The Three Musketeers. In his later career, he starred in two films outside the genre, Inherit the Wind and What a Way to Go. Throughout his career, he directed films, most notably the 1969 film Hello. His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences, Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors, in 1999, the American Film Institute also numbered him 15th in their Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema list. Kelly was born in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh and he was the third son of James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his wife Harriet Catherine Curran. His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to an Irish-Canadian family and his maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Derry, Ireland, and his maternal grandmother was of German ancestry. When he was eight, Kellys mother enrolled him and his brother James in dance classes and they both rebelled, as recalled by Kelly, We didnt like it much and were continually involved in fistfights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies. I didnt dance again until I was fifteen, at one time his childhood dream was to play shortstop for the hometown Pittsburgh Pirates. By the time he decided to dance, he was an accomplished sportsman and he attended St. Raphael Elementary School in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School at age sixteen. He entered Pennsylvania State College as a major, but the 1929 crash forced him to work to help his family. He created dance routines with his younger brother Fred to earn money in local talent contests. They also performed in local nightclubs, in 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics, joining the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. He became involved in the universitys Cap and Gown Club, which staged original musical productions, after graduating in 1933, he continued to be active with the Cap and Gown Club, serving as the director from 1934 to 1938. Kelly was admitted to the University of Pittsburgh Law School and his family opened a dance studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh
8.
Second-wave feminism
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Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity and thought that first began in the early 1960s in the United States, and eventually spread throughout the Western world and beyond. In the United States the movement lasted through the early 1980s and it later became a worldwide movement that was strong in Europe and parts of Asia, such as Turkey and Israel, where it began in the 1980s, and it began at other times in other countries. Second-wave feminism also drew attention to violence and marital rape issues, establishment of rape crisis and battered womens shelters. This life was illustrated by the media of the time, for example television shows such as Father Knows Best. Before the second there were some important events which laid the groundwork for it. French writer Simone de Beauvoir had in the 1940s examined the notion of women being perceived as other in the patriarchal society and this book was translated from French to English and published in America in 1953. In 1960 the Food and Drug Administration approved the combined oral contraceptive pill and this made it easier for women to have careers without having to leave due to unexpectedly becoming pregnant. The administration of President Kennedy made womens rights a key issue of the New Frontier, There were also notable actions by women in wider society, presaging their wider engagement in politics which would come with the second wave. In 1961,50,000 women in 60 cities, mobilized by Women Strike for Peace, protested above ground testing of nuclear bombs, in 1963 Betty Friedan, influenced by The Second Sex, wrote the bestselling book The Feminine Mystique. Discussing primarily white women, she objected to how women were depicted in the mainstream media. She had helped conduct an important survey using her old classmates from Smith College. This survey revealed that the women who played a role at home, the women who stayed home showed feelings of agitation and sadness. She concluded that many of these women had emerged themselves in the idea that they should not have any ambitions outside their home. Friedan described this as The Problem That Has No Name, the perfect nuclear family image depicted and strongly marketed at the time, she wrote, did not reflect happiness and was rather degrading for women. This book is credited with having begun second-wave feminism. Though it is accepted that the movement lasted from the 1960s into the early 1980s. Friedan was referencing a movement as early as 1964, the movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965. In 1966 Friedan joined other women and men to found the National Organization for Women, Friedan stepped down as president in 1969
9.
Rochefort, Charente-Maritime
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Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department, in December 1665, Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of refuge, defense and supply for the French Navy. The Arsenal de Rochefort served as a base and dockyard until it closed in 1926. In September 1757, Rochefort was the target of an ambitious British raid during the Seven Years War, another infrastructure of early Rochefort from 1766 was its bagne, a high-security penal colony involving hard labor. Bagnes were then common fixtures in military harbors and naval bases, such as Toulon or Brest, Rochefort is a notable example of 17th-century ville nouvelle or new town, which means its design and building resulted from a political decree. The reason for building Rochefort was to an extent that royal power could hardly depend on rebellious Protestant La Rochelle. Well into the 20th century, Rochefort remained primarily a garrison town, the tourist industry, which had long existed due to the towns spa, gained emphasis in the 1990s. Charles Rigault de Genouilly, French admiral, conqueror of Vietnam and his house has been turned into a museum Jean-Joseph Sanfourche was a French artist and sculptor. Amédée William Merlaud-Ponty, Governor General of French West Africa, pauline Réage, pseudonym of Anne Desclos, author Maurice Merleau-Ponty, philosopher Pierre Salviac, is a French journalist, former commentator of rugby-match and since then polemicist. Loïc Le Marrec French volleyball coach He has a total of 140 teams in France
10.
Jeanne Moreau
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Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Seven Days, Seven Nights, the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for Viva Maria. and the César Award for Best Actress for The Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea. She has also been the recipient of several awards, including a BAFTA Fellowship in 1996. Moreau made her debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. She began playing roles in films in 1949, impressing in a Fernandel vehicle Meutres. in 1950. She achieved prominence as the star of Elevator to the Gallows, directed by Louis Malle, most prolific during the 1960s, Moreau continued to appear in films into her eighties. Moreau was born in Paris the daughter of Katherine, a dancer who performed at the Folies Bergère, and Anatole-Désiré Moreau, moreaus father was French, her mother was English, a native of Lancashire in England, and of part-Irish descent. Moreaus father was Catholic and her mother, originally a Protestant, when a young girl, the family moved south to Vichy, spending vacations at the ancestral village of Mazirat, a town of 30 houses in a valley in the Allier. It was wonderful there, Moreau said, every tombstone in the cemetery was for a Moreau. During the war, the family was split and Moreau lived with her mother in Paris, Moreau ultimately lost interest in school at age 16 and, after attending Jean Anouilhs Antigone, found her calling as an actor. She later studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and her parents separated permanently while Moreau was at the conservatory and her mother, after 24 difficult years in France, returned to England with Jeannes younger sister, Michelle. In 1947, Moreau made her debut at the Avignon Festival. She debuted at the Comédie-Française in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country and, from the late 1950s, after appearing in several successful films, she began to work with the emerging generation of French film-makers. Elevator to the Gallows with first-time director Louis Malle was followed by Malles The Lovers, the latter film, controversial in its day, led the media to tag her The New Bardot. Largely thanks to those films, Moreau went on to work many of the best known New Wave. François Truffauts New Wave film Jules et Jim, her biggest success internationally, is centred on her starring role. In 1983 she was head of the jury at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival, in 2005, she was awarded with the Stanislavsky Award at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. Moreau has had success as a vocalist and she has released several albums and once performed with Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall
