1.
Prefectures in France
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There are 101 prefectures in France, one for each department. The official in charge is the prefect, the prefect represents the national government at the local level and as such exercises the powers that are constitutionally attributed to the national government. The prefect issues ordinances written for the application of law, to close a building that does not conform to safety codes. In the past, the prefect was head of the department, but since 1982, there is an exception in Paris and its three surrounding departments. These departments are administered by a prefecture for law enforcement and security purposes, called the Prefecture of Police. The power of law enforcement is usually invested in the mayor in other French communes, the departments are divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons. The chef-lieu darrondissement is the subprefecture, the official in charge is the subprefect (French, sous-préfet. Cantons have relatively few competences, the most important one being the local organisation of elections, administrative divisions of France French National Police
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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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
3.
Regions of France
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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
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Centre-Val de Loire
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Centre-Val de Loire, French for Centre-Loire Valley), is one of the 18 administrative regions of France. It straddles the middle Loire Valley in the interior of the country, the administrative capital is Orléans, but the largest city is Tours. Like many contemporary regions of France, the region of Centre was created from parts of three provinces, Touraine, Orléanais, and Berry. Proposed names for the region included Val de Loire after the Loire Valley or Cœur de Loire, on 17 January 2015, as part of the reorganization of French regions, the regions official name was changed to Centre-Val de Loire. A new logo was also created and this ensures a mission of economic promotion, international support to regional companies and enhancement promotion of regional agrofood products via a regional signature, © du Centre
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Blois
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Blois is a city and the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours. In 1171, Blois was the site of a libel against its Jewish community that led to 31 Jews being burned to death. Their martyrdom also contributed to a prominent and durable school of poetry inspired by Christian persecution, in 1196, Count Louis granted privileges to the townsmen, a commune, which survived throughout the Middle Ages, probably dated from this time. The counts of the Châtillon line resided at Blois more often than their predecessors, in 1429, Joan of Arc made Blois her base of operations for the relief of Orléans. Joan of Arc rode the thirty-five miles on Wednesday 29 April to Blois to relieve Orléans, after his captivity in England, Charles of Orléans in 1440 took up his residence in the château, where in 1462 his son, afterwards Louis XII, was born. In the 16th century Blois was often the resort of the French court, the Treaty of Blois, which temporarily halted the Italian Wars, was signed there in 1504–1505. The citys inhabitants included many Calvinists, and in 1562 and 1567 it was the scene of struggles between them and the supporters of the Catholic Church, the bishopric, seated at Blois Cathedral, dates from the end of the 17th century. In 1814 Blois was for a time the seat of the regency of Marie Louise. Blois was occupied during World War II by the German army, the city was liberated by American soldiers during the last two weeks of August 1944. On both occasions, the city withstood several days of bombing, the Château de Blois, a Renaissance château once occupied by King Louis XII, is located in the centre of the city, and an 18th-century stone bridge spans the Loire. As Blois is built on a pair of hills, winding and steep pathways run through the city. To the south of the city, the Forêt de Russy is a reminder of the woods that once covered the area. La Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin is a museum fronting on the Château, the Gare de Blois railway station offers direct connections to Paris, Orléans, Tours, Nantes and several regional destinations. The A10 motorway connects Blois with Paris, Orléans and Tours, Blois was the birthplace of, Thubois Stephen, King of England from 1135 to 1154. Official website Documentary photography of Blois by Sayf Jewish Encyclopedia entry INSEE commune file
6.
Subprefectures in France
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In France, a subprefecture is the administrative center of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement. The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title commissaire adjoint de la République. Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the municipal arrondissements of Paris, Lyon, and Marseille) are divisions of the city rather than the prefecture, and so are not arrondissements in the same sense
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Romorantin-Lanthenay
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Romorantin-Lanthenay is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France. The current commune is the result of the merger, on 29 May 1961, of the communes of Romorantin. Romorantin-Lanthenay is served by the A85 autoroute and the TER Centre regional rail network, between 6 July and 22 July 2007 Sologne Aerodrome was used for the Womens World Gliding Championships. Romorantin was home to former French automobile firm Matra, every year during the last weekend in October, a gastronomy festival is held in Romorantin. First held in 1978, Les Journées Gastronomiques de Sologne now attracts around 13,000 visitors, davy Jeanney, a two-time winner in the World Rallycross Championship, lives in Romorantin-Lanthenay
8.
Daylight saving time
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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
9.
Central European Summer Time
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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
10.
Departments of France
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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
11.
Communes in France
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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
12.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
14.
Cher (river)
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The Cher is a river in central France, left tributary to the river Loire. Its source is in the Creuse département, north-east of Crocq and it joins the river Loire in Villandry, west of Tours. The river suffered a flood in 1940, which damaged Château de Chenonceau, which spans the river. Http, //www. geoportail. fr The Cher at the Sandre database
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Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Normans
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The Normans were the people who, in the 10th and 11th centuries, gave their name to Normandy, a region in France. They were descended from Norse raiders and pirates from Denmark, Iceland and Norway who, under their leader Rollo, through generations of assimilation and mixing with the native Frankish and Gallo-Roman populations, their descendants gradually adopted the Carolingian-based cultures of West Francia. The distinct cultural and ethnic identity of the Normans emerged initially in the first half of the 10th century, the Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and military impact on medieval Europe and even the Near East. The Normans were famed for their spirit and eventually for their Christian piety. They adopted the Gallo-Romance language of the Frankish land they settled, their becoming known as Norman, Normaund or Norman French. The Normans are noted both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture and musical traditions, and for their significant military accomplishments and their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the boys were orators. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war. The treaty offered Rollo and his men the French lands between the river Epte and the Atlantic coast in exchange for their protection against further Viking incursions. The area corresponded to the part of present-day Upper Normandy down to the river Seine. The territory was equivalent to the old province of Rouen. Before Rollos arrival, its populations did not differ from Picardy or the Île-de-France, the Norman language was forged by the adoption of the indigenous langue doïl branch of Romance by a Norse-speaking ruling class, and it developed into the regional language that survives today. The Normans thereafter adopted the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of France, the new Norman rulers were culturally and ethnically distinct from the old French aristocracy, most of whom traced their lineage to Franks of the Carolingian dynasty. Most Norman knights remained poor and land-hungry, and by 1066 Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation, many Normans of Italy, France and England eventually served as avid Crusaders under the Italo-Norman prince Bohemund I and the Anglo-Norman king Richard the Lion-Heart. Opportunistic bands of Normans successfully established a foothold in Southern Italy, probably as the result of returning pilgrims stories, the Normans entered Southern Italy as warriors in 1017 at the latest. In 999, according to Amatus of Montecassino, Norman pilgrims returning from Jerusalem called in at the port of Salerno when a Saracen attack occurred. The Normans fought so valiantly that Prince Guaimar III begged them to stay, the Hauteville family achieved princely rank by proclaiming prince Guaimar IV of Salerno Duke of Apulia and Calabria. He promptly awarded their elected leader, William Iron Arm, with the title of count in his capital of Melfi
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English people
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The English are a nation and an ethnic group native to England, who speak the English language. The English identity is of medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Angelcynn. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Great Britain around the 5th century AD, England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they founded what was to become England along with the later Danes, Normans, in the Acts of Union 1707, the Kingdom of England was succeeded by the Kingdom of Great Britain. Over the years, English customs and identity have become closely aligned with British customs. The English people are the source of the English language, the Westminster system and these and other English cultural characteristics have spread worldwide, in part as a result of the former British Empire. The concept of an English nation is far older than that of the British nation, many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word English to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey, the Office for National Statistics compared the ethnic identities of British people with their national identity. They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as English and it is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. Following complaints about this, the 2011 census was changed to allow respondents to record their English, Welsh, Scottish, another complication in defining the English is a common tendency for the words English and British to be used interchangeably, especially overseas. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say English, I mean British. He notes that this slip is made only by the English themselves and by foreigners. Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of Englands dominant position with the UK and it tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles. In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago and it meant indiscriminately England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so, bonar Law, by origin a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as Prime Minister of England Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of England except for a geographic area brings protests and this version of history is now regarded by many historians as incorrect, on the basis of more recent genetic and archaeological research. The 2016 study authored by Stephan Schiffels et al, the remaining portion of English DNA is primarily French, introduced in a migration after the end of the Ice Age
18.
Charles IX of France
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Charles IX was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1560 until his death. He ascended the throne of France upon the death of his brother Francis II, after decades of tension, war broke out between Protestants and Catholics after the massacre of Vassy in 1562. This event, known as the St. Bartholomews Day Massacre, was a significant blow to the Huguenot movement, Charles sought to take advantage of the disarray of the Huguenots by ordering the Siege of La Rochelle, but was unable to take the Protestant stronghold. He died without male issue in 1574 and was succeeded by his brother Henry III. He was born Charles Maximilian, third son of King Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, in the royal chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Styled since birth as Duke of Angoulême, he was created Duke of Orléans after the death of his older brother Louis, his parents second son, on 14 May 1564, Charles was presented the Order of the Garter by Henry Carey. His father died in 1559, and was succeeded by his elder brother, after Franciss short rule, the ten-year-old Charles was immediately proclaimed king on 5 December 1560. When Francis II died, the Privy Council appointed his mother, Catherine de Medici, as governor of France, with sweeping powers, on 15 May 1561, Charles was consecrated in the cathedral at Reims. Antoine of Bourbon, himself in line to the French throne, Charles reign was dominated by the French Wars of Religion, which pitted various factions against each other. Queen Catherine, though nominally a Catholic, initially tried to steer a course between the two factions, attempting to keep the peace and augment royal power. The regent Catherine tried to foster reconciliation at the Colloquy at Poissy and, after that failed, made several concessions to the Huguenots in the Edict of Saint-Germain in January 1562. Nonetheless, war broke out when some retainers of the House of Guise, hoping to avenge the attempt of Amboise, in return, the monarchy revoked the concessions given to the Huguenots. After the military leaders of both sides were killed or captured in battles at Rouen, Dreux, and Orléans. The war was followed by four years of an armed peace. After this victory, Charles declared his legal majority in August 1563, however, Catherine would continue to play a principal role in politics and often dominated her son. In March 1564, the King and his mother set out from Fontainebleau on a tour of France. Their tour spanned two years and brought them through Bar, Lyon, Salon-de-Provence, Carcassonne, Toulouse, Bayonne, La Rochelle, during this trip, Charles IX issued the Edict of Roussillon, which standardised 1 January as the first day of the year throughout France. War again broke out in 1567 after reports of iconoclasm in Flanders prompted Charles to support Catholics there
19.
Eure-et-Loir
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Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22,1789 and it was created mainly from parts of the former provinces of Orléanais and Maine, but also parts of Île-de-France. The current department corresponds to the part of the land of the Carnutes who had their capital at Autricum. The Carnutes are known for their commitment, real or imagined, a holy place in the Forest of the Carnutes used to host the annual Druidic assembly. In the north of the department another pre-Roman people, the little-known Durocasses, had their capital at Dreux, the inhabitants of the department are called Euréliens. Its agricultural economy is heavily dependent on economic and regulatory environment of the markets for crops. The Eure-et-Loir region is the first grain producer of France and it is also the national leader in the production of rapeseed and peas. Wheat production is by far the most dominant in the area, nearly 40% of all farmland is devoted to the cultivation of wheat, which has generated an average of 29% of the commercial agricultural production of the department over the last 5 years. The Cosmetic Valley represents 2.5 billion euros of turnover, includes 200 companies, collaborates with the Universities of Orleans and Paris, the pharmaceutical industry, around Dreux and the Polepharma cluster. The cluster represents 50% of drug production in France and 30,000 jobs, the Pharma cluster is also one of the creators of the inter-regional alliance Pharma Valley that has partner networks, Polepharma, CBS and Grepic. This alliance represents 60% of the sites located in France and 2.5 billion euros of turnover. The agri-food industry, promoted by Agrodynamic, with two companies in the sector, Ebly at Chateaudun and an Andros at Auneau. Woodcraft and furniture industry around the association Perchebois, the rubber and plastics industry, through the cluster Elastopole]]. The elevator manufacturer Octé has its office in Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais The department also has the lead in renewable energy. Given in February 2011 by the General Council to the operator, EDF Energies Nouvelles, the President of the General Council is Albéric de Montgolfier of the Union for a Popular Movement. The most important tourist attraction is the cathedral of Chartres, with its magnificent stained-glass windows, british intellectual, friend of Thomas Becket. Bishop of Chartres from 1176 to 1180, bernard of Tiron, founder of the monastic order of Tiron and of the abbey of Thiron-Gardais
20.
Loiret
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Loiret is a department in north-central France. The department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire, the capital of the department is Orléans, which is about 110 km southwest of Paris. As well as being the capital, it is a historic city on the banks of the Loire. It has a central area with many historic buildings and mansions. The Loire Valley is famous for its several châteaux, Loiret is one of the original 83 departments that was created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790 by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be administered and approximately equal to one another in size. It was created from the province of Orléanais which was too large to continue in its previous form. The Loire Valley was occupied in Palaeolithic times as attested by archaeological sites in the department. The Celts were here, bringing crafts and trades, and the Romans occupied the area after the Gallic Wars and they built roads and founded cities such as Cenabum, on the site of present-day Orléans, and Sceaux-du-Gâtinais. Around 451, the Huns invaded the region but were repelled before reaching Cenabum, the Franks reached the Loire and Clovis I reigned in the area. A time of peace and prosperity ensued during the reign of Charlemagne, the department of Loiret was historically in the province of Orléans in north central France, and along with the departments of Loir-et-Cher and Eure-et-Loir now forms the region Centre-Val de Loire. To the north of Loiret lie the departments of Eure-et-Loir, Essonne and Seine-et-Marne, to the east lies Yonne, to the southeast Nièvre, to the south Cher, the department consists of mostly flat low-lying land through which flows the River Loire. This river enters the department near Châtillon-sur-Loire in the southeast, flows northwestwards to Orleans where it turns to south west. The Canal dOrléans connects the Loire River at Orléans to a junction with the Canal du Loing, the River Loire and these canals formed important trading routes before the arrival of the railways. The River Loiret, after which the department is named, is 12 km long and its source is at Orléans-la-Source, and its mouth at Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Mesmin. Other rivers in the department, are the River Loing, a tributary of the Loire. The department has an area of 6,757 km2 and is 119 km from west to east and 77 km from north to south. Large parts of the land are used for agriculture, and these are separated by low wooded hills, the northwestern part of the department is in the wheat-growing region known as Beauce, an undulating plateau with some of Frances best agricultural land
21.
Cher (department)
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Cher is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. It is named after the Cher River, Cher is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. Most of it was created, along with the adjacent department of Indre from the province of Berry. The southeastern corner of the department was part of the Duchy of Bourbon, the department is part of the current administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. It is surrounded by the departments of Indre, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Nièvre, Allier, the inhabitants of the department are called Berrichons from the former province of Berry. The President of the General Council is Alain Rafesthain of the Socialist Party, the Bourges Cathedral of St. Étienne is a major tourist attraction. Cantons of the Cher department Communes of the Cher department Arrondissements of the Cher department The historical languages are Berrichon and these are both dialects of French, or the Langues doïl. They are named respectively after the former Province of Berry and the former Duchy of Bourbon, some 11 communes in the extreme South used to speak Occitan. During the twentieth century government educational policy promoted a more standardised version of the French language
22.
Indre
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Indre is a department in the centre of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens, Indre is part of the current region of Centre-Val de Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Cher, Creuse, Vienne, and Haute-Vienne. The préfecture is Châteauroux and there are three subpréfectures at Le Blanc, La Châtre and Issoudun, Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be administered and approximately equal in size. The department was created from part of the province of Berry. Before the Roman conquest, the Celtic Bituriges tribe occupied an area that included Indre, Cher and their capital was Avaricum, and another important settlement was at Argenton-sur-Creuse. The area then part of Roman Gaul after its conquest by Julius Caesar around 58 BC. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the Frankish tribes living in Gaul were united under the Merovingians, from this time, the Franks controlled most of Gaul and the Carolingian Empire was the last stage of their rule. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak with the crowning of Charlemagne and after his death in 814, the Carolingian territories were divided into three sections in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun, and the area that is now the department of Indre, became part of West Francia. In 869, the king of Middle Francia died without leaving a legitimate heir, a castle was built at Châteauroux in the late tenth century. In the eleventh century, the lords of Châteauroux were powerful in the region, Indre is a department in central France and is part of the region of Centre-Val de Loire. The capital and largest town in the department is Châteauroux, to the north of Indre lies Loir-et-Cher, to the east Cher, to the south lies Creuse and Haute-Vienne, to the southwest lies Vienne, and to the northwest lies Indre-et-Loire. Most of the department is relatively level plains in the broad Loire Valley, the area of the department is 2,269 square miles and it is some 60 miles from north to south and some 54 miles wide. The land is undulating and slopes gently towards the northwest, the main rivers are the Creuse, the Claise and the Indre. The Creuse, a tributary of the Vienne, is 264 kilometres long and has been impounded in places, at the time it was built in 1926. The Claise is 88 kilometres long and is a tributary of the Creuse, the Indre is a longer waterway and flows centrally through the department from south to north, through the major towns of La Châtre, Châteauroux and Loches. It is a tributary of the Loire, joining it at Chinon in the department of Loir-et-Cher. The highest point of the department is near the town of Pouligny-Notre-Dame where the land rises to 459 m above sea level, the remaining land is heathland, urban land and waterways
23.
Indre-et-Loire
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Indre-et-Loire is a department in west-central France named after the Indre and the Loire rivers. Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from the former province of Touraine. Tours, the prefecture, was a centre of learning in the early Middle Ages. After the creation of the department it remained conservative, as Honoré de Balzac recorded in several of his novels. Conservative Tours refused to welcome the railways which instead were obliged to route their lines by way of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps on the eastern edge. The moderate temper of the departments politics remained apparent after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, for most of the nineteenth century, Indre-et-Loire was a rural department, but pockets of heavy-duty industrialisation began to appear towards the centurys end, accompanied by left-wing politics. 1920 saw the birth of the French Communist Party at the Congress of Tours, by 1920 Saint-Pierre-des-Corps had become a major railway hub and a centre of railway workshops, it had also acquired a reputation as a bastion of working class solidarity. Indre-et-Loire is part of the current region of Centre-Val de Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Loir-et-Cher, Indre, Vienne, Maine-et-Loire, the President of the General Council is Marisol Touraine of the Socialist Party
24.
Sarthe
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Sarthe is a French department situated in the Grand-Ouest of the country. It is named after the River Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers, in the late 18th century, before it was officially Sarthe, the nobility built their Mansions and Chateaus there, as an escape from Paris. The department was created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, pursuant to the law of 22 December 1789, the latter was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and Mayenne to the west. In Roman times, this contained the city of Mans. The Roman Thermal Bathhouse attracts many tourists, as does the Theater of Aubigné-Racan, marin Mersenne, perhaps the most important scientific figure in the early 17th century, was born in the vicinity of Sarthe. The department of Sarthe is at the end of the administrative region of Pays-de-la-Loire. It is south of Normandy and on the edge of the Armorican Massif. It is bordered by the departments of Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, approximately 300,000 people, comprising more than half of the departments population, live in Le Mans, its conurbation, or the essentially urban communes close by. The rest of the department retains a rural character, with agriculture as the part of the economy. The arrival of the railways in 1854 boosted trade for the local economy, a TGV connection was constructed in 1989, connecting the community to high-speed transport. In terms of connections, the A11 autoroute, which was constructed to Le Mans from the east in 1978. The department was the base of former Prime Minister Francois Fillon
25.
Loire
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The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of 1,012 kilometres, it drains an area of 117,054 km2, or more than a fifth of Frances land area, and is the 171st longest river in the world. Its main tributaries include the rivers Nièvre, Maine and the Erdre on its bank, and the rivers Allier, Cher, Indre, Vienne. The Loire gives its name to six departments, Loire, Haute-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire, the central part of the Loire Valley, located in the Centre-Val de Loire region, was added to the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO on December 2,2000. Vineyards and chateaux are found along the banks of the river throughout this area, gallic rule ended in the valley in 56 BC when Julius Caesar conquered the adjacent provinces for Rome. Christianity was introduced into this valley from the 3rd century AD, as missionaries, in this period, settlers established vineyards and began producing wines. They were originally created as feudal strongholds, over centuries past, the name Loire comes from Latin Liger, which is itself a transcription of the native Gaulish name of the river. The Gaulish name comes from the Gaulish word liga, which means silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium, a word that gave French lie, as in sur lie, which in turn gave English lees. Liga comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *legʰ-, meaning to lie, lay as in the Welsh word Lleyg which gave many words in English, such as to lie, to lay, ledge, law, etc. At a certain point during the history of uplift in the Paris Basin. The former bed of the Loire séquanaise is occupied by the Loing, the Loire Valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period from 40–90 ka. Neanderthal man used stone tools to fashion boats out of tree trunks, modern man inhabited the Loire valley around 30 ka. By around 5000 to 4000 BC, they began clearing forests along the edges and cultivating the lands. They built megaliths to worship the dead, especially from around 3500 BC, the Gauls arrived in the valley between 1500 and 500 BC, and the Carnutes settled in Cenabum in what is now Orléans and built a bridge over the river. By 600 BC the Loire had already become an important trading route between the Celts and the Greeks. A key transportation route, it served as one of the highways of France for over 2000 years. The Phoenicians and Greeks had used pack horses to transport goods from Lyon to the Loire to get from the Mediterranean basin to the Atlantic coast, during the Roman period, they successfully subdued the Gauls in 52 BC and began developing Cenabum, which they named Aurelianis. They also began building the city of Caesarodunum, now Tours, the Romans used the Loire as far as Roanne, around 150 km downriver from the source
26.
Tours
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Tours is a city located in the centre-west of France. It is the centre of the Indre-et-Loire department and the largest city in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. In 2012, the city of Tours had 134,978 inhabitants, Tours stands on the lower reaches of the River Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. The surrounding district, the province of Touraine, is known for its wines, for the alleged perfection of its local spoken French. The city is also the end-point of the annual Paris–Tours cycle race, in Gallic times the city was important as a crossing point of the Loire. Becoming part of the Roman Empire during the 1st century AD, the name evolved in the 4th century when the original Gallic name, Turones, became first Civitas Turonum then Tours. It was at time that the amphitheatre of Tours, one of the five largest amphitheatres of the Empire, was built. Tours became the metropolis of the Roman province of Lugdunum towards 380–388, dominating the Loire Valley, Maine, one of the outstanding figures of the history of the city was Saint Martin, second bishop who shared his coat with a naked beggar in Amiens. This incident and the importance of Martin in the medieval Christian West made Tours, and its position on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a major centre during the Middle Ages. In the 6th century Gregory of Tours, author of the Ten Books of History, in the 9th century, Tours was at the heart of the Carolingian Rebirth, in particular because of Alcuin abbot of Marmoutier. The outcome was defeat for the Muslims, preventing France from Islamic conquest, in 845, Tours repulsed the first attack of the Viking chief Hasting. In 850, the Vikings settled at the mouths of the Seine, still led by Hasting, they went up the Loire again in 852 and sacked Angers, Tours and the abbey of Marmoutier. During the Middle Ages, Tours consisted of two juxtaposed and competing centres, in the west, the new city structured around the Abbey of Saint Martin was freed from the control of the City during the 10th century and became Châteauneuf. This space, organized between Saint Martin and the Loire, became the centre of Tours. Between these two centres remained Varennes, vineyards and fields, little occupied except for the Abbaye Saint-Julien established on the banks of the Loire, the two centres were linked during the 14th century. Tours became the capital of the county of Tours or Touraine and it was the capital of France at the time of Louis XI, who had settled in the castle of Montils, Tours and Touraine remained until the 16th century a permanent residence of the kings and court. The rebirth gave Tours and Touraine many private mansions and castles and it is also at the time of Louis XI that the silk industry was introduced – despite difficulties, the industry still survives to this day. At this time, the Catholics returned to power in Angers, the Massacre of Saint-Barthelemy was not repeated at Tours
27.
Seine
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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
28.
DMOZ
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DMOZ was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were known as the Open Directory Project. It was owned by AOL but constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors, DMOZ used a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic were grouped into categories which included smaller categories. It was announced on February 28,2017 that DMOZ would close down on March 14,2017, DMOZ was founded in the United States as Gnuhoo by Rich Skrenta and Bob Truel in 1998 while they were both working as engineers for Sun Microsystems. Skrenta had developed TASS, an ancestor of tin, the popular threaded Usenet newsreader for Unix systems, the original category structure of the Gnuhoo directory was based loosely on the structure of Usenet newsgroups then in existence. The Gnuhoo directory went live on June 5,1998, then objected to the use of Hoo in the name, prompting a proposed name change, to ZURL. Prior to switching to ZURL, NewHoo was acquired by Netscape Communications Corporation in October 1998, Netscape released Open Directory data under the Open Directory License. Netscape was acquired by AOL shortly thereafter and DMOZ was one of the assets included in the acquisition, by the time Netscape assumed stewardship, the Open Directory Project had about 100,000 URLs indexed with contributions from about 4500 editors. On October 5,1999, the number of URLs indexed by DMOZ reached one million, according to an unofficial estimate, the URLs in DMOZ numbered 1.6 million in April 2000, surpassing those in the Yahoo. DMOZ achieved the milestones of indexing two million URLs on August 14,2000, three million listings on November 18,2001 and four million on December 3,2003. As of April,2013 there were 5,169,995 sites listed in over 1,017,500 categories, on October 31,2015, there were 3,996,412 sites listed in 1,026,706 categories. In January 2006, DMOZ began publishing reports to inform the public about the development of the project. The first report covered the year 2005, monthly reports were issued subsequently until September 2006. These reports gave greater insight into the functioning of the directory than the statistics provided on the front page of the directory. The number of listings and categories cited on the front page included Test and Bookmarks categories, there were about 7330 active editors during August 2006. 75,151 editors had contributed to the directory as of March 31,2007, as of April 2013, the number of contributing editors had increased to 97,584. On October 20,2006, DMOZs main server suffered a failure that prevented editors from working on the directory until December 18,2006
29.
Ain
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Ain is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône and it has an excellent transport network and benefits from the proximity to the international airports of Lyon and Geneva. Ain is composed of four different areas which – each with its own characteristics – contribute to the diversity. In the Bresse agriculture and agro-industry are dominated by the cultivation of cereals, cattle breeding, milk, in the Dombes, pisciculture assumes greater importance as does wine making in the Bugey. The high diversification of the industry is accompanied by a strong presence of the plastics sector in. Due to its industrial character and the cooperation of small and medium enterprises. Its unemployment rate lies far beneath the national and regional average, besides the export-oriented SMEs, several large enterprises, with a prominent position on national and international markets, have settled in the department. The first inhabitants settled in the territory of todays Ain about 15000 BC, the menhir of Pierrefiche in Simandre-sur-Suran dates from the mid-Neolithic era, in the fourth or third millennium BC, it is the sole standing stone in Burgundy. The late-second century BC Calendar of Coligny bears the longest surviving Gaulish inscription, in the year 58 BC Julius Caesars military action against the Helvetians advancing through Gaul on the territory of todays Ain marked the beginning of the Gallic Wars. Under the Merovingians, the four regions of the modern département belonged to the Kingdom of Burgundy. In the beginning of the 6th century AD the diocese of Belley was created, abbeys of the order of Saint Benedict were established in the valleys. In 843 the Treaty of Verdun assigned the territories that comprise the Ain to the kingdom of Lothar I, the first big fiefdoms emerge between 895 and 900 in Bâgé-le-Châtel, which formed the nucleus of the pays of Bresse, and in Coligny. Numerous castles were erected in a low rolling terrain that was not otherwise easily defended, in the 12th century the Romanesque architecture prospered. In the 11th century the Counts of Savoy and Valromey settled in the region of Belley, in the beginning of the 15th century almost the whole region of Ain is united under the house of Savoy. New monasteries are founded in the cities, churches are constructed or reshaped according to the Gothic style of architecture. In the beginning of the 16th century – the Duchy of Savoy was at the peak of its power – Ain was inherited by Margaret of Habsburg, in Brou she erected a church and a monastery in late-Gothic style. The Treaty of Lyon of 17 January 1601 ends finally the conflict, in the 17th century sculpture, painting and literature prosper. During the 18th century streets and small industries emerge, on 28 March 1762 the Count of Eu, son of the Duke of Maine, cedes the region of Dombes to Louis XV
30.
Aisne
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Aisne is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne, the department of Aisne is surrounded by the French departments of Nord, Somme, Oise, Ardennes, and Seine-et-Marne and borders Belgium to the northeast. The Aisne River crosses the area from east to west, where it joins the Oise River, the Marne forms part of the southern boundary of the department with the department of Seine-et-Marne. The southern part of the department is the region known as la Brie poilleuse. According to the 2003 census, the area of the department was 123,392 hectares. The landscape is dominated by masses of rock which often have steep flanks and these rocks appear all over the region, but the most impressive examples are at Laon and the Chemin des Dames ridge. The principal cities in Aisne are, Laon, pop,15,000 Condren Chauny Hirson Villers-Cotterêts La Fère Vervins Guise See also, List of the communes of the Aisne department and Brie. The Scheldt, the Aisne, the Marne, the Ourcq, the Vesle, the Somme, the Oise, in the south of the department, there is the Surmelin, the Verdonnelle, and the Dhuys. The department is crossed by numerous canals. In 1873, the department of Aisne had 10 railway companies with a length of 382 km. There is an average of 500 to 750 mm precipitation annually, weather Data for Saint Quentin - Roupy Aisne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the provinces of Île-de-France, Picardy. Most of the old growth forests in the area were destroyed during battles in World War I, the French offensive against the Chemin des Dames in spring 1917 is sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of the Aisne. Agriculture dominates the economy, especially cereal crops, beet sugar is one of the most important industrial crops of the area. Silk, cotton, and wool weaving flourish in Saint-Quentin and other towns, saint-Gobain is known for its production of mirrors, which started in the 17th century. Guise is the centre of the northern area of Aisne. The department is a mixture of rural areas and working-class towns, the smaller cities of the northern department such as Guise, Hirson, Vervins and the railway city of Tergnier are sources of support for left-wing parties. The President of the General Council is the Socialist Yves Daudigny, Aisne is divided into five arrondissements and 21 cantons
31.
Allier
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Allier (French pronunciation, , is a French department located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France named after the river Allier. Moulins is the prefecture and the INSEE and Post Code is 03, the inhabitants of the department are known as Elavérins or Elavérines Allier department is composed of almost all of the former Duchy of Bourbonnais. It is part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and borders the departments of Cher, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dome, and Creuse. The Bourbonnais Bocage To the north and just over 500 metres above sea level, almost all of the southern area consists of Combrailles which is sometimes called High Bourbonnais, in an area that goes beyond the departmental boundaries of Creuse and Puy-de-Dôme. This area of the department rises to 778 metres at Bosse, the rivers Sioule, Bouble, and Cher have carved the most picturesque gorges in Allier. Limogne, together with Sioule and Allier, is part of the Gannat / Escurolles / Saint-Pourçain triangle while Forterre covers the Canton of Varennes-sur-Allier ending near Jaligny, as noted Atlantic winds are dominant from the west, northwest, or southwest. The influence of topography, especially in the valleys of Cher and Allier, the history of Allier corresponds to the Duchy of Bourbon with which it shares almost the entire territory. Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 and it was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais. In 1940, the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain chose the town of Vichy as its capital, Vichy also became the departments second sub-prefecture in 1940, since the department now found itself split by the demarcation line between the occupied and free zones of France. On 1 January 1997 the population of Allier was estimated at 357,100 inhabitants which represented an average density of 50 people/km², many areas have a density less than 20 people/km². Since the early 1980s Allier has faced many demographic handicaps, the ratio of older people is important and with low fertility rates the natural growth is negative. Meanwhile, net migration has become very negative, at 1 January 2009 the legal population was 343,046 inhabitants. Allier has three cities, Montlucon, Vichy, and Moulins by size. The rest of the department includes some towns and villages scattered mainly along the rivers. The few villages are far from other and it is generally a sparsely populated department. Until the end of the 19th century, however, the population was increasing through the development of its cities compensated by the rural exodus, the department then passed 420,000 inhabitants. After the population losses of the First World War the population stabilized, since then, due to the continuing rural exodus and especially the decline of old industries, the population has decreased and aged steadily from 386,533 inhabitants in 1968 to 343,046 in 2009. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the censuses conducted in the communes of the department since 1793
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