1.
Pauillac AOC
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Pauillac is a wine growing commune and Appellation dorigine contrôlée within Haut-Médoc in Bordeaux, centred on the small town of Pauillac. Hugh Johnson has said, If one had to single out one commune of Bordeaux to head the list, Pauillac includes 3 of the 5 premier cru châteaux of Bordeaux, Latour, Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild. The wines of Pauillac are often considered the quintessence of Bordeaux wines, Pauillac is on the left bank of the Gironde. A stream called Ruisseau de Juillac marks part of the boundary between the two communes, other parts are marked by a wall and a country lane. To the north, across the Jalle du Breuil, lies St-Estèphe, Pauillac is bounded on the west by the parish of St Sauveur and the Landes forest. All three communes lie within the Haut-Médoc, the town of Pauillac is the largest in the Médoc, with a population of over 5000. Pauillac is somewhat more elevated than the area, rising to a peak of nearly 30 metres above sea-level in the region of Château Pontet-Canet. The soil is gravelly, as with most of the Haut-Médoc, the forest to the west shelters the vines from the Atlantic winds. Pauillac contains around 1200 hectares of vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon is the predominant grape, but it is invariably blended with other grapes. As with all red Bordeaux, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, prior to the 19th century, Malbec was predominant. The style has been described as stark, the predominant fruit flavour is usually blackcurrant, sometimes veering into plum. Pencil-shavings and cigar-box are also characteristic notes, Wine from Pauillac may be labelled as Haut-Médoc. Similarly, second wines from the grandes châteaux may be labelled simply as Pauillac, the classic match is roast lamb, game can also work well. For very old vintages leg or rack of lamb would be best, otherwise, shoulder or saddle would be a good choice, or pheasant or hare. Rare rib or rump of beef can also be good, oz Clarkes New Essential Wine Book. New York, Websters International Publishers and Octopus Publishing Group
2.
Communes of 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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Gironde
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Gironde is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwest France. It is named for the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, the Bordeaux wine region is in the Gironde. Gironde 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 Guyenne and Gascony. From 1793 to 1795, the name was changed to Bec-dAmbès to avoid the association with the revolutionary party. Gironde is part of the current region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne and Charente-Maritime, with an area of 10,000 km², Gironde is the largest department in metropolitan France. If overseas departments are included, however, Girondes land area is dwarfed by the 83,846 km² of Guyane, Gironde is well known for the Côte dArgent beach which is Europes longest, attracting many surfers to Lacanau each year. It is also the birthplace of Jacques-Yves Cousteau who studied the sea, the Great Dune of Pyla in Arcachon Bay near Bordeaux is the tallest sand dune in Europe. The President of the General Council is Jean-Luc Gleyze of the Socialist Party
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.
Occitan language
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Occitan, also known as lenga dòc by its native speakers, is a Romance language. It is spoken in southern France, Italys Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spains Val dAran, collectively, Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese. However, there is controversy about the unity of the language, others include Catalan in this family, as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects. In fact, Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century, today, Occitan is an official language in Catalonia, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val dAran. Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the preferred language for use in the Val dAran. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish, there is no written standard language called Occitan. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility, the long-term survival of Occitan is in grave doubt. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are considered severely endangered. The name Occitan comes from lenga dòc, òc being the Occitan word for yes and this was not, of course, the only defining characteristic of each group. The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud, Old Catalan, and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc. Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, thus, etc. such as Spanish sí, Eastern Lombard sé, Sicilian and Italian sì, or Portuguese sim. French uses si to answer yes in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense, the name Occitan is sometimes considered a neologism, however, it was attested around 1300 as occitanus, a crossing of oc and aquitanus. For many centuries, the Occitan dialects were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, after Frédéric Mistrals Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. The term first came into fashion in Italy, currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, NO·L LI TOLRÀ NO·L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO LEN DECEBRÀ. Nec societatem non AURÀ, si per castellum recuperare NON O FA, et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ, carolingian litanies, both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience. Occitan was the vehicle for the poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises, At that time
11.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
12.
Naval air station
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A naval air station is a military air base, and consists of a permanent land-based operations locations for the military aviation division of the relevant branch of a navy. These bases are typically populated by squadrons, groups or wings, their various support commands, the term Naval Air Station is used by many countries navies, such as the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Indian Navy. In the case of the U. S. Navy, similar facilities in the U. S. Marine Corps are known as Marine Corps Air Stations, runways also serve domestic airlines at almost all Argentine military airbases. The Navy operates Estacion Aeronaval which have smaller crews and are not normally assigned aircraft and these include Ezeiza, Rio Gallegos and Ushuaia. The Argentine Naval Prefecture, serving as a Coast Guard, also operates air stations at Posadas, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Aircraft operating out of these bases are heavily involved in sea rescues. In Australia, there is one Naval Air Station, NAS Nowra, HMAS Albatross, in 2016, the French Navy has four naval air stations, all located in metropolitan territory. The United Kingdom has two Royal Naval Air Stations, RNAS Yeovilton and RNAS Culdrose, until 2006, the former served as the main operating base for the Royal Navys Sea Harriers, which were based upon the three Invincible class aircraft carriers. However, upon the withdrawal of the BAe Sea Harrier in that year and it is believed that all of their successors will be based at RAF Lossiemouth. The site also contains the Royal Naval Air Museum, that showcases a variety of aircraft from the Royal Naval Air Service until the present day, RNAS Yeovilton also has RNAS Merryfield as its training and satellite station. RNAS Culdrose serves a variety of helicopter and fixed-wing squadrons, such as the Sea King, among the features at RNAS Culdrose is the Dummy deck which is used to train pilots to land on ships, the Merlin training facility, and the Fleet Requirements Air Direction Unit. Its satellite airfield is RNAS Predannack, in the United States, a Naval Air Station is an air base of the United States Navy. When located in countries, they are often identified as US Naval Air Stations. A slightly lower level of air base in the U. S. Navy is the Naval Air Facility and these facilities normally support smaller numbers of naval aircraft. Permanently based naval aircraft are usually minimal, with the focus being on supporting naval aircraft deployed from other installations. There are also a number of former Naval Air Stations that have been realiged as part of larger Naval Stations or redesignated to other functions in the Navy. This includes the former NAS Norfolk, Virginia, the former NAF Mayport, Florida, the former NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the former NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey. In the case of NAS Memphis, Tennessee, the airfield and flight line was turned over to civilian authorities. The first naval air station in the United States was located at Greenbury Point, at the mouth of the Severn River near Annapolis, Maryland
13.
Seaplane
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A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can take off and land on airfields are in a subclass called amphibious aircraft. Their use gradually tailed off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war, the word seaplane is used to describe two types of air/water vehicles, the floatplane and the flying boat. A floatplane has slender pontoons, or floats, mounted under the fuselage, two floats are common, but other configurations are possible. Only the floats of a floatplane normally come into contact with water, some small land aircraft can be modified to become float planes, and in general, floatplanes are small aircraft. Floatplanes are limited by their inability to handle wave heights typically greater than 12 inches and these floats add to the empty weight of the airplane and to the drag coefficient, resulting in reduced payload capacity, slower rate of climb, and slower cruise speed. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable, not all small seaplanes have been floatplanes, but most large seaplanes have been flying boats, with their great weight supported by their hulls. The term seaplane is used by some instead of floatplane and this is the standard British usage. This article treats both flying boats and floatplanes as types of seaplane, in the US fashion, an amphibious aircraft can take off and land both on conventional runways and water. A true seaplane can only take off and land on water, there are amphibious flying boats and amphibious floatplanes, as well as some hybrid designs, e. g. floatplanes with retractable floats. Modern production seaplanes are typically light aircraft, amphibious, and of a floatplane design, on 6 June 1905, Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his flights was 150 yards. He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France and the United States. On 28 March 1910, Frenchman Henri Fabre flew the first successful powered seaplane, the Gnome Omega-powered hydravion, fabres first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators, and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and this led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services, at Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912. The French Navy ordered its first floatplane in 1912, in 1911−12, François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912, throughout 1910 and 1911, American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. Combining floats with wheels, he made the first amphibian flights in February 1911 and was awarded the first Collier Trophy for US flight achievement, from 1912, his experiments with a hulled seaplane resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called flying-boats
14.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
15.
Airbus
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Airbus SAS is a division of the multinational Airbus Group SE that manufactures civil aircraft. It is based in Blagnac, France, a suburb of Toulouse, with production and manufacturing facilities mainly in France, Germany, Spain, China, United Kingdom, Airbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers, Airbus Industrie. After a protracted sales process BAE sold its shareholding to EADS on 13 October 2006, Airbus has sixteen key sites in four countries, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Final assembly production is based at Toulouse, France, Hamburg, Germany, Seville, Spain, Tianjin, China, Airbus has subsidiaries in the United States, Japan and India. The company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and the worlds largest passenger airliner, Airbus Industrie began as a consortium of European aviation firms formed to compete with American companies such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. While many European aircraft were innovative, even the most successful had small production runs, in the mid-1960s, tentative negotiations commenced regarding a European collaborative approach. The same year Hawker Siddeley teamed with Breguet and Nord to study airbus designs, the Hawker Siddeley/Breguet/Nord groups HBN100 became the basis for the continuation of the project. By 1966 the partners were Sud Aviation, later Aérospatiale, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus, later Deutsche Airbus, a request for funding was made to the three governments in October 1966. On 25 July 1967 the three agreed to proceed with the proposal. In the two years following this agreement, both the British and French governments expressed doubts about the project, the MoU had stated that 75 orders must be achieved by 31 July 1968. With concerns at proposal of the A300B proposal in December 1968, and fearing it would not recoup its investment due to lack of sales, West Germany took this opportunity to increase its share of the project to 50%. Given the participation by Hawker Siddeley up to point, France. Thus the British company was allowed to continue as a privileged subcontractor, Hawker Siddeley invested GB£35 million in tooling and, requiring more capital, received a GB£35 million loan from the West German government. Airbus Industrie was formally established as a Groupement dIntérêt Économique on 18 December 1970 and it had been formed by a government initiative between France, West Germany and the UK that originated in 1967. Its initial shareholders were the French company Aérospatiale and the West German company Deutsche Airbus, Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus each took a 36. 5% share of production work, Hawker Siddeley 20% and the Dutch company Fokker-VFW 7%. Each company would deliver its sections as fully equipped, ready-to-fly items, in October 1971 the Spanish company CASA acquired a 4. 2% share of Airbus Industrie, with Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus reducing their stakes to 47. 9%. In January 1979 British Aerospace, which had absorbed Hawker Siddeley in 1977, the majority shareholders reduced their shares to 37. 9%, while CASA retained its 4. 2%. The Airbus A300 was to be the first aircraft to be developed, manufactured and marketed by Airbus, by early 1967 the A300 label began to be applied to a proposed 320 seat, twin engined airliner
16.
Airbus A380
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The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by European manufacturer Airbus. It is the worlds largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it and it was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeings monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and entered service on 25 October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The A380s upper deck extends along the length of the fuselage. The A380-800 has a range of 8,500 nautical miles, serving the second- and third-longest non-stop scheduled flights in the world. As of February 2017, Airbus had received 317 firm orders and delivered 208 aircraft, mcDonnell Douglas unsuccessfully offered its smaller, double-deck MD-12 concept for sale. Roeder was given approval for further evaluations of the UHCA after a presentation to the President. The megaproject was announced at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show, with the goal of 15% lower operating costs than the 747-400. Airbus organised four teams of designers, one each of its partners to propose new technologies for its future aircraft designs. The designs were presented in 1992 and the most competitive designs were used and this joint study was abandoned two years later, Boeings interest having declined because analysts thought that such a product was unlikely to cover the projected $15 billion development cost. Despite the fact only two airlines had expressed public interest in purchasing such a plane, Airbus was already pursuing its own large-plane project. In June 1994, Airbus announced its plan to develop its own very large airliner, Airbus considered several designs, including an unusual side-by-side combination of two fuselages from its A340, the largest Airbus jet at the time. The A3XX was pitted against the VLCT study and Boeings own New Large Aircraft successor to the 747. From 1997 to 2000, as the East Asian financial crisis darkened the market outlook, Airbus refined its design, the A380 designation was a break from previous Airbus families, which had progressed sequentially from A300 to A340. It was chosen because the number 8 resembles the double-deck cross section, the aircraft configuration was finalised in early 2001, and manufacturing of the first A380 wing-box component started on 23 January 2002. The development cost of the A380 had grown to €11-14 billion when the first aircraft was completed, major structural sections of the A380 are built in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. A380 components are provided by suppliers from around the world, the four largest contributors, by value, are Rolls-Royce, Safran, United Technologies, for the surface movement of large A380 structural components, a complex route known as the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit was developed. The front and rear sections are shipped on one of three RORO ships from Hamburg in northern Germany to the United Kingdom
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Broughton, Flintshire
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Broughton is a district in Flintshire, Wales, close to the Wales–England border, located to the west of the City of Chester, England. Along with the village of Bretton, the total population was 5,791 at the 2001 Census. Broughton is home to an aircraft factory at Hawarden Airport. This was completed in 1939 for use by Vickers Armstrongs, who built 5,786 Wellington bombers, de Havilland Aircraft took over the factory in 1948 and built 2,816 planes of several designs. Today, the plant is the Airbus wing factory, manufacturing wings for the A320, A330/A340, A350, and A380 aircraft. Airbus wings produced in Broughton are flown out in Airbus Beluga planes with the exception of the large A380 wings which are transported by barge along the river Dee to the nearby Mostyn docks. The Broughton factory was featured in the 2011 BBC Television programme How to Build a Super Jumbo Wing, the town is home to Welsh Premier League football team Airbus UK Broughton, who joined the highest division of the Welsh football pyramid in 2004 and have remained there ever since. The club was formed in 1946 as Vickers-Armstrongs and several changes took places until it adopted the current name. Broughton has a school and pre-school nursery, which was created when the infant. The school incorporates the local library, the students wear a distinctive purple uniform. There is a playgroup and toddler group based at the school, the town shopping park is known as Broughton Shopping Park where branches of major stores such as Tesco can be found as well as Cineworld Imax and various restaurants. In the village there is a small collection of shops. The Offas Dyke Hotel is sited on Broughton Hall Road, the ITV1 drama series, Midsomer Murders has used Broughton as a filming location. Broughton Hall was a manor house that was situated on the housing estate where Forest Drive is now. Broughton is twinned with Auzeville-Tolosane, a Commune of Toulouse, France, media related to Broughton, Flintshire at Wikimedia Commons Photos of Broughton and surrounding area on geograph. org. uk
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Bordeaux
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Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France. The municipality of Bordeaux proper has a population of 243,626, together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Bordeaux is the centre of the Bordeaux Métropole. With 749,595 inhabitants and 1,178,335 in the area, it is the fifth largest in France, after Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Lille. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department and its inhabitants are called Bordelais or Bordelaises. The term Bordelais may also refer to the city and its surrounding region, Bordeaux is the worlds major wine industry capital. It is home to the main wine fair, Vinexpo. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century, the historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble of the 18th century. After Paris, Bordeaux has the highest number of preserved buildings of any city in France. In historical times, around 300 BC it was the settlement of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges Vivisci, the name Bourde is still the name of a river south of the city. In 107 BC, the Battle of Burdigala was fought by the Romans who were defending the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe allied to Rome, the Romans were defeated and their commander, the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus, was killed in the action. The city fell under Roman rule around 60 BC, its importance lying in the commerce of tin, later it became capital of Roman Aquitaine, flourishing especially during the Severan dynasty. In 276 it was sacked by the Vandals, further ravage was brought by the same Vandals in 409, the Visigoths in 414 and the Franks in 498, beginning a period of obscurity for the city. In the late 6th century, the city re-emerged as the seat of a county and an archdiocese within the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks, the city started to play a regional role as a major urban center on the fringes of the newly founded Frankish Duchy of Vasconia. Around 585, a certain Gallactorius is cited as count of Bordeaux, the city was plundered by the troops of Abd er Rahman in 732 after storming the fortified city and overwhelming the Aquitanian garrison. After Duke Eudess defeat, the Aquitanian duke could still save part of its troops, the following year, the Frankish commander descended again over Aquitaine, but clashed in battle with the Aquitanians and left to take on hostile Burgundian authorities and magnates. In 745, Aquitaine faced yet another expedition by Charles sons Pepin and Carloman against Hunald, Hunald was defeated, and his son Waifer replaced him, who in turn confirmed Bordeaux as the capital city. During the last stage of the war against Aquitaine, it was one of Waifers last important strongholds to fall to King Pepin the Shorts troops. Next to Bordeaux, Charlemagne built the fortress of Fronsac on a hill across the border with the Basques, in 778, Seguin was appointed count of Bordeaux, probably undermining the power of the Duke Lupo, and possibly leading to the Battle of Roncevaux Pass that very year
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Langon, Gironde
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Langon is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Langon serves as the seat of its district, canton and subprefecture, Langon is in the northern part of the department 48 km southeast of Bordeaux on the left bank of the Garonne river. It lies near the border between a wine-growing region and the forest of Landes and these components are brought to Langon by barge, where they are transferred at a specially constructed dock to outsize road vehicles. These then proceed in convoy via an indirect route to Toulouse. A visit to Château de Roquetaillade, historical monument is a must and this is a public space Communes of the Gironde department INSEE
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Blagnac
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Blagnac is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Toulouse, although governed by a separate council and it is a member of the Urban community of Greater Toulouse. The river Touch forms part of the southern border, then flows into the Garonne. 38% percent of the area is made up of spaces, mainly along the river Garonne. Airbus, Airbus Group and ATR have their offices in Blagnac. Blagnac has a student capacity of 5,500 in 7 nurseries,5 primary schools, public secondary schools, Collège Mermoz Collège Henry-Guillaume Lycée Saint-Exupéry The private school is Établissement Le Ferradou, serving primary through senior high. Local transport is operated by Tisséo, buses 70 and 71 run to Jeanne dArc and bus 66 runs to St Cyprien République, both in the city centre. Bus 25 circles the suburb and stops at the Airport, and bus 17 connects Blagnac to Mondonville, a shuttlebus connects the Airport to the city centre. A new tramway now operates southwards to the Toulouse Arènes station where it connects with Line A of the Metro, Toulouse Blagnac International Airport Blagnac SCR Blagnac FC Communes of the Haute-Garonne department INSEE Official site
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Toulouse
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Toulouse is the capital city of the southwestern French department of Haute-Garonne, as well as of the Occitanie region. The city lies on the banks of the River Garonne,150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea,230 km from the Atlantic Ocean and it is the fourth-largest city in France with 466,297 inhabitants in January 2014. The Toulouse Metro area is, with 1312304 inhabitants as of 2014, Frances 4th metropolitan area after Paris, Lyon and Marseille and ahead of Lille and Bordeaux. Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, the Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, the Airbus Group, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. The city also hosts the European headquarters of Intel and CNESs Toulouse Space Centre, thales Alenia Space, and Astrium Satellites, Airbus Groups satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe and, with more than 103,000 students, is the fourth-largest university campus in France, after the Universities of Paris, Lyon and Lille. The air route between Toulouse Blagnac and Paris Orly is the busiest in Europe, transporting 2.4 million passengers in 2014, according to the rankings of LExpress and Challenges, Toulouse is the most dynamic French city. It is now the capital of the Occitanie region, the largest region in metropolitan France, sernin, the largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998 because of its significance to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. Toulouse is in the south of France, north of the department of Haute-Garonne, the city is traversed by the Canal de Brienne, the Canal du Midi and the rivers Garonne, Touch and Hers-Mort. Toulouse has a subtropical climate which can be qualified as submediterranean due to its proximity to the Mediterranean climate zone. The Garonne Valley was a point for trade between the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic since at least the Iron Age. The historical name of the city, Tolosa, it is of unknown meaning or origin, possibly from Aquitanian, or from Iberian, Tolosa enters the historical period in the 2nd century BC, when it became a Roman military outpost. After the conquest of Gaul, it was developed as a Roman city of Gallia Narbonensis. In the 5th century, Tolosa fell to the Visigothic kingdom and became one of its cities, in the early 6th century even serving as its capital. From this time, Toulouse was the capital of Aquitaine within the Frankish realm, in 721, Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeated an invading Umayyad Muslim army at the Battle of Toulouse. Odos victory was an obstacle to Muslim expansion into Christian Europe. Charles Martel, a later, won the Battle of Tours. The Frankish conquest of Septimania followed in the 750s, and a quasi-independent County of Toulouse emerged within the Carolingian sub-kingdom of Aquitaine by the late 8th century
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Vineyard
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A vineyard /ˈvɪnjərd/ is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of production is known as viticulture. The earliest evidence of production dates from between 6000 and 5000 BC. Wine making technology improved considerably with the ancient Greeks but it wasnt until the end of the Roman Empire that cultivation techniques as we know them were common throughout Europe. In medieval Europe the Church was a supporter of wine. They owned and tended the best vineyards in Europe and vinum theologium was considered superior to all others, European vineyards were planted with a wide variety of the Vitis vinifera grape. However, in the late 19th century, the species was nearly destroyed by the plant louse phylloxera accidentally introduced to Europe from North America. Native American grapevines include varieties such as Vitis labrusca, which is resistant to the bug, the quest for vineyard efficiency has produced a bewildering range of systems and techniques in recent years. Due to the much more fertile New World growing conditions. Innovation in palissage and pruning and thinning methods have replaced more general, traditional concepts like yield per unit area in favor of maximizing yield of desired quality. Many of these new techniques have since adopted in place of traditional practice in the more progressive of the so-called Old World vineyards. Other recent practices include spraying water on vines to protect them from sub-zero temperatures, new grafting techniques, soil slotting, such techniques have made possible the development of wine industries in New World countries such as Canada. Today there is increasing interest in developing organic, ecologically sensitive, biodynamics has become increasingly popular in viticulture. The use of irrigation in recent years has expanded vineyards into areas which were previously unplantable. The research includes developing improved grape varieties and investigating pest control, the International Grape Genome Program is a multi-national effort to discover a genetic means to improving quality, increasing yield and providing a natural resistance to pests. The implementation of mechanical harvesting is often stimulated by changes in laws, labor shortages. It can be expensive to hire labor for periods of time. Numbers of New World vineyard plantings have been increasing almost as fast as European vineyards are being uprooted, the size of individual vineyards in the New World is significant
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French wine
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French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, French wine traces its history to the 6th century BC, with many of Frances regions dating their wine-making history to Roman times. The wines produced range from expensive high-end wines sold internationally to more modest wines usually only seen within France such as the Margnat wines were during the post war period. France is the source of grape varieties that are now planted throughout the world. French wine originated in the 6th century BC, with the colonization of Southern Gaul by Greek settlers, viticulture soon flourished with the founding of the Greek colony of Marseille. Not only did the Gauls know how to cultivate the vine, pruning creates an important distinction in the difference between wild vines and wine producing grapes. Before long, the wines produced in Gaul were exceptionally famous all around the world, the Roman Empire licensed regions in the south to produce wines. St. Martin of Tours was actively engaged in both spreading Christianity and planting vineyards, during the Middle Ages, monks maintained vineyards and, more importantly, conserved wine-making knowledge and skills during that often turbulent period. Monasteries had the resources, security, and motivation to produce a supply of wine both for celebrating mass and generating income. During this time, the best vineyards were owned by the monasteries, over time the nobility developed extensive vineyards. However, the French Revolution led to the confiscation of many of the owned by the Church. The advance of the French wine industry stopped abruptly as first Mildew and then Phylloxera spread throughout the country, indeed all of Europe. Then came an economic downturn in Europe followed by two wars, and the French wine industry didnt fully recover for decades. Meanwhile, competition had arrived and threatened the treasured French brands such as Champagne and this resulted in the establishment in 1935 of the Appellation dorigine contrôlée to protect French interests. Large investments, the economic upturn following World War II and a new generation of Vignerons yielded results in the 1970s, in 1935, numerous laws were passed to control the quality of French wine. They established the Appellation dorigine contrôlée system, which is governed by an oversight board. Consequently, France has one of the oldest systems for protected designation of origin for wine in the world, many other European systems are modelled after it. The word appellation has been put to use by countries, sometimes in a much looser meaning
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Bordeaux wine
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Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world. The vast majority of wine produced in Bordeaux is red, with white wines, dry whites. Bordeaux wine is made by more than 8,500 producers or châteaux, there are 54 appellations of Bordeaux wine. The wine was introduced to the Bordeaux region by the Romans, probably in the mid-1st century, to wine for local consumption. In the 12th century, the popularity of Bordeaux wines in England increased dramatically following the marriage of Henry Plantagenet, the marriage made the province of Aquitaine part of the Angevin Empire, and thenceforth the wine of Bordeaux was exported to England. At this time, Graves was the wine region of Bordeaux. This accounts for the ubiquity of claret in England, the export of Bordeaux was interrupted by the outbreak of the Hundred Years War between France and England in 1337. By the end of the conflict in 1453 France had repossessed the province, Malbec was the dominant grape here, until the early 19th century, when it was replaced by Cabernet Sauvignon. In 1855, the châteaux of Bordeaux were classified, this classification remains widely used today, from 1875–1892 almost all Bordeaux vineyards were ruined by Phylloxera infestations. The regions wine industry was rescued by grafting native vines on to pest-resistant American rootstock, the major reason for the success of winemaking in the Bordeaux region is an excellent environment for growing vines. The geological foundation of the region is limestone, leading to a structure that is heavy in calcium. These rivers define the geographical subdivisions of the region, The right bank, situated on the right bank of Dordogne, in the northern parts of the region. Entre-Deux-Mers, French for between two seas, the area between the rivers Dordogne and Garonne, both of which are tidal, in the centre of the region. The left bank, situated on the bank of Garonne, in the west and south of the region. The left bank is further subdivided into, Graves, the upstream of the city Bordeaux. Médoc, the downstream of the city Bordeaux, situated on a peninsula between Gironde and the Atlantic. The soil of Bordeaux is composed of gravel, sandy stone, the regions best vineyards are located on the well-drained gravel soils that are frequently found near the Gironde river. An old adage in Bordeaux is the best estates can see the river from their vineyards, the majority of land facing riverward is occupied by classified estates
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Bordeaux wine regions
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The Bordeaux region is naturally divided by the Gironde Estuary into a Left Bank area which includes the Médoc and Graves and a Right Bank area which includes the Libournais, Bourg and Blaye. The Médoc is itself divided into Haut-Médoc and Bas-Médoc, there are various sub-regions within the Haut-Médoc, including St-Estèphe, Pauillac, St. -Julien and Margaux and the less well known areas of AOC Moulis and Listrac. Graves includes the sub-regions of Pessac-Léognan and Sauternes, and Sauternes in turn includes the sub-region of Barsac, the Libournais includes the sub-regions of Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. There is a wine region of Entre-Deux-Mers, so called because it lies between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, which combine to form the Gironde. This region contains several well known sweet wine areas of Cadillac. Bordeaux wine labels will usually include the region on the front if all the grapes have been harvested in a specific region, there are about 50 AOCs applicable to the Bordeaux region. Both red and white Bordeaux wines are almost invariably blended, the permissible grape varieties in red Bordeaux are, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. While wine making styles vary, a rule of thumb is that the Left Bank is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon based with the Right Bank being more Merlot based, the Graves area produces both red wine and white wine from the Sauvignon blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle grapes. The area of Sauternes is known for its dessert wines. There are a number of classifications of Bordeaux wines, covering different regions, the châteaux included in the classification are referred to as classed or classé, and those not included are referred to as unclassed. Some classifications sub-divide the classed châteaux, according to the perceived quality, on the Left Bank, the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 is the starting point for classification. Estates in the Médoc which were not classified in that listing may be classified under the Cru Bourgeois label, in 1953, a Classification of Graves wine was produced. Although this purports to classify the whole of Graves, it exclusively lists châteaux in Pessac-Léognan, in 1954, a separate classification of Saint-Émilion wine was set up for this Right Bank region. There are eight AOCs which cover the department of Gironde. Any producer within the region is entitled to use these appellations and these appellations are, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, Bordeaux Sec, Bordeaux Moelleux, Bordeaux Clairet, Crémant-de-Bordeaux, Bordeaux Rosé and Vin de Pays de lAtlantique. Many of Bordeauxs supermarket brands like Mouton Cadet, Dourthe Numero 1, more than half of Bordeauxs production uses these generic appellations. Red wine produced under the Bordeaux AOC is made mostly from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with the addition of Cabernet Franc and small amounts of Petit Verdot, Malbec and this appellation covers around 42,600 hectares of vines and produces around 223 million litres of wine. White wine produced under the Bordeaux Sec AOC is made mostly from Sauvignon blanc and Sémillon, with the addition of some Muscadelle, Colombard, Mauzac, Merlot blanc, Ondenc and it must contain no more than 4g/l of residual sugar
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Andernos-les-Bains
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Andernos-les-Bains is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France. Andernos-les-Bains is a located on the northeast shore of Arcachon Bay, to its northwest is the town of Arès. Andernos-les-Bains consists of four small communities, Taussat, Cassy, Lanton. All these villages are characterized by their oyster farms and small fisheries, for many years, the oyster and fishing industry provided the main income to the area. More recently, tourism has become an economic factor in the area. The bay was known for the Portuguese oyster which died out during 1970-1972 because of gill disease. But a new oyster was found, the Pacific oyster, nevertheless, in 1974 the new oyster developed a disease caused by the paint used on fishing boats. An oil tanker spill in 1978 further damaged the oyster industry, the oyster industry suffered substantially around the bay. This was a disaster for whole of France and Europe as the Arcachon oyster is a world-famous delicacy, since 2000 the oyster industry has been recovering and now nearly 15,000 metric tons are produced per year. Andernos-les-Bains has a 5.4 km long sand beach, sarah Bernhardt, a French actress, is known to have visited Andernos during the First World War
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Arcachon
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Arcachon is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France. It is a bathing location on the Atlantic coast 55 kilometres southwest of Bordeaux in the Landes forest. It has a beach and a mild climate said to be favourable for invalids suffering from pulmonary complaints. Arcachon is known for the Arcachonnaise, the name for an Arcachon villa. It is a type of Victorian architecture, and was criticized for generations, the town of Arcachon is 150 years old. In earlier years, when some began to recommend sea bathing. The area is served by Bordeaux Merignac Airport and the TGV Atlantique, the United States Navy established a naval air station on 8 June 1918 to operate seaplanes during World War I. The base closed shortly after the First Armistice at Compiègne, Arcachon is twinned with, Aveiro, Portugal The writer Alexandre Dumas once lived in Arcachons Ville dHiver. Puerto Rican politician Ramón Emeterio Betances spent close to six months at Arcachon shortly before his death in 1898, the poet Carmen Bernos de Gasztold was born in Arcachon in 1919. Film producer Humbert Balsan was born in Arcachon in 1954, composer-organist Charles Tournemire died here in 1939. Composer Louise Talma was born here in 1906, on the other side of the Bassin dArcachon is Cap Ferret, a popular resort for celebrities including Zinedine Zidane and Jean Pierre Pernaut, who have holiday homes. The writer and journalist Sylvie Caster was born in Arcachon in 1952, Dune du Pilat Communes of the Gironde department INSEE This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Wood, James, ed. article name needed. London and New York, Frederick Warne, official web site Dune du Pyla site Arcachon web site Aerial view of the Dune du Pilat Air photography of Arcachon Live Camera Arcachon
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