1.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
2.
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
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
4.
Prefect (France)
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A prefect in France is the States representative in a department or region. Sub-prefects are responsible for the subdivisions of departments, arrondissements, the office of a prefect is known as a prefecture and that of a sub-prefect as a subprefecture. Prefects are appointed by a decree of the President of the Republic in the Council of Ministers, following the proposal of the Prime Minister and they serve at the Governments discretion and can be replaced at any meeting of the Council. From 1982 to 1988 prefects were called de la République. The exact role and attributions are defined in decrees, most notably decrees of 1964,1982,2004, the prefect of the département containing the chef-lieu de région is also the préfet de région, or the prefect of the région. Prefects operate under the Minister of the Interior, prefects may issue administrative orders in areas falling within the competency of the national government, including general safety. For instance, they may prohibit the use of roads without special tyres in times of snow. The prohibition on smoking or leaving the running while filling the fuel tank of a motor vehicle is another example of a matter typically decided by a prefectoral administrative order. On official occasions, prefects wear uniforms, prefects originally had fairly extensive powers of supervision and control over departmental affairs. With the decentralization of local government in recent years, the role has largely been limited to preventing local policies from conflicting with national policy. In New Caledonia and French Polynesia, the roles, with certain differences in status, are fulfilled by a high commissioner, in Wallis and Futuna. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands used to be run by a superior administrator, the prefect, however, is not based in the territories, but in Réunion. Paris, which is itself a department, is an exception, in Paris, the law enforcement powers exercised in other French cities and towns by the mayor belong to the Prefect of Police. In 2012, a Prefecture of Police of the Bouches-du-Rhône was also created, seated at Marseille, the authority of the state over the sea is exercised by the Maritime Prefect of the relevant region. In Québec, the word is used to refer to the administrator of a Municipalité régionale de comté. There is no equivalent of French arrondissements, and instead, the word arrondissement always refers to a division with an elected leader
5.
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
6.
Minister of the Interior (France)
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The Ministry of the Interior in France is one of the most important French government cabinet positions. The Minister of Interior also take on the role of former Ministre des cultes and is consulted in the process of appointment of Catholic diocesan bishops. The Minister of Cults used to be a minister. While the ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries, the Ministrys headquarters are located on the place Beauvau, facing the Élysée Palace. Place Beauvau is often used as a metonym for the ministry, the current Minister of the Interior is Matthias Fekl. List of Interior Ministers of France Official website
7.
Police
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A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. Their powers include the use of force. Law enforcement, however, constitutes part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, in some societies, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, these developed within the context of maintaining the class system and the protection of private property. Many police forces suffer from police corruption to a greater or lesser degree, the police force is usually a public sector service, meaning they are paid through taxes. Alternative names for police force include constabulary, gendarmerie, police department, police service, crime prevention, protective services, law enforcement agency, members may be referred to as police officers, troopers, sheriffs, constables, rangers, peace officers or civic/civil guards. As police are often interacting with individuals, slang terms are numerous, many slang terms for police officers are decades or centuries old with lost etymology. One of the oldest, cop, has largely lost its slang connotations and this is derived from πόλις, city. Law enforcement in ancient China was carried out by prefects for thousands of years since it developed in both the Chu and Jin kingdoms of the Spring and Autumn period, in Jin, dozens of prefects were spread across the state, each having limited authority and employment period. Under each prefect were subprefects who helped collectively with law enforcement in the area, some prefects were responsible for handling investigations, much like modern police detectives. The concept of the system spread to other cultures such as Korea. In ancient Greece, publicly owned slaves were used by magistrates as police, in Athens, a group of 300 Scythian slaves was used to guard public meetings to keep order and for crowd control, and also assisted with dealing with criminals, handling prisoners, and making arrests. Other duties associated with modern policing, such as investigating crimes, were left to the citizens themselves, in the Roman empire, the army, rather than a dedicated police organization, provided security. Local watchmen were hired by cities to some extra security. Magistrates such as fiscal and quaestors investigated crimes. There was no concept of public prosecution, so victims of crime or their families had to organize and their duties included apprehending thieves and robbers and capturing runaway slaves. The vigiles were supported by the Urban Cohorts who acted as a heavy-duty anti-riot force, in medieval Spain, Santa Hermandades, or holy brotherhoods, peacekeeping associations of armed individuals, were a characteristic of municipal life, especially in Castile. These organizations were intended to be temporary, but became a fixture of Spain
8.
Firefighter
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In some areas, they are also trained in Emergency Medical Services and operate ambulances in addition to being a firefighter. The fire service, or fire and rescue service, also known in countries as the fire brigade or fire department, is one of the three main emergency services. Firefighting and firefighters have become ubiquitous around the world, from wildlands to urban areas, according to Merriam-Websters Dictionary, the English word firefighter has been used since 1903. In urban areas across the world the population is protected by paid full time firefighters. The goals of firefighting are, As such, the skills required for operations are regularly practiced during training evaluations throughout a firefighters career. In the United States, the preeminent fire training and standards organization is the National Fire Protection Association, often initial firefighting skills are taught during a local, regional, or state approved fire academy. Depending on the requirements of a department, additional skills and certifications such as technical rescue, Firefighters work closely with other emergency response agencies, most particularly local and state police departments. The increasing role of firefighters in providing medical services also brings firefighters into common overlap with law enforcement. One example of this is a state law requiring all gunshot wounds to be reported to law enforcement agencies. Fire fighting has some skills, prevention, self-preservation, rescue, preservation of property, basic first aid. Firefighting is further broken down into skills which include size-up, extinguishing, ventilation, salvage, wildland firefighting includes size up, containment, extinguishment, and mop up. Search and Rescue, which has already mentioned, is performed early in any fire scenario and many times is in unison with extinguishing. Fire suppression systems have a record for controlling and extinguishing unwanted fires. Many fire officials recommend that every building, including residences, have sprinkler systems. Correctly working sprinklers in a residence greatly reduce the risk of death from a fire, with the small rooms typical of a residence, one or two sprinklers can cover most rooms. Other methods of prevention are by directing efforts to reduce known hazardous conditions or by preventing dangerous acts before tragedy strikes. Tools are generally carried at all times and are important for not only forcible entry, a self-contained breathing apparatus delivers air to the firefighter through a full face mask and is worn to protect against smoke inhalation, toxic fumes, and super heated gases. The PASS device sounds an alarm that can assist another firefighter, Firefighters often carry personal self-rescue ropes
9.
Marne
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Marne is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne which flows through the department. The prefecture of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne, the subprefectures are Épernay, Reims, Sainte-Menehould, and Vitry-le-François. The Champagne vineyards producing the world-famous sparkling wine are located within Marne, Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4,1790. It was created from the province of Champagne, Marne has a long association with the French Army. The smaller Camp de Moronvilliers lies to the east of Reims and these are all on the chalk of the Champagne plateau, a feature comparable in geology but not size, with the British military training ground on Salisbury Plain. Marne is part of the region of Grand Est and is surrounded by the departments of Ardennes, Meuse, Haute-Marne, Aube, Seine-et-Marne, and Aisne. Geologically, it divides into two parts, the Upper Cretaceous chalk plain in the east and the more wooded. Rivers draining the department include the Marne, Vesle, Ardre, numerous other rivers, such as the Grande and the Petite Morin rise in the department but flow mainly in others. Conversely, the Aube joins the Seine in the department of Marne, the inhabitants of the department are called Marnais. Reims, with its famous cathedral in which the kings of France were traditionally crowned, is a major attraction, other branches of tourism are provided by the bird reserve on the Lake Der-Chantecoq and the fishing lakes nearby. The Parc Naturel Régional de la Montagne de Reims is an area of country recreation. In the west of the département there are scenic routes to be explored as also are the several wine cellars of Épernay
