Côtes du Ventoux AOC
Ventoux AOC is a wine-growing AOC in the southeastern region of the Rhône wine region of France, where the wines are produced in 51 communes of the Vaucluse département along the lower slopes of the Ventoux mountain and at the foot of the Vaucluse Mountains. The neighbouring appellation of Côtes du Luberon AOC stretches along its southern border and is separated from it by the Calavon river; the three main areas of the region, the Malaucène basin, the foothills of the Mont Ventoux to the east of Carpentras and to the north of Cavaillon are less ravaged by the Mistral due to some shelter afforded by the Ventoux-Vaucluse-Luberon mountain range. Archeological discoveries of wine making equipment have dated that wine has been produced in the area at least since around 30 AD. Red and rosé wines are made from, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan. Other varieties which may be used to a maximum of 20%; the red wine is distinctly characterised by its aromas of black fruit and pepper. White wines are produced from Clairette blanche, Grenache blanc, Roussane.
A Primeur wine is produced in all three colours. The minimum alcoholic content for all wines is decreed at 11%; the reds, which comprise 80% of the production, are light and fruity. All wines are consumed while they are still young; the Ventoux wines are produced by a total of 1,339 concerns which include 1,315 growers, 113 private wineries, 16 cooperative wineries, 8 producer/merchants. The vinyards are in the communes of Apt, Beaumettes, Beaumont-du-Ventoux, Bédoin, Bonnieux, Cabrières-d'Avignon, Carpentras, Crestet, Crillon-le-Brave, Flassan, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, Gignac, Goult, Lagnes, La Roque-sur-Pernes, Le Barroux, Le Beaucet, Loriol-du-Comtat, Malaucène, Malemort-du-Comtat, Mazan, Méthamis, Modène, Murs, Robion, Rustrel, Saumane, Saint-Didier, Saint-Hippolyte-le-Graveyron, Saint-Martin-de-Castillon, Saint-Pantaléon, Saint-Pierre-de-Vassols, Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt, Viens and Villes-sur-Auzon. List of Vins de Primeur
Gignac, Vaucluse
Gignac is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Chateau d'Autet lies to the northeast of the village. Communes of the Vaucluse department INSEE
Avignon
Avignon is a commune in south-eastern France in the department of Vaucluse on the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 90,194 inhabitants of the city, about 12,000 live in the ancient town centre enclosed by its medieval ramparts. Between 1309 and 1377, during the Avignon Papacy, seven successive popes resided in Avignon and in 1348 Pope Clement VI bought the town from Joanna I of Naples. Papal control persisted until 1791; the town is now the capital of the Vaucluse department and one of the few French cities to have preserved its ramparts. The historic centre, which includes the Palais des Papes, the cathedral, the Pont d'Avignon, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995; the medieval monuments and the annual Festival d'Avignon have helped to make the town a major centre for tourism. The earliest forms of the name were reported by the Greeks: Аὐενιὼν = Auenion Άουεννίων = Aouennion; the Roman name Avennĭo Cavarum, i.e. "Avignon of Cavares" shows that Avignon was one of the three cities of the Celtic-Ligurian tribe of Cavares, along with Cavaillon and Orange.
The current name dates to a pre-Indo-European or pre-Latin theme ab-ên with the suffix -i-ōn This theme would be a hydronym – i.e. a name linked to the river, but also an oronym of terrain. The Auenion of the 1st century BC was Latinized to Avennĭo, -ōnis in the 1st century and was written Avinhon in classic Occitan spelling or Avignoun in Mistralian spelling The inhabitants of the commune are called avinhonencs or avignounen in both Occitan and Provençal dialect. Avignon is on the left bank of the Rhône river, a few kilometres above its confluence with the Durance, about 580 km south-east of Paris, 229 km south of Lyon and 85 km north-north-west of Marseille. On the west it shares a border with the department of Gard and the communes of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and Les Angles and to the south it borders the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and the communes of Barbentane, Rognonas, Châteaurenard, Noves; the city is in the vicinity of Orange, Nîmes, Arles, Salon-de-Provence, Marseille. Directly contiguous to the east and north are the communes of Caumont-sur-Durance, Morières-lès-Avignon, Le Pontet, Sorgues.
The region around Avignon is rich in limestone, used for building material. For example, the current ramparts, measuring 4,330 metres long, were built with the soft limestone abundant in the region called mollasse burdigalienne. Enclosed by the ramparts, the Rocher des Doms is a limestone elevation of urgonian type, 35 metres high and is the original core of the city. Several limestone massifs are present around the commune and they are the result of the oceanisation of the Ligurian-Provençal basin following the migration of the Sardo-Corsican block; the other significant elevation in the commune is the Montfavet Hill – a wooded hill in the east of the commune. The Rhone Valley is an old alluvial zone: loose deposits cover much of the ground, it consists of sandy alluvium more or less coloured with pebbles consisting of siliceous rocks. The islands in the Rhone, such as the Île de la Barthelasse, were created by the accumulation of alluvial deposits and by the work of man; the relief is quite low despite the creation of mounds allowing local protection from flooding.
In the land around the city there are clay, silt and limestone present. The Rhone passes the western edge of the city but is divided into two branches: the Petit Rhône, or "dead arm", for the part that passes next to Avignon and the Grand Rhône, or "live arm", for the western channel which passes Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in the Gard department; the two branches are separated by the Île de la Barthelasse. The southernmost tip of the Île de la Barthelasse once formed of a separated island, the L'Île de Piot; the banks of the Rhone and the Île de la Barthelasse are subject to flooding during autumn and March. The publication Floods in France since the 6th century until today – research and documentation by Maurice Champion tells about a number of them, they have never stopped as shown by the floods in 1943–1944 and again on 23 January 1955 and remain important today – such as the floods of 2 December 2003. As a result, a new risk mapping has been developed; the Durance flows along the southern boundary of the commune into the Rhone and marks the departmental boundary with Bouches-du-Rhône.
It is a river, considered "capricious" and once feared for its floods (it was once called the "3rd scourge of Provence" as well as for its low water: the Durance has both Alpine and Mediterranean morphology, unusual. There are many natural and artificial water lakes in the commune such as the Lake of Saint-Chamand east of the city. There have been many diversions throughout the course of history, such as feeding the moat surrounding Avignon or irrigating crops. In the 10th century part of the waters from the Sorgue d'Entraigues were diverted and today pass under the ramparts to enter the city.. This watercourse is called the Vaucluse Canal but Avignon people still call it the Sorgue or Sorguette, it is visible in the city in the famous Rue des teinturiers. It fed the moat around the first ramparts fed the moat on the newer east
Fernandel
Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin, better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born in Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, an Occitan town located in the province of Turin, he was a comedy star who first gained popularity in French vaudeville and music-hall revues. His stage name originated from his marriage to Henriette Manse, the sister of his best friend and frequent cinematic collaborator Jean Manse. So attentive was he to his wife. In 1930, Fernandel appeared in his first motion picture and for more than forty years he would be France's top comic actor, he was best loved for his portrayal of the irascible Italian village priest at war with the town's Communist mayor in the Don Camillo series of motion pictures. His horse-like teeth became part of his trademark, he appeared in Italian and American films. His first Hollywood motion picture was 1956's Around the World in 80 Days in which he played David Niven's coachman, his popular performance in that film led to his starring with Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg in the 1958 comedy Paris Holiday.
In addition to acting, Fernandel directed or co-produced several of his own films. His profile was raised in Britain by the 60s TV advertisements for Dubonnet in which he would say "Do'Ave A Dubonnet" Fernandel died from lung cancer and is buried in the Cimetière de Passy, France, he had two daughters and Janine, son Franck. His son, known as Franck Fernandel, became a singer. Franck acted alongside his father in two films, Gilles Grangier's L'Âge ingrat and Georges Bianchi's En avant la musique. In The Outsider by Albert Camus and his female friend Marie Cordona watch a movie starring Fernandel on the day after the funeral of Meursault's mother. Main article: Filmography of Fernandel "Félicie aussi" Fernandel on IMDb Fernandel singing'Les gens riaient' Fernandel by Diggi
Rustrel
Rustrel is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. This village is famous for its ochre. Communes of the Vaucluse department Luberon INSEE
TGV
The TGV is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by the SNCF, the state-owned national rail operator. The SNCF started working on a high-speed rail network in 1966 and presented the project to President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing who approved it. Designed as turbotrains to be powered by gas turbines, TGV prototypes evolved into electric trains with the 1973 oil crisis. In 1976 the SNCF ordered 87 high-speed trains from GEC-Alstom. Following the inaugural service between Paris and Lyon in 1981 on the LGV Sud-Est, the network, centered on Paris, has expanded to connect major cities across France and in neighbouring countries on a combination of high-speed and conventional lines; the TGV network in France carries about 110 million passengers a year. Like the Shinkansen in Japan, the TGV has never experienced a fatal accident during its operational history; the high-speed tracks, maintained by SNCF Réseau, are subject to heavy regulation. Confronted with the fact that train drivers would not be able to see signals along the track-side when trains reach full speed, engineers developed the TVM technology, which would be exported worldwide.
It allows for a train engaging in an emergency braking to request within seconds all following trains to reduce their speed. The TVM safety mechanism enables TGVs using the same line to depart every three minutes. A TGV test train set the world record for the fastest wheeled train, reaching 574.8 km/h on 3 April 2007. Conventional TGV services operate up to 320 km/h on the LGV Est, LGV Rhin-Rhône and LGV Méditerranée. In 2007, the world's fastest scheduled rail journey was a start-to-stop average speed of 279.4 km/h between the Gare de Champagne-Ardenne and Gare de Lorraine on the LGV Est, not surpassed until the 2013 reported average of 283.7 km/h express service on the Shijiazhuang to Zhengzhou segment of China's Shijiazhuang–Wuhan high-speed railway. The TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects sponsored by the Government of France, including the Ariane 1 rocket and Concorde supersonic airliner; the commercial success of the first high-speed line led to a rapid development of services to the south, west and east.
Eager to emulate the TGV's success, neighbouring countries Italy and Germany developed their own high-speed rail services. The TGV system itself extends to neighbouring countries, either directly or through TGV-derivative networks linking France to Switzerland, to Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as to the United Kingdom. Several future lines are planned, including extensions to surrounding countries. Cities such as Tours and Le Mans have become part of a "TGV commuter belt" around Paris. A visitor attraction in itself, it stops at Disneyland Paris and in tourist cities such as Avignon and Aix-en-Provence as well. Brest, Chambéry, Nice and Biarritz are reachable by TGVs running on a mix of LGVs and modernised lines. In 2007, the SNCF generated profits of €1.1 billion driven by higher margins on the TGV network. The idea of the TGV was first proposed in the 1960s, after Japan had begun construction of the Shinkansen in 1959. At the time the Government of France favoured new technology, exploring the production of hovercraft and the Aérotrain air-cushion vehicle.
The SNCF began researching high-speed trains on conventional tracks. In 1976, the administration agreed to fund the first line. By the mid-1990s, the trains were so popular that SNCF President Louis Gallois declared that the TGV was "the train that saved French railways", it was planned that the TGV standing for très grande vitesse or turbine grande vitesse, would be propelled by gas turbines, selected for their small size, good power-to-weight ratio and ability to deliver high power over an extended period. The first prototype, TGV 001, was the only gas-turbine TGV: following the increase in the price of oil during the 1973 energy crisis, gas turbines were deemed uneconomic and the project turned to electricity from overhead lines, generated by new nuclear power stations. TGV 001 was not a wasted prototype: its gas turbine was only one of its many new technologies for high-speed rail travel, it tested high-speed brakes, needed to dissipate the large amount of kinetic energy of a train at high speed, high-speed aerodynamics, signalling.
It was articulated, comprising two adjacent carriages sharing a bogie, allowing free yet controlled motion with respect to one another. It reached 318 km/h, its interior and exterior were styled by British-born designer Jack Cooper, whose work formed the basis of early TGV designs, including the distinctive nose shape of the first power cars. Changing the TGV to electric traction required a significant design overhaul; the first electric prototype, nick
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist, short story writer, theatre director and literary translator who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. He wrote in both French. Beckett's work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence coupled with black comedy and gallows humor, became minimalist in his career, he is considered one of the last modernist writers, one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation", he was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. Samuel Beckett was born in Dublin on Good Friday, 13 April 1906, to William Frank Beckett, a quantity surveyor and descendant of the Huguenots, Maria Jones Roe, a nurse, when both were 35, they had married in 1901. Beckett had Frank Edward Beckett. At the age of five, Beckett attended a local playschool in Dublin, where he started to learn music, moved to Earlsfort House School in Dublin city centre near Harcourt Street.
The Becketts were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland. The family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuel's father, William; the house and garden, together with the surrounding countryside where he went walking with his father, the nearby Leopardstown Racecourse, the Foxrock railway station and Harcourt Street station at the city terminus of the line, all feature in his prose and plays. In 1919/1920, Beckett went to Portora Royal School in County Fermanagh, he left 3 years in 1923. A natural athlete, Beckett excelled at cricket as a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler, he was to play for Dublin University and played two first-class games against Northamptonshire. As a result, he became the only Nobel literature laureate to have played first-class cricket. Beckett studied French and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927, he was elected a Scholar in Modern Languages in 1926.
Beckett graduated with a BA and, after teaching at Campbell College in Belfast, took up the post of lecteur d'anglais at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris from November 1928 to 1930. While there, he was introduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy, a poet and close confidant of Beckett who worked there; this meeting had a profound effect on the young man. Beckett assisted Joyce in various ways, one of, research towards the book that became Finnegans Wake. In 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay entitled "Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce"; the essay defends Joyce's work and method, chiefly from allegations of wanton obscurity and dimness, was Beckett's contribution to Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress. Beckett's close relationship with Joyce and his family cooled, when he rejected the advances of Joyce's daughter Lucia owing to her progressing schizophrenia. Beckett's first short story, "Assumption", was published in Jolas's periodical transition.
The next year he won a small literary prize for his hastily composed poem "Whoroscope", which draws on a biography of René Descartes that Beckett happened to be reading when he was encouraged to submit. In 1930, Beckett returned to Trinity College as a lecturer. In November 1930, he presented a paper in French to the Modern Languages Society of Trinity on the Toulouse poet Jean du Chas, founder of a movement called le Concentrisme, it was a literary parody, for Beckett had in fact invented the poet and his movement that claimed to be "at odds with all, clear and distinct in Descartes". Beckett insisted that he had not intended to fool his audience; when Beckett resigned from Trinity at the end of 1931, his brief academic career was at an end. He commemorated it with the poem "Gnome", inspired by his reading of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and published in The Dublin Magazine in 1934: Spend the years of learning squanderingCourage for the years of wanderingThrough a world politely turningFrom the loutishness of learning Beckett travelled in Europe.
He spent some time in London, where in 1931 he published Proust, his critical study of French author Marcel Proust. Two years following his father's death, he began two years' treatment with Tavistock Clinic psychoanalyst Dr. Wilfred Bion. Aspects of it became evident in Beckett's works, such as Watt and Waiting for Godot. In 1932, he wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, but after many rejections from publishers decided to abandon it. Despite his inability to get it published, the novel served as a source for many of Beckett's early poems, as well as for his first full-length book, the 1933 short-story collection More Pricks Than Kicks. Beckett published essays and reviews, including "Recent Irish Poetry" and "Humanistic Quietism", a review of his friend Thomas MacGreevy's Poems, they focused on the work of MacGreevy, Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin and Blanaid Salkeld, despite their slender achievements at the time, comparing them favourably with their Celtic Revival contemporaries and invoking Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, the French symbolists as
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