1.
Le Marais
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Le Marais is a historic district in Paris, France. Long the aristocratic district of Paris, it hosts many outstanding buildings of historic and it spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements in Paris. In 1240 the Order of the Temple built its fortified church just outside the walls of Paris, in the northern part of the Marais. During the mid-13th century, Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, in 1361 the King Charles V built a mansion known as the Hôtel Saint-Pol in which the Royal Court settled during his reign as well as his sons. From that time to the 17th century and especially after the Royal Square was designed under King Henri IV in 1605, the Marais was the French nobilitys favorite place of residence. During the late 18th century, the district was no longer the most fashionable district for the nobility, by that time, only minor nobles and a few more powerful nobles, such as the Prince de Soubise, lived there. The Place des Vosges remained a place for nobles to meet, the district fell into despair after the Revolution, and was therefore abandoned by the nobility completely, and would stay that way for ever. After the French Revolution, the district was no more the aristocratic district it once was during the 17th and 18th centuries, because of this, the district became a popular and active commercial area, hosting one of Paris main Jewish communities. During World War II the Jewish community was targeted by the Nazis who were occupying France, as of today the rue des Rosiers remains a major centre of the Paris Jewish community, which has made a comeback since the 1990s. Public notices announce Jewish events, bookshops specialize in Jewish books, the synagogue on 10 rue Pavée is adjacent to the rue des Rosiers. It was designed in 1913 by Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, Le Marais houses the Museum of Jewish Art and History, the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. The museum conveys the history and culture of Jews in Europe. In 1982, Palestinan terrorists murdered 6 people and injured 22 at a Jewish restaurant in Le Marais, Chez Jo Goldenberg, by the 1950s, the district had become a working-class area and most of its architectural masterpieces were in a bad state of repair. In 1964, General de Gaulles Culture Minister Andre Malraux made the Marais the first secteur sauvegardé and these were meant to protect and conserve places of special cultural significance. In the following decades the government and the Parisian municipality led a restoration and Rehabilitation Policy. The site of Beaubourg, the part of Marais, was chosen for the Centre Georges Pompidou, Frances national Museum of Modern Art. The building was completed in 1977 with revolutionary architecture by Renzo Piano, the Marais is now one of Paris main localities for art galleries. Following its rehabilitation, the Marais has become a district, home to many trendy restaurants, fashion houses
2.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
3.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
4.
Anne of Austria
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Anne of Austria was queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish and Portuguese Infanta by birth. During her regency, Cardinal Mazarin served as Frances chief minister, born at Benavente Palace in Valladolid, Spain, and baptised Ana María Mauricia, she was the eldest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria. She held the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal, in spite of her birth in Spain, she was referred to as Anne of Austria because the rulers of Spain belonged to the House of Austria. Anne was raised mainly at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, exceptionally for a royal princess, Anne grew up close to her parents, who were very religious. She was raised to be too, and was often taken to visit monasteries during her childhood. In 1611, she lost her mother, who died in childbirth, despite her grief, Anne did her best to take care of her younger siblings, who referred to her with affection as their mother. Anne was betrothed at age eleven to King Louis XIII of France and her father gave her a dowry of 500,000 crowns and many beautiful jewels. For fear that Louis XIII would die early, the Spanish court stipulated that she would return to Spain with her dowry, jewels, and wardrobe if he did die. On 24 November 1615, Louis and Anne were married by proxy in Burgos while Louiss sister, Elisabeth of France, Anne and Elisabeth were exchanged on the Isle of Pheasants between Hendaye and Fuenterrabía. She was lively and beautiful during her youth and she was also a noted equestrian, a taste her son, Louis, would inherit. At the time, Anne had many admirers, including the handsome Duke of Buckingham, Anne and Louis, both fourteen years old, were pressured to consummate their marriage in order to forestall any possibility of future annulment, but Louis ignored his bride. Louiss mother, Marie de Medici, continued to conduct herself as queen of France, Anne, surrounded by her entourage of high-born Spanish ladies-in-waiting, continued to live according to Spanish etiquette and failed to improve her French. During the years he was in the ascendancy, the Duke of Luynes attempted to remedy the formal distance between Louis and his queen, Anne began to dress in the French manner, and in 1619 Luynes pressed the king to bed his queen. Some affection developed, to the point where it was noted that Louis was distracted during an illness of the queen. A series of stillbirths disenchanted the king and served to chill their relations, on 14 March 1622, while playing with her ladies, Anne fell on a staircase and suffered her second stillbirth. Louis blamed her for the incident and was angry with the Duchess of Luynes for having encouraged the queen in what was seen as negligence. Henceforth, the king had less tolerance for the influence that the duchess had over Anne, Louis turned now to Cardinal Richelieu as his advisor. Under the influence of Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, the queen let herself be drawn into political opposition to Richelieu, in 1635, France declared war on Spain, placing the queen in an untenable position
5.
Nicolas Flamel
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Nicolas Flamel was a successful French scribe and manuscript-seller. After his death, Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist believed to have discovered the Philosophers Stone and these legendary accounts first appeared in the seventeenth century. According to texts ascribed to Flamel almost two hundred years after his death, he had learned alchemical secrets from a Jewish converso on the road to Santiago de Compostela and he has since appeared as a legendary alchemist in various fictional works. The historical Flamel lived in Paris in the fourteenth and fifteenth century and he ran two shops as a scribe and married Perenelle in 1368. She brought the wealth of two previous husbands to the marriage, the French Catholic couple owned several properties, and contributed financially to churches, sometimes by commissioning sculptures. Later in life they were noted for their wealth and philanthropy, Flamel lived into his 80s, and in 1410 designed his own tombstone, which was carved with the images of Christ, St. Peter, and St. Paul. The tombstone is preserved at the Musée de Cluny in Paris, records show that Flamel died in 1418. He was buried in Paris at the end of the nave of the former Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and his will, dated 22 November 1416, indicates that he was generous but that he did not have the extraordinary wealth of later alchemical legend. There is no indication that the real Flamel of history was involved in alchemy, Flamel was a real person, and he may have dabbled in alchemy, but his reputation as an author and immortal adept must be accepted as an invention of the seventeenth century. One of Flamels houses still stands in Paris, at 51 rue de Montmorency and it is the oldest stone house in the city. The ground floor contains a restaurant. A Paris street near the Louvre Museum, the rue Nicolas Flamel, has named after him, it intersects with the rue Pernelle. Legendary accounts of Flamels life are based on seventeenth century works, an alchemical book, published in Paris in 1612 as Livre des figures hiéroglyphiques and in London in 1624 as Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures was attributed to Flamel. It is a collection of designs purportedly commissioned by Flamel for a tympanum at the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris, in the publishers introduction Flamels search for the Philosophers Stone was described. According to that introduction, Flamel had made it his lifes work to understand the text of a mysterious 21-page book he had purchased, the introduction claims that, around 1378, he travelled to Spain for assistance with translation. On the way back, he reported that he met a sage, in addition, Flamel is said to have studied some texts in Hebrew. The validity of this story was first questioned in 1761 by Etienne Villain and he claimed that the source of the Flamel legend was P. Arnauld de la Chevalerie, publisher of Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures, who wrote the book under the pseudonym Eiranaeus Orandus. Flamel had achieved status within the circles of alchemy by the mid 17th Century, with references in Isaac Newtons journals to the Caduceus
6.
Immortality
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Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever. At least one species has potential biological immortality, Turritopsis dohrnii, other advocates believe that life extension is a more achievable goal in the short term, with immortality awaiting further research breakthroughs. The absence of aging would provide humans with biological immortality, but not invulnerability to death by physical trauma, whether the process of internal endoimmortality is delivered within the upcoming years depends chiefly on research in the former view and perhaps is an awaited goal in the latter case. In religious contexts, immortality is often stated to be one of the promises of God to human beings who show goodness or else follow divine law, Life extension technologies promise a path to complete rejuvenation. Cryonics holds out the hope that the dead can be revived in the future, while, as shown with creatures such as hydra and planarian worms, it is indeed possible for a creature to be biologically immortal, it is not known if it is possible for humans. Mind uploading is the transference of brain states from a brain to an alternative medium providing similar functionality. Assuming the process to be possible and repeatable, this would provide immortality to the computation of the original brain, the soul itself has different meanings and is not used in the same way in different religions and different denominations of a religion. For example, various branches of Christianity have disagreeing views on the souls immortality, physical immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid death and maintain conscious thought. It can mean the unending existence of a person from a source other than organic life. There are three causes of death, aging, disease and physical trauma. Such issues can be resolved with the provided in research to any end providing such alternate theories at present that require unification. Eliminating aging would require finding a solution to each of these causes, there is also a huge body of knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of molecular fidelity. Disease is theoretically surmountable via technology, in short, it is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism, something the body shouldnt typically have to deal with its natural make up. Human understanding of genetics is leading to cures and treatments for previously incurable diseases. The mechanisms by which other diseases do their damage are becoming better understood, sophisticated methods of detecting diseases early are being developed. Preventative medicine is becoming better understood, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers may soon be curable with the use of stem cells. Breakthroughs in cell biology and telomere research are leading to treatments for cancer, vaccines are being researched for AIDS and tuberculosis. Genes associated with type 1 diabetes and certain types of cancer have been discovered, artificial devices attached directly to the nervous system may restore sight to the blind
7.
Centre Georges Pompidou
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It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg and it is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard dEstaing. As of 2006, the Centre Pompidou has had over 180 million visitors since 1977 and more than 5,209,678 visitors in 2013, including 3,746,899 for the museum. The sculpture Horizontal by Alexander Calder, a mobile that is 7.6 m tall, was placed in front of the Centre Pompidou in 2012. Hoping to renew the idea of Paris as a city of culture and art. Paris also needed a large, free library, as one did not exist at this time. At first the debate concerned Les Halles, but as the settled, in 1968. A year later in 1969, the new president adopted the Beaubourg project, in the process of developing the project, the IRCAM was also housed in the complex. By the mid-1980s, the Centre Pompidou was becoming the victim of its huge and unexpected popularity, its activities. By 1992, the Centre de Création Industrielle was incorporated into the Centre Pompidou, since re-opening in 2000 after a three-year renovation, the Centre Pompidou has improved accessibility for visitors. Now they can access the escalators if they pay to enter the museum. The Centre was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, British architect Richard Rogers, the project was awarded to this team in an architectural design competition, the results of which were announced in 1971. It was the first time in France that international architects were allowed to participate, world-renowned architects Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Prouvé and Philip Johnson made up the jury which would select one design out of the 681 entries. National Geographic described the reaction to the design as love at second sight, an article in Le Figaro declared Paris has its own monster, just like the one in Loch Ness. The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou revolutionised museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, the Centre was built by GTM and completed in 1977. The building cost 993 million 1972 French francs, renovation work conducted from October 1996 to January 2000 was completed on a budget of 576 million 1999 francs. The black-painted mechanical sculptures are by Tinguely, the works by de Saint-Phalle. Video footage of the fountain appeared frequently throughout the French language telecourse, the Place Georges Pompidou in front of the museum is noted for the presence of street performers, such as mimes and jugglers
8.
Modern art
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Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with ideas about the nature of materials. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, more recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or postmodern art. Matisses two versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting, analytic cubism was jointly developed by Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé, the notion of modern art is closely related to modernism. Although modern sculpture and architecture are reckoned to have emerged at the end of the 19th century, the beginnings of modern painting can be located earlier. The date perhaps most commonly identified as marking the birth of art is 1863. Earlier dates have also proposed, among them 1855 and 1784. In the words of art historian H, harvard Arnason, Each of these dates has significance for the development of modern art, but none categorically marks a completely new beginning. A gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years, the strands of thought that eventually led to modern art can be traced back to the Enlightenment, and even to the 17th century. The important modern art critic Clement Greenberg, for instance, called Immanuel Kant the first real Modernist but also drew a distinction, The Enlightenment criticized from the outside. The French Revolution of 1789 uprooted assumptions and institutions that had for centuries been accepted with little question and this gave rise to what art historian Ernst Gombrich called a self-consciousness that made people select the style of their building as one selects the pattern of a wallpaper. The pioneers of art were Romantics, Realists and Impressionists. By the late 19th century, additional movements which were to be influential in art had begun to emerge. The advocates of realism stood against the idealism of the academic art that enjoyed public. The most successful painters of the day worked either through commissions or through public exhibitions of their own work. There were official, government-sponsored painters unions, while governments regularly held exhibitions of new fine
9.
Place des Vosges
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The Place des Vosges, originally Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris and one of the finest in the city. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square, it embodied the first European program of city planning. It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens, at a tournament at the Tournelles, catherine de Medicis had the Gothic complex demolished, and she moved to the Louvre Palace. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the ceilings that the galleries were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the center the north and south faces. The Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created an urban background for the French aristocracy. The square was often the place for the nobility to chat and this was so until the Revolution. Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out, Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the center. In the late 18th century, while most of the nobility moved to the Faubourg Saint-Germain district and it was renamed in 1799 when the département of the Vosges became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army. The Restoration returned the old name, but the short-lived Second Republic restored the revolutionary one in 1848. Today the square is planted with a bosquet of mature lindens set in grass and gravel, residents of the Place des Vosges No. 1bis Madame de Sevigné was born here No,9, seat of l Académie darchitecture, currently also tenanted by Galerie Historisimus No.11 occupied from 1639-1648 by the courtesan Marion Delorme No.14. Its ceilings painted by Lebrun are reinstalled in the Musée Carnavalet, rabbi David Feuerwerker, Antoinette Feuerwerker and Atara Marmor No.15 Marguerite Louise dOrléans, wife of Cosimo III de Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. No.17 former residence of Bossuet No.21 Cardinal Richelieu from 1615 to 1627 No.23 post-impressionist painter Georges Dufrénoy No, archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Satellite image from Google Maps http, //www. letthemtalk. com/html/pariswalks/placedesvosges. html Place des Vosges audio tour dans le parc
10.
3rd arrondissement of Paris
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The 3rd arrondissement of Paris, situated on the right bank of the River Seine, is the smallest in area after the 2nd arrondissement. The arrondissement contains the northern, quieter part of the district of Le Marais. The oldest surviving house of Paris, built in 1407, is to be found in the 3rd arrondissement. The ancient Jewish quarter, the Pletzel which dates from the 13th century begins in the part of the 3rd arrondissement. It is home to the Musée dart et dhistoire du judaïsme, although trendy boutiques are now taking up many of the storefronts, there are still landmark stores selling traditional Jewish foods. With a land area of 1.171 km2, the 3rd arrondissement is the second smallest arrondissement in the city, the area now occupied by the third arrondissement attained its peak population in the period preceding the re-organization of Paris in 1860. In 1999, the population was 34,248, while the arrondissement hosted a total of 29,723 jobs, ¹The peak of population actually occurred before 1861, but the arrondissement was created in 1860, so we do not have figures before 1861
11.
Val-d'Oise
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Val-dOise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as quatre-vingt quinze or neuf cinq and it gets its name from the Oise River, a major tributary of the Seine, which crosses the region after having started in Belgium and flowed through north-eastern France. Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Frances main international airport is located in Roissy-en-France. The original departments of France were established in 1790 when the French National Assembly split the country into 83 departments of roughly the same size and they were designed as sets of communes, and when better maps became available, certain revisions had to be made. After defeat by the Prussians in 1871, certain territories were ceded to them, in 1955 and 1957, some departments changed their names. In 1964, it was determined to divide up the departments of Seine, Val-dOise was one of the new departments so formed, and was created entirely from the previous department of Seine-et-Oise. Val-dOise is a department in north central France and is part of the region of Île-de-France, the River Oise is a right tributary of the River Seine, and flows through the province from northeast to southwest. The eastern part of the department is part of the Pays de France and this part is progressively diminishing in size as Paris expands. Part of Charles de Gaulle Airport falls in this region, while other parts are in the departments of Seine-et-Marne. The southernmost region of the department forms part of the Seine Valley and these parts are heavily urbanised, but the ancient Roman road, the Chaussée Jules César, which linked Paris and Rouen, passes through the latter. The central and southwestern parts of the department are also largely urbanised, the western part of the department forms part of the historic county of Vexin français, a verdant, largely agricultural plateau. Its capital was Pontoise on the extremity of the county. This commune is now combining with the commune of Cergy to form the new town of Cergy-Pontoise. The Vexin area remains rural, and across the whole department. The economy of Val-dOise relies on two different themes, the northern, eastern and western parts are fertile areas of agricultural land producing large quantities of corn, sugar beet, and other crops. The urban parts to the south are dormitory towns, used by working in the greater metropolitan area of Paris. The presence of Charles de Gaulle Airport and its associated TGV station provides access by rail to all parts of France, the department has nine business zones designated for high-tech industries. The department has an archaeological and historical heritage, but is not a region visited much by tourists
