Aniane
Aniane is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Benedict of Aniane Pont du Diable, Hérault Mas de Daumas Gassac Communes of the Hérault department INSEE Town website
Communauté d'agglomération du Bassin de Thau
The Communauté d'agglomération du Bassin de Thau is an intercommunal government structure, in the Hérault département of the Occitanie région, in France. Since the former Communauté de communes du Nord du Bassin de Thau was merged into it in January 2017, the Bassin de Thau consists of 14 communes: The CABT has four mandatory areas of jurisdiction: Economic development, Land management, Environmental protection, Town political structures, it is to oversee as well: Organization of common transport problems, Sanitation collection and treatment, Assessment and economic impact of the local environment, The creation and assessment of cultural and sporting organizations across the communes. Areas over which the CABT has shared jurisdiction: Ports and shellfish cultivation, Vineyard Cultivation and Spirits production, Thermal Energy production, Tourism. CABT in the Official site of Sète CABT in the Official site of Gigean CABT in the Official site of Marseillan
Hérault
Hérault is a department in southern France named after the Hérault. It is part of the Occitanie region of the country. Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, it was created from part of the former province of Languedoc. At the beginning of the 20th century, viticulture in the wine-growing region was devastated by a slump in sales combined with disease affecting the vines. Thousands of small scale producers revolted; this revolt was suppressed harshly by the government of Georges Clemenceau. The catastrophic frost of the winter of 1956 damaged the olive trees, the olive-growing regions did not recover until the late 1980s. Many of the olive-industry co-ops closed. During the second half of the twentieth century the Montpellier basin saw some of the most rapid population growth in France. Hérault is part of the region of Occitanie and is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Aveyron and the Mediterranean on the south; the department is geographically diverse, with beaches in the south, the Cévennes mountains in the north, agricultural land in between.
To define the Hérault, one tends to compare its territory to an open amphitheater facing the sea. The geography of the Hérault is marked by the diversity of its landscapes; these range from the southern foothills of the Massif Central, to the Mediterranean Sea, through the areas of garrigue and the low plain of Languedoc wine. The Hérault is bathed by a Mediterranean climate; the minimum altitude is at sea level and the highest point of the department is at an altitude of 1181m in one of the peaks of Espinouse. The average altitude is about 227m; the department of Hérault is crossed by several coastal rivers that originated in the southern foothills of the Massif Central to jump into the Mediterranean Sea after a course of general north-south orientation short and high altitude. The main ones are from east to west the Vidourle, which marks the limit with the Gard department, the Lesz which crosses notably Montpellier, the Hérault, which gave its name to the department, the Orb which waters Béziers.
To the west, the Aude Valley, a 224 km river from the Pyrenees, whose course is oriented west-east, forms the limit with the department of the same name. These rivers as well as their tributaries are characterized by their regime, called "cévénol", marked by sudden variations of flow causing sudden and important floods. All along the coast of Herault successive lagoon, some of which have a large area, the largest of, the Étang de Thau with an area of about 7,500 hectares; the hinterland of the lowlands of Bas-Languedoc is hilly. It is the territory of the vineyard, olive groves and scrubland. Olive growing and viticulture symbolize an important part of the Mediterranean heritage and lifestyle; the area of Hérault near the town of Lodève is the geographical antipode point of Chatham Island off the east coast of New Zealand. The most populated municipality is Montpellier with 277,639 inhabitants in 2015; the least populated municipality is Romiguières with 27 inhabitants in 2015. The vast majority of the department can be characterized by a Mediterranean climate.
However, the mountainous areas of the northwest have an oceanic influence. Some sectors of northern Herault can for their part know a temperate continental influence; the average temperature of the summer months is close to the maximum French average. The sea protects the coastal areas from the extremes of heat waves in summer, but frosts in winter, they range from about 27 degrees Celsius on the seashore to 32 degrees Celsius inland. Mean minimum temperatures are very varied, ranging from about 19 degrees Celsius on the coast to 15 degrees Celsius in the interior; the historical language is Occitan. The totemic animals of Herault are typical. During cultural events or local votive festivals, many towns or villages scroll through the streets a totemic animal representing their municipality; the sound of traditional Languedoc oboe or fife instruments accompany these parades. The most famous is the Foal of Pézenas. Indeed, UNESCO proclaimed the immaterial cultural heritage of humanity, the Processional giants and dragons in Belgium and France, which includes the Foal of Pézenas.
Béziers festivals: Fèsta d'Oc, Béziers's FeriaMontpellier festivals: I Love Techno Europe, Mediterranean Film Festival, Comédie du Livre, Montpellier Dance Festival,International Festival of Extreme Sports Pézenas festivals: Printival Boby Lapointe, Mirondela dels ArtsSète festivals: Sète's Jazz Festival, Documentary Photo Festival "Imagesingulieres", Poetry Festival "Vivid Voice of the Mediterranean in the Mediterranean" The Canal du Midi has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The agricultural area used in the department is nearly 30 % of the department. Viticulture is important with 85,525 hectares, other arable land is used for orchards with 3,400 hectares, artificial grasslands with 7,090 hectares, vegetable cultivation with 3,788 hectares, the cultivation of cereals with 20,095 hectares, fallows with 4,991 hectares; the vineyard is old and dates from before the founding of Gallia Narbonensis. The Hérault is today the second French wine department behind the Gironde, representing 14% of the total area of the department.
The department has both a favorable climate, excellent exposure, a wide variety of soils and a wide range of grape varieties: all the assets are there to produce generous wines, sometimes robust, with a wide aromatic palette AOC: Saint-Chinian, Faugères, Coteaux-du-languedoc, Clairette du Languedoc, Muscat de Frontignan, Muscat de Lunel, Muscat de Mireval
Étang de Thau
Étang de Thau or Bassin de Thau is the largest of a string of lagoons that stretch along the French coast from the Rhône River to the foothills of the Pyrenees and the border to Spain in the Languedoc-Roussillon. Although it has a high salinity, it is considered the second largest lake in France, it is 8 km wide, with an area of 7,012 hectares. The mean depth of the lagoon is 4.5m, but in the central navigation channel it can be 10 metres deep. Near Bouzigues there is a 100-metre diameter depression of 30 metres; this ` Fosse de la Vise' is the source of a hot spring. Its size and depth, which distinguish it from other lagoons of the region, is explained by the geomorphology of the region: it is the anticline formed from folding which produced the corresponding syncline of the Gardiole in the north east; until recently the lagoons from Marseillan to the Rhône were a continuous stretch of inland waterway. Early settlers described this as'une petite mer intérieure et tranquille', it provided access to, in particular, Marseillan - a fishing village.
Linked, now, by the Canal du Rhône à Sète to the river Rhône and by the Canal du Midi to Bordeaux via Toulouse, the lagoon has access to the Mediterranean at Sète. There is a small canal'le canal des Allemands' or the'pisse-saume' that links the western end to the sea at Marseillan Plage; this canal is only suitable for small craft since both railway bridges restrict height. To the east, between Balaruc and Sète, the borders of the lagoon are industrial; the south bank is formed by the coastal strip from Sète to Cap d'Agde. The northern side has villages dedicated to the production of shellfish. There are harbours in the towns of Marseillan, Mèze and Bouzigues, with smaller ports dedicated to shellfish on the northern shore. There is significant variation in the rainfall in the catchment basin for the lagoon, both seasonally and between years; the annual precipitation can range from 200 to 1,000 mm per year. As a result, the water temperature and salinity have extensive ranges. Water temperature ranges with salinities of 27 psu to 40 psu.
The salinity changes during the year with lows from peaks in July to January. Located between the towns of Sète and Marseillan in the Hérault département, the Étang de Thau is shared administratively by the communes of: Balaruc-le-Vieux, Balaruc-les-Bains, Frontignan, Sète, Marseillan, Mèze, Loupian and Bouzigues; as the lagoon is open to the sea, it has fish such as the gilt-head bream, Argyrosomus regius and sea bass. The lagoon produces 200 kg/ha/year of fish; however the shellfish industry is more economically important. Eighteen varieties of shellfish are taken from the lagoon - the most important being oysters. 750 producers take some 13,000 tonnes annually. This provides for about 8.5% of France's consumption. Oysters from the Étang de Thau are marketed under the name huîtres de Bouzigues after the village of Bouzigues where oyster production started, they are a flat variety. Fixed with cement to ropes, the young oysters are immersed in the water until they reach a size suitable for consumption.
Thau water is graded A and so shellfish can be caught and consumed within minutes. In addition to oysters, some 3,000 tonnes of mussels are produced every year. Apart from fishing and shellfish, the Étang de Thau provides income through tourism via sailing schools; the Bassin de Thau provides a habitat for a variety of wild animals, notably birds such as herons and pink flamingos and a rich marine fauna, including bivalves, jellyfish and algae. Periodically in the spring and summer, the Thau Lagoon has algae blooms of Alexandrium catenella which sometimes reach such high levels that it results in contamination of the lagoon's bivalves with algae toxins. Website of panoramic photos of the Thau lagoon and its region Photos of the Etang de Thau Thau fisheries Info on Thau and oysters
Sante Geronimo Caserio
Sante Geronimo Caserio was an Italian anarchist and the assassin of Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of the French Third Republic. Caserio was born in Lombardy. On 24 June 1894, he fatally stabbed President Carnot after a banquet, to avenge Auguste Vaillant and Émile Henry. Sante Caserio was a Lombardy-born son of a peasant family, who had many sisters, his father named him Geronimo in honor of the Apache leader. His father died of pellagra, at the time a common disease among farmers whose poor diet was almost corn. At ten years old, Sante Caserio left the family home and went to Milan, where he got a job as an apprentice baker and had his first contacts with anarchists. In Milan he joined a small group called "On Foot". Pietro Gori, referring to Caserio, remembered him as a generous person. Among the workers and unemployed, he divided bread and anarchist pamphlets he printed with his meager salary. In 1892 he was sentenced to eight months in prison for distributing anarchist leaflets. Identified and singled out during a public demonstration, he was forced to flee from Italy at the age of 18.
Declared a deserter, he sought a job as a baker in Vienne. He moved to Lyon on July 21, 1893 where he worked as a messenger. At his trial, Caserio described the assassination in detail: I heard the "Marseillaise" and the cries of "Viva Carnot!" I saw. I understood that the moment had come and I held myself ready. On seeing the President's carriage I threw away the sheath; when the carriage was passing close by me, I sprang forward to the step, supported myself by resting my left hand on the carriage, with my right hand buried the dagger in the President's breast. He stated to those in attendance:Well, if the rulers can use against us rifles and prisons, we must, we anarchists to defend our lives, we must stick to our principles? No. On the contrary, our response to the rulers will be dynamite, stiletto, dagger. In short, we must do everything possible to destroy the government. You who are representatives of bourgeois companies, if you want my head, you can take it! He never attempted to ask the judges for mercy.
He was offered the opportunity to plead insane, in exchange for giving the names of some of his accomplices, but he refused. He told the police "Caserio is a baker, never an informer." The Board of Pardons decided against all appeals for clemency on 14 August. Caserio was executed by guillotine in Lyon at 5am, 16 August 1894. In front of the guillotine, he exclaimed "Coraggio cugini—evviva l'anarchia!" His death mask is now in possession of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the former leader of the French party National Front. Media related to Sante Geronimo Caserio at Wikimedia Commons
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France, one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was succeeded by The Republicans. Nicolas Sarkozy the president of the UMP, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by PS candidate François Hollande in a run-off five years later. After the November 2012 party congress, the UMP experienced internal fractioning and was plagued by monetary scandals which forced its president, Jean-François Copé, to resign. After his re-election as UMP president in November 2014, Sarkozy put forward an amendment to change the name of the party into The Republicans, approved and came into effect on 30 May 2015; the UMP enjoyed an absolute majority in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2012 and was a member of the European People's Party, the Centrist Democrat International and the International Democrat Union.
Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1988 legislative elections. Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the centrist Union for French Democracy formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were both divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, elected, supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR and UDF created the Alliance for France in order to coordinate the actions of their parliamentary groups. Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move. After Chirac's re-election, in order to contest the legislative election jointly, the Union for the Presidential Majority was created.
It was as such established as a permanent organisation. The UMP was the merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic, the conservative-liberal party Liberal Democracy, a sizeable portion of the Union for French Democracy, more the UDF's Christian Democrats, the Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy. In the UMP four major French political families were thus represented: Gaullism, Christian democracy and radicalism. Chirac's close ally Alain Juppé became the party's first president at the party's founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79.42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the party's Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, three other candidates. During the party's earlier years, it was marked by tensions and rivalries between Juppé and other chiraquiens and supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy, the then-Minister of the Interior. In the 2004 regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, winning the presidencies of only 2 out of 22 regions in metropolitan France and only half of the departments in the simultaneous 2004 cantonal elections.
In the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP suffered another heavy blow, winning 16.6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, only 16 seats. Juppé resigned the party's presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the party's presidency with 85.09% of the votes against 9.1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5.82% for Christine Boutin, the leader of the UMP's social conservatives. Having gained control of what had been Chirac's party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery and his energies on the 2007 presidential election; the failure of the referendum on the European Constitution on 25 May 2005 led to the fall of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin.
However, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election. On 14 January 2007, Sarkozy was nominated unopposed as the UMP's presidential candidate for the 2007 election. On the issues, the party under Sarkozy publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had endorsed several times publicly, took a more right-wing position. On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. On 6 May he faced the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal in the second round and won, taking 53.06% of the vote. As a consequence, he resigned from the presidency of the UMP on 14 May 2007, two days before becoming President of the French Republic. François Fillon was appointed Prime Minister. On 17 June 2007, at a
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. About 10 million people, forming one-sixth of Italy's population, live in Lombardy and about a fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in the region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest regions in Europe. Milan, Lombardy's capital, is the largest metropolitan area in Italy; the word Lombardy comes from Lombard, which in turn is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz, related to German Barte. During the early Middle Ages "Lombardy" referred to the Kingdom of the Lombards, a kingdom ruled by the Germanic Lombards who had controlled most of Italy since their invasion of Byzantine Italy in 568; as such "Lombardy" and "Italy" were interchangeable. The Kingdom was divided between Longobardia Major in the north and Langobardia Minor in the south, which were until the 8th century separated by the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and the Papacy.
During the late Middle Ages, after the fall of the northern part of the Kingdom to Charlemagne, the term shifted to mean Northern Italy.. The term was used until around 965 in the form Λογγοβαρδία as the name for the territory covering modern Apulia which the Byzantines had recovered from the Lombard rump Duchy of Benevento. With a surface of 23,861 km2, Lombardy is the fourth-largest region of Italy, it is bordered by Switzerland and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont. Three distinct natural zones can be easily distinguished in Lombardy: mountains and plains—the latter being divided in Alta and Bassa; the orography of Lombardy is characterised by the presence of three distinct belts: a northern mountainous belt constituted by the Alpine relief, a central piedmont area of pebbly soils of alluvial origin, the Lombard section of the Padan plain in the southernmost part of the region. The most important mountainous area is an Alpine zone including the Lepontine and Rhaetian Alps, the Bergamo Alps, the Ortler Alps and the Adamello massif.
The plains of Lombardy, formed by alluvial deposits, can be divided into the Alta—an upper, permeable ground zone in the north and a lower zone—and the Bassa—dotted by the so-called line of fontanili, spring waters rising from impermeable ground. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above made is the small subregion of Oltrepò Pavese, formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po River; the mighty Po river marks the southern border of the region for a length of about 210 km. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino River, which rises in the Bedretto valley and joins the Po near Pavia; the other streams which contribute to the great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio and the Mincio. The numerous lakes of Lombardy, all of glacial origin, lie in the northern highlands. From west to east these are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Idro Lake Garda, the largest in Italy. South of the Alps lie the hills characterised by a succession of low heights of morainic origin, formed during the last Ice Age and small fertile plateaux, with typical heaths and conifer woods.
A minor mountainous area, the Oltrepò Pavese, lies south of the Po, in the Apennines range. In the plains, intensively cultivated for centuries, little of the original environment remains; the most commons trees are elm, sycamore, poplar and hornbeam. In the area of the foothills lakes, grow olive trees and larches, as well as varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolias, acacias. Numerous species of endemic flora in the Prealpine area include some kinds of saxifrage, the Lombard garlic, groundsels bellflowers and the cottony bellflowers; the highlands are characterised by the typical vegetation of the whole range of the Italian Alps. At a lower levels oak woods or broadleafed trees grow. Shrubs such as rhododendron, dwarf pine and juniper are native to the summital zone. Lombardy counts many protected areas: the most important are the Stelvio National Park, with alpine wildlife: red deer, roe deer, chamois, foxes and golden eagles. L
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Hartlepool, United Kingdom[4]
Neuburg an der Donau, Germany, since 1986.
El Jadida, Morocco, since 1992.
Cetara, Italy, since 2003.
