1.
Saint-Brieuc Cathedral
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Saint-Brieuc Cathedral Basilica is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, France. The central porch is flanked by two towers, the 14th-century Tour Brieuc. Which is 92 feet high and the 15th-century Tour Marie, which is 108 feet in height and these towers have loop-holes and machicolations which would have allowed the use of a variety of defensive weapons and are supported by stout buttresses. The two arms of the transept jut far out and are protected by towers with pepper-pot roofs, although stripped of many of its treasures by the zealots of the French Revolution, it still holds many splendid artefacts and works of art. The Chapelle de lAnnonciation has, for example, a baroque altarpiece. The south arm of the transept is lit by 15th-century stained-glass windows and he stayed in Germains monastery until he reached the age of twenty-four when he was made a priest. He decided to travel to the Armorican peninsula and set off with a group of monks and he founded a monastery at what is now Tréguier but when called back to Wales because of a terrible plague there, he left his nephew Tugdual in charge. When he returned he found Tugdual totally in control and set off along the Léguer estuary, landed where Saint-Brieuc stands today, later he had the first cathedral built and took the role of bishop for himself. The first church or oratory on this site was built in wood in the 6th-century, nothing remains today of these two constructions. The 10th century saw many attacks on Saint-Brieuc by the Normans, Pierre had brought the Saint-Brieuc relics back to the town from Angers in October 1210. When he returned in 1231, he had a built on the south side of the building. His wish was to be buried in the chapel and this happened in 1234, the construction work was finished by Pinchons successor Philippe before his departure to the Holy Land in 1248. It was Bishop Philippe who moved to have Pinchon canonised on 12 April 1247, over one hundred years later the cathedral suffered much damage at the hands of the English during the destructive War of the Breton Succession and then by a fire at the end of 1353. After the fire, Bishop Guy de Montfort made the reconstruction a priority, now Bishop Guillaume Angier took charge of the reconstruction necessary and apart from the reconstruction of the choir, he finalised the long-awaited construction of the Tour Marie. Then Bishop Jean de Malestroit reconstructed the gable of the wing of the transept and had a magnificent window installed there. By the beginning of the 15th century, the cathedral was finished, finally, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw much restoration and important works including the repair of the vaulting and work on the window framing. As we have seen in this summary, the cathedral had to be rebuilt on many occasions this as a consequence of military attacks or natural disasters. The gisant on the dates to the 17th-century
2.
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
3.
Brittany (administrative region)
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Brittany is one of the 18 regions of France. It is named after the historic and geographic region of Brittany, the region of Brittany was created in 1941 on 80% of the territory of traditional Brittany. The remaining 20% is now called the Loire-Atlantique department which is included in the Pays de la Loire region, whose capital, part of the reason why Brittany was split between two present-day regions was to avoid the rivalry between Rennes and Nantes. Although Nantes was the capital of the Duchy of Brittany until the sixteenth century. Despite that, the Chambre des comptes had remained in Nantes until 1789, although there were previous plans to create Régions out of the Départements, like the Clémentel plan or the Vichy regionalisation programme, these plans had no effect or else were abolished in 1945. The current French Regions date from 1956 and were created by gathering Departements together, in Brittany, this led to the creation of the new Region of Brittany, which included only four out of the five historical Breton départements. The term region was created by the Law of Decentralisation. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. See History of Brittany Brittany, lying in the northwest corner of France, is one of the historic provinces of France. The most Atlantic of Frances regions, Brittany is proud of its Celtic heritage and it enjoys a mild climate somewhat warmer though not necessarily drier than the climate of the southwest of England. Quimper, the capital of the Finistère, and St. Brieuc and it is also the venue for Brittanys annual Interceltiques music and culture festival. Despite its limited size, Brittany is quite a diverse region, the south coast, facing onto the Bay of Biscay, is flatter, much milder, and graced by a number of large sandy beaches. The sea here is warmer in summer, the backbone of Brittany is a granite ridge stretching from east to west, peaking in the Monts dArrée. But most of inland Brittany is gentle farming country, a famous for its milk and butter. In cultural terms, Brittany is very distinctive, with its own language and Celtic cultural tradition that set it apart from the rest of France. The Breton language, though not much used in life, and not understood by most of the modern population, has made a comeback in recent years. Celtic traditions are alive or recalled today in Breton folk music, its Celtic festivals, the name of Brittany derives from settlers from Great Britain, who fled that island in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England between the fifth and seventh centuries. Unlike the rest of France and Brittany, Lower Brittany has maintained a distinctly Celtic language, Breton and it was the dominant language in Lower, or western, Brittany until the mid-20th century
4.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
5.
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
6.
English Channel
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The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
7.
Dinan
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Dinan is a walled Breton town and a commune in the Côtes-dArmor department in northwestern France. Instead of nestling on the floor like Morlaix, most urban development has been on the hillside. The area alongside the River Rance is known as the port of Dinan and is connected to the town by the steep streets Rue Jerzual, in the centre of Dinan the Rance summer flows are typically in the range of 500 cubic feet per second. Inhabitants of Dinan are called dinannais and dinannaises, the medieval town on the hilltop has many fine old buildings, some of which date from the 13th century. The town retains a large section of the city walls, part of which can be walked round, major historical attractions include the Jacobins Theatre dating from 1224, the flamboyant Gothic St Malos Church, the Romanesque St Saviours Basilica, Duchess Annes Tower and the Château de Dinan. A major highlight in the calendar is Dinans Fête des Remparts, the town is transformed with decoration and many locals dress up in medieval garb for this two-day festival. The festival takes place over the weekend in July every even-numbered year. In 2008,4. 97% of primary children attended bilingual schools. His heart is buried in Dinan, the hospital in Dinan is named after him. Horace Tuck, English painter, visited Dinan for its picturesque vistas Roger Vercel, writer, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1934, a college in the town is named after him
8.
Algae
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Algae is an informal term for a large, diverse group of photosynthetic organisms which are not necessarily closely related, and is thus polyphyletic. Included organisms range from unicellular genera, such as Chlorella and the diatoms, to forms, such as the giant kelp. Most are aquatic and autotrophic and lack many of the cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem, and phloem. No definition of algae is generally accepted, one definition is that algae have chlorophyll as their primary photosynthetic pigment and lack a sterile covering of cells around their reproductive cells. Some authors exclude all prokaryotes thus do not consider cyanobacteria as algae, Algae constitute a polyphyletic group since they do not include a common ancestor, and although their plastids seem to have a single origin, from cyanobacteria, they were acquired in different ways. Green algae are examples of algae that have primary chloroplasts derived from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, diatoms and brown algae are examples of algae with secondary chloroplasts derived from an endosymbiotic red alga. Algae exhibit a range of reproductive strategies, from simple asexual cell division to complex forms of sexual reproduction. Algae lack the various structures that characterize land plants, such as the phyllids of bryophytes, rhizoids in nonvascular plants, and the roots, leaves, and other organs found in tracheophytes. Most are phototrophic, although some are mixotrophic, deriving energy both from photosynthesis and uptake of organic carbon either by osmotrophy, myzotrophy, or phagotrophy. Some other heterotrophic organisms, such as the apicomplexans, are derived from cells whose ancestors possessed plastids. Fossilized filamentous algae from the Vindhya basin have been dated back to 1.6 to 1.7 billion years ago, the singular alga is the Latin word for seaweed and retains that meaning in English. Although some speculate that it is related to Latin algēre, be cold, a more likely source is alliga, binding, entwining. The Ancient Greek word for seaweed was φῦκος, which could mean either the seaweed or a red dye derived from it, the Latinization, fūcus, meant primarily the cosmetic rouge. It could be any color, black, red, green, accordingly, the modern study of marine and freshwater algae is called either phycology or algology, depending on whether the Greek or Latin root is used. The name Fucus appears in a number of taxa, most algae contain chloroplasts that are similar in structure to cyanobacteria. Chloroplasts contain circular DNA like that in cyanobacteria and presumably represent reduced endosymbiotic cyanobacteria, however, the exact origin of the chloroplasts is different among separate lineages of algae, reflecting their acquisition during different endosymbiotic events. The table below describes the composition of the three groups of algae. Their lineage relationships are shown in the figure in the upper right, many of these groups contain some members that are no longer photosynthetic
9.
Jean Boucher (artist)
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Jean Boucher was a French sculptor based in Brittany. He is best known for his public memorial sculptures which communicated his liberal politics and patriotic dedication to France, Boucher was born in Cesson-Sévigné near Rennes, Brittany. After his early schooling Boucher learned the trade of a blacksmith, pierre Lenoir, professor at the regional school of Rennes, taught the rudiments of fine art to him, and soon realised his young pupils aptitude. In the 1890s he worked on restorations for the cathedral of Saint Samson in Dol-de-Bretagne and he obtained a government grant to continue his studies in Paris where he met his mentors Alexandre Falguière at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu of the Académie Julian. Both gave him a respect for truth in sculpture, a product of the trend of Realism associated with Jules Dalou. In 1898 Boucher joined the Bleus de Bretagne, an organisation founded to promote liberal values in Brittany, Boucher was described by Armand Dayot as a Breton, Dreyfusard and freethinker. In this capacity he was commissioned to create a sculpture commemorating the skeptical thinker Ernest Renan in Renans home town of Tréguier. The sculpture, depicting Renan with the goddess Athena, was controversial, being interpreted as a challenge to Catholicism. Bouchers association with liberal and anti-clerical values led to a commission to depict the liberal hero Victor Hugo in exile on Guernsey, Hugo is depicted looking out from the island back to France, brooding over his exile, and standing on a rocky outcrop. In 1907 Boucher created a memorial to prominent Dreyfus supporter and human rights activist Ludovic Trarieux in Place Denfert-Rochereau. Another large marble in Paris is at the Place Saint-Ferdinand and it depicts Léon Serpollet in his land speed record winning steam car, surrounded by children enveloped by the steam. Boucher was also commissioned to create a sculpture representing the union of Brittany with France. This too created controversy, particularly among Breton nationalists, who resented the union and they complained that the portrayal of Anne of Brittany was demeaning, as she was shown kneeling to the French king. The Breton Nationalist Party was founded to protest its creation, and in 1932 the sculpture was bombed by Gwenn ha du, the date was designed to coincide with anniversary of Breton union with France in 1532. Fragments of the work have been preserved. Boucher also created uncontroversial memorial sculptures to distinguished cultural figures, such as Yves Guyot, Charles Le Goffic, Boucher did his duty as a soldier during World War I. Called to bear arms with the rank of sergeant, he ended the war as a lieutenant, winner of the Croix de guerre, and suffering the effects of gassing. Appointed Professor at the lécole des beaux-Arts, he continued to work on his art and he is the creator of the monuments dedicated to the Saint-Cyriens, to the marshal Joseph Gallieni of Verdun, to the American volunteers, to the aviator Èdouard Mounier and others
10.
Communes of France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them
Aberystwyth, Wales,[5]
United Kingdom
Agia Paraskevi, Greece
Alsdorf, Germany
Goražde, Bosnia and Herzegovina
