Rueil-Malmaison
Rueil-Malmaison is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of France. It is located 12.6 kilometres from the centre of Paris. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris. Rueil-Malmaison was called Rueil. In medieval times the name Rueil was spelled either Roialum, Rotoialum, Ruolium, or Ruellium; this name is made of the Celtic word ialo suffixed to a radical meaning "brook, stream", or maybe to a radical meaning "ford". In 1928, the name of the commune became Rueil-Malmaison in reference to its most famous tourist attraction, the Château de Malmaison, home of Napoléon's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais; the name Malmaison comes from Medieval Latin mala mansio, meaning "ill-fated domain", "estate of ill luck". In the Early Middle Ages Malmaison was the site of a royal residence, destroyed by the Vikings in 846. Rueil is famous for the Château de Malmaison where Napoleon and his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais lived. Upon her death in 1814, she was buried at the nearby Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church, which stands at the centre of the city.
The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, have been classified Monument historique since 1973. The Guard was formed by Louis XIII in 1616 and massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 during the French Revolution. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Rueil was located on the front line. At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town. Rueil is the principal location of the novel Loin de Rueil by the French novelist Raymond Queneau; the town is twinned with Surrey, in the United Kingdom. The Château de Malmaison, the residence of Napoléon's first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, is located in Rueil-Malmaison, it is home to a Napoleonic museum. The main campus of the French Institute of Petroleum research organisation is in Rueil; the city has become home to many large companies moving out of La Défense business district, located only 5 km from Rueil, a trend first established by the move of Esso headquarters to Rueil.
There are about 850 service sector companies located in Rueil, 70 of which employ more than 100 people. A business district called Rueil-sur-Seine was created near the RER A Rueil-Malmaison station to accommodate these companies; the business district is equipped with a fiber-optic network. Several major French companies have their world headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as Schneider Electric and VINCI. Schneider had its head office in Rueil-Malmaison since 2000. Several large international companies have located their French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as ExxonMobil, AstraZeneca, American Express and Unilever. Rueil-Malmaison is served by Rueil-Malmaison station on Paris RER line A. Public schools: 15 preschools 15 elementary schools Six junior high schools: Les Bons-Raisins, Henri-Dunant, La Malmaison, Les Martinets, Marcel-Pagnol, Jules-Verne Two senior high schools: Lycée Richelieu, Lycée polyvalent Gustave-EiffelPrivate schools: Collège et lycée Passy-Buzenval Collège et lycée Madeleine-Daniélou Collège Notre-Dame École maternelle et élémentaire Saint-Charles-Notre Dame Ecole maternelle élémentaire Charles-Peguy Ecole Montessori Bilingue de Rueil-MalmaisonThere are tertiary educational institutions in the area.
Jean-Marie Le Pen and his wife, Jany Le Pen, live in a two-story house on the rue Hortense. Rueil-Malmaison is twinned with: ^1 Sister City Communes of the Hauts-de-Seine department List of works by Eugène Guillaume INSEE Rueil-Malmaison Official website official Tourist Board of Rueil Malmaison
Foch Hospital
The Hôpital Foch is a celebrated teaching hospital in the Suresnes. Part of the Établissement de santé privé d'intérêt collectif and a teaching hospital of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University, it is one of Europe's largest hospitals, it has been created in 1929 with the help of Winnaretta Singer. It was named in honour of Marshal Foch. Through its history, the Foch Hospital hosted notable doctors, among others: Jozef Cywinski, Polish-American scientist. Foch Hospital
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in government for a longer time than any other political party in modern democratic Spain: from 1982 to 1996 under Felipe González; the PSOE was founded in 1879, which makes it the oldest party active in Spain. The PSOE played a key role during the Second Spanish Republic, being part of coalition government from 1931 to 1933 and from 1936 to 1939, when the Republic was defeated by Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. A Marxist party, it abandoned Marxism in 1979; the PSOE has had strong ties with the General Union of Workers, a Spanish trade union. For decades, UGT membership was a requirement for PSOE membership. However, since the 1980s UGT has criticized the economic policies of PSOE calling for a general strike against the PSOE government on 14 December 1988; the PSOE is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and the Socialist International. In the European Parliament, PSOE's 14 Members of the European Parliament sit in the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group.
PSOE was founded by Pablo Iglesias on 2 May 1879 in the Casa Labra tavern in Tetuán Street near the Puerta del Sol at the centre of Madrid. Iglesias was a typesetter who had become in contact in the past with the Spanish section of the International Working Men's Association and with Paul Lafargue; the first program of the new political party was passed in an assembly of 40 people, on 20 July of that same year. The bulk of the growth of the PSOE and its affiliated trade union, the Unión General de Trabajadores was chiefly restricted to the Madrid-Biscay-Asturias triangle up until the 1910s; the obtaining of a seat at the Congress by Pablo Iglesias at the 1910 legislative election, in which the PSOE candidates presented within the broad Republican–Socialist Conjunction, became a development of great symbolical transcendence, gave the party more publicity at the national level. The party and the UGT took a leading role in the general strike of August 1917, in the context of the events of the 1917 Crisis during the conservative government of Eduardo Dato.
The strike was crushed by the army with the result of further undermining of the constitutional order. Sent to the prison of Cartagena, they were released a year after being elected to the Cortes in the 1918 general election. During the 1919−1921 "Crisis of the Internationals" the party experienced tensions between the members endorsing the Socialist International and the advocates for joining the Third International. Two consecutive splits of dissidents willing to join the Komintern, namely the Spanish Communist Party in 1920, the Spanish Communist Workers' Party in 1921, broke away from the PSOE and soon merged to create the Communist Party of Spain; the party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. After the death of Pablo Iglesias in 1925, Julián Besteiro replaced the at the presidency of the PSOE and the UGT. During the 1923–1930 dictatorship of Primo de Rivera corporativist PSOE and UGT elements were willing to engage into limited collaboration with the regime, against the political stance defended by other socialists such as Indalecio Prieto and Fernando de los Ríos, who instead vouched for a closer collaboration with republican forces.
The last years of the dictatorship saw a divergence emerge among the "corporativists". The opposition of Besteiro to participate in the "Revolutionary Committee" led to his resignation as president both of the party and the trade union in February 1931, he was replaced as president of the party by Remigio Cabello. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic on 14 April 1931, three PSOE members were included in the cabinet of the provisional government: Indalecio Prieto, Fernando de los Ríos and Francisco Largo Caballero; the socialist presence remained in the rest of cabinets of the "Social-Azañist Biennium". After the November 1933 general election, which marked a win for the right-of-centre forces, in a climate of increasing polarization and growing unemployment along a desire to mend the mistake of not having sided along the republicans in the election against the united right, Largo Caballero adopted a revolutionary rhetoric. Indalecio Prieto had participated in the aggressive rhetoric, having condemned the heavy-hand repression of the December 1933 anarchist uprising by the government, cheered on by the CEDA parliamentary fraction leaders.
The Socialist Youth of Spain engaged into a shrilling revolutionary rhetoric, while Besteiro opposed the insurrectionary drift of the militancy. The formation of a new cabinet including CEDA ministers in October 1934 was perceived among the Left as a reaction, with the CEDA party being indistinguishable from contemporary Fascism to most workers, while CEDA leader Gil-Robles had vouched for the establishment of a corporative state in the 1933 electoral campaign. Having the UGT called for a general strike in the country for 5 October, the strike developed into a full-blown insurrection
Croix de Guerre
The Croix de Guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins; the decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, in other conflicts. The Croix de Guerre was commonly bestowed on foreign military forces allied to France; the Croix de Guerre may either be awarded as an individual or unit award to those soldiers who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy. The medal is awarded to those who have been "mentioned in dispatches", meaning a heroic deed or deeds were performed meriting a citation from an individual's headquarters unit; the unit award of the Croix de Guerre with palm was issued to military units whose members performed heroic deeds in combat and were subsequently recognized by headquarters. The Croix de Guerre medal varies depending on which country is bestowing the award and for what conflict. Separate French medals exist for the Second World War.
For the unit decoration of the Croix de Guerre, a fourragère is awarded. As the Croix de Guerre is issued as several medals, as a unit decoration, situations arose where an individual was awarded the decoration several times, for different actions, from different sources. Regulations permitted the wearing of multiple Croix de Guerre, meaning that such medals were differentiated in service records by specifying French Croix de Guerre, French Croix de Guerre, etc. There are three distinct Croix de Guerre medals in the French system of honours: Furthermore, the French collaborationist government created two croix during World War II; these croix are now illegal under French law and wearing them is outlawed: The Croix was created by a law of April 2, 1915, proposed by French deputy Émile Briant. The Croix reinstated an older system of mentions in dispatches, which were only administrative honours with no medal; the sculptor Paul-André Bartholomé created the medal, a bronze cross with swords, showing the effigy of the republic.
The French Croix represents a mention in dispatches awarded by a commanding officer, at least a regimental commander. Depending on the officer who issued the mention, the ribbon of the Croix is marked with extra pins. Mentioned in Despatches: a bronze star for those, mentioned at the regiment or brigade level. A silver star, for those, mentioned at the division level. A silver-gilt star for those, mentioned at the corps level. A bronze palm for those, mentioned at the army level. A silver palm stands for five bronze ones. A silver-gilt palm for those, mentioned at the Free French Forces level; the French Croix de guerre des TOE was created in 1921 for wars fought in theatres of operation outside France. It was awarded during the Indochina War, Korean War, other wars up to the Kosovo War in 1999; when World War II broke out in 1939, a new Croix de Guerre was created by Édouard Daladier. It was abolished by Vichy Government in 1941. In 1943 General Giraud in Algiers created another Croix de Guerre. Both Vichy and Giraud Croix were abolished by General de Gaulle in 1944, who reinstated the 1939 Croix.
The Croix de Guerre takes precedence between the Ordre national du Mérite and the Croix de la Valeur Militaire, the World War I Croix being senior to the World War II one, itself senior to TOE Croix. The Croix can be awarded to military units, as a manifestation of a collective Mention in Despatches, it is displayed on the unit's flag. A unit a regiment or a battalion, is always mentioned at the army level; the Croix is a Croix de Guerre with palm. Other communities, such as cities or companies can be awarded the Croix; when a unit is mentioned twice, it is awarded the fourragère of the Croix de Guerre. This fourragère is worn by all men in the unit, but it can be worn on a personal basis: those permanently assigned to a unit, at the time of the mentions, were entitled to wear the fourragère for the remainder of service in the military. Temporary personnel, or those who had joined a unit after the actions, mentioned, were authorized to wear the award while a member of the unit but would surrender the decoration upon transfer.
This temporary wearing of the fourragère only applied to the French version of the Croix de Guerre. The 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment of the British Army along with 5bty RA was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with palm for its gallant defence of Bois des Buttes on 27 May 1918, the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne In the United States military, the Croix de Guerre was accepted as a foreign decoration, it remains one of the more difficult foreign awards to verify entitlement. The Croix de Guerre unit and individual award were presented with original orders only and entered into a permanent service record; the 1973 National Archives Fire destroyed most of the World War II personnel records which are needed to verify a veteran's entitlement to the Croix de Guerre award. However, foreign unit award entitlements can be checked and verified through official unit history records. Veterans must provide proof of service in the unit cited at the time of action in order to be entitled to the award.
Individual foreign awards can be checked through foreign government military records. Regarding the United States in WWI, on April 10, 12, 13, 1918, the lines being held by the troops of the 104th Infantry Regiment, of the 26th "Yankee" Division, in Bois Brûlé, near Apremont in the Ardennes, were bombarded and attacked by the German
Île-de-France tramway Line 2
Île-de-France tramway Line 2 is part of the modern tram network of the Île-de-France region of France. Line T2 connects Paris-Porte de Versailles and Pont de Bezons serving notably the La Défense business district on its way; the line has a length of 24 stations. The initial section between La Défense and Issy–Val de Seine station opened in July 1997 uses a former heavy rail line converted into light rail whereas the further extensions on both ends opened in November 2009 and November 2012 feature segregated on-street running. Line T2 is operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens under the autority of Île-de-France Mobilités; because of the success of this line the trams were doubled in length in 2005, raising the capacity of each tram to 440 passengers
Fort Mont-Valérien
The Fort Mont-Valérien is a fortress in Suresnes, a western Paris suburb, built in 1841 as part of the city's ring of modern fortifications. It overlooks the Bois de Boulogne; the fortress defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, remained the strongest fortress protecting the city, withstanding artillery bombardments that lasted several months. The surrender of the fortress was one of the main clauses of the armistice signed by the Government of National Defense with Otto von Bismarck on 17 January 1871, allowing the Germans to occupy the strongest part of Paris' defences in exchange for shipments of food into the starving city. Colonel Henry of army intelligence, a key player in the Dreyfus Affair, was confined at the prison of Mont Valérien in 1898; the day after being confined, 31 August 1898, he cut his throat with a razor, left in his possession, taking to the grave his secret and that of a great part of the affaire Dreyfus. During the Second World War, the fortress was used, from 1940 to 1944, as a prison and place of executions by the Nazi occupiers of Paris.
The Germans brought prisoners to the prison in trucks from other locations. The prisoners were temporarily confined in a disused chapel, taken to be shot in a clearing 100 metres away; the bodies were buried in various cemeteries in the Paris area. More than 1,000 hostages and resistants were executed; the 1,014 recorded executions by the Wehrmacht at Mont-Valérien between 1941 and 1944 were all men as a French law, observed by the Germans, prohibited execution of women by firing squad. Olga Bancic, condemned to death as a member of the Affiche Rouge group, was deported to Stuttgart where she was beheaded by axe; the immense majority were members of the French Resistance, including: Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves, 29 August 1941. Nicolae Cristea, 9 March 1943 Missak Manouchian, Joseph Boczov, Léon Goldberg, Thomas Elek and 19 other members of the Affiche Rouge group, 21 February 1944; the site now serves as a national memorial. On 18 June 1945, Charles de Gaulle consecrated the site in a public ceremony.
Today, the area in front of the "Mémorial de la France combattante", a reminder of the French Resistance against the German occupation forces, has been named Square Abbé Franz Stock. During the German occupation, Stock took care of condemned prisoners here, he mentioned 863 executions at Mont Valérien in his diary. There is an American military cemetery on the site, which contains the remains of 1,541 American soldiers who died in France during the First World War. Order of the Liberation
Sister city
Sister cities or twin towns are a form of legal or social agreement between towns, counties, prefectures, regions and countries in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties. The modern concept of town twinning, conceived after the Second World War in 1947, was intended to foster friendship and understanding among different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation, to encourage trade and tourism. By the 2000s, town twinning became used to form strategic international business links among member cities. In the United Kingdom, the term "twin towns" is most used. In mainland Europe, the most used terms are "twin towns", "partnership towns", "partner towns", "friendship towns"; the European Commission uses the term "twinned towns" and refers to the process as "town twinning". Spain uses the term "ciudades hermanadas", which means "sister cities". Germany and the Czech Republic use Partnerstadt / miasto partnerskie / partnerské město, which translate as "partner town or city".
France uses ville jumelée, Italy has gemellaggio and comune gemellato. In the Netherlands, the term is stedenband. In Greece, the word αδελφοποίηση has been adopted. In Iceland, the terms vinabæir and vinaborgir are used. In the former Soviet Bloc, "twin towns" and "twin cities" are used, along with города-побратимы; the Americas, South Asia, Australasia use the term "sister cities" or "twin cities". In China, the term is 友好城市. Sometimes, other government bodies enter into a twinning relationship, such as the agreement between the provinces of Hainan in China and Jeju-do in South Korea; the douzelage is a town twinning association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union. Despite the term being used interchangeably, with the term "friendship city", this may mean a relationship with a more limited scope in comparison to a sister city relationship, friendship city relationships are mayor-to-mayor agreements. In recent years, the term "city diplomacy" has gained increased usage and acceptance as a strand of paradiplomacy and public diplomacy.
It is formally used in the workings of the United Cities and Local Governments and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and recognised by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. A March 2014 debate in the British House of Lords acknowledged the evolution of town twinning into city diplomacy around trade and tourism, but in culture and post-conflict reconciliation; the importance of cities developing "their own foreign economic policies on trade, foreign investment and attracting foreign talent" has been highlighted by the World Economic Forum. The earliest known town twinning in Europe was between Paderborn, Le Mans, France, in 836. Starting in 1905, Keighley in West Yorkshire, had a twinning arrangement with French communities Suresnes and Puteaux; the first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord in Nord, France, in 1920 following the end of the First World War. This was referred to as an adoption of the French town; the practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to promote mutual understanding and cross-border projects of mutual benefit.
For example, Coventry twinned with Stalingrad and with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, all three cities having been bombed during the war. The City of Bath formed an "Alkmaar Adoption committee" in March 1945, when the Dutch city was still occupied by the German Army in the final months of the war, children from each city took part in exchanges in 1945 and 1946. In 1947, Bristol Corporation sent five'leading citizens' on a goodwill mission to Hanover. Reading in 1947 was the first British town to form links with a former "enemy" city – Düsseldorf; the link still exists. Since 9 April 1956 Rome and Paris have been and reciprocally twinned with each other, following the motto: "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; the support scheme was established in 1989. In 2003 an annual budget of about €12 million was allocated to about 1,300 projects; the Council of European Municipalities and Regions works with the Commission to promote modern, high quality twinning initiatives and exchanges that involve all sections of the community.
It has launched a website dedicated to town twinning. As of 1995, the European Union had more than 7,000 bilateral relationships involving 10,000 European municipalities French and German. Public art has been used to celebrate twin town links, for instance in the form of seven mural paintings in the centre of the town of Sutton, Greater London; the five main paintings show a number of the main features of the London Borough of Sutton and its four twin towns, along with the heraldic shield of each above the other images. Each painting features a plant as a visual representation of its town's environmental awareness. In the case of Sutton this is in a separate smaller painting showing a beech tree, intended as a symbol of prosperity and from whi
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