Dordogne

Saturday, 29 December 2012

The Dordogne, France: Lascaux's Prehistoric Cave Paintings

The Dordogne, France: Perfectly Medieval Beynac

Vallée de la Dordogne : Villages d'exception

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Ain
Ain (French pronunciation: [ɛ̃]; Arpitan: En) is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation. It has an excellent transport network (TGV, highways) and benefits from the proximity to the international airports of Lyon and Geneva.
Ain is composed of four geographically different areas (Bresse, Dombes, Bugey and Pays de Gex) which – each with its own characteristics – contribute to the diversity and the dynamic economic development of the department. In the Bresse agriculture and agro-industry are dominated by the cultivation of cereals, cattle breeding, milk and cheese production as well as poultry farming. In the Dombes, pisciculture assumes greater importance as does viticulture in the Bugey. The high diversification of the department's industry is accompanied by a strong presence of the plastics sector in and around Oyonnax (so-called "Plastics Valley").

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Aisne
Aisne (French pronunciation: [ɛːn]) is a department in the northern part of France, named after a river.
Aisne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Île-de-France, Picardie, and Champagne.
Most of the old growth forests in the area were destroyed during battles in World War I. The French offensive against the Chemin des Dames in spring 1917 is sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of the Aisne.
Aisne borders the Ardennes Forest and Belgium to the northeast. The Aisne River crosses the area from east to west, where it joins the Oise River. The Marne forms part of the southern boundary of the department with the department of Seine-et-Marne. The southern part of the department is the geographical region known as la Brie poilleuse, a drier plateau known for its dairy products and Brie cheese.
The landscape is dominated by masses of rock which often have steep flanks. These rocks appear all over the region, but the most impressive examples are at Laon and the Chemin des Dames ridge.

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Allier
Allier (French pronunciation: [a.lje]; Occitan: Alèir) is a department in central France named after the river Allier.
Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.
In 1940, the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain chose the town of Vichy as its capital. Vichy also became the department's second sub-prefecture in 1940, since the department now found itself split by the demarcation line between the occupied and (relatively, at least initially) free zones of France.
The department belongs to the region Auvergne and is surrounded by the following French departments: Cher, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, and Creuse.
The following rivers run through Allier:
Allier is the most productive agricultural area of the Auvergne. Vichy has long been known for its water, which is exported worldwide.
Montluçon, Vichy, and Moulins are the principal cities. The rest of the department consists of smaller towns, mostly along the rivers. In general, the department is sparsely populated. The population increased until the end of the 19th century because of the growth of industry in Montluçon and Moulins and development of the thermal resources at Vichy. At that time the department had over 420,000 inhabitants. After the losses of World War I, the population stagnated, with a small increase in the 1960s. Since then, it has decreased slightly from 386,533 in 1968 to 344,721 in 1999.

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Aquitaine
Aquitaine (French pronunciation: [a.ki.tɛn], English /ˌækwɪˈteɪn/; Occitan: Aquitània; Basque: Akitania), archaic Guyenne/Guienne (Occitan: Guiana), is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It is composed of the 5 departments of Dordogne, Lot et Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. In the Middle Ages Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.
There are traces of human settlement by prehistoric peoples, especially in the Périgord, but the earliest attested inhabitants in the south-west were the Aquitani, who were not proper Celtic people, but more akin to the Iberians (see Gallia Aquitania). Although a number of different languages and dialects were in use in the area during ancient times, it is most likely that the prevailing language of Aquitaine during the late pre-historic to Roman period was an early form of the Basque language. This has been demonstrated by various Aquitanian names and words that were recorded by the Romans, and which are currently easily readable as Basque. Whether this Aquitanian language (Proto-Basque) was a remnant of a Vasconic language group that once extended much farther, or whether it was generally limited to the Aquitaine/Basque region is not currently known. One reason the language of Aquitaine is important is because Basque is the last surviving non-Indo-European language in western Europe and it has had some effect on the languages around it, including Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French.

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Ardèche
Ardèche (French pronunciation: [aʁ.dɛʃ]; Occitan and Arpitan: Ardecha) is a department in south-central France named after the Ardèche River.
The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardeche River has extensive standing stones (dolmens and menhirs), erected thousands of years ago.^{[citation needed]} The river is the largest natural canyon in Europe and the caves that dot the cliffs (which go as high as 300 m (1,000 feet) are known for signs of prehistoric inhabitants (arrowheads and flint knives are often found).
The Vivarais, as the Ardèche is still called, takes its name and coat-of-arms from Viviers, which was the capital of the Gaulish tribe of Helvii, part of Gallia Narbonensis, after the destruction of their previous capital at Alba-la-Romaine. Saint Andéol, a disciple of St Polycarp, is supposed to have evangelized the Vivarais during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, and was supposedly martyred in 208. (Legend tells of Andéol's burial by Amycia Eucheria Tullia.) Auxonius, in 430, transferred the see to Viviers as a result of the problems suffered at its previous site in Alba Augusta.

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Ariège
Ariège (French pronunciation: [aʁjɛʒ]; Occitan: Arièja) is a department in southwestern France named after the Ariège River.
Ariège is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the counties of Foix and Couserans.
Foix is the administrative capital of the Ariège. It is an ancient medieval town with a fortress Chateau de Foix perched on a hill overlooking it. The fortress has been attacked many times without capture, including an attempt by Simon de Montfort. It has also been used as a prison, and the names of English Prisoners of War can still be seen on the cell walls. Another famous chateau in the Ariège is Montségur, located on a rocky outcrop at a height of 1200 metres (3,900 ft). During the Albigensian Crusade and siege of 1244 AD the chateau was largely destroyed, with more than two hundred Cathar priests burnt at the stake as heretics. The chateau was gradually rebuilt by Royalists over a period of the next three hundred years.

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Aube
Aube (French pronunciation: [ob]) is a department in the northeastern part of France named after the Aube River. In 1995, its population was 293,100 inhabitants.
Aube 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 Champagne.
The territory making up Aube was first attached to France in 843, following the Treaty of Verdun.
After the allied victory over Napoleon at Waterloo the department was occupied by Russian troops between June 1815 and November 1818.
In 1911, following the revolt of the Champagne producers, a series of major riots erupted in Aube. Dozens of serious injuries resulted.
In 1919, by a new decree, Aube wine producers were authorized to produce champagne.
Aube is perhaps best known for the 1932 visit of the late Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who signed a friendship treaty with France there on 4 July 1938.
The department is part of the current region of Champagne-Ardenne. It is surrounded by the departments of Marne, Haute-Marne, Côte-d'Or, Yonne, and Seine-et-Marne.

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Aude
Aude (French pronunciation: [od]; Occitan: Aude) is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".
Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother of Saint Hubertus's brother Eudo. Aude was the name of Roland's fiancée in the chansons de gestes.
Human traces have been found in the department from 1,500,000 years BCE in the form of hammers and worked tools on the hill of Grazailles at Carcassonne. The most interesting discovery, however, is that of the skull of ‘Tautavel Man’ made by Henry de Lumley in the commune of Tautavel in the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is the oldest skull known in Europe. It dates from about 450,000 years BCE. It is likely that Tautavel Man lived in all of this region.
The Romans, led by the consul-general Domitius Ahenobarbus, installed themselves first of all at Narbonne in 118 BCE on the oppidum of Montlaurès, which became the provincial capital and a very active mercantile port. The position was strategically important since it stood at the cross roads of two Roman roads, the Via Aquitania and the Via Domitia, as well as by the sea and near the mouth of the River Aude. Carcassonne became Latin in 30 BCE with the creation of numerous grain farms. For almost two centuries, the Aude enjoyed peace and strong economic growth.

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Aveyron
Aveyron (French pronunciation: [avɛʁɔ̃]; Occitan: Avairon [avajˈɾu]) is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River.
Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790.
The first known historical inhabitants of the region were the Rutenii tribe, but the area was inhabited previously to this, boasting many prehistoric ruins.
During the medieval and early modern periods, and until the 1790s, the territory covered by Aveyron was a province known as Rouergue.
In 1817, a local prosecutor Antoine Bernardin Fualdès was assassinated. The sordid circumstances of his death, following which his body was found floating in the Aveyron River, led to the matter becoming publicised as a cause célèbre. Recent studies have indicated that he met his end on the initiative of a right wing royalist organisation known as the Chevaliers de la Foi (Knights of the Faith).
The department is part of the current Midi-Pyrénées region. It is surrounded by the départements of Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot, Hérault, Gard, Lozère, and Cantal.

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Boisseuilh
Coordinates: 45°17′21″N 1°10′44″E / 45.2892°N 1.1789°E / 45.2892; 1.1789
Boisseuilh (pronounced 'Bwussoy') is a commune in the Dordogne department in southwestern France.

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Calvados
The French department of Calvados (pronounced: [kal.va.dos]) is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast. The pronunciation varies: in French the final 's' is not mute; in English usually Calvadoss with stress on the first syllable.
Calvados is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from a part of the former province of Normandy. The name "Orne inférieure" was originally proposed for the department, but it was ultimately decided to call the area Calvados.
Its etymology is most likely derived from the Salvador, a ship from the Spanish Armada that sank by the rocks near Arromanches-les-bains in 1588. However, others insist that the name Calvados was derived from calva dorsa, meaning bare backs, in reference to two sparsely vegetated rocks off its shore.
After the allied victory at Waterloo the department was occupied by Prussian troops between June 1815 and November 1818.

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Cantal
Cantal (French pronunciation: [kɑ̃.tal]; Occitan: Cantal, Cantau, Chantal, Chantau) is a department in south-central France. It is named after the Cantal mountain range, a group of extinct, eroded volcanic peaks, which covers much of the department. Residents are known as Cantaliens or Cantalous.
Cantal is part of the current region of Auvergne. It borders the departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Aveyron, Lot, Lozère, and Corrèze. Its principal towns are Aurillac, Saint-Flour, and Mauriac. The highest point in Cantal is Le Plomb du Cantal at 1858 metres.
Cantal remains, with Lozère and Creuse, one of the most sparsely populated and geographically isolated French departments. Aurillac is the farthest removed departmental capital from a major motorway.
Cantal is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from a part of the former province of Auvergne, called Haute-Auvergne.
The Occitan language was historically dominant in Cantal.

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Cavarc
Coordinates: 44°41′27″N 0°38′32″E / 44.6908°N 0.6422°E / 44.6908; 0.6422
Cavarc is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France.

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Charente
Charente (French pronunciation: [ʃa.ʁɑ̃t], Saintongeais: Chérente, Occitan: Charanta) is a department in southwestern France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, named after the Charente River, the most important river in the department, and also the river beside which the department's two largest towns, Angoulême and Cognac, are sited.
Charente is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Angoumois, west and south of Saintonge.
Prior to the creation of the department, the area was not a natural unit, but much of it was commercially prosperous thanks to traditional industries such as salt and cognac production. Although the river became silted up and was unnavigable for much of the twentieth century, in the eighteenth century it provided important links with coastal shipping routes both for traditional businesses and for newly evolving ones such as paper goods and iron smelting.
The accelerating pace of industrial and commercial development during the first half of the nineteenth century led to a period of prosperity, and the department's population peaked in 1851. During the second half of the nineteenth century Charente, like many of France's rural departments, experienced a declining population as the economic prospects available in the cities and in France's overseas empire attracted the working age generations away. Economic ruin came to many in the Charentais wine industry with the arrival in 1872 of phylloxera.

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Château de Beynac
The Château de Beynac is a castle situated in the commune of Beynac-et-Cazenac, in the Dordogne département of France. The castle is one of the best-preserved and best known in the region.
This Middle Ages construction, with its austere appearance, is perched on top of a limestone cliff, dominating the town and the north bank of the Dordogne River.
The castle was built from the 12th century by the barons of Beynac (one of the four baronies of Périgord) to close the valley. The sheer cliff face being sufficient to discourage any assault from that side, the defences were built up on the plateau: double crenellated walls, double moats, one of which was a deepened natural ravine, double barbican.
The oldest part of the castle is a large, square-shaped, Romanesque keep with vertical sides and few openings, held together with attached watch towers and equipped with a narrow spiral staircase terminating on a crenellated terrace. To one side, a residence of the same period is attached; it was remodelled and enlarged in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other side is a partly 14th century residence side-by-side with a courtyard and a square plan staircase serving the 17th century apartments. The apartments have kept their woodwork and a painted ceiling from the 17th century. The Salle des États (States' Hall) has a Renaissance sculptured fireplace and leads into a small oratory entirely covered with 15th century frescoes, included a Pietà, a Saint Christopher, and a Last Supper in which Saint Martial (first bishop of Limoges) is the maître d'hôtel.

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Château de Biron
The Château de Biron is a castle in the in the valley of the Lède in the commune of Biron in the Dordogne département of France.
It was the castle from which the Gontaut-Biron took their name, their seat from the twelfth century. Biron was seized by the Cathars in 1211 and retaken by Simon IV de Montfort the following year. The Plantagenets held it at times during the 14th and 15th centuries. Biron was erected as a duché-pairie in 1598, for Charles de Gontaut, created duc de Biron.
The present château bears additions over the centuries that make a picturesque ensemble: a twelfth century keep, sixteenth-century living quarters, a chapel and vaulted kitchens. The commune purchased the Château de Biron in 1978, with a view to restoring the structure as a tourist draw.
Since 1928, the Château de Biron has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
Coordinates: 44°37′56″N 0°52′21″E / 44.63222°N 0.8725°E / 44.63222; 0.8725

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Château de Commarque
The Château de Commarque is a castle located between Sarlat and Les Eyzies, in the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil in the Dordogne département, southern France. It stands on a rocky outcrop in the valley of the river Beune.
The castle was founded during the 12th century, or possibly slightly prior to it, upon the request of the abbots of Sarlat. At this time the Château de Commarque was only a wooden tower, and its primary concerns were to discourage the ambitions of the Beynac family and to insure the safety of the valley. It was placed at the crossing of two important commercial roads: the road from Périgueux to Cahors and the road from Brive-la-Gaillarde to Bergerac.
After the Beynac family took the control of the castle, the wooden tower was replaced by a stone keep. The fortification was enhanced, and the keep was gradually heightened until 18th century. The Beynacs, lords of the area, dwelt in the keep.
During the Hundred Years' War, it was captured by the English who held the place for several years.

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Château de Hautefort
The Château de Hautefort is a French château and gardens located in the town of Hautefort in the Dordogne. The château was reconstructed in the 17th century, and embellished with a Garden à la française. In 1853, the landscape architect, Count of Choulot, redid the gardens, adding a landscape garden, geometric flower gardens, topiary gardens imitating the domes of the château, and a long tunnel of greenery. Next to the formal gardens is a hill with an Italian garden with winding shaded paths. Notable trees in the park include a Magnolia grandiflora and a Cedar of Lebanon. The gardens are listed by the Committee of Parks and Gardens of the Ministry of Culture of France as one of the Notable Gardens of France.
Coordinates: 45°15′36″N 1°08′43″E / 45.2599°N 1.1452°E / 45.2599; 1.1452

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Château de Puymartin
The Château de Puymartin is a castle in the commune of Marquay, France, located between Sarlat (8 km) and Les Eyzies (11 km), in the Dordogne department.
The castle was built during the 13th century. It was taken by the English in 1357. The consuls of Sarlat bought the domaine back from the English but then abandoned the castle.
Radulphe de Saint-Clar re-purchased it in 1450 and enlarged it.
During the 16th century, Raymond de Saint-Clar defeated the Protestants during the French Wars of Religion. Under the name of Capitaine de Puymartin, he expelled the Huguenots from Sarlat.
During the 18th Century, Jean de Saint-Clar contended with his sister Suzanne for possession of the castle. Suzanne won and kept Puymartin. The castle was finally abandoned during the 18th century.
During the 19th century, the marquis of Carbonnier de Marzac restored the castle in a neo-gothic style.
Château de Puymartin is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
Coordinates: 44°54′38″N 1°8′33″E / 44.91056°N 1.1425°E / 44.91056; 1.1425

wn.com/Château_de_Puymartin
Château de Pécany
The Château de Pécany is a castle located in the commune of Pomport, in the Dordogne Valley in France.
The Château de Pécany was built by the de Courssou family in 1780 on the foundations of an older structure that probably dates to the 16th century.
In 1840 the château was modified to include two towers and a large central staircase. Located in one of the oldest wine growing regions in France, Château Pécany had a small vineyard for producing house wine. With excellent terrain, soil, and environment, this vineyard developed a reputation for producing some of the best wines of the region.

Jean Siegler (second cousin to the de Courssou Family) bought the property in 1926, and, over time, enlarged the vineyard by buying surrounding land and plantation rights. The Pécany wine was first offered for commercial sale during this time. The château and vineyards remained in the Siegler family until, in the spring of 1973, a local farmer and vintner Jean Saladin bought most of the vineyards for his son Gérard Saladin. Under G. Saladin's relatively poor management and lack of attention, the quality of the vinification gradually decreased until, in 1998, Gérard Saladin opted to convert to the less time consuming, and less profitable, path of selling bulk wine to the local vintners co-operative. During this past year, G. Saladin did not vinify any wine, but instead sold the Pécany grapes in bulk.

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Château des Milandes
The Château des Milandes is a small castle in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle in the Dordogne département of France. Built around 1489, it was the main house of the lords of Caumont until 1535, who preferred to live in this manor house instead of the large, uncomfortable medieval castle of Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle.
In 1940, the entertainer Josephine Baker rented the château and then bought it in 1947.
It has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1986.
Coordinates: 44°49′25″N 1°06′48″E / 44.82361°N 1.11333°E / 44.82361; 1.11333

wn.com/Château_des_Milandes
Connezac
Coordinates: 45°30′40″N 0°31′41″E / 45.5112°N 0.528°E / 45.5112; 0.528
Connezac is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
The commune has no main village, while the church and the castle are in Connezac the town hall is in the hamlet Maine Rousset. Other hamlets are Fontenille, Lafarge and Maine du Bost.

Looking from Connezac to Belussière castle
Church
Bell tower
St Martins nave

wn.com/Connezac
Corrèze
Corrèze (French pronunciation: [kɔ.ʁɛːz]; Occitan: Corresa) is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.
The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.
Corrèze is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It includes part of the former province of Limousin (the Bas-Limousin).
The 1851 census recorded a population of 320,866: this remained relatively constant for the rest of the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, however, Corrèze shared the experience of many of the country's rural departments as the population fell steadily.
Within Corrèze the nineteenth-century railway planners, influenced in part by the department's topography, endowed Brive-la-Gaillarde with good connections and a major junction from which railway lines fanned out in six different directions. The railways arrived in 1860, at an opportune moment, directly after phylloxera had destroyed the local wine industry. The new railways enabled the farms in the area surrounding Brive to specialise in fruits and vegetables which they could now transport rapidly to the larger population centres of central and southern France. Locally, the new agriculture triggered the development, in the Brive basin, of related businesses and industries such as the manufacture of jams and liquors, as well as timber/paper-based packaging businesses.

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Coubjours
Coordinates: 45°14′54″N 1°15′30″E / 45.2483°N 1.2583°E / 45.2483; 1.2583
Coubjours is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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Creuse
Creuse (French pronunciation: [kʁøz]; Occitan: Cruesa) is a department in central France named after the Creuse River.
Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of La Marche.
The County of Marche (Occitan: la Marcha) was a medieval French county, approximately corresponding to the modern département of Creuse. Marche first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century, when William III, Duke of Aquitaine, gave it to one of his vassals named Boso, who took the title of count. In the 12th century, the countship passed to the family of Lusignan. They also were sometimes counts of Angoulême and counts of Limousin. With the death of the childless Count Guy in 1308, his possessions in La Marche were seized by Philip IV of France. In 1316 the king made La Marche an appanage for his youngest son the Prince, afterwards Charles IV. Several years later in 1327, La Marche passed into the hands of the House of Bourbon. The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons. In 1527 La Marche was seized by Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute Marche and Basse Marche, the estates of the former continuing until the 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution, the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris.

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Dordogne
Dordogne (French pronunciation: [dɔʁ.dɔɲ]; Occitan: Dordonha) is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great Dordogne River that runs through it. It roughly corresponds with the ancient county of Périgord.
The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls, it was home to four tribes, the name for "four tribes" in the Gaulish language was "Petrocore". The area eventually became known as the county of Le Périgord and its inhabitants became known as the Périgordins (or Périgourdins). There are four Périgords in the Dordogne: the "Périgord Vert" (Green Périgord) with its main town of Nontron, consists of verdant valleys in a region crossed by many rivers and streams; the "Périgord Blanc" (White Périgord) situated around the department's capital of Périgueux, is a region of limestone plateaux, wide valleys and meadows; the "Périgord Pourpre" (Purple Périgord) with its capital of Bergerac, is a wine region; and the "Périgord Noir" (Black Périgord) surrounding the administrative center of Sarlat, overlooks the valleys of the Vézère and the Dordogne, where the woods of oak and pine give it its name.

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Doubs
Doubs (French pronunciation: [du]; Arpitan: Dubs) is a department the Franche-Comté region of eastern France named after the Doubs River.
As early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the northern two-thirds of Doubs spoke the Franc-Comtois language, a dialect of Langue d'Oïl. Residents of the southern third of Doubs spoke a dialect of the Arpitan language. Both languages co-existed with French, the official language of law and commerce, and continued to be spoken frequently in rural areas into the 20th century. They are both still spoken today but not on a daily basis.
Doubs was important as a portal to Switzerland through the pass at Joux. Many famous people, including Mirabeau, Toussaint Louverture and Heinrich von Kleist, were imprisoned in the Château de Joux.
Doubs 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 Franche-Comté. The prefecture (capital) is Besançon.
In 1793, the republic of Mandeure was annexed by France and incorporated into the department. This district was passed between various territories and departments in the ensuing administrative reorganisations and wars, but was restored to Doubs in 1816 when the former principality of Montbéliard was also added to the department.

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Drôme
Drôme (French pronunciation: [dʁom]; Droma in Occitan, Drôma in Arpitan), a département in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.
St Vallier in Drôme, was the birthplace of one of France's most famous courtesans, the noble-born Diane de Poitiers (1499-1566), long-term mistress of King Henri II (1547-1559).
The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution. The territory formed part of the former French province of Dauphiné.
Drôme lies within the region of Rhône-Alpes (Rôno-Arpes) and is surrounded by the departments of Ardèche, Isère, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Vaucluse.
The boundaries of the department have changed several times with the incorporation of the Comtat Venaissin in 1792 and the creation of the department of Vaucluse in 1793. Drôme surrounds an enclave of the department of Vaucluse, the Canton of Valréas (Enclave des Papes).
The President of the General Council is Didier Guillaume of the Socialist Party.

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Essonne
Essonne (pronounced: [ɛ.sɔn]) is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.
It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.
The Essonne department was created on 1 January 1968, from the southern portion of the former department of Seine-et-Oise.
In June 1963 Carrefour S.A. opened the first hypermarket in the Paris region at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (although the word "hypermarche" was first used only in 1966). Based on the ideas put forward by the American logistics pioneer Bernardo Trujillo, the centre offered on a single 2,500 m² (26,909.78 sq ft) site a hitherto unknown combination of wide choice and low prices, supported by 400 car parking spaces.
In 1969, the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble were separated from Essonne and added to the department of Yvelines.
Essonne belongs to the region of Île-de-France.
It has borders with the departments of:
All of northern Essonne department belongs to the Parisian agglomeration and is very urbanized. The south remains rural.

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Eure
Eure (French pronunciation: [œʁ]) is a department in the north of France named after the river Eure.
Eure 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 Normandy.
After the allied victory at Waterloo, Eure was occupied by Prussian troops between June 1815 and November 1818.
In the wake of Louis-Napoléons December coup of 1851, Eure was one of the departments placed under a state of emergency in order to avert resistance to the post-republican régime. In the event fewer than 100 government opponents in Eure were arrested.
Eure is part of the current region of Haute-Normandie and is surrounded by the departments of Seine-Maritime, Oise, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, Eure-et-Loir, Orne, and Calvados.
The department is a largely wooded plateau intersected by the valleys of the Seine River and its tributaries.
The altitude varies from sea level to 248 metres in the south.
The President of the General Council is Jean-Louis Destans of the Socialist Party.

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Eymet
Coordinates: 44°40′07″N 0°23′56″E / 44.6686°N 0.3989°E / 44.6686; 0.3989
Eymet is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
It is notable as a popular location amongst British expatriates, who account for a third of the local population.
Eymet is situated in the Périgord region, on the river Dropt.
The Bastide was founded in 1270, by Alphonse de Poitiers, Count of Toulouse and brother of Louis IX of France. The village is situated at the extreme south of the Department of Dordogne on the CD933 between Bergerac and Marmande.
It is around 20 km south of Bergerac, and around 100 km east of Bordeaux.
During the summer of 2011 a TV production company filmed a series of reality TV programmes describing the life of various ex-pat UK citizens now living in the Dordogne, with an emphasis on Eymet. The series was first shown shown in autumn 2011, on Monday evenings, on ITV1, as twelve 30 minute episodes under the title "Little England".
Although it explored much of the region some commentators found it less than exciting.

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Finistère
Finistère (French pronunciation: [fi.nis.tɛʁ]; Breton: Penn-ar-Bed) is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.
The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel. The Breton name for Finistère Penn ar Bedd translates as Head/End of the World and is cognate with the Cornish equivalent for Land's End Pen-an-Wlas (Head/End of the country). Finistère is not to be confused with Finisterre in Spain.
The present department consists of the historical region of Léon and parts of Cornouaille and Trégor.
The largest population center in Finistère is Brest. Other large towns in the department include Quimper (the capital), Morlaix, Carhaix, and Douarnenez. Finistère includes the island of Ushant (Eusa in Breton, Ouessant in French).
Finistère is the westernmost region of France (excluding the overseas departments). By several criteria, Finistère can also claim to be the most coastal department in Metropolitan France. Of its 283 communes, 118 are located on the coast. Its total coastline of approximately 1,250 km (776.71 mi) accounts for almost a quarter of the entire French coast-line.

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French Guiana
French Guiana (French: Guyane française; French pronunciation: [ɡɥijan fʁɑ̃sɛz]; officially just Guyane) is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations: Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its 83,534 km² (32,253 sq mi) have a very low population density of less than 3 /km² (7.8 /sq mi), with almost half of its 229,000 people in 2009 living in the urban area of Cayenne, its capital.
The addition of the adjective "French" in English comes from colonial times when five such colonies existed (The Guianas), namely from west to east: Spanish Guiana (now Guayana Region in Venezuela), British Guiana (now Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now Suriname), French Guiana, and Portuguese Guiana (now Amapá, a state in far northern Brazil). French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as the Guianas and comprise one large shield landmass.

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Gard
Gard (French pronunciation: [ɡaʁ]; Occitan: Gard) is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
The department is named after the River Gardon, and the Occitan name of the river has been replacing the French name of the department in recent decades, even among French speakers.
The Gard area was settled by the Romans in classical times. It was crossed by the Via Domitia, which was constructed in 118 BC.
Gard is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the ancient province of Languedoc.
It was originally intended to include the canton of Ganges in the department which would have been geographically logical, but Ganges was transferred to the neighbouring department of Hérault at the outset. In return, Gard received from Hérault the fishing port of Aigues Mortes which gave the department its own outlet to the Gulf of Lion.
During the middle of the nineteenth century the prefecture, traditionally a centre of commerce with a manufacturing sector focused on textiles, was an early beneficiary of railway development, becoming an important railway junction. Several luxurious hotels were built, and the improved market access provided by the railways also encouraged, initially, a rapid growth in wine growing: however, many of the department's viticulturalists were ruined by the arrival in 1872 of phylloxera.

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Gers
The Gers (French: le Gers, Gascon: Gers, pronounced: [ʒɛʁs] or [ʒɛʁ]) is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.
Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.
In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby.
The Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony.
In 1808 it lost Lavit on its the north-eastern side to the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne.
The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as:
Also, some prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza, sunflowers and grain.
The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken.The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south.
Alexandre Dumas, père created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac.

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Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.
Gironde (French pronunciation: [ʒiʁɔ̃d]; in Gascon Gironda) is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France. The Bordeaux wine region is in the Gironde.
Gironde is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascogne.
From 1793 to 1795, the department's name was changed to Bec-d'Ambès to avoid the association with the revolutionary party, the Girondists.
Gironde is part of the current region of Aquitaine and is surrounded by the departments of Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne and Charente-Maritime and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. With an area of 10,000 km², Gironde is the largest department in metropolitan France. If overseas departments are included, however, Gironde's land area is dwarfed by the 83,846 km² of Guyane.

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Guadeloupe
Coordinates: 16°15′N 61°35′W / 16.25°N 61.583°W / 16.25; -61.583
Guadeloupe ( /ɡwɑːdəˈluːp/; French pronunciation: [ɡwadəlup]; Antillean Creole: Gwadloup) is a Caribbean island located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi) and a population of 400,000. It is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. Its departmental code is "971". As the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also an integral part of the Republic. Besides Guadeloupe island, the smaller islands of Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes are included in Guadeloupe.
As part of France, Guadeloupe is part of the European Union and the Eurozone; hence, as for all Eurozone countries, its currency is the euro. However, Guadeloupe is not part of the Schengen Area. The prefecture and the capital of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre. Christopher Columbus named the island Santa María de Guadalupe in 1493 after the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, in Extremadura.

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Génis
Coordinates: 45°19′37″N 1°09′52″E / 45.3269°N 1.1644°E / 45.3269; 1.1644
Génis is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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Hautefaye
Coordinates: 45°32′15″N 0°29′39″E / 45.5375°N 0.4942°E / 45.5375; 0.4942
Hautefaye is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in south-western France.
On 16 August 1870, France was losing a war against Prussia. Within three weeks, Emperor Napoleon III would be captured by the enemy and his regime overthrown by a self-proclaimed Government for National Defence.
Rural France, which had largely been faithful to Napoleon I and welcomed his nephew, was jittery. Many rural residents were illiterate and depended upon news of the war from the educated, often noble residents, which they resented.
During a fair at Hautefaye, matters turned ugly when an aristocratic cousin of a young nobleman named Alain de Monéys reported the war was not going well. Many villagers had been drinking and received the news poorly. They attacked the cousin, the Vicomte Camille Maillard Lafaye, son of the mayor of the nearby town of Beaussac. Frightened, the viscount and his party fled. In an alcohol-fueled patriotic ferver, villagers wielding pitchforks and cudgels turned their attention on young Alain.

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Hérault
Hérault (French pronunciation: [eʁo]; Occitan: Erau) is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.
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 region was devastated by a slump in sales combined with disease affecting the vines, and thousands of small scale producers revolted. This revolt was suppressed very harshly by the government of Georges Clemenceau.
The catastrophic frost of the winter of 1956 damaged the olive trees, and 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 underwent one of the most rapid population increases experienced anywhere in France.
Hérault is part of the current region of Languedoc-Roussillon and is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Tarn, Aveyron, Gard, and the Mediterranean (Gulf of Lion) on the south.

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Indre
Indre (French pronunciation: [ɛ̃dʁ]) is a department in the center of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens.
Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Berry.
Indre is part of the current region of Centre (Val de Loire) and is surrounded by the departments of Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Cher, Creuse, Vienne, and Haute-Vienne.
The President of the General Council is Louis Pinton of the Union for a Popular Movement.
The Indre has two villages classified among the most beautiful villages of France: Saint-Benoît-du-Sault and Gargilesse-Dampierre.
Media related to Indre (department) at Wikimedia Commons

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Issigeac
Coordinates: 44°43′48″N 0°36′25″E / 44.73°N 0.607°E / 44.73; 0.607
Issigeac is a small medieval village that dates back to roman times, located in the Périgord and is approximately 20 km (12 mi) southwest of Bergerac in Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is a commune of the Dordogne department.
A village with roots in antiquity, today it is a quaint village with timbered houses circling the church and Bishop's Palace (17th century). The village is circular in plan with most buildings of medieval half-timbered style (most are original) and still retains much of its 13th-century walls. In 1438 it was pillaged by Rodrigo de Villandrando.
The village is set in the midst of wine country, close to the famous Chateau de Monbazillac and their famous sweet dessert wines. Many other wineries can be visited including Chateau Jaubertie.
Throughout the year the village hosts a number of festivals and events and has a thriving market on Sunday mornings, where many gastronomic delights are available as well as an exceptional selection of local wines, meats, fruit and vegetables brought directly to the market by their producers.

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Isère
Isère (pronounced: [izɛːʁ]; Arpitan: Isera, Occitan: Isèra) is a department in the Rhône-Alpes (Rôno-Arpes in Arpitan) region in the east of France named after the river Isère.
Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné. Its area has been reduced twice, in 1852 and again in 1967, on both occasions losing territory to the department of Rhône.
In 1852 in response to rapid urban development round the edge of Lyon, the (hitherto Isère) communes of Bron, Vaulx-en-Velin, Vénissieux and Villeurbanne were transferred to Rhône. In 1967 the redrawing of local government frontiers led to the creation of the Urban Community of Lyon (more recently known simply as Greater Lyon / Grand Lyon). At that time intercommunal groupings of this nature were not permitted to straddle departmental frontiers, and accordingly 23 more Isère communes (along with 6 communes from Ain) found themselves transferred to Rhône. The affected Isère communes were Chaponnay, Chassieu, Communay, Corbas, Décines-Charpieu, Feyzin, Genas, Jonage, Jons, Marennes, Meyzieu, Mions, Pusignan, Saint-Bonnet-de-Mure, Saint-Laurent-de-Mure, Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu, Saint-Priest, Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, Sérézin-du-Rhône, Simandres, Solaize, Ternay and Toussieu.

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La Rochelle
Coordinates: 46°09′33″N 1°09′06″W / 46.1591°N 1.1517°W / 46.1591; -1.1517
La Rochelle (French pronunciation: [la ʁɔ.ʃɛl]) is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.
The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a 2.9 km (1.8 mi) bridge completed on 19 May 1988. Its harbour opens into a protected strait, the Pertuis d'Antioche.
The area of La Rochelle was occupied in antiquity by the Gallic tribe of the Santones, who gave their name to the nearby region of Saintonge and the city of Saintes.
The Romans then occupied the area, where they developed salt production along the coast as well as wine production, which was then re-exported throughout the Empire. Roman villas have been found at Saint-Éloi and at Les Minimes, as well as salt evaporation ponds dating from the same period.
La Rochelle was founded during the 10th century and became an important harbour in the 12th century. The establishment of La Rochelle as a harbour was a consequence of the victory of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine over Isambert de Châtelaillon in 1130 and the subsequent destruction of his harbour of Châtelaillon. In 1137, Guillaume X to all intents and purposes made La Rochelle a free port and gave it the right to establish itself as a commune. Fifty years later Eleanor of Aquitaine upheld the communal charter promulgated by her father, and for the first time in France, a city mayor was appointed for La Rochelle, Guillaume de Montmirail. Guillaume was assisted in his responsibilities by 24 municipal magistrates, and 75 notables who had jurisdiction over the inhabitants. Under the communal charter, the city obtained many privileges, such as the right to mint its own coins, and to operate some businesses free of royal taxes, factors which would favour the development of the entrepreuneurial middle-class (bourgeoisie).

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Lascaux
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. They primarily consist of primitive images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.
The cave was discovered on September 12, 1940 by four teenagers, Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, as well as Marcel's dog, Robot. The cave complex was opened to the public in 1948. By 1955, the carbon dioxide produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings. The cave was closed to the public in 1963 in order to preserve the art. After the cave was closed, the paintings were restored to their original state, and were monitored on a daily basis. Rooms in the cave include The Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines.

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Loiret
Loiret (French pronunciation: [lwaʁɛ]) is a department in north-central France
The department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire. The Loiret is located wholly within the department.
Loiret is one of the original 83 departments that was created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Orléanais.
Loiret is part of the current region of Centre and is surrounded by the departments of Essonne, Seine-et-Marne, Yonne, Nièvre, Cher, Loir-et-Cher, and Eure-et-Loir.
Orléans is a popular tourist destination, with its cathedral of Ste. Croix.

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Lozère
Lozère (French pronunciation: [lɔzɛʁ]; Occitan: Losera), is a department in southeast France near the Massif Central, named after Mont Lozère.
Lozère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.
The Beast of Gévaudan was a creature that terrorized the general area of the former province of Gévaudan, with nearly identical borders to today's Lozère, in the Margeride Mountains, in the general timeframe of 1764 to 1767.
Pliny's Natural History praised the cheese of Lozère:
The geography of Lozère is complicated, covering four mountain ranges. In the north-west, the basalt plateau of Aubrac rises between 1,000 and 1,450m, with a cold humid climate influenced by the Atlantic. The north and north-east of the department contains the Margeride mountains, which are formed of granite, and have peaks between 1,000 and 1,550m. The climate here is also cold, but dryer than Aubrac, with less snow.

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Manche
Manche (French pronunciation: [mɑ̃ʃ]) is a French department in Normandy named after La Manche ("the sleeve"), which is the French name for the English Channel.
Manche is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the province of Normandie.
The first capital was Coutances until 1796, and it resumed that role after World War II because of the almost complete destruction of Saint-Lô during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. When Saint-Lô was rebuilt, it again became the capital.
The Department includes the Cotentin Peninsula down to the famous Mont St Michel; though not the off-shore Îles Anglo-Normandes, which are British Crown Dependencies. These islands are a wonderful example of when Normandy invaded England and vice-versa, and oaths of allegiance to new kings got mixed up. Other reefs and not quite islands such as the Minquiers are technically British, though they are annually contested in good fun by French and Channel Island fishermen. The coast is fantastic for sailing and boating though the unusually fast tidal races require a certain yachting skill to navigate safely.

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Marne
Marne (French pronunciation: [maʁn]) is a department in north-eastern France named after the river Marne (Matrona in Roman times) which flows through the department. The prefecture (capital) of Marne is Châlons-en-Champagne (formerly known as Châlons-sur-Marne). The subprefectures are Épernay, Reims, Sainte-Menehould, and Vitry-le-François.
The Champagne vineyards producing the world-famous sparkling wine are located within Marne.
Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the province of Champagne.
Marne has a long association with the French Army. The training ground of the Camp Militaire de Mailly straddles the border with the département of Aube in the south while that of the Camp de Mourmelon occupies a large area north of Châlons-en-Champagne. The smaller Camp de Moronvilliers lies to the east of Reims and the Camp Militaire de Suippes lies to the east of that. These are all on the chalk of the Champagne plateau, a feature comparable in geology but not size, with the British military training ground on Salisbury Plain.

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Martinique
Martinique (French pronunciation: [maʁtinik]) is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of 1,128 km² (436 sq mi). Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is one of the twenty-seven regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic. The first European to encounter the island was Christopher Columbus in 1502.
As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, and its currency is the Euro. Its official language is French, although many of its inhabitants also speak Antillean Creole (Créole Martiniquais).
The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs. It was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. It was claimed by France in 1635 and, despite several interludes of British occupation, once during the Seven Years' War and twice during the Napoleonic Wars, has remained a French possession. In 1946, the French National Assembly voted unanimously to transform the colony into an overseas department.

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Mayenne
Mayenne (French pronunciation: [majɛn]) is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River.
Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine. The southern third of Mayenne corresponds to the northern portion of the old province of Anjou.
After the Coalition's victory at Waterloo, between June 1815 and November 1818, Mayenne was occupied by Prussian troops.
Mayenne is part of the current region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et-Vilaine.
The inhabitants of the department are called Mayennais. This demonym is not the source of the word mayonnaise.
The town is featured as a level in the World War II video game Call of Duty 3.

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Mayotte
Mayotte (French: Mayotte, pronounced: [majɔt]; Shimaore: Maore, IPA: [maˈore]; Malagasy: Mahori) is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre (or Mahoré), a smaller island, Petite-Terre (or Pamanzi), and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte's area is 374 square kilometres (144 sq mi), and with its estimated 194,000 people is very densely populated (520 /km² or 1,300 /sq mi). Its biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou. The territory is geographically part of the Comoro Islands, but has been politically separate since a 1974 referendum in which it elected to remain under French rule. The territory is also known as Mahoré, the native name of its main island, especially by advocates of its inclusion in the Union of Comoros. In a 2009 referendum, the population overwhelmingly approved accession to status of department (95.2% voted in favour of departmental status). On March 31, 2011, Mayotte became an overseas department.

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Meuse
Meuse (French pronunciation: [møz]) is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.
Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former provinces of Barrois (area of Bar-le-Duc) and Three Bishoprics (area of Verdun).
The department was one of the great battlefields of World War I; an important battle was fought in 1916 at Verdun.
Meuse is part of the current region of Lorraine and is surrounded by the French departments of Ardennes, Marne, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Belgium on the north. Parts of Meuse belong to Parc naturel régional de Lorraine.
The important rivers are the following:
The population has decreased sharply since the 19th century, with the rural exodus to the cities.

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Monbazillac
Coordinates: 44°47′42″N 0°29′33″E / 44.795°N 0.4925°E / 44.795; 0.4925
Monbazillac is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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Montcaret
Coordinates: 44°51′34″N 0°03′52″E / 44.8594°N 0.0644°E / 44.8594; 0.0644
Montcaret is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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Morbihan
Morbihan (French pronunciation: [mɔʁbi.ɑ̃]; Breton: Mor-Bihan) is a department in Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (small sea in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline. It is famous for the Carnac stones, which are more extensive and predates the more familiar Stonehenge.
Morbihan is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from a part of the Duchy of Brittany. It is the only French department which has no French name; the word Morbihan is Breton. It is also the only department in France which has kept its original name.
Morbihan is part of the current region of Brittany and is surrounded by the departments of Finistère, Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique, and the Atlantic Ocean on the southwest.
The Gulf of Morbihan has many islands: 365 according to legend, but, in reality, between 30 and 40, according to how they are counted. There are also many islets which are too small to be built on. Of these islands, all but two are private: l'Île aux Moines and l'Île D'Arz. The others are privately owned, some by movie stars or fashion designers.

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Moselle
Moselle (French pronunciation: [mɔ.zɛl]) is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.
Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Lorraine.
In 1793, the foreign enclaves of Manderen, Lixing-lès-Rouhling, Momerstroff, and Créhange (Kriechingen), all possessions of princes of the German Holy Roman Empire, were annexed by France and incorporated into the Moselle département.
By the Treaty of Paris of 1814 following the first defeat and abdication of Napoleon, France had to surrender almost all its conquests since 1792. On the northeastern border, France was not restored to its 1792 borders, but a new border was established to put an end to the convoluted nature of the border, with all its enclaves and exclaves. As a result, the French exclave of Tholey (now in Saarland, Germany) as well as a few communes near Sierck-les-Bains (both territories until then part of the Moselle département) were ceded to Austria. On the other hand, the French annexations of 1793 were confirmed, and furthermore, the south of the Napoleonic département of Sarre was ceded to France, including the town of Lebach, the city of Saarbrücken, and the rich coal basin nearby. France was thus a net beneficiary of the Treaty of Paris, all the new territories ceded to her being far larger and more strategic than the few territories ceded to Austria. All these new territories were incorporated into the Moselle department, and so Moselle had now a larger territory than ever since 1790.

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Nièvre
Nièvre (IPA: [njɛvʁ]) is a department in the centre of France named after the Nièvre River.
Nièvre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from the former province of Nivernais.
Nièvre is part of the current region of Burgundy, although historically it was not part of the province of Burgundy, and it is surrounded by the departments of Yonne, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Allier, Cher, and Loiret. The département is crossed by the Loire river, the longest river in France.
Nièvre is a rural department with about 50 inhabitants / km². The main cities are : Nevers, Cosne-sur-Loire, Varennes-Vauzelles, Marzy, Decize, Imphy and La Charité. Only three cities reach 10 000 inhabitants. It indicates the characteristic of the département, which is predominantly rural.
Nièvre is also well known for its white wine, Pouilly Fumé. The vineyards are scattered around villages including Pouilly-Sur-Loire, which lends its name to the appellation, Tracy sur Loire, Boisgibault, Saint Andelain. The word fumé is French for "smoky", and it's said the name comes from the smoky or flinty quality of these wines. The only grape allowed in the Pouilly-Fumé AC is Sauvignon Blanc, which produces wines that are generally crisp, tart, and somewhat grassy.

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Nontron
Coordinates: 45°31′46″N 0°39′43″E / 45.5294°N 0.6619°E / 45.5294; 0.6619
Nontron (Occitan: Nontronh) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
According to the historian Ribault de Laugardière, the name Nontron derives from the Tyrian language, from Nata (valley) and Dun (mountain). Over time, the placename has been spelt Natadun, Nattun, Nantrun and Nontroun, before the current Nontron.
The town has probably existed for around 1100 years and has been invaded or sacked several times, including by Saracens in the seventh century and by Normans in the ninth century. In the eighth century, a Gallo-Roman castrum was built for the counts of Limoges and the Poitevin abbey of Charroux.
Over the course of the centuries, the town changed hands several time until, after the French Revolution it became a subprefecture of the department of the Dordogne. The town's railway station served passengers between 1891 and 1946, continuing to handle freight until 1970.

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Oise
Oise (French pronunciation: [waz]) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise.
Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the province of Île-de-France and Picardy.
After the coalition victory at Waterloo, the department was occupied by British troops between June 1815 and November 1818.
Oise is part of the current region of Picardie and is situated 35 km north of Paris. It is surrounded by the departments of Somme, Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, Val-d'Oise, Eure, and Seine-Maritime.
Natives of the department are called Isariens.
The major tourist attraction of the department is the Parc Astérix, which opened in 1989. Another very interesting site is Beauvais Cathedral. Also to be seen is the Chateau de Pierrefonds, restored by Viollet-le-Duc.
Oise is twinned with Bedfordshire. One of the villages along the river Oise is Auvers-sur-Oise, famous for having been visited by several impressionist artists. This is where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last 70 days and it is his and his brother Theo's resting place.

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Orne
Orne (French pronunciation: [ɔʁn]) is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.
Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.
Orne is in the region of Basse-Normandie neighbouring Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Mayenne, and Calvados. It is the only department of Basse Normandie and Haute Normandie to be landlocked.
The largest town by a considerable margin is the prefecture, Alençon which is an administrative and commercial centre for what is still an overwhelmingly rural department. There are no large industrial centres: agriculture remains the economic focus of Orne.
The inhabitants of the department are called Ornais.
The recorded population level peaked at 443,688 in 1836. Declining farm incomes and the lure of better prospects in the overseas empire led to a sustained reduction in population levels in many rural departments, and by the time of the 1936 census the recorded population stood at just 269,331. Once motor car ownership started to surge in the 1960s employment opportunities became less restricted and by 2008 the population level had recovered a little to 292,282.

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Parcoul
Coordinates: 45°12′21″N 0°02′11″E / 45.2058°N 0.0364°E / 45.2058; 0.0364
Parcoul is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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Paris
Coordinates: 48°51′24″N 2°21′03″E / 48.8567°N 2.3508°E / 48.8567; 2.3508
Paris (ⁱ/ˈpærɨs/; French: [paʁi] ( listen)) is the capital and largest city of France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region, French: Région parisienne). As of January 2008 the city of Paris, within its administrative limits (the 20 arrondissements) largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,211,297 and a metropolitan population of 12,089,098, and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe. Paris was the largest city in the Western world for about 1,000 years, prior to the 19th century, and the largest in the entire world between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. It hosts the headquarters of many international organizations such as UNESCO, the OECD, the International Chamber of Commerce or the European Space Agency. Paris is considered one of the greenest and most liveable cities in Europe. It is also one of the most expensive.

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Périgord
The Périgord ( pronunciation (help·info)) (Occitan: Peiregòrd / Perigòrd) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir (Black), the Périgord Blanc (White), the Périgord Vert (Green) and the Périgord Pourpre (Purple). The geography and natural resources of the Périgord make it one of the most unspoiled regions of Europe, and the newly created Parc Naturel Régional Périgord-Limousin aims to conserve it as such.
The area is noted for its cuisine, more particularly its products related to ducks and geese, such as foie gras. It is one of the truffle areas of France, historically the most famous. Périgourdine wines include the famed Bergerac (red and white) and Monbazillac.
The préfecture (capital) of the Dordogne is Périgueux, a city steeped in history. Bergerac in the south and Sarlat in the east are the sub-prefectures. There are fine Roman ruins in Périgueux which have been restored and the whole area is known as the 'cradle of mankind' due to its wealth of prehistoric sites, of which the most famous prehistoric site is the painted cave of Lascaux, whose depictions of aurochs, horses, deer and other animals (but not of humans) date back some 17,000 years.

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Périgueux
Coordinates: 45°11′34″N 0°43′18″E / 45.1929°N 0.7217°E / 45.1929; 0.7217
Périgueux (French pronunciation: [peʁiɡø] ( listen); Occitan: Peireguers [pejɾeˈɣɥes, pejɾeˈɡœː] or Periguers [peɾiˈɣɥes, peɾiˈɡœː]) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region. It is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese.
The name Périgueux comes from Petrocorii, a Latinization of Celtic words meaning "the four tribes" – the Gallic people that held the area before the Roman conquest. Périgueux was their capital city. In 200 BC, the Petricorii came from the North and settled at Périgueux and established an encampment at La Boissière. After the Roman invasion, they left this post and established themselves on the plaine of L'Isle, and the town of Vesunna was created. This Roman city was eventually embellished with amenities such as temples, baths, amphitheatres, and a forum. At the end of the third century AD, the Roman city was surrounded by ramparts, and the town took the name of Civitas Petrocoriorum.

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Réunion
Réunion (French: La Réunion, IPA: [la 'ʁeynjɔ̃] ( listen); previously Île Bourbon) is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.
Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France. Like the other overseas departments, Réunion is also one of the 27 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland.
Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, is part of the Eurozone.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century, there is little to Réunion's recorded history. Arab traders were familiar with it by the name Dina Morgabin,. The island possibly features on a map from 1153 AD by Al Sharif el-Edrisi. The island may also have been visited by Swahili or Malay sailors.
The first European discovery of the area was made around 1507 by Portuguese explorers, but the specifics are unclear. The uninhabited island may have been first sighted by the expedition led by Don Pedro Mascarenhas, who gave his name to the island group around Réunion, the Mascarenes. Réunion itself was dubbed Santa Apolonia after a favorite saint, which suggests that the date of the Portuguese discovery may have been February 9, her saint day. Diego Lopes de Sequeira is claimed to have landed on the island in 1509.

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Salagnac
Coordinates: 45°18′43″N 1°11′56″E / 45.3119°N 1.1989°E / 45.3119; 1.1989
Salagnac (Salanhac in occitan) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
During the creation of the French departments in 1790, it first joined the Corrèze department, it was reattached to the Dordogne department.

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Sarthe
Sarthe (French pronunciation: [saʁt]) is a French department, named after the Sarthe River.
The department was created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790, pursuant to the law of December 22, 1789, starting from a part of the province of Maine which was divided into two departments, Sarthe to the east and Mayenne to the west.
In Roman Times, this province contained the city of Mans, and many of its ruins are still left standing. The Thermal Bathhouse attracts many tourists, as does the Theater of Aubigné-Racan, both located on the outskirts of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine.
Marin Mersenne, perhaps the most important scientific figure in the early 1600s, was born in the vicinity of Sarthe.
The department of Sarthe is at the north end of the administrative region of Pays-de-la-Loire. This places it south of Basse-Normandie and on the south edge of the Armorican Massif. It is bordered by the departments of Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire and Mayenne.
Approximately 300,000 people, comprising more than half of the department's population, live in Le Mans, its conurbation or the essentially urban communes close by. The rest of the department retains its rural character, however, being dominated economically by agriculture.

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Savoie
Savoie (pronounced: [sa.vwa]; Arpitan: Savouè d’Avâl, Italian: Savoia, pronounced [saˈvɔja], English: Savoy, /səˈvɔɪ/) is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.
Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860. For history before 1860, details of the annexation, and modern regionalism, see Savoy.
It is widely accepted that Savoie takes its name from the Latin Sapaudia or Sabaudia, meaning land covered in fir trees.
Savoie was long part of the states of Savoy, though it was occupied many times by France starting in the 16th century. It was integrated into the Mont-Blanc department from 1792 to 1815 (and partially into the Léman department from 1798 to 1814). The province was annexed by France in 1860. The former Duchy of Savoy became the two departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie.
Moûtiers, capital of the former province of Tarentaise Valley (French: Vallée de la Tarentaise) ceased to be the county seat after a law passed on September 10, 1926.

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Second French Empire
The Second French Empire (French: Le Second Empire Français) was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.
Although the machinery of government was almost the same under the Second Empire as it had been under the First, its founding principles were different. The function of the Empire, as Emperor Napoleon III often repeated, was to guide the people internally towards justice and externally towards perpetual peace. Holding his power by universal male suffrage, and having frequently, from his prison or in exile, reproached previous oligarchical governments with neglecting social questions, he set out to solve them by organising a system of government based on the principles of the "Napoleonic Idea", i.e. of the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, and as such supreme; and of himself, the representative of the great Napoleon I of France, "who had sprung armed from the French Revolution like Minerva from the head of Jove", as the guardian of the social gains of the revolutionary period.

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Somme
Somme (French pronunciation: [sɔm]) is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France.
The north central area of the Somme département was the site of a series of battles through the Great War. Particularly significant was the 1916 Battle of the Somme. As a result of this and other battles fought in the area the department is home to many military cemeteries and several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields.
At the beginning of the First World War, during the September 1914 Race to the Sea, the Somme became the site of the Battle of Albert. The battle was a five day engagement between the 25th and 29 September, with the French Tenth Army attacking at Albert and pushing toward Bapaume, and the German Sixth Army counter-attacking back towards Albert. The line settled around the town of Thiepval and remained there until July 1916, when the Battle of the Somme would be fought on and around the same ground.

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Teillots
Coordinates: 45°15′30″N 1°13′18″E / 45.2583°N 1.2217°E / 45.2583; 1.2217
Teillots is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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Vaucluse
The Vaucluse (French pronunciation: [vokˈlyz]; Occitan: Vauclusa in classical norm or Vau-Cluso in Mistralian norm) is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.
Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes (later renamed Alpes-de-Haute-Provence). The then rural department was, like the nearby city of Lyon, a hotbed of the French Resistance in World War II.
Vaucluse is bordered by the Rhône to the west and the River Durance to the south. Mountains occupy a significant proportion of the eastern half of the department, with Mont Ventoux (1,912 m), also known as "the Giant of Provence", dominating the landscape. Other important mountain ranges include the Dentelles de Montmirail, the Monts de Vaucluse, and the Luberon. Fruit and vegetables are cultivated in great quantities in the lower-lying parts of the department, on one of the most fertile plains in southern France. The Vaucluse département has a rather large exclave within the Drôme department, the canton of Valréas (Enclave des Papes).

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Vendée
The Vendée (French pronunciation: [vɑ̃.de]) is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.
The area today called the Vendée was originally known as the Bas-Poitou and is part of the former province of Poitou. In the south-east corner, the village of Nieul-sur-l'Autise is believed to be the birthplace of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204) and was part of her kingdom. Eleanor's son, Richard I of England (the Lionheart) often had his base in Talmont. The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) turned much of the Vendée into a battleground.
Since the Vendée held a considerable number of influential Protestants, including control by Jeanne d'Albret, the region was greatly affected by the French Wars of Religion which broke out in 1562 and continued until 1598. Eventually King Henri IV issued the Edict of Nantes and the Wars came to an end. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 caused many Huguenots to flee from the Vendée.

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Vienne
Vienne (French pronunciation: [vjɛn]) is the northernmost département of the Poitou-Charentes region of France, named after the river Vienne.
Vienne is one of the original 83 departments, established on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Poitou, Touraine, and Berry. The original Acadians who settled in Nova Scotia and what is today other maritime provinces of Canada, left Vienne for North America after 1604.
Goat cheese making is an important industry of Vienne.
The most famous tourist sites include the Futuroscope theme park, Poitiers (city of Art and History), the Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, a UNESCO world heritage site, the animal parks of Monkey's Valley in Romagne & the Crocodile Planet in Civaux.

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Villetoureix
Coordinates: 45°15′51″N 0°21′48″E / 45.2642°N 0.3633°E / 45.2642; 0.3633
Villetoureix is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.
Villetoureix is situated by the proximity of Ribérac by the Dronne, along with Périgord. The villages constitutes the hamlets and settlements of La Pouyade, la Borie, Mayac and la Dérame. The main town is situated by the hills of the Dronne.
The first traces of inhabitants were in the Gallo-Roman times, later, the village was developed around the 17th century and the construction of the chateau named La Rigale.

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Vosges
Vosges (French pronunciation: [voʒ]) is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.
The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been part of the province of Lorraine. In German it is referred to as Vogesen.
In 1793 the independent principality of Salm-Salm (town of Senones and its surroundings), enclosed inside the Vosges department, was annexed to France and incorporated into Vosges. In 1795 the area of Schirmeck was detached from the Bas-Rhin department and incorporated into the Vosges department. The Vosges department had now an area of 6,127 km² (2,366 sq. miles) which it kept until 1871.
In 1794 the Vosges was the site of a major battle between the forces of Revolutionary France and the Allied Coalition. See Battle of the Vosges.
The Place des Vosges in Paris was so renamed in 1799 when the department became the first to pay the new Revolutionary taxes.

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Yonne
Yonne (French pronunciation: [jɔn]) is a French department named after the Yonne River. It is one of the four constituent departments of Burgundy in eastern France and its prefecture (capital) is Auxerre. Its official number is 89.
It elects three members of parliament to the National Assembly - in the 2002-7 parliamentary term, all three are drawn from the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Its two senators also represent the UMP.

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Yvelines
Yvelines (French pronunciation: [ivlin]) is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.
Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application (a decree specifying how a law should be enforced) from 26 February 1965.
It gained the communes of Châteaufort and Toussus-le-Noble from the adjacent department of Essonne in 1969.
The departmental capital, Versailles, which grew up around Louis XIV's château, was also the French capital for more than a century under the Ancien Régime and again between 1871 and 1879 during the early years of the Third Republic. Since then the château has continued to welcome the parlement when called upon to sit in a congressional sitting, jointly with the upper house in order to enact constitutional changes or, as happened most recently in June 2009, to listen to a formal declaration by the president.
Yvelines is bordered by the departments of Val-d'Oise on the north, Hauts-de-Seine on the east, Essonne on the southeast, Eure-et-Loir on the southwest, and Eure on the west.

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Arnaut Daniel
Arnaut Daniel de Riberac (today Arnaut Danièl) was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as "il miglior fabbro" (the better craftsman/creator, literally "the better smith") and called "Grand Master of Love" by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was lauded as the greatest poet to have ever lived by Ezra Pound in his work The Spirit of Romance (1910).
According to one vida, Daniel was born of a noble family at the castle of Ribérac in Périgord; however, the scant contemporary sources point to him being a jester with pernicious economic troubles. Raimon de Durfort calls him "a student, ruined by dice and shut-the-box". He was the inventor of the sestina, a song of six stanzas of six lines each, with the same end words repeated in every stanza, though arranged in a different and intricate order. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow claims he was also the author of the metrical romance of Lancillotto, or Launcelot of the Lake, but this claim is completely unsubstantiated; Dante's reference to Daniel as the author of prose di romanzi ("proses of romance") remains, therefore, a mystery.

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Bernard Cazeau
Bernard Cazeau (born 27 April 1939 in Bordeaux) is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Dordogne department. He is a member of the Socialist Party.

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Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born (1140s – by 1215) was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the twelfth century.
Bertran de Born was the eldest son of Bertran de Born, lord of Hautefort (Occitan: Autafòrt), and his wife Ermengardis. He had two younger brothers, Constantine and Itier. His father died in 1178, and Bertran succeeded him as lord of Hautefort. By this time, he was already married to his first wife, Raimonda, and had two sons.
Hautefort lies at the border between the Limousin and Périgord. As a result, Bertran became involved in the conflicts of the sons of Henry II Plantagenet. He was also fighting for control of Hautefort.
According to the feudal custom of his region, he was not the only lord of Hautefort, but held it jointly with his brothers. Other cases of co-seigneuries were known among the troubadours, the most famous being that of the "four troubadours of Ussel", three brothers and a cousin, and that of Raimon de Miraval and his brothers. A typical strategy employed by the major territorial principalities (such as the duchy of Aquitaine or the county of Toulouse) to decrease the influence of the local lords of the manor was to encourage feudal conflicts within their families. Bertran's struggle, especially with his brother Constantine, is at the heart of his poetry, which is dominated by political topics.

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Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered States in 1980. Afterwards, she starred in her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actresses, going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles.
Following a turbulent childhood which was marked by drug and alcohol abuse and two stints in rehab, Barrymore wrote the 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. She successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress with a number of films including Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, and Everyone Says I Love You. Subsequently, she established herself in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.
In 1995, she and business partner Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films, with its first production the 1999 Barrymore film Never Been Kissed. Flower Films has gone on to produce the Barrymore vehicle films Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates, and Music and Lyrics, as well as the cult film Donnie Darko. Barrymore's more recent projects include He's Just Not That into You, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Everybody's Fine and Going the Distance. A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore appeared on the cover of the 2007 People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful issue.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine (French: Aliénor d’Aquitaine; Éléonore de Guyenne) (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France (1137–1152) and of England (1154–1189). She was the patroness of such literary figures as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn.
Eleanor succeeded her father as Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitiers at the age of fifteen, becoming the most eligible bride in Europe. Three months after her accession, she married Louis VII, son of her guardian, King Louis The Fat. As Queen of France, she participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. Soon after the Crusade, Eleanor sought an annulment of her marriage but was rejected by Pope Eugene III. However, after the birth of Alix, another daughter, Louis agreed to an annulment. The marriage was annulled on 11 March 1152, on the grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate and custody was awarded to Louis, while Eleanor's lands were restored to her.

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Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker became an international musical and political icon. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess".
Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture,^[which?] to integrate an American concert hall,^{[citation needed]} and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Carrie McDonald. Her estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father. A biography written by her foster son Jean-Claude Baker stated:

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Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (Classical Latin: [ˈɡaː.i.ʊs ˈjuː.lɪ.ʊs ˈkaj.sar], July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed a political alliance that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed by the conservative elite within the Roman Senate^{[citation needed]}, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar's conquest of Gaul, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain.
These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse Pompey's standing. The balance of power was further upset by the death of Crassus in 53 BC. Political realignments in Rome finally led to a standoff between Caesar and Pompey, the latter having taken up the cause of the Senate. Ordered by the Senate to stand trial in Rome for various charges, Caesar marched on Rome with one legion—legio XIII—from Gaul to Italy, crossing the Rubicon in 49 BC. This sparked a civil war from which he emerged as the unrivaled leader of the Roman world.

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Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton ( /ˈkraɪtən/; rhymes with frighten; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008), best known as Michael Crichton, was an American best-selling author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at #1 in television, film, and book sales (with ER, Jurassic Park, and Disclosure, respectively).
His literary works are usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. He was the author of, among others, Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Travels, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next (the final book published before his death), Pirate Latitudes (published November 24, 2009), and a final unfinished techno-thriller, Micro, which was published in November 2011.

wn.com/Michael_Crichton
Michel de Montaigne
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ]), February 28, 1533 – September 13, 1592, was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre and is popularly thought of as the father of Modern Skepticism. He became famous for his effortless ability to merge serious intellectual speculation with casual anecdotes and autobiography—and his massive volume Essais (translated literally as "Attempts") contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written. Montaigne had a direct influence on writers the world over, including René Descartes,Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer,Isaac Asimov, and possibly on the later works of William Shakespeare.
In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. The tendency in his essays to digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper style rather than as an innovation, and his declaration that, 'I am myself the matter of my book', was viewed by his contemporaries as self-indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne would be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, the spirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, 'Que sçay-je?' ('What do I know?' in Middle French; modern French Que sais-je?). Remarkably modern even to readers today, Montaigne's attempt to examine the world through the lens of the only thing he can depend on implicitly—his own judgment—makes him more accessible to modern readers than any other author of the Renaissance. Much of modern literary non-fiction has found inspiration in Montaigne and writers of all kinds continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal story-telling.

wn.com/Michel_de_Montaigne

The Dordogne, France: A Taste of Sarlat

Sarlat is the pedestrian-friendly main town of France's Dordogne River valley. It's just t...

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Dordogne Valley, Southwest France

www.jimhilgendorf.org The Dordogne Valley, in southwestern France, is one of the most beau...

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The Dordogne, France: Lascaux's Prehistoric Cave Paintings

From about 18000 to 10000 bc, long before Stonehenge and the pyramids, back when mammoths ...

published: 27 Oct 2010

author: RickSteves

The Dordogne, France: Perfectly Medieval Beynac

The feudal village of Beynac is a perfectly preserved medieval village, with the Dordogne ...

published: 10 Feb 2010

author: RickSteves

Vallée de la Dordogne : Villages d'exception

Découverte de villages au charme exceptionnel en Dordogne et dans le Lot : maisons médiéva...

published: 30 Jul 2011

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The Dordogne, France: Relaxing River

Six centuries ago, the Dordogne River separated warring England and France during the Hund...

published: 30 Jul 2009

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The River Dordogne

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published: 06 Jan 2007

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A Vos Régions - La Dordogne

Retrouvez gratuitement l'intégralité de vos programmes en replay sur www.direct8.fr. LA DO...

published: 26 Aug 2011

author: Direct8

Village Life in the Dordogne Part I

Here are some highlights of my trip to France. We spent six days exploring the wonders of ...

published: 08 Jul 2009

author: fkrinsky

Murat en plein air - Dordogne

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published: 01 Oct 2006

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Beynac, Castelnaud and LaRoque

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published: 05 Feb 2009

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Village Beynac, Dordogne, Périgord, Aquitaine, France

Village Beynac, on the Dordogne river, is known as one of Frances' most beautiful villages...

published: 12 Jul 2009

author: Clifford J Thompson

je suis un être humain

Un court-métrage de 140 secondes, réalisé dans le cadre d'un Festival de court-métrages su...

published: 24 Jan 2011

author: Carlos Chapman

Vallée de la Dordogne : Villages d'exception

Découverte de villages au charme exceptionnel en Dordogne et dans le Lot : maisons médiéva...

published: 22 Oct 2011

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Domaine de loisirs le Montant à Sarlat

Découvrez Domaine de loisirs le Montant à Sarlat...

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Vacances Dordogne • La Vallée Vézère

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photo: US Navy / HMC Josh Ives

U.S. Army Spc. Jacob Bobbe, security force team member for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, maintains security on the street during a key leader engagement in the Lash-e Juwayn district of Farah province, Afghanistan, Dec. 11 2012.

Imperial Lockstep

CounterPunch

27 Dec 2012

Imperial adventures are nothing new in the Middle East. Neither is their glorification, as Peter O’Toole’s pained Lawrence of Arabia eternally reminds us. But for a decade or so now, things have been heating up, as if to coincide with climate change and fears of declining petroleum reserves ... The Belly for Belligerence? ... The question loomed over beltway intelligentsia like an ephemeral Gordian knot ... We’re All Hawks Now ... While George W ... ....(size: 9.3Kb)

photo: WN / Janice Sabnal

Six dead as winter snowstorms pound US

Zeenews

27 Dec 2012

Washington. Six people, including two young children, were left dead in weather-related accidents, as winter snowstorms complicated travel for many Americans in the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. Snow totals in parts of Indiana ranged from 6 to 12 inches, CNN reported. About 350 snowploughs were clearing roads throughout the city. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told residents they should avoid nonessential travel ... IANS ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)

photo: AP / Ben Curtis

In this Sunday, April 29, 2012 file photo, troops from the Central African Republic stand guard at a building used for joint meetings between them and U.S. Army special forces, in Obo, Central African Republic, where U.S. special forces have paired up with local troops and Ugandan soldiers to seek out Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

CAR seeks foreign help against rebels

Al Jazeera

28 Dec 2012

The president of Central African Republic (CAR) has urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital. Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Francois Bozize on Thursday pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler ... 516 Share ... News ... ....(size: 19.5Kb)

photo: AP / K.M.Chaudary

Supporters of Pakistan's slain leader Benazir Bhutto, stand beside her portrait after lighting earth lamps at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of her death

Pakistan marks fifth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto murder

BBC News

27 Dec 2012

Large crowds of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters are gathering to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ms Bhutto died in a gun and bomb attack during her 2007 election campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people have set up camp near the Bhutto family's ancestral home in Sindh province ... He cannot contest an election until his 25th birthday. Show of strength ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)

photo: AP / Maya Alleruzzo

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks to reporters during a joint news conference with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, unseen, at the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt.

Morsi Admits ‘Mistakes’ in Drafting Egypt’s Constitution

The New York Times

27 Dec 2012

CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt took responsibility on Wednesday for “mistakes” during the run-up to ratification of the new Constitution and urged Egyptians to appreciate the fierce disagreements about it as a “healthy phenomenon” of their new democracy. Times Topic. Egypt News — Revolution and Aftermath. Related. Egypt Opposition Gears Up After Constitution Passes (December 24, 2012) ... Twitter List....(size: 11.8Kb)

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Planet Bordeaux: Chateau Roc de Levraut rouge, Bordeaux Superieur, 2010

The Examiner

23 Dec 2012

Sales of Bordeaux wines are lagging a bit in France, likely due to conditions that are causing a general drop in wine consumption overall ... sales ... The growth in the U.S ... The vineyard is located in the Entre-Deux-Mers, that area of rolling hills between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers south of the city of Bordeaux, once known more for white and sweet dessert wines, but now producing notable amounts of delicious Bordeaux red blends ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)

Planet Bordeaux: Chateau Roquefort rouge, Bordeaux Superieur, 2010

The Examiner

22 Dec 2012

Chateau Roquefort Rouge, Bordeaux Superieur, 2010. This may be the best $8 you’ll spend on a wine this year ... for the last few years ... These vineyards are situated on elevated soils on an escarpment in the Entre-Deux-Mers, that prosperous are between the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers that define and divide the region ... Note ... ....(size: 1.8Kb)

Ryanair voted 'worst' short-haul airline

The Daily Telegraph

20 Dec 2012

Ryanair has been voted Europe’s least popular short-haul airline by the readers of the consumer publication Which?. Ryanair fared poorly for baggage allowance, boarding arrangements, seating allocation, and food and drinks, scoring just one out of five in each category Photo. ALAMY. By Oliver Smith ... what to see and do in winter 36 Hours In...Crans-Montana Bangkok city break guide Britons targeted by vandals in the Dordogne ... ....(size: 14.2Kb)

Spain is most sought after destination of 2012

The Daily Telegraph

19 Dec 2012

More Britons searched for flights to Spain than any other destination, research carried out by the Skyscanner website has found. Eight out of 10 of the most searched for places this year were sun destinations, with Spain topping the list Photo. Alamy. 3.12PM GMT 19 Dec 2012. Comments ... Related Articles ... 1 ... what to see and do in winter Bangkok city break guide Cruise lines launch annual sales Britons targeted by vandals in the Dordogne ... ....(size: 14.1Kb)

Qantas passenger held over attack on cabin crew

The Daily Telegraph

18 Dec 2012

A Qantas flight from Sydney to Japan was diverted yesterday after a passenger allegedly attacked crew members. The incident happened on a Qantas flight from Sydney to Japan Photo. ALAMY. 2.00PM GMT 18 Dec 2012. Comments ... He was later arrested after the aircraft was forced to land in Cairns ... He was due in Cairns Magistrates Court this morning ... Related Articles ... hotel review Britons targeted by vandals in the Dordogne Great winter walks ... ....(size: 13.3Kb)

Amsterdam attractions: what to see and do in winter

The Daily Telegraph

18 Dec 2012

Our Amsterdam expert Rodney Bolt suggests what to see and do in the city this winter, with advice on upcoming exhibitions and where to stay. Along Amsterdam's network of canals are some of the world’s leading museums  Photo. Alamy. By Rodney Bolt. 12.53PM GMT 18 Dec 2012. Comments ... Vincent ... When. until April 25, 2013 ... Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire Robert Powell's holiday heaven and hell Britons targeted by vandals in the Dordogne ... ....(size: 15.2Kb)

Cruise lines launch annual sales

The Daily Telegraph

18 Dec 2012

With cruise lines already launching their New Year sales, Jane Archer considers whether it really is the best time to book. The cruise industry's annual New Year sale, or "wave period", is already underway Photo. ALAMY. By Jane Archer. 2.24PM GMT 18 Dec 2012. Comments ... Whether they will succeed is a moot point ... Related Articles ... Ten of the best offers ... ... hotel review Britons targeted by vandals in the Dordogne Great winter walks ... ....(size: 15.7Kb)

Viking River Cruises Branches Out With New Wine Itinerary In France For 2014

PR Newswire

13 Dec 2012

 . World's Leading River Cruise Line Announces New Bordeaux Region Program on Viking Longship. Google. Download image. , Dec ... (Logo. http.//photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121211/SF27301LOGO) ... Chateaux, Rivers & Wine takes guests on a unique exploration of the Dordogne, Garonne and Gironde Rivers, through the region that has for centuries produced 's most remarkable wines including Margaux, Pomerol, St....(size: 8.3Kb)

VIKING RIVER CRUISES BRANCHES OUT WITH NEW WINE ITINERARY IN FRANCE FOR 2014 World’s Leading River Cruise Line Announces New Bordeaux Region Program on Viking Longship (Viking River Cruises Inc)

noodls

13 Dec 2012

(Source. Viking River Cruises Inc) VIKING RIVER CRUISES BRANCHES OUT WITH NEW WINE ITINERARY IN FRANCE FOR 2014. World's Leading River Cruise Line Announces New Bordeaux Region Program on Viking Longship ... Châteaux, Rivers & Wine takes guests on a unique exploration of the Dordogne, Garonne and Gironde Rivers, through the region that has for centuries produced France's most remarkable wines including Margaux, Pomerol, St ... (noodl....(size: 7.1Kb)

Samantha Brick: 'We are all taught false modesty'

The Guardian

09 Dec 2012

Samantha Brick, who wrote that other women hated her for being pretty, says she never expected the insults – and celebrity – that followed. Samantha Brick, photographed in Bergerac for the Observer by Andy Hall ... 300) ... It wasn't because of a visiting grandee ... Her beefy, mustachioed husband, Pascal, whom she met on a holiday to the Dordogne in 2007, sits by her side protectively, giving her leg the occasional supportive squeeze ... ....(size: 5.2Kb)

Cave art animals 'more accurate'

Belfast Telegraph

05 Dec 2012

You could call it primitive art - but stone age man knew what he was doing when he daubed figures of animals on cave walls ... They found that the majority of depictions of animals walking or trotting had the legs wrongly positioned ... The Lauscaux Cave in the Vezere Valley of France's Dordogne region contains nearly 2,000 figures of animals, human figures and abstract signs painted onto the walls with mineral pigments ... ....(size: 2.0Kb)

iNVEZZ on French Residential Property: Is There a Housing Bubble Set to Burst?

Yahoo Daily News

22 Nov 2012

Basil narrows readers’ attention to one particular region in the south-west of France – Dordogne -- which has long been attracting foreign and especially British buyers. The area’s “special investments case” is described by Basil in detail, with the conclusion that “for Dordogne at least, such statistics do not indicate a housing bubble, let alone one about to burst.” ... John Adam. iNVEZZ Limited....(size: 8.8Kb)

2012 may not be a vintage year, but there's always 2010

The Daily Telegraph

17 Nov 2012

It looks like 2012 is going to be a bad year for wine; but the good news is that there is always something else out there. A glass from the past. 2010 wines are still available, but When They’re Gone They’re Gone  Photo. ALAMY. By Victoria Moore. 5.11PM GMT 16 Nov 2012. Comments ... Quite a different prospect. So it is with wine ... A cheap red bordeaux from a little region on the right bank where the Dordogne river meets the Garonne ... ... ....(size: 17.1Kb)

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2007)

Dordogne

— Department —

Coat of arms

Location of Dordogne in France

Coordinates: 45°00′N 00°40′E / 45°N 0.667°ECoordinates: 45°00′N 00°40′E / 45°N 0.667°E

Country

France

Bergerac
Nontron
Sarlat-la-Canéda

Government

• President of the General Council

Bernard Cazeau (PS)

Area¹

• Total

9,060 km² (3,500 sq mi)

Population (2007)

• Total

406,793

• Rank

58th

• Density

45/km² (120/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km²

History [link]

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2008)

The county of Périgord dates back to when the area was inhabited by the Gauls, it was home to four tribes, the name for "four tribes" in the Gaulish language was "Petrocore". The area eventually became known as the county of Le Périgord and its inhabitants became known as the Périgordins (or Périgourdins). There are four Périgords in the Dordogne: the "Périgord Vert" (Green Périgord) with its main town of Nontron, consists of verdant valleys in a region crossed by many rivers and streams; the "Périgord Blanc" (White Périgord) situated around the department's capital of Périgueux, is a region of limestone plateaux, wide valleys and meadows; the "Périgord Pourpre" (Purple Périgord) with its capital of Bergerac, is a wine region; and the "Périgord Noir" (Black Périgord) surrounding the administrative center of Sarlat, overlooks the valleys of the Vézère and the Dordogne, where the woods of oak and pine give it its name.

Dordogne River

The Petrocores took part in the resistance against Rome. Concentrated in two or three major sites are the vestiges of the Gallo-Roman period – the gigantic ruined tower and arenas in Périgueux (formerly Vesone), the Périgord museum's archaeological collections, villa remains in Montcaret and the Roman tower of La Rigale Castle in Villetoureix. The first cluzeaux, or artificial caves either above or below ground, are found throughout the Dordogne. These subterranean refuges and lookout huts could shelter entire populations. According to Julius Caesar the Gauls took refuge there.

Canoeing on Dordogne River

Since the Guienne province had returned to the Crown under the Plantagenets following the re-marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, Périgord passed by right into English suzerainty. Being situated at the boundaries of influence of the monarchies of France and England, it was to oscillate between the two dynasties for a long time. Over three hundred years of struggle until 1453 and the end of the Hundred Years' War were to tear apart and, as a consequence, model its physiognomy.

With the end of the Hundred Years' War, the Castillon plain on the banks of the Dordogne, during the calmer periods of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, saw a development in urban architecture. The finest Gothic and Renaissance residences were built in Périgueux, Bergerac and Sarlat. In the countryside, the nobility had the majority of our 1200 chateaux, manors and country houses erected. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, they experienced attacks, pillaging and fires as the Wars of Religion reached a rare degree of violence in Périgord. At the time, Bergerac was one of the most powerful Huguenot strongholds, along with La Rochelle. Following these wars, Périgord, fief of Henry of Navarre. was to return to the Crown for good and suffer henceforth from the sudden political changes of the French nation, from the Revolution to the tragic hours of the Resistance. We also encounter the memory of its most illustrious literary figures: Arnaut Daniel, Bertran de Born, Michel de Montaigne, Etienne de La Boetie, Brantôme, Fenelon, Mahle de Biran, Eugene Le Roy and Andre Maurois; its great captains: Talleyrand, Saint-Exupery, Biron... and even Josephine Baker. A number of ruins (La Chapelle-Faucher, I'Herm...) have retained the memory of the tragedies which took place within their walls. Several of our castles and châteaux are open to visitors and some of them such as Bourdeilles and Mareuil, house remarkable collections.

In addition to its castles, chateaux, churches, bastides and cave fortresses, the Périgord region has preserved from centuries past, a number of wonderful villages which still have their market halls, dovecotes, tories (stone huts), churches, abbeys and castles. Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere, Connezac, Saint-Jean-de-Côle, La Roque-Gageac and many others are real jewels of architecture. As for the old quarters of Périgueux or Bergerac, restored and developed into pedestrian areas, they have regained their former charm. A number of small towns, such as Brantôme, Issigeac, Eymet and Mareuil, have withstood the often brash changes of modern times. A special mention should be made in this respect to Sarlat and its Black Périgord area.

Dordogne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Périgord, the county of Périgord.

During the next thee decades the departmental borders were changed several times.

In 1793 the communes of Boisseuilh, Coubjours, Génis, Payzac, Saint-Cyr-les-Champagnes, Saint-Mesmin, Salagnac, Savignac, Saint-Trié and Teillots were transferred to Dordogne from Corrèze.

In 1794 Dordogne ceded Cavarc to Lot-et-Garonne. Later in 1794 (albeit during the subsequent year under the Republican Calendar in use at the time) Dordogne gained Parcoul from Charente-Inférieure.

Following the restoration, in 1819, the commune of Bonrepos was suppressed and merged with the adjacent commune of Souillac in Lot.

In 1870, shortly after France had been attacked by Prussia in a war which the enemy was believed to be winning, a young aristocrat called Alain de Monéys was savagely tortured by a crowd of between 300 and 800 people for two hours on 16 August in a public square in the village of Hautefaye in the north-west of the department. After this he was roasted. Details of the incident remain unclear: the leading participants appear to have been drunk and before the introduction of mass education most of the witnesses would have been unable (and possibly unwilling) to write down what they saw. But at some stage the victim died, and following a trial four individuals identified as culpable were in their turn condemned to die by guillotine. The sentence was carried out in the same public square on 6 February 1871.

It was suggsted that the victim had reported the (bad) news about the war in a way that implied support for the enemy, although subsequently it became clear that his patriotic credentials were beyond approach. It was also suggested that the mob had been antagonised when he called out, "Vive la République!" (Long live the republic) at a time when the patriotic villagers valued the imperial regime which the Prussians were even then in the process of destroying.

The incident was widely reported at the time and has been extensively researched subsequently. This summary leans on the work of Alain Corbin,^[1] a historian specialising in the nineteenth century who has carefully and objectively analysed the incident and the mass-psychology behind it.

Geography [link]

The department is part of the region of Aquitaine and is surrounded by the six départements of Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Gironde, and Charente. Dordogne is the third largest department of France.

Politics [link]

The President of the General Council is Bernard Cazeau of the Socialist Party.

Party		seats
•	Socialist Party	30
	Union for a Popular Movement	9
•	French Communist Party	5
•	Miscellaneous Left	3
	MoDem	1
	Miscellaneous Right	1
•	Left Radical Party	1

Demographics [link]

The population peaked at 505,789 in 1851 according to that year's census. After 150 year of steady decline it fell below 400,000 by the year 2000. This reflected the long term population decline observed in many of the rural departments, resulting from changes in agriculture and the lure of higher industrial wages available in more urbanized regions. However, during the first decade of the twenty-first century the decline has been reversed.

Dordogne has become one of the favourite destinations of British immigration to France, (more than 20 000 in 2006), but most take care not to stay more than six months per year, in order to avoid being considered resident in France.

Tourism [link]

Château de Beynac

There are more than 1,500 castles in Dordogne, including the following:

The famous caves of Lascaux have been closed to the public, but a replica of Lascaux II is open to visitors and is a major tourist attraction. Périgueux has important Roman ruins, including an arena which is still visible inside a public park located near the town centre.

Dordogne in Popular Culture [link]

Michael Crichton's novel Timeline is placed in two time periods of Dordogne.
Douglas Boyd, the author husband of flautist Atarah Ben-Tovim, set parts of each of his six thrillers in Dordogne.
Meg Cabot's series Queen of Babble begins with part of the book set in the Dordogne region.
Jean M. Auel's Shelters of Stone takes place in what is now Dordogne.
Glenn Cooper's The Tenth Chamber is set and based on prehistoric cave paintings in the Vézère River Valley in the Dordogne.
Dordogne was the setting for the 1998 film Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and Angelica Houston.

References [link]

^ Corbin Alain, Le village des "cannibales", Paris, Aubier, 1990, 204 p.

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dordogne

(French) Préfecture website
(French) Conseil général website
(French) Atlaspol website. Politics of Dordogne
(English) Dordogne at the Open Directory Project
Dordogne travel guide from Wikitravel

Departments of France

Overseas departments: 971 Guadeloupe; 972 Martinique; 973 French Guiana; 974 Réunion; 976 Mayotte

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dordogne

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

Make changes yourself !

Contents

History [link]

Geography [link]

Politics [link]

Demographics [link]

Tourism [link]

See also [link]

Dordogne in Popular Culture [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

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