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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").
  
  wn.com/Ain
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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.
  
  wn.com/Aisne
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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.
  
  wn.com/Allier
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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.
  
  wn.com/Ardèche
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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.
  
  wn.com/Ariège
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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.
  
  wn.com/Aube
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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.
  
  wn.com/Aude
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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.
  
  wn.com/Aveyron
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  Ayen
  Coordinates: 45°14′52″N 1°19′38″E / 45.247800°N 1.327200°E / 45.247800; 1.327200
  Ayen is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ayen
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  Beyssac
  Coordinates: 45°21′54″N 1°24′07″E / 45.365°N 01.402°E / 45.365; 01.402
  Beyssac is a commune of the Corrèze department in central France.
  Beyssac was the birthplace of Étienne Aubert (1282 or 1295–1362), who became pope as Pope Innocent VI.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Beyssac
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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.
  
  wn.com/Calvados
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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.
  
  wn.com/Cantal
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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.
  
  wn.com/Charente
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  Château de Ventadour
  The Château de Ventadour is in the commune of Moustier-Ventadour in the département of Corrèze (Limousin).
  Placed on a rocky outcrop overhanging the valley of Luzège, only few vestiges remain on the site of this feudal castle, which is still remarkably wild. The existing enclosure follows the contour of the plateau thus protecting a place of 170 m length and 30 m wide at its maximum. One finds inside some traces of a chapel and a residence, an important round tower and a section of wall seeming to be that of a square keep.
  The castle built in 11th century, probably altered during several periods of construction and rebuilding spreading out essentially from the 12th to the 15th century, controlled the viscounty of Ventadour whose capitals were Égletons and Ussel. Of viscounty until 1350, it was transformed into county by Philippe de Valois, then in Duchy-Peerage in 1578. It belonged thus to the first lineage of Ventadour, resulting from the lineage of Comborn, until 1472, date of the marriage of the last heiress with Louis de Lévis, baron de la Voulte. After Lévis-Ventadour, the stronghold belonged, still by marriage, to Rohans; and to Rohan-Soubises-Ventadour, passed to the Prince of Condé, who ignored the castle.
  
  wn.com/Château_de_Ventadour
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  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.
  
  wn.com/Corrèze
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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.
  
  wn.com/Creuse
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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.
  
  wn.com/Dordogne
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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.
  
  wn.com/Doubs
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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.
  
  wn.com/Drôme
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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.
  
  wn.com/Essonne
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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.
  
  wn.com/Eure
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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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  France
  France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
  Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
  
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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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  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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  Sarran
  Coordinates: 45°24′34″N 1°56′21″E / 45.4094°N 1.9392°E / 45.4094; 1.9392
  Sarran is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
  It is the home of the Jacques Chirac presidential museum.
  
  
  
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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.
  
  wn.com/Sarthe
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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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  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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  Tulle
  Coordinates: 45°16′02″N 1°45′56″E / 45.2673°N 1.7655°E / 45.2673; 1.7655
  Tulle (Occitan: Tula) is a commune and capital of the Corrèze département in the Limousin region in central France. It is also the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle. It is the third-largest town in the Limousin region, after Limoges and Brive-la-Gaillarde.
  Known sometimes as "the town on the seven hills", Tulle rose to prominence through the development of its manufacturing sector.
  Initially, the Gauls settled an oppidum at the site of what is now the Puy St Clair because it was a site surrounded by cliffs and so easy to get off. After the conquest, the city moved downwards, to the Trech district and the Romans established a temple to honor Tutela, goddess of protection of property and persons. The name of the city comes from this goddess. She was honoured here because it was a ford over the Corrèze where passed a very old road between Brittany and the Mediterranean sea. In the seventh century was built a monastery dedicated to St. Michael. The local population settled around the buildings. The first monastery, destroyed by the Viking invasions in 846, was rebuilt but disappeared in the eleventh century.
  
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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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  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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  Alexandre Dumas
  Alexandre Dumas, pronounced: [a.lɛk.sɑ̃dʁ dy.ma], born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie ([dy.ma da.vi də pa.jət.ʁi]) (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870) was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne were originally serialized. He also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent. Born in poverty, Dumas was the grandson of a French nobleman and a Haitian slave.
  Alexandre Dumas was born in Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne, in Picardy, France.
  Dumas' paternal grandparents were Marquis Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman and Général commissaire in the Artillery in the colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and Marie-Cesette Dumas, an Afro-Caribbean Creole of mixed French and African ancestry. Their son, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, married Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret, the daughter of an innkeeper. Thomas-Alexandre, then a general in Napoleon's army, fell out of favor and the family was impoverished when Dumas was born.
  
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  André Malraux
  André Malraux (pronounced: [ɑ̃dʁe malʁo]) DSO (3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist and Minister for Cultural Affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as Minister of Information (1945–1946) and subsequently as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs during de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969).
  Malraux was born in Paris in 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux and Berthe Lamy (Malraux). His parents separated in 1905 and eventually divorced. There are suggestions that Malraux's paternal grandfather committed suicide in 1909.
  Malraux was raised by his mother, maternal aunt Marie and maternal grandmother, Adrienne Lamy-Romagna, who had a grocery store in the small town of Bondy. His father, a stockbroker, committed suicide in 1930 after the international crash of the stock market and onset of the Great Depression. From his childhood, associates noticed that Andre had marked nervousness and motor and vocal tics. The recent biographer Olivier Todd, who published a book on Malraux in 2005, suggests that he had Tourette's syndrome, although that has not been confirmed. Either way, most critics have not seen this as a significant factor in Malraux's life or literary works.
  
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  Bernadette Chirac
  
  
  Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chirac (born Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel on 18 May 1933) is a French politician and the wife of the former President Jacques Chirac.
  She and Chirac met while both students at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (better known as Sciences Po), and were married in France on 16 March 1956. They have two children: Laurence and Claude Chirac, and a Vietnamese foster-daughter, Anh Đào Traxel.
  Since 2001, Bernadette has been a leading member of the "Pièces Jaunes," a charity that aids children in French hospitals by collecting small change.
  She has also helped her husband being elected in 1995 and is herself an elected official in Corrèze, the couple's home département.
  Born in Paris on 18 May 1933, Bernadette Thérèse Marie Chodron de Courcel was the daughter of Jean-Louis Chodron de Courcel (1907–1985), sales director of Emaux de Briare Inc., and Marguerite de Brondeau d'Urtières (1910–2000). She was the oldest of three children: her sister Catherine was born in 1946 and her brother Jérôme in 1948.
  
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  Bernart de Ventadorn
  Bernart de Ventadorn (Catalan pronunciation: [bərˈnard də βəntəˈðorn]) (1130-1140 – 1190–1200), also known as Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent troubador of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed the cançons into a more formalized style which allowed for sudden turns. He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity.
  Bernart was known for being able to portray his woman as a divine agent in one moment and then in a sudden twist, portraying her as Eve, the cause of man's initial sin. This dichotomy in his work is portrayed in a "graceful, witty, and polished" medium.
  According to the troubadour Uc de Saint Circ, Bernart was possibly the son of a baker at the castle of Ventadour (Ventadorn), in today's Corrèze(France). Yet another source, a satirical poem written by a younger contemporary, Peire d'Alvernha, indicates that he was the son of either a servant, a soldier, or a baker, and his mother was also either a servant or a baker. From evidence given in Bernart's early poem Lo temps vai e ven e vire, he most likely learned the art of singing and writing from his protector, viscount Eble III of Ventadorn. He composed his first poems to his patron's wife, Marguerite de Turenne.
  
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  Charles de Gaulle
  Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (/ˈtʃɑrlz/ or /ˈʃɑrl dəˈɡɔːl/; French: [ʃaʁl də ɡol] ( listen); 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
  A veteran of World War I, in the 1920s and 1930s de Gaulle came to the fore as a proponent of mobile armoured divisions, which he considered would become central in modern warfare. During World War II, he earned the rank of brigadier general (retained throughout his life), leading one of the few successful armoured counter-attacks during the 1940 Battle of France in May in Montcornet, and then briefly served in the French government as France was falling. De Gaulle was the most senior French military officer to reject the June 1940 armistice to Nazi Germany right from the outset.
  He escaped to Britain and gave a famous radio address, broadcast by the BBC on 18 June 1940, exhorting the French people to resist Nazi Germany and organised the Free French Forces with exiled French officers in Britain. As the war progressed de Gaulle gradually gained control of all French colonies except Indochina most of which had at first been controlled by the pro-German Vichy regime. Despite earning a reputation for being a difficult man to do business with, by the time of the Allied invasion of France in 1944 he was heading what amounted to a French government in exile, but although he insisted that France be treated as a great independent power by the other Allies, the Americans in particular remained deeply suspicious of his motives. De Gaulle became prime minister in the French Provisional Government, resigning in 1946 because of political conflicts.
  
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  Cédric Heymans
  Cédric Heymans (born 20 July 1978 in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Corrèze) is a French rugby union footballer. He currently plays for Aviron Bayonnais after signing from Stade Toulousain in 2011. He started his club career with CA Brive before moving to SU Agen, where he stayed until the late 1990s, before signing with Toulouse. His usual position is on the wing, though he has recently started at fullback for France.
  Heymans made his debut for France in a match against Italy in Paris as a reserve during the 2000 Six Nations Championship. He made one other appearance for France that year, starting in a match against Romania in Bucharest.
  In 2002 he started in two subsequent matches for the national side later that year, in the 30–10 win over South Africa in Marseille as well as the draw against the All Blacks in Paris. In 2004, he started against the United States, and was a reserve in a subsequent match against Canada. He received a further three national caps that year, starting in the win over Australia, as well as in the losses to Argentina and the All Blacks.
  
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  Cédric Villani
  Cédric Villani (born 5 October 1973) is a French mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010.
  After attending the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Villani was admitted at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and studied there from 1992 to 1996. He was later appointed an assistant professor in the same school. He received his doctorate at Paris Dauphine University in 1998, under the supervision of Pierre-Louis Lions, and became professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in 2000. He is now professor at Lyon University. He has been the director of Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris since 2009.
  Villani has worked on the theory of partial differential equations involved in statistical mechanics, specifically the Boltzmann equation, where, with Laurent Desvillettes, he was the first to prove how fast convergence occurred for initial values not near equilibrium. He has also written with Giuseppe Toscani on this subject. With Clément Mouhot, he has also worked on nonlinear Landau damping. He has worked on the theory of optimal transport and its applications to differential geometry, and with John Lott has defined a notion of bounded Ricci curvature for general measured length spaces. He received the Fields Medal for his work on Landau damping and the Boltzmann equation.
  
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  Dimitri Yachvili
  Dimitri Yachvili (born 19 September 1980 in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Corrèze) is a French rugby union footballer who currently plays scrum-half for Biarritz and France.
  Of Georgian descent, his father Michel was a French international before him. His paternal grandfather was a Georgian POW during WWII in France who escaped and subsequently participated in the French Resistance in the province of Limousin. Dimitri's brother Grégoire chose to play for the Georgian national team.
  Yachvili made his international debut in November 2002 in a 35–3 victory against Canada.
  Since the retirement of Fabien Galthié, Yachvili has been in and out of the French starting 15.
  During the 2005 Six Nations Championship he regained his position as the first choice scrum-half for the French national team, cementing his position with a virtuoso goal-kicking performance against England at Twickenham. He also captained the French national team, surrendering the captaincy permanently for the 2005 summer tour to South Africa, which he missed through injury.
  
  wn.com/Dimitri_Yachvili
• Edmond Michelet
  Edmond Michelet (Paris, 8 October 1899 – 9 October 1970 in Brive) was a French politician.
  On 17 June 1940, he distributed tracts calling to continue the war in all Brive-la-Gaillarde's mailboxes. It is considered to be the first act of resistance of World War II in France, one day before Charles de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June.
  He helped many victims of the Nazis in occupied France, including Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand. In 1943 he was arrested and incarcerated at the Dachau concentration camp where he assisted other prisoners during a typhus epidemic and was infected himself. When Dachau was liberated he was still aiding the sick and was the last to leave. (While a prisoner, he was helped by abbé Franz Stock.)
  He was made minister of the Army by Charles de Gaulle in 1946.
  He served as Minister of Justice from 1959 to 1961.
  Michelet was the main collaborator of Abraham Vereide, the leader of the Family fundamentalist organisation, based in the United States.
  
  wn.com/Edmond_Michelet
• Eugène Freyssinet
  Eugène Freyssinet (pronounced: [øʒɛn fʁɛsinɛ]) (13 July 1879 – 8 June 1962) was a French structural and civil engineer. He was the major pioneer of prestressed concrete.
  Freyssinet was born in at Objat, Corrèze, France. He worked in the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France where he designed several bridges until the First World War intervened. His tutors included Charles Rabut. He served in the French Army from 1904–1907 and again from 1914-1918 as a road engineer.
  His most significant early bridge was the three span Pont le Veurdre near Vichy, built in 1911. At the time, the 72.5 metre (238 ft) spans were the longest so far constructed. Freyssinet's proposal was for three reinforced concrete truss spans, and was significantly less expensive than the standard masonry arch design. The design used jacks to raise and connect the arches, effectively introducing an element of prestress. The bridge also enabled Freyssinet to discover the phenomenon of creep in concrete, whereby the concrete deforms with time when placed under stress. Regarding this bridge, Freyssinet wrote: "I have always loved it more than any other of my bridges, and of all that the War has destroyed, it is the only one whose ruin has caused me real grief".
  
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  François Hollande
  François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa ɔlɑ̃d]; born 12 August 1954) is the 24th President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He previously served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008 and as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituency from 1988 to 1993 and then again from 1997 to 2012. He also served as the Mayor of Tulle from 2001 to 2008 and the President of the General Council of Corrèze from 2008 to 2012.
  He was elected President of France on 6 May 2012, defeating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, and was inaugurated on 15 May. He is the second Socialist President of the Fifth French Republic, after François Mitterrand who served from 1981 to 1995.
  Hollande was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, to a middle-class family. His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert (1927–2009), was a social worker, and his father, Georges Gustave Hollande, an ear, nose, and throat doctor who "had once run for the extreme right in local politics." The surname "Hollande" is "believed to come from Calvinist ancestors who escaped Holland (the Netherlands) in the 16th century and took the name of their old country." Hollande was raised Catholic but quietly rebelled against the strict religious brothers chosen by his father to educate him. The family moved to Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, when Hollande was 13.
  
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  French Directory
  The Directory (French: Directoire exécutif) was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. The period of this regime (2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) era, constitutes the second to last stage of the French Revolution.
  The Directory era itself is further split into two eras, the First Directory and the Second Directory, divided by the Coup of 18 Fructidor. Directoire style is the refers to the Neoclassical styles in the decorative arts and fashion that characterize the period.
  The directory system of government was also used in several French client republics and modern Switzerland; see directorial system.
  Under the French Constitution of 1795, qualified property holders elected 750 legislators, who divided themselves into the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients. This bicameral legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients held a suspensory veto, but possessed no initiative in legislation.
  
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  Guillaume Dubois
  Guillaume Dubois (6 September 1656 – 10 August 1723) was a French cardinal and statesman.
  Dubois, the third of the four great Cardinal-Ministers (Richelieu, Mazarin, Dubois, and Fleury), was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Limousin. He was, according to his enemies, the son of an apothecary, his father being in fact a doctor of medicine of respectable family, who kept a small drug store as part of the necessary outfit of a country practitioner. He was educated at the school of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine at Brive, where he received the tonsure at the age of thirteen. In 1672, having finished his philosophy course, he was given a scholarship at the college of St. Michel in Paris by the lieutenant-general of the Limousin. The head of the college, the abbé Antoine Faure, who was from the same part of the country as himself, befriended the lad, and continued to do so for many years after he had finished his course, finding him pupils and ultimately obtaining for him the post of tutor to the young duke of Chartres, afterwards the regent Duke of Orléans.
  
  wn.com/Guillaume_Dubois
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  Henri Queuille
  Henri Queuille (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi køj]; 31 March 1884 in Neuvic, Corrèze – 15 June 1970, Paris) was a French Radical politician prominent in the Third and Fourth Republics. After World War II, he served three times as Prime Minister.
  He was the son of a noblewoman.
  Changes:
  
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  Jacques Chirac
  Jacques René Chirac ( /ʒɑːk ʃɨˈræk/; French pronunciation: [ʒɑk ʃiʁak]; born 29 November 1932) is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 (making him the only person to hold the position of Prime Minister twice under the Fifth Republic), and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
  After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris, a term at Harvard University and the École nationale d'administration (ENA), Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He subsequently occupied various senior positions, including Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris, and finally President of the French Republic.
  Chirac's internal policies included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism, and business privatisation. He also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). After less statist policy when he was Prime Minister (1986–1988), he changed his method. Then, his economic policies, based on dirigisme, state-directed ideals, stood in opposition to the laissez-faire policies of the United Kingdom, which Chirac famously described as "Anglo-Saxon ultraliberalism". Chirac is the second-longest serving President of France (two full terms, the first of seven years and the second of five years), after François Mitterrand. As President, he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur.
  
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  Jacques Delors
  Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born 20 July 1925) is a French economist and politician, the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office (between January 1985 and December 1994). He is the father of Martine Aubry, the leader of the Socialist Party of France.
  Born in Paris in a family originating from Corrèze, Delors first held in the 1940s-1960s a series of posts in French banking and state planning with the Banque de France. As a member of the French Confederation of Christian Workers, he participated in its secularization and the foundation of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour. In 1969, he became social affairs adviser to the Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a move which was presented as part of Chaban's outreach to the centre-ground and first attracted media attention to Delors personally .
  In 1974, Delors joined the French Socialist Party, with other left-wing Christians. He was one of the rare members of the party to be openly religious, thus challenging its long-standing secular tradition. He served in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1981, becoming chairman of its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Under President François Mitterrand, Delors served as Economics and Finance Minister from 1981–1983, and Economics, Finance, and Budget Minister from 1983–1984. He advocated a pause in the social policies, a clear acceptance of the market economy, and an alignment with European social democracy. Critically, he held the line on France's membership of the European Monetary System (EMS), giving priority to monetary stability over left-wing spending priorities. Mitterrand flirted with the idea of naming him Prime Minister^{[citation needed]}, but never made this appointment.
  
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  Laurent Koscielny
  Laurent Koscielny (French pronunciation: [loˈʁɑ̃ kosjɛlˈɲi]) (born 10 September 1985) is a French footballer who plays as a defender for Arsenal. He primarily plays as a centre back but he can also play as a right back, a position where he started his career. Koscielny is a youth product of Guingamp. He is described as an aggressive, uncompromising and ball-playing defender. Koscielny was born in the city of Tulle and began his football career playing for a host of amateur and youth clubs such as Brive, Tulle Corrèze and Limoges. In 2001, he moved to the Brittany in northwestern France to play for professional club Guingamp.
  In 2007, Koscielny joined Tours for an undisclosed fee to play in the third tier of the French league in 2007 and enjoyed promotion with his new side before being named in the Ligue 2 Team of the Season the following campaign. On 16 June 2009, newly promoted Ligue 1 side Lorient signed Koscielny on a four-year contract for around €1.7 million. He quickly established himself as a starter.
  
  wn.com/Laurent_Koscielny
• Marcel Conche
  Marcel Conche (27 March 1922, Altillac), is a French philosopher.
  A recent publication (2003), the Tao Te Ching translation and comments in French, follows the format of previous works, such as Héraclite - Fragments (fragments of Heraclitus):
  In this book he draws an interesting parallel between the nearly contemporaries Lao Zi (see Tao Te Ching) and Heraclitus: the river of the Greek is compared to the Dao of the Chinese.
  In some cases (such as the Heraclitus) the text (as handed down by tradition, copyists, historians or other authors quoting the now unavailable original text) is reordered to follow a more logical order, from the simplest of principles to the most advanced.
  He has written about 22 other books (as of 2004).
  
  
  
  wn.com/Marcel_Conche
• 
  Martine Aubry
  Martine Aubry (French pronunciation: [maʁtin obʁi]; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She has been the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, or PS) since November 2008 and Mayor of Lille (Nord) since March 2001. Her father, Jacques Delors, served as Minister of Finance under President François Mitterrand and was also President of the European Commission.
  Aubry joined the PS in 1974 and was appointed Minister of Labour by Prime Minister Édith Cresson in 1991, but lost her position in 1993 after the Right won the legislative elections. However, she became Minister of Social Affairs when Lionel Jospin was appointed Prime Minister in 1997. She is mostly known for having pushed the popular 35-hour workweek law, known as the "Loi Aubry", reducing the nominal length of the normal full-time working week from 39 to 35 hours, and the law that created the Couverture maladie universelle (Universal health care coverage).
  Aubry stepped down from her Cabinet post in 2001 to be elected Mayor of Lille in place of Pierre Mauroy. Aubry subsequently lost her seat in the National Assembly in the general election of 2002. In March 2008, she was reelected Mayor of Lille, with 66.55% of the votes.
  
  wn.com/Martine_Aubry
• 
  Pope Clement VI
  Pope Clement VI (1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, the fourth of the Avignon Popes, was pope from May 1342 until his death in December of 1352. Clement is most notable as the Pope who reigned during the time of the Black Death (1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all that died of the plague.
  Clement was born in the village of Maumont, today part of the commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons, Corrèze, in Limousin, the son of the wealthy lord of Rosiers-d'Égletons.
  He entered the Benedictine order as a boy, studied at the College de Sorbonne in Paris, and became successively prior of St. Baudil, Abbot of Fécamp, Bishop of Arras, Chancellor of France, Archbishop of Sens and Archbishop of Rouen. He was made cardinal-priest of Santi Nereo e Achilleo and administrator of the bishopric of Avignon by Benedict XII in 1338 and was chosen to succeed him as pope at the papal conclave of 1342.
  Like his immediate predecessors, he was devoted to France, and he demonstrated his French sympathies by refusing a solemn invitation to return to Rome from the city's people, as well as from the poet Petrarch. He threw a sop to the Romans, however, by reducing the Jubilee term from one hundred years to fifty. He also purchased the sovereignty of Avignon from Queen Joan I of Naples for 80,000 crowns.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Clement_VI
• 
  Pope Gregory XI
  Gregory XI (c. 1329 – 27 March 1378) was pope from 1370 until his death.
  He was born Pierre Roger de Beaufort in Maumont in the modern commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons, Limousin, around 1330. He succeeded Pope Urban V at the papal conclave of 1370. He was the seventh and last of the Avignon Popes.
  During his pontificate vigorous measures were taken against the heresies which had broken out in Germany, England, and other parts of Europe; a sincere effort was also made to cause a reformation in the various monastic orders.
  John Wycliffe's 19 reformation articles on church related items as he wrote in his On Civil Dominion and 21 proposed reformation articles of Johannes Klenkoka's Decadecon were submitted to Pope Gregory XI in the early part of the 1370s. Gregory formally condemned fourteen articles of Decadecon in 1374 and nineteen propositions of Wycliffe's On Civil Dominion in 1377.
  His return to Rome on 17 January 1377, is attributed in part to the stirring words of Catherine of Siena. This had been attempted by Gregory's predecessor, Urban V, without success. The project was delayed by a conflict between the pope and Florence, known as "the War of the Eight Saints" for the "Eight for War," the Florentine magistrates responsible for the conduct of the war. The pope put Florence under interdict for a time.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Gregory_XI
• 
  Pope Innocent VI
  Pope Innocent VI (1282 or 1295 – 12 September 1362), born Étienne Aubert, was Pope from 18 December 1352 until his death. His father was Adhemar Aubert (1260-?), seigneur de Montel-de-Gelat in Limousin province. His niece was Catherine Aubert, Dame de Boutheon, also the wife of Randon II, Baron of Joyeuse; she was an ancestor of La Fayette. A Pope at Avignon, the successor of Clement VI, he was a native of the hamlet of Les Monts, Diocese of Limoges (today part of the commune of Beyssac, département of Corrèze), and, after having taught civil law at Toulouse, he became successively Bishop of Noyon and Bishop of Clermont.
  In 1342, he was raised to the position of cardinal. On the death of Clement VI, after each cardinal had bound himself to a particular line of policy should he be elected, Aubert was chosen at a papal conclave on 18 December 1352, taking the name of Innocent VI. One of the first acts of his pontificate was to declare the pact to have been illegal and null.
  His subsequent policy compares favourably with that of the other Avignon Popes. He introduced many needed reforms in the administration of church affairs, and through his legate, Cardinal Albornoz, who was accompanied by Rienzi, he sought to restore order in Rome, where, in 1355, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV was crowned with his permission, after previously having made an oath that he would quit the city on the day of the ceremony.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Innocent_VI
• 
  Robert Nivelle
  Robert Georges Nivelle (15 October 1856 – 22 March 1924) was a French artillery officer who served in the Boxer Rebellion, and the First World War. In May 1916, he was given command of the French Second Army in the Battle of Verdun, leading counter-offensives that rolled back the German forces in late 1916. However he and General Charles Mangin were already accused of wasting French lives at Verdun. Following his successes at Verdun, he was promoted to commander-in-chief of the French armies on the Western Front in December 1916. He was responsible for the Nivelle Offensive at the Chemin des Dames, which faced a large degree of opposition during its planning stages, notably so from General Petain. When the offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough on the Western Front, Nivelle was replaced as commander-in-chief in May 1917. Nivelle was a very capable commander and organizer in the use of field artillery at the regimental and divisional levels. His promotion to the highest command level in the French Army came about in large part from his talents of persuasion with French and British political leaders, aided by his pronounced fluency in the English language.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Nivelle
• 
  Régence
  The Régence (French pronunciation: [ʁeʒɑ̃s], Regency) is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France.
  The era was the time when Philippe was able to prise power away from the Duke of Maine (illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) who was the favourite son of the late king and had had much influence. During the Regency there was the Polysynody which was the system of government in use in France between 1715 and 1718 and in which each minister (secretary of state) was replaced by a council. The Regent also introduced the système de Law which transformed the finances of the bankrupted kingdom and its aristocracy. Cardinal Dubois and Cardinal Fleury were key people during the time.
  Contemporary European rulers were Philip V of Spain; John V of Portugal; George I of Great Britain; Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy; Savoy was the maternal grand father of Louis XV.
  
  wn.com/Régence
• 
  Thomas Domingo
  Thomas Domingo (born 20 August 1985) is a French rugby union player. Domingo, who is a loosehead prop, plays his club rugby for ASM Clermont Auvergne. He made his debut for France against Wales on 27 February 2009. His diminutive stature (1m 73) and superb technique, make him one of the most feared loosehead props in world rugby.
  Domingo's brother, Fabien Domingo, plays at number eight for CA Brive.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Thomas_Domingo
• 
  Valérie Pécresse
  Valérie Pécresse (born 14 July 1967 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French politician. She has been deputy of the Yvelines since May 16, 2002, Minister for Higher Education and Research from May 18, 2007 to June 2011 and Minister of the Budget from then until May 2012. She was also the Government's spokeswoman.
  Pécresse is the daughter of Dominique Roux (CEO of Bolloré telecom since January 2007).
  Pécresse has degrees from HEC School of Management and ÉNA. She was an auditor of the Conseil d'État until 1998, when she was designated counselor of the presidence of the French Republic. She speaks French, English, Russian and Japanese.
  In June 2002, she was elected deputy of the Yvelines' second constituency. She was also elected regional counselor of Île-de-France in 2004. Valérie Pécresse was a national spokeswoman of the UMP, and spokeswoman of the party in the Yvelines.
  On 18 May 2007, she was designated Minister of Higher Education and Research of François Fillon's second cabinet.
  
  wn.com/Valérie_Pécresse

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France’s bottled waters do battle for place at top table

The Independent

14 Dec 2012

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It’s water pistols at dawn for France’s designer water industry ... One brand has been given a helping hand by none other than President François Hollande, who has ensured that bottles of Treignac mineral water from his Corrèze constituency are now available at his Cabinet meetings. The director of Eaux de Treignac, Michelle Sainte-Laudy, told L’Expansion magazine ... “There is competition in this sector like in everything else.” ... ....(size: 1.9Kb)

Send for the bard! Carnyx discovery leaves archaeologists little the wiser

The Guardian

11 Dec 2012

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Ancient Gallic horns immortalised in Asterix books are found in deliberately sabotaged condition to prevent them being played. Fit for Cacofonix ... a carnyx unearthed from the Tintignac site in France. Photograph. Patrick Ernaux/Inrap ... In 2004, more than 500 iron and bronze items placed as offerings to the gods were discovered a small 30cm-deep pit in Tintignac, in the Corrèze department ... ....(size: 6.3Kb)

Count Jacques le Bel de Penguilly: Aristocrat and one of the last members of the ...

The Independent

19 Nov 2012

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Count Jacques le Bel de Penguilly was one of the last surviving French members of the “Jeds” – allied special forces who parachuted behind enemy lines as part of Operation Jedburgh in support of the Normandy landings in 1944 ... The group parachuted into the Corrèze département in France’s Massif Central, landing in a valley near the village of Fonfreyde before dawn on 11 August with the help of bonfires lit by farmers ... unmarried ... ....(size: 7.6Kb)

Hollande calls inquiry after pregnant woman loses baby in rush to hospital

The Independent

22 Oct 2012

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The still-birth of a baby on a French motorway has started a political row over cuts in medical care in a country often said to have one of the best health systems in the world ... The baby was still-born in a car at a service station as the parents drove from their village in the Lot region to a maternity unit at Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the Corrèze. Their local maternity hospital in Figeac closed three years ago ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)

Three highly automated Rapida 106 presses replace four non-KBA machines (15895369)

noodls

17 Sep 2012

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(Source ... Successful two-pronged strategy ... Its origins date back to 1892, when one Antonin Fabrègue, great-grandfather of Emmanuel and Denis, set up in business as a printer and lithographer in Bort-les-Orgues (Département Haute Corrèze) after completing his degree at the Uni-versity of Fine Arts in Paris ... His mother eventually sold the family printing plant and moved to relatives in Lubersac (Département Basse Corrèze) ... He says ... ....(size: 9.4Kb)

Saturday interview: Lizzie Armitstead, Olympic cycling silver medallist

The Guardian

04 Aug 2012

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Lizzie Armitstead broke away from the pack in the women's road race with 45km to go – a gutsy move that won her Team GB's first medal. Suddenly she is a sporting celebrity, and finds herself wondering if she could have won gold ... Photograph. Felix Clay for the Guardian ... Is that me? I don't know ... The sponsor's logos are everywhere ... Blythe was soon off to France, where he won the first stage of the Paris-Corrèze race on Wednesday ... ....(size: 12.9Kb)

François Hollande marks anniversary of wartime deportation of Jews

The Observer

22 Jul 2012

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Francois Hollande attends a ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Vel D'Hiv round-up in Paris. Photograph. Pool/Reuters ... "The truth is hard, cruel. The truth is that the French police arrested thousands of children and families ... On Saturday, the president had made a symbolic visit to Chirac's country home in the Corrèze region of central France, where aides said they had talked about Vel d'Hiv ... Recipient's email address ... ....(size: 5.6Kb)

Tour de France: Manx Missile fires to 22nd stage victory

The Independent

21 Jul 2012

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Physically there can be no doubting the Briton's condition. After 222 kilometres of racing – just 18 less than the Olympic road race – through the relentlessly rolling countryside of the Garonne and Corrèze, not to mention coming at the end of three weeks of riding the toughest race on the planet and a heavy crash late on yesterday's stage, Cavendish still had enough strength to take Britain's fifth stage win by several bikelengths ... ....(size: 3.8Kb)

Fr Pierre Ceyrac: Aid worker in Rwanda, Cambodia and India

The Independent

22 Jun 2012

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Ceyrac was a compassionate, driven man who believed that in addition to whatever material assistance the international community could provide it must also offer optimism. "There was a huge sense of despair in the camps," said Stephane Rousseau, a lecturer at Bangkok's Thammasat University who worked alongside Ceyrac ... She said yes ... Andrew Buncombe ... born Meyssac, Corrèze, France 4 February 1914; died Chennai, India 30 May 2012 ... ....(size: 5.0Kb)

Lumière | The New Normal Chic

The New York Times

15 Jun 2012

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The French like their leaders to be regal, so François Hollande’s pledge to be a “normal” president will take some getting used to ... For now, the changes are a matter of style ... Le Central is the new Fouquet’s ... At the White House in May, she gave Michelle Obama a $600 cream-colored, woven leather Vicky handbag by Le Tanneur, the leather-goods maker that has, since 1898, had its headquarters in Hollande’s electoral fief of Corrèze ... P....(size: 7.8Kb)

photo: AP / Christophe Ena

Hollande passes first test with credit, but tougher ones to follow

The Independent

21 May 2012

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There are much tougher tests to come but the G8 summit at Camp David was a quiet success for the inexperienced new French President. The New York Times spoke of a "new alliance" between President Barack Obama and Mr Hollande ... You could argue that Mr Hollande was pushing at an open door ... Mr Hollande's previous biggest economic negotiation was setting the local priorities for the département of Corrèze in south-west France ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)

François Hollande passes first test with credit, but tougher ones to follow

The Independent

21 May 2012

read more

There are much tougher tests to come but the G8 summit at Camp David was a quiet success for the inexperienced new French President. The New York Times spoke of a "new alliance" between President Barack Obama and Mr Hollande ... You could argue that Mr Hollande was pushing at an open door ... Mr Hollande's previous biggest economic negotiation was setting the local priorities for the département of Corrèze in south-west France ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)

Meet France's new power couple

The Guardian

14 May 2012

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French president François Hollande and his partner Valérie Trierweiler are now France's first family. So how will they differ from the Sarkozys? François Hollande kisses his partner Valérie Trierweiler after winning the presidential election. Photograph. KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features ... "Kiss! Kiss!" demanded the crowd gathered in Tulle in Hollande's rural powerbase of Corrèze ... She is now under intense scrutiny as France's "first lady" ... ....(size: 15.3Kb)

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