Porto-Vecchio

Porto-Vecchio (Corsican: Portivechju) is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. The city hosted the start of the first stage of Tour de France 2013

It is the seat of the canton of Porto-Vecchio, which it shares with Sari-Solenzara, Conca and Lecci. Porto-Vecchio is a medium-sized port city placed on a good harbor, the southernmost of the marshy and alluvial east side of Corsica. The inhabitants are called Porto-Vecchiais in French, and Portivechjacciu in Corsican.

Geography

The canton of Porto-Vecchio has a population of about 12,900 living in four communes making up a total of 34,787 hectares (85,960 acres). It is divided in two by the commune of Zonza, which holds a section of the coast around the Gulf of Pinarellu. Porto-Vecchio has two communes to the north, Sari-Solenzara and Conca, and two to the south, Porto-Vecchio and Lecci.

The commune of Porto-Vecchio is 64 kilometers (40 mi) east of Sartène. The north shore of the gulf has many resorts, such as Benedettu, Marina di Fiori, and others of the commune of Lecci. The east coast, a shore with cliffs, is less habitable; beyond Chiappa Point (a naturist site) the coast goes southwest to the border of Bonifacio commune.

Julien Doré

Julien Doré (born 7 July 1982) is a French singer-songwriter, actor, and winner of the fifth season of the television show Nouvelle Star, aired on the French Television M6 channel. He is also the great-great-great-nephew of Gustave Doré, a well-known illustrator of the 19th century.

Life

Doré was born in Alès (Gard), and grew up in Lunel. After taking his baccalauréat littéraire at the college Louis Feuillade, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts of Nîmes for five years. He is the founder of the group Dig up Elvis, with which he played in the bars of Nîmes. At that time, beer was the currency in which he was paid. In 2006, he created with Guillaume de Molina the project "The Jean d'Ormesson disco suicide", "protean group" which covered pop and disco hits. In June 2007, Doré was voted number one in French Elle Magazine's "15 Sexiest Men" poll. He used to date Louise Bourgoin, but separated since March 2009.

Nouvelle Star

In 2007, Doré was selected at the casting session in Marseille for the fifth season of the music competition Nouvelle Star, where he presented himself with a ukulele. At the beginning, he only participated in the casting to get free publicity for his band. He convinced the jury when he sang "A la faveur de l'automne" (originally by Tété). His most memorable performances and revelations were while singing "Moi... Lolita" (Alizée) and "...Baby One More Time" (Britney Spears), dance music songs, in acoustics. He won the finale against Tigane.

Tour de France

The Tour de France (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁ də fʁɑ̃s]) is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase paper sales for the magazine L'Auto; it is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe. Participation expanded from a primarily French field, as riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite.

The Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España make up cycling's prestigious, three-week-long Grand Tours; the Tour is the oldest and generally considered the most prestigious of the three. Traditionally, the race is held primarily in the month of July. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same with the appearance of time trials, the passage through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments (stages) over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi). The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France.

Porto

Porto (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpoɾtu]), also known as Oporto in English, is the second-largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon, and one of the major urban areas in Southwestern Europe. The urban area of Porto, which extends beyond the administrative limits of the city, has a population of 1.4 million (2011) in an area of 389 km² (150 sq mi), making it the second-largest urban area in Portugal. Porto Metropolitan Area, on the other hand, includes an estimated 1.8 million people. It is recognized as a Gamma-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group, the only Portuguese city besides Lisbon to be recognised as a global city.

Located along the Douro river estuary in Northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centres, and its historical core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. The western part of its urban area extends to the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. Its settlement dates back many centuries, when it was an outpost of the Roman Empire. Its combined Celtic-Latin name, Portus Cale, has been referred to as the origin of the name "Portugal", based on transliteration and oral evolution from Latin. In Portuguese, the name of the city is spelled with a definite article ("o Porto"; English: the port). Consequently, its English name evolved from a misinterpretation of the oral pronunciation and referred to as Oporto in modern literature and by many speakers.

2013 Tour de France

The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one race stages and covered a total distance of 3,403.5 km (2,115 mi). The race was won by Chris Froome of Team Sky. Second and third respectively were the Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and the Team Katusha rider, Joaquim Rodríguez.

Marcel Kittel (Argos–Shimano) was the first rider to wear the race leader's yellow jersey after winning stage one. He lost the lead the next day to Jan Bakelants of RadioShack–Leopard, who managed to obtain a one-second lead from a late solo attack. Simon Gerrans gained the race lead after his team, Orica–GreenEDGE, won the stage four team time trial. Gerrans passed the lead on to teammate Daryl Impey after the fifth stage. Froome took the lead from Impey after the after the eighth stage, the first classified as mountainous. Froome maintained his lead for the remainder of the race by consolidating his lead through solid performances in the individual time trials and in the high mountains.