Orléanais

Orléanais (French pronunciation: ​[ɔʁleanɛ]) is a former province of France, around the cities of Orléans, Chartres, and Blois.

The name comes from Orléans, its main city and traditional capital. The province was one of those into which France was divided before the French Revolution. It was the country around Orléans, the pagus Aurelianensis; it lay on both banks of the Loire, and for ecclesiastical purposes formed the diocese of Orléans. It was in the possession of the Capet family before the advent of Hugh Capet to the throne of France in 987, and in 1344 Philip VI gave it with the title of duke to Philip of Valois (d. 1375), one of his younger sons. In a geographical sense the region around Orléans is sometimes known as the Orléanais, but this is somewhat smaller than the former province.

Orléanais was also a dialect of the French language spoken in the province of Orléanais until the beginning of the 19th century.

Notes

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orléanais". Encyclopædia Britannica 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 281. 

Miss France

Miss France is a national Beauty pageant in France.

The pageant is held each year in December, and the winner is designated by the year that begins in the ensuing January. Rights to the trademark are owned by the company Miss France SAS, whose director general is Sylvie Tellier, Miss France 2002. Local and regional pageants that provide entrants for the Miss France contest are organized by the Comité Miss France, whose emblematic president was Geneviève de Fontenay during 20 years.

Miss France 2015, Camille Cerf, was chosen 6 December 2014. Her prizes included 100,000 euros in gifts, use of a Paris apartment for one year, and a monthly net salary of 3,000 euros.

Rules

The pageant is contested by regional winners of local contests from Metropolitan France and its overseas territories. The method of choosing the winner has varied over the years, ordinarily with a jury of celebrities choosing a set of finalists. The winner in recent years was chosen by a weighting of the jury's opinion and votes of television viewers of the pageant (who pay a fee for each vote). For the Miss France 2010 contest, the winner was chosen entirely by the votes of viewers for the first time.