Featured picture (Archive)

Pierre Séguier entering Paris with Louis XIV of France in 1660, painted by Charles Le Brun, c. 1670.

Featured article (Archive)

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (French Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon) is a French overseas collectivity consisting of several small islands off the eastern coast of Canada near Newfoundland. It is the only remainder of the former colonial territory of New France.

Named the 'Eleven Thousand Virgins' by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes in 1521, the islands were also named the 'Islands of Saint-Pierre' by the French. During the 16th century, the islands were used as a base for the seasonal cod fishery by the French of La Rochelle, Granville, Saint-Malo and the Basque Country. Saint-Pierre was settled by the French in the early 17th century, abandoned under the Treaty of Utrecht, and returned to France in 1763 at the end of the Seven Years War. Between 1763 and 1778, the islands became a place of refuge for Acadian deportees from Nova Scotia. In 1778 the islands were attacked and the population deported by the British as retaliation for French support of the American Revolutionary War.

Although France regained the islands in 1783, by 1793, British hostility to the French Revolution and the fact that France had declared war with Britain led to another British attack on the islands and the deportation of the entire population.

Current events in France

December 1, 2005 - First face transplant performed on French woman Surgeons in France have performed a face transplant operation on a French woman who had lost her nose, lips and chin after being savaged by a dog. According to Iain Hutchison, an oral-facial surgeon at Barts and the London Hospital, the transplant is the first one to use skin from another person. Doctors say the woman's new face will be a "hybrid" between her donor's face and her own face before the attack. In the five hour long operation, the donor's tissues, muscles, arteries and veins were attached to the patient's lower face. It is more favourable to use skin from another person's face instead of skin from another part of the patient's body, as the texture and colour of the skin are more likely to match. A statement released by the hospital in Amiens said that the 38-year-old patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, has not been able to eat or speak properly since the attack in May this year. The woman was reportedly in "excellent general health" and her graft looked normal. Full story

November 17, 2005 - French parliament extends state of emergency to three months The French Parliament passed a law extending the state of emergency decreed on November 8 by president Jacques Chirac for a duration of 3 months, the executive being authorized to terminate this period earlier if necessary. The November 8 decision, based on a 1955 statute, could last for a maximum of 12 days only, after which Parliament had to vote on an extension. The state of emergency allows local authorities (prefects) to prohibit public meetings and regulate movements of persons, including curfews. In addition, in certain zones specified by the executive, where riots have recently taken place, local authorities may close meeting halls or bars; detain firearms; and authorize searches inside habitations during the day or the night by administrative order (normally, searches during formal criminal investigations have to be authorized by a judge). The government said that it will not use the power to regulate the media, and that searches will be subject to supervision by the judiciary. The law was defended by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, in charge of law enforcement. Sarkozy spoke before the French National Assembly (which approved the text on November 15) and the French Senate (which approved it on November 16); he defended the actions of the government and explained why, in his opinion, the law had to be voted. Sarkozy is also the head of the UMP party, which holds a majority in both houses, and there was no doubt that the text would be approved. Full story

Did you know...

• ...that Jean-Marie Perrot was assassinated during WW2 and since then has been remembered in parts of Brittany on Easter Monday
• ...that "Vulcania" was founded by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as an incentive to bring tourism to Auvergne?
• ...that the famous Wallace fountains in Paris were provided by English philanthropist Richard Wallace as a source of free water for the poor?
• ...that Roger Lemerre has won the Football World Cup, European Football Championship, Confederations Cup and the African Nations Cup?

Categories

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People (Archive)

Niki de Saint Phalle (October 29 1930 - May 21, 2002) was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.

She was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in Paris. After being wiped out financially during the Great Depression, the family moved from France to the United States in 1933. During her teens, she was a fashion model; at the age of sixteen she made the cover of Life magazine, and later the cover of the French Vogue magazine. At eighteen, de Saint Phalle eloped with author Harry Mathews.

While in Paris, de Saint Phalle was introduced to the American painter Hugh Weiss who became both her friend and mentor, encouraging her to continue painting in her self-taught style. She subsequently moved to Deya, Majorca, Spain. While in Spain, de Saint Phalle visited Madrid and Barcelona where she discovered and was consequently deeply affected by the work of Antonio Gaudi. Gaudi's influence opened many previously unimagined possibilities for Sainte Phalle regarding the use of diverse material and object-trouves as structural elements in sculpture and architecture.

Her first art exhibition was held in 1956 in Switzerland where she displayed naïve style oil paintings. She then moved onto collage work that often featured objects of violence, such as guns and knives. In 1961, she became known around the world for her Shooting paintings. A shooting painting consisted of a wooden base board on which containers of paint were laid, then covered with plaster. The painting was then raised and de Saint Phalle would shoot at it with a .22 caliber rifle. The bullets penetrated paint containers which spilled their contents over the painting. This "painting style" was completely new, and she travelled around the world performing shooting sessions.

Pierre Restany, founder of the Nouveau Réalisme movement, attended one of de Saint Phalle's exhibitions and subsequently invited her to join. As a result, she soon became involved in the ideas, festivals and activities of this group which included such art personalities as Arman, Cesar, Christo, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Daniel Spoerri, and Jean Tinguely (whom she later married).

Art and Culture

French art - French Renaissance - French Baroque and Classicism - French Rococo and Neoclassicism - French art of the 19th century - French art of the 20th century - Impressionism - Cubism - Surrealism - French literature - Medieval French literature - French Renaissance literature - French literature of the 17th century - French literature of the 18th century - French literature of the 19th century - French literature of the 20th century - Honoré de Balzac - Charles Baudelaire - Arthur Rimbaud - Gustave Flaubert - Jean-Paul Sartre - Music of France - French folk music - French cinema - François Truffaut - Jean Vigo - François Ozon - Auteur theory -

French History

Celtic Gaul - Roman Gaul - Franks - Middle Ages - Capetian Dynasty - Ancien Régime - Valois Dynasty - Early Modern France - French Renaissance - Wars of Religion - Bourbon Dynasty - Louis XIV of France - Louis XV of France - French Revolution - Napoleon Bonaparte - First Empire - Nineteenth century - Second Empire - Third Republic - Charles de Gaulle - Vichy France - Modern France - Fourth Republic - Algerian War - Fifth Republic - Islam in France - Economic history - 2005 in France

Things you can do

Some France-related stubs:

• Alain Poher
• Arletty
• Catherine Millet
• Day of the Dupes
• Intendant
• Khâgne
• Football in France
• La Poste
• Marine Le Pen
• Le Lido
• Musée Grévin
• Antoine Pinay
• Louis III of France

Multi-lingual coordination:

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/fr
• WP:TIE#French-to-English