Picture of the Month (Archive)

The Pont du Gard is an aqueduct in the south of France constructed by the Roman Empire, and located near Remoulins, in the Gard département.
Photo credit: ChrisO

Article of the Month (Archive)

The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe, called in 1145 in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year. Edessa was the first of the Crusader states to have been founded during the First Crusade (1095–1099), and was the first to fall. The Second Crusade was announced by Pope Eugene III, and was the first of the crusades to be led by European kings, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, with help from a number of other important European nobles.

There had been virtually no popular enthusiasm for the crusade as there had been in 1095 and 1096. However, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most famous and respected men of Christendom at the time, found it expedient to dwell upon the taking of the cross as a potent means of gaining absolution for sin and attaining grace. On March 31, with Louis present, he preached to an enormous crowd in a field at Vézelay. Bernard, "the honey-tongued teacher" worked his magic of oration, men rose up and yelled "Crosses, give us Crosses!" and they supposedly ran out of cloth to make crosses; to make more Bernard is said to have given his own outer garments to be cut up. Unlike the First Crusade, the new venture attracted Royalty, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, then Queen of France; Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders; Henry, the future Count of Champagne; Louis’ brother Robert I of Dreux; Alphonse I of Toulouse; William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey; Hugh VII of Lusignan; and numerous other nobles and bishops. But an even greater show of support came from the common people.

The armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe and were somewhat hindered by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus; after crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were separately defeated by the Seljuk Turks. Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem and in 1148 participated in an ill-advised attack on Damascus. The crusade in the east was a failure for the crusaders and a great victory for the Muslims. It would ultimately lead to the fall of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century.

The only success came outside of the Mediterranean, where English crusaders, on the way by ship to the Holy Land, fortuitously stopped and helped capture Lisbon in 1147. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, the first of the Northern Crusades began with the intent of forcibly converting pagan tribes to Christianity, and these crusades would go on for centuries.

French Geography

After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). The upper central region is dominated by the Paris Basin; fertile soils over much of the area make it good agricultural land. The Seine river flows through the Paris Basin into Normandy and out into the English channel. The Normandy coast to the northwest is characterized by high, chalk cliffs, while the Brittany coast (the peninsula to the west) is highly indented with deep valleys. The center of France is traversed by the Loire river valley which empties into the Atlantic ocean. The Bay of Biscay ("Golfe de Gascogne") to the southwest is marked by flat, sandy beaches; the Garonne and Dordogne rivers flow west into the Gironde estuary which empties into the bay. To the south, the Pyrenees form a natural border between France and Spain, and the south-central part of the country is dominated by the ancient Massif Central. Subject to volcanism that has only subsided in the last 10,000 years, these central mountains are separated from the Alps by the north-south Rhône River Basin which empties into a delta called the Camargue. From Spain to Italy stretches France's Mediterranean sea coast line (the Golfe du Lion); to the east this coast is often called the Côte d'Azur (in English, the "French Riviera"). A spur of the Alps called the Jura mountains rise in the east along the border with Switzerland, and the Vosges mountains which rise in the northeast separate the province of Alsace from the rest of the country. The Rhine river divides France from Germany. In the north, the Ardennes mountains line the border with Belgium and Luxemburg.

With a population of over 60 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany) and the 20th largest in the world. Paris is the most populated city in France with over 11 million people in its aire urbaine. The other largest cities in France (in descending order) are Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, Nice, Bordeaux, Nantes, Strasbourg, Toulon, Douai-Lens, Rennes, Rouen, Grenoble, and Montpellier.

To learn more, see Geography of France

French Administrative Divisions

France is currently divided into 26 "régions"; 22 of these form metropolitan France, which includes the continental nation and the island of Corsica, and 4 are overseas: Guadeloupe (including Saint-Barthélemy and the French part of Saint Martin) and Martinique in the Caribbean Sea; French Guiana (Guyane) in South America; and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Régions are further subdivided into 100 "départements", including the 4 départements d'outre-mer (Overseas Departments") or "DOMs".

France also administers several overseas collectivites and territories: 3 overseas collectivities ("collectivités d'outre-mer") Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna, and Mayotte; 1 sui generis collectivity ("collectivité sui generis") New Caledonia; 1 overseas "country" ("pays d'outre-mer") French Polynesia; 1 overseas territory ("territoire d'outre-mer") the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (composed of Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul, Crozet Archipelago, Kerguelen, Adélie Land); 4 small coral islands and an atoll in the Indian Ocean with no permanent population and known as "Îles Éparses" ("Scattered Islands") Bassas da India, Europa, Juan de Nova, Glorioso, and Tromelin; and 1 uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico, Clipperton.

To learn more, see Subdivisions of France.

Modern France is the result of centuries of nation building and the acquisition and incorporation of a number of historical provinces into the French domain. The names of these provinces (such as Berry, Orléanais, Saintonge, Bourbonnais, Maine, Limousin, Foix, Auvergne, Béarn, Artois) are still used to designate natural, historical and cultural regions, and many of them appear in modern région or département names.

To learn more, see Provinces of France.

People of the Month (Archive)

Catherine Deneuve (born October 22 1943, Paris) is an Academy Award-nominated French actress.

A model of Gallic elegance, cultivated love object for art house filmgoers everywhere, and one of the best-respected actresses in the French film industry, Catherine Deneuve made her reputation playing a series of beautiful ice maidens for directors such as Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski.

The daughter of French stage and film actor Maurice Dorléac, Deneuve was born in Paris on October 22, 1943. She made her screen debut at the age of 13, with a role in the 1956 film "Les Collegiennes", and went on to make a string of films with directors such as Roger Vadim (with whom she had a child) before getting her breakthrough role in Jaques Demy's charming musical, "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" (1964). The burst of stardom that accompanied her portrayal led to two of her archetypal ice maiden roles, first in Roman Polanski's terrifying "Repulsion" in 1965 and then in Buñuel's 1967 "Belle de Jour". Deneuve's startling portrayal of an icy, sexually adventurous housewife in the latter film helped to establish her as one of the most remarkable and compelling actresses of her generation. She further demonstrated her talent that year in Demy's Umbrellas musical follow-up, "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort", which she starred in with her sister, Françoise Dorléac.

Deneuve continued to work steadily through the 1960s and 1970s in films such as the 1970 "Tristana" (her second collaboration with Buñuel) and "A Slightly Pregnant Man" (1973), in which she starred with her lover at the time, Marcello Mastrioanni. Despite or perhaps because of her stardom, Deneuve chose to avoid Hollywood, limiting her appearances in American films to "The April Fools" (1969) and "Hustle" (1975). Deneuve also did prolific work through the 1980s, appearing in such films as François Truffaut's "Le Dernier Métro" (1980) and Tony Scott's "The Hunger" (1983). The latter film saw Deneuve playing a bisexual vampire alongside David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, and her performance won her an indelible cult status in the States.

Recent events in France

July 28, 2006 — The French Constitutional Council strikes down parts of "iPod law" as unconstitutional

NYTimes article

July 27, 2006 - Landis fails drug test; could lose Tour title

Floyd Landis, who came in first in the 2006 Tour de France, has tested positive for high levels of testosterone, the Phonak team said on their website. Landis' "A" sample, taken after Stage 17 was positive, and his place on the Phonak team will be based on the lab results of the "B" sample.

This statement by the Phonak team came after yesterday's statement from the UCI that an unidentified cyclist had failed a drug test during the tour. Landis has been suspended by the Phonak team, and if he fails the second set of tests, he will be fired and could be stripped of the Tour title. Full story

July 9, 2006 - Italy and France draw 1-1; Italy win FIFA World Cup on penalties

Italy converted five immaculate penalties to beat France and win the 2006 FIFA World Cup after a drawn game and thirty minutes of extra-time in the spectacular arena of the Olympiastadion Berlin, Sunday. France's captain Zinedine Zidane did not help his team when, 20 minutes into Extra Time, he lost control of his emotions and got a red card.

The game was closely contested with the playmakers on both sides - Andrea Pirlo and Zidane, on his last game before retirement - not getting much space with which to dominate the play. For Italy and France Gennaro Gattuso and Claude Makelele tackled hard. However; both creative midfield stars made important contributions to the only goals of the game. Zidane converted a chipped penalty after five minutes while Pirlo's magnificent corner, a quarter of an hour later, thundered into the net off Marco Materazzi's head.

In the first half Italy's left and right defensive backs Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso penetrated down the French flanks. But after the break France came out the strongest. The flow of the game was disrupted when Patrick Vieira pulled-up injured and Marcello Lippi made two substitutions on the hour. A deadlock resulted as teams tired and individuals battled for every ball without thinking too hard about constructing team attacks. Full story

June 30, 2006 - French Parliament adopts controversial copyright bill

The French parliament has today finally adopted a law known as DADVSI implementing the 2001 European directive on copyright, roughly an equivalent to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The final text criminalizes sending copyrighted data over peer-to-peer networks, and enacts tough penalties for those designing programs "evidently designed" to send copyrighted data or meant for circumventing DRM protection techniques. Full story

French Languages

French is the official language of France, but each region in France has its own unique accent, such as the French spoken in Paris, or in the south (Meridional French) or in the region around Tours.

In addition to French. there are several other traditional languages spoken in France, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. Closely related to French are the northern regional languages ("patois") from the Oïl language family: Tourangeau, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Berrichon, Bourguignon-Morvandiau, Champenois, Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Franc-Comtois, Picard, Poitevin-Saintongeais, and Walloon. In the south of France are languages from the Oc language family (or "Occitan"): Alpine Provençal, Auvergnat, Gascon (Ariégeois, Béarnais, Landais), Languedocien, Limousin, Nissart, and Provençal. Nestled between these two groups are the Franco-Provençal languages (including Bressan, Dauphinois, Forézien, Jurassien, Lyonnais and Savoyard). Other traditional languages spoken in France: Basque, Breton, Alsatian, Frankish (in Lorraine), West Flemish, Catalan, and Corsican (Corsu). In addition to French, French-based creole languages are spoken in the "DOMs" and other traditional languages are spoken in overseas areas.

Because of immigration, France also has populations who speak Arabic (dialectal), Armenian (eastern), Bambara, Berber languages, Lao, Mandarin, Portuguese, Romany, Vietnamese and Yiddish.

French is also spoken by people in numerous countries around the world, including Canada, Haiti, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Guinée, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroun, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, the United States (Louisiana, New England), Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Syria, and places in India (Pondichery).

To learn more, see French language and Languages of France.

Did you know...

• ...that the CPE, or "First Employment Contract", was dubbed by some opponents the "Kleenex contract", implying that the CPE allowed employers to discard young people like facial tissue?
• ...that the SI unit of charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after French revolution-era physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb?
• ...that the amusement park "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?

Things you can do

You can help! Vous pouvez aider!
France, France-related and Francophone articles, stubs, templates, calls for expansion, NPOV, clean-up, requests for articles and editing...

• Wikipedia:France-related topics notice board

Translations, collaborations and wikiprojects:

• Wikipedia:French Collaboration Project - translating good articles on any topic from the French wikipedia.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes - making pages for French towns and cities.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Paris Streets

Multi-lingual coordination:

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