France - One photo a day (thread open to all)

[Mishevy]

I think they changed the names of DOM and TOM a few years ago...I'm too lazy to look for it right now, but I'm sure brisavoine will provide the answer.

[brisavoine]

Originally Posted by Federicoft

It's just steam, totally harmless.

Exactly. But nuclear power still has bad press, especially in Central Europe where Mishevy hails from.

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

I think that new Caledonia is cheating a little though, it is a TOM not a DOM, n'est pas?

New Caledonia WAS a TOM, now it is a sui generis collectivity. In any case DOMs, TOMs, overseas collectivities and the sui generis collectivity are all fully part of France unlike the British Overseas Territories. Their inhabitants are French citizens, they vote in French elections, they send deputies and senators to the French Parliament (New Caledonia sends two deputies and one senator to the French parliament), and this coming Sunday they will all have municipal elections same as in Metropolitan France.

So on Sunday people in the little village of Saint-Laurent-Nouan near the nuclear plant will choose their mayor, and on the same day people in the rural bush of New Caledonia near where the above picture was taken will also chose their local mayor. The election will run from Saturday 10pm French time when polling station open in New Caledonia to Monday 5am French time when they close in French Polynesia. That's the magic of the country on which the sun never sets.

[brisavoine]

For Mishevy and the rest of the crew, if you're interested in the nitty-gritties of municipal elections in rural New Caledonia you can watch the evening news on RFO Nouvelle-Calédonie (the main French channel in New Caledonia).
http://nouvellecaledonie.rfo.fr/ (click on "Voir" in the middle of the page)

And here you have many video reports about municipal elections all across overseas France broadcasted by the local RFO stations. The elections will be most important in Metropolitan France (will it be a rout for Sarkozy's party?) and in French Polynesia (will the voters punish the independence leader Oscar Temaru for his shameful alliance with the anti-independence and corrupt leader Gaston Flosse last week? a last minute alliance of former ennemies to prevent the anti-independence and non-corrupt leader Gaston Tong Sang from becoming French Polynesia's head of government after his victory in the territorial elections last month).
http://elections.rfo.fr/municipales/...hp?page=videos

[brisavoine]

Your home in South-West France, with the Pyrenees mountain range right in your windows ! That's on the outskirst of Garris, a village in the French Basque Country. Where else in Western Europe do you find houses with such a magnificent view standing all by themselves, without annoying urbanization around (think coastal Spain) ? Not in many places. Large stretches of unbuilt land around just for you. It's no wonder people from the crowded urban belt of Europe, the so-called Blue Banana extending from England to the Rhine to Northern Italy, love to buy houses in the unspoilt and thinly populated rural France.

Houses in Garris do not display Basque architecture style, so tomorrow I'll show some real Basque houses for you Basque lovers.

[Giri]

What is not Basque about Garris' architecture ? What we call "Basque architecture" is just the architecture of Labourd. Garris is in the North-Navarrese variability wih more austere and massive houses.

[brisavoine]

I see. We have an expert here.

[brisavoine]

Typical Basque houses in the village of Ainhoa, or as Giri would say, typical "Labourd" Basque houses, but for most French people the Labourd style is just THE Basque style of architecture. These houses may look modern, but they are in fact very old, dating back to the 17th century.

The French Basque Country is made up of three subprovinces. Labourd is the westernmost one. As you can guess from the plants in the picture, the coastal Basque Country enjoys balmy weather all year round. It is also a very wet area, with some of the highest levels of rain in France. The countryside is thus very green, and this green color contrasts lovely with the red and white tints of the houses, making the French Basque Country one of the most scenic regions in France. Green, red and white, after all those are the colors of the Basque flag.

[Mishevy]

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[brisavoine]

Today, an extraordinary place. The Gorges of the Tarn River, in the Lozère department, is the biggest canyon in Europe. The gorges extend over 50 kilometers (30 miles), only a very small section of which is shown on this picture, and the walls of the gorges rise as high as 500 meters (1,600 ft) above the Tarn River. The river down the canyon on the picture is not a small brook but a river large enough that about 20 kayaks could stand side by side, just to give an idea of dimensions here.

This incredible canyon which has often been compared to Grand Canyon in the US was dug by the Tarn River over millenia in the soft limestone plateaus of Lozère. These plateaus, known as "causses", surround the gorges of the Tarn on both sides. They are flat and barren land with almost no inhabitants bar a few shepherds and a few back-to-nature hardcore environmentalists. One of the most fascinating places in France and Europe.

[brisavoine]

The Spinnewyn windmill near the small town of Hondschoote, in French Flanders. This windmill is also known as the Moulin de la Victoire ("Victory Windmill") because it was used as a watch tower during the Battle of Hondschoote in 1793 when the armies of the French Republic defeated the British under the Duke of York thus lifting the British siege of Dunkirk and saving the French Revolution.

Few people know that a part of Flanders lies on French territory. If you travel in the region of Dunkirk you may sometimes wonder whether you're in France or in the Netherlands. In Hondschoote the West Flemish dialect was the almost only language used by people at home in 1874 (Winkler linguistic survey), but by 1972 (Vanneste linguistic study) it had become a minority language, with French being the majority language. In 1972 the West Flemish dialect was still the majority language in the villages surrounding Hondschoote, but French has probably become the majority language in these villages too by now (there have been no surveys since 1972).

[brisavoine]

The first round of the municipal elections is held today in France (second round Sunday next week). French people and EU citizens living in France renew their municipal councils and elect their mayors in the 36,780 communes (municipalities) of France (both Metropolitan France and Overseas France). Yes, 36,780 communes, this is not an error. That's more municipalities than in the entire United States, and far more municipalities than in any country on Earth except probably India and China. Each one of these 36,780 communes has a mairie (town hall) and a maire (mayor). If you're curious to know why there is such an insanely high number of municipalities in France, check Wikipedia where this is explained nicely.

To celebrate the municipal elections, I'm breaking rules again today and showing two pictures: two mairies in two of the 36,780 communes of France where municipal elections are held today. The first one is the mairie of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva in the remote Marquesas Islands. The second one is the mairie of Étampes, a town in the metropolitan area of Paris located 50 km (30 miles) south of Central Paris.

Mairie of Taiohae (1,927 inhabitants):





Mairie of Étampes (22,400 inhabitants):

[brisavoine]

No pictures today (you had two yesterday ). Instead, a musical interlude from the streets of Bordeaux. It's a song called Ménilmontant (Ménilmontant is a working-class neighborhood in Paris), and it was originally performed by Charles Trénet. These two guys play delightfully. Enjoy !

[brisavoine]

Back to French Flanders. Here is the Grand Place of Lille, the capital of French Flanders. From left to right you can see the Column of the Goddess symbolizing the resistance of Lille during the Austrian siege of the city in 1792 during the French Revolution (the Austrians controlled Belgium, then known as the Austrian Netherlands), the belfry (tower) of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Old Stock Exchange built in the 17th century to rival the stock exchange of Antwerp.

Lille is located in the historically Romance (Picard & French)-speaking part of French Flanders, whereas Dunkirk and Hondschoote are located in the historically Germanic (Flemish)-speaking part of French Flanders. Lille is by far the largest city in the historical Flanders, larger than Ghent and Bruges, and even larger than Antwerp (which is now considered a Flemish city, although historically it was in Brabant, not Flanders). In fact the often overlooked city of Lille is no less than the second most populated urban center in the entire Low Countries along with Amsterdam. The city proper is quite small due to old-fashioned French administrative divisions, but if you take 160 km² around downtown Lille there live within this area 740,000 people, which is as many people as in the 160 km² around downtown Amsterdam, and only surpassed by Brussels-Capital which has 1.1 million people in its 160 km² (for comparisons there are only 550,000 people in the 160 km² around downtown Rotterdam, and only 490,000 in the 160 km² around downtown Antwerp).

In recent years Lille has tried to increased its visibility in Europe with the arrival of Eurostar (Lille is at the junction of the lines to London, Paris and Brussels), the building of a new business district near the Eurostar train station, and the renovation of its beautiful historical center which is worth many more famous cities as you can see on the picture. The recent French movie Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which is a comedy depicting in a humorous way the people in the Romance part of French Flanders and their local Picard (Ch'timi) dialect quite different from standard French, has helped to improve the popularity of French Flanders and Lille in the rest of France. It's not just rain and gloomy coal mining towns up there.






For more pictures of Lille, check JP's gallery. Excellent pictures, as usual with JP:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=509776
I love that one in particular:
http://irgendwo.free.fr/lille2007/34.jpg

[brisavoine]

Volcanoes in Auvergne, near Clermont-Ferrand, central France. These volcanoes were still active as recently as 8,000 years ago. Geologists say that they could reawaken in the future. Some years ago the French volcanologist Haroun Tazieff made a sensation when he said that the city of Clermont-Ferrand (430,000 inhabitants in its metro area; hosting the world headquarters of Michelin) could be destroyed by a volcanic eruption. So far the volcanoes of Auvergne have remained inactive for the past 8,000 years.

These volcanoes provide Auvergne with famous mineral waters such as Volvic (Evian, however, is from the Alps, not from Auvergne), bath resorts curing all sorts of disease, and volcano tourism. A great region to visit.

[Mekky II]

Seine-Maritime in Normandy ...


Étretat is best known for its cliffs, including a famous natural arch. These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet.

Two of the three famous arches seen from the town are the Porte d'Aval, and the Porte d'Amont. The Manneporte is the third which can not be seen from the town.

[Mishevy]

Wow, I'd like to shoot a movie on that location!!!

[Mekky II]

Mirabelle of Lorraine

The mirabelle is a specialty of the French region of Lorraine, which has an ideal climate and soil composition for the cultivation of this fruit. This region produces 15,000 tons of mirabelle prunes annually, which constitutes 80% of global commercial production.

There are two main cultivars grown for fruit production, derived from cherry plums grown in Nancy and Metz. The Metz type is smaller, less hard, and less sweet, and has no small red spots on the skin. It is very good for jam, while the Nancy type is better as fresh fruit as it is sweeter.

[Mekky II]

Arcachon in Gironde, part of Aquitaine.



Arcachon is a popular watering-place, with a fine beach and a mild climate, said to be favourable for invalids suffering from pulmonary complaints, on the Atlantic coast of southwest France, 34 miles southwest of Bordeaux and in the Landes forest.

Arcachon is known for the "Arcachonnaise", the local name for Arcachon villa, which is the architectural style of many of the older houses built there. It is a type of Victorian architecture. The Arcachon villa style was criticized for generations, but it is now considered to be charming and deeply human.

The town of Arcachon is only 150 years old. No long before 1857, when emperor Napoleon III signed, the 2nd may of 1857, its official "birth certificate", it was just a forest of pine trees, oaks and strawberry trees (arbutus), linked by no road to anywhere, where lived - mostly when the weather was supposed to be nice and warm, and more in wood huts than in real houses - less than 400 people basically fishermen or peasants. The previous years, when some hygienists approved sea bathing, three sea establishments where laid out by some wise entrepreneurs, especially for the Bordeaux bourgeoisie or any other wealthy people. This was the beginning of a new style of life and some of the locals got the opportunity to claim their independence from La Teste-de-Buch their properties were a matter for, in order to found a "free" new town, Arcachon.

At its south entrance from the Atlantic ocean, the Arcachon Bay is crowned by Europe's largest sand dune, the Dune de Pyla (or du Pilat), nearly 3 kilometres long, 500 metres wide reaching 107 metres in height, and moving inland at rate of 5 metres per annum.

The area is served by La Teste-de-Buch Airport and the TGV Atlantique.

[m@rco]

Originally Posted by brisavoine

As promised, here is a view of the Vercors mountains (only a small part of the Vercors mountain range is visible in the foreground and in the background). If the Vercors did not lie so close to the Alps, it would probably be one of the most visited areas of France. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it is completely overshadowed by the world-renowned French Alps, and not so many people visit the Vercors, which is great if you enjoy wild and unspoilt places free of mass tourism.



http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2...illemgkuj7.jpg

Some of my personal photos of the Vercors between Isère and Drôme...

The Val de Lans under a sea of clouds:


The Val d'Autrans in winter (the city will host the World Master Cross-country Skiing Championships in 2009):


The Val d'Autrans in summer:


The Trièves:


Vassieux en Vercors (for its great acts of resistance during the German occupation of France, the town was awarded the "Ordre de la Libération"):


Combe Laval:


One of the numerous vertiginous roads:


Pont en Royans:


The Southwestern part of the moutains near Crest and Die:

[Mishevy]

m@rco, your photos are unbelievable!!!!!