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Marianne – National Emblem of France

France.com — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 21:14:00 +0000

Marianne is a national emblem of France. She is present in many places in France and holds a place of honor in town halls and law courts. She symbolizes the “Triumph of the Republic”, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris. Her profile stands out on the official seal of the country, is engraved on French euro coins, and appears on French postage stamps; it was also featured on the former French franc coins and banknotes. Marianne is considered one of the most prominent symbols of the French Republic.

But who is this woman, depicted by artist Honoré Daumier as a mother nursing two children, or by sculptor François Rude as an angry warrior voicing the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe? And where does she come from? One thing is certain: her image never leaves the French indifferent. During the last two wars, some people worshipped her like a saint. Others, those with anti-Republican leanings, often dragged her in the mud.

History

The image of Marianne comes down from Antiquity. The Phrygian bonnet was worn under the Roman Empire by former slaves who had been emancipated by their master and whose descendants were therefore considered citizens of the Empire. Democracy was already represented as having a woman’s face: at her feet a tiller and a sack of wheat, slumped on the ground and overflowing; having little regard for power, she is concerned above all with the aspirations of the people.

In classical times, it was common to represent ideas and abstract entities by gods, goddesses and allegoric personifications. Less common during the Middle Ages, this practice resurfaced during the Renaissance. During the French Revolution, many allegorical personifications of ‘Liberty’ and ‘Reason’ appeared. These two figures finally merged into one: a female figure, shown either sitting or standing, and accompanied by various attributes, including the rooster, the tricolore cockade, and the Phrygian cap. This woman typically symbolized Liberty, Reason, the Nation, the Homeland, the civic virtues of the Republic. (Compare the Statue of Liberty, created by a French artist, with a copy in Paris.)

In September 1792, the National Convention decided by decree that the new seal of the state would represent a standing woman holding a spear with a Phrygian cap held aloft on top of it.

Why is it a woman and not a man who represents the Republic? One could find the answer to this question in the traditions and mentality of the French, suggests the historian Maurice Agulhon, who set out on a detailed investigation to discover the origins of Marianne. Note also that both liberté and république are feminine words in French.

The use of this emblem was initially unofficial and very diverse. Marianne/Liberty makes an appearance in Eugène Delacroix’s bravura political propaganda ‘Liberty guiding the people’ (Louvre Museum), painted in July 1830, before the first rush of enthusiasm for Louis Philippe had time to cool. In 1848, the Ministry of the Interior launched a contest to symbolize the Republic. After the fall of the monarchy, the Provisional Government had declared: “The image of liberty should replace everywhere the images of corruption and shame, which have been broken in three days by the magnanimous French people.” Two “Mariannes” were authorised: the one is fighting and victorious, recalling the Greek goddess Athena; the other is wise and serious. She made her first appearance on a French postage stamp in 1849. Later, during the Second Empire (1852-1870), this depiction was clandestine and served as a symbol of protest against the regime. The common use of the name “Marianne” for the depiction of the “Liberty” started around 1848/1851, with a generalization around 1875. It began to be more official during the Third Republic (1870-1940). The city hall of Paris displayed a statue of “Marianne” wearing a Phrygian cap in 1880, and was quickly followed by the other French cities.

Although common emblems of France, neither Marianne nor the rooster enjoy official status: the flag of France, as named and described in Article 2 of the French constitution, is the only official emblem.

Origin of the name

To begin with, why the name? Some people believe that the name came from the name of the Jesuit Mariana, the 16th century theoretician of tyranny. Others thought it was the image of the wife of the politician Jean Reubell, basing their belief on an old date.

According to an old story, its origins date to 1797, when, seeking a pleasant name for the Republic, Barras, one of the members of the Directoire, during an evening spent at Reubell’s, asked his hostess for her name: “Marie-Anne,” she replied. “Perfect,” Barras exclaimed. “It is a short and simple name which befits the Republic just as much as yourself, Madame.”

A recent discovery establishes that the first written mention of the name of Marianne to designate the Republic appeared in October 1792 in Puylaurens in the Tarn département near Toulouse. At that time, people used to sing a song in the Provençal dialect by the poet Guillaume Lavabre: ‘La garisou de Marianno’ (French: ‘La guérison de Marianne’; ‘Marianne’s recovery’).

At that time the account made of their exploits by the Revolutionaries often contained a reference to a certain Marianne (or Marrie-Anne) wearing a Phrygian cap. This pretty girl of legend inspired the sans-culottes and looked after those wounded in the many battles across the country.

The name of Marianne also appears to be connected with several Republican secret societies. During the Second Empire, one of them, whose members has sworn to overthrow the régime, had taken her name.

Models

Today, Marianne remains as attractive as ever. She has even grown younger. The official busts, after having had anonymous features, began taking the features of famous women during the Fifth Republic: the first one was Brigitte Bardot in 1970, with the design of the sculptor Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, who reportedly did so at first as a joke. She was followed by Mireille Mathieu (1978, Aslan again), Catherine Deneuve (1985), Inès de la Fressange, Sophie Marceau, and Laetitia Casta (2000).

Laetitia Casta was named the symbolic representation of France’s Republic in a vote, for the first time open to the country’s more than 36,000 mayors in October 1999. She won the vote from a shortlist of 5 candidates, scoring 36% among the 15,000 voting mayors. The other candidates were Estelle Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, Daniela Lumbroso and Nathalie Simon. Shortly thereafter, a mini-scandal shook France, after it was publicized that Casta – the new icon of the
Republic – had relocated to London. Although she claimed that her move was motivated by practical professional reasons, the magazine Le Point, among others, suggested that she was trying to escape taxes.

In 2002, a new Marianne was born. She does not have the features of a famous French women but those of an anonymous beurette (young woman of North African descent), discovered by a scouting agent looking for a model who would symbolize a modern, multiethnic France.

In late 2003, Evelyne Thomas, a talk show host, was chosen as the new Marianne.

Note that although these figures are “official”, there is no strict regulation governing the display of one over the other ones.

A new government logo

Blue-white-red, Marianne, Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité, the Republic: these powerful national symbols represent France and its values. Since September 1999, they have been combined in a new “identifier” created by the French government (Lionel Jospin) under the aegis of the French Government Information Service (SIG) and the public relations officials in the principal ministries. As a federating identifier of the government departments, it appears on a wide range of material – brochures, internal and external publications, publicity campaigns, letter headings, business cards, etc. – emanating from the government, starting with the various ministries (which are able to continue using their own logo) and the préfectures, decentralised government departments in the regions and départements.

The first objective targeted by this design is to unify government public relations. But it is also designed to “give a more accessible image to a State currently seen as abstract, remote and archaic, all the more essential in that French citizens express high expectations of the State”.

This data was gathered from numerous interviews and consultations conducted by Sofres (a French survey institute) in January 1999, with the general public and public servants. It emerged that the French are deeply committed to the fundamental values of the Republic and expect an impartial and efficient State to be the guarantor of the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia .

Académie Française

France.com — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 16:31:00 +0000

The Académie française (French Academy) is a learned body founded in 1570, when King Charles IX granted the charter of an “academy of Music and Poetry” to the poet Antoine de Baïf and a musician named Gourville, who named it the Académie française. The Académie functioned informally until February 10, 1635, when Armand-Jean Cardinal Richelieu (minister of Louis XIII) formalised it into a national academy for the literati, and limited the number of its members. In anticipation of this most of the first members were named during 1634.

The Académie is the French official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal power and are sometimes disregarded even by governmental authorities. It also encourages the use of French worldwide and awards literary prizes.

As French culture and language have come under increasing pressure with the widespread availability of English media, the Académie has tried to prevent the anglicisation of the French language. It is as a direct result of a decision of the Académie that the French word for “computer” is “ordinateur” and that the field of study dealing with computers is known as “informatique.”

The Académie has forty seats, and all members are elected to a specific seat for life. They are known as the immortels (immortals) because of the device, À l’immortalité appearing on the seal granted to the Académie by Cardinal Richelieu. Famous current and former immortels include author Victor Hugo, author and director Marcel Pagnol, poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, playwright Eugène Ionesco, anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, and physicist Louis-Victor de Broglie.

The Académie is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the French language. It has done so in 1694, 1718, 1740, 1762, 1798, 1835, 1878, and in 1932-1935. The Académie continues work on the most recent (ninth) edition of the dictionary, of which the first volume (A to Enzyme) appeared in 1992, and the second volume (Éocène to Mappemonde) appeared in 2000.

Current ‘immortels‘:

René Rémond, elected 1998
Hector Bianciotti, elected 1996
Jean-Denis Bredin, elected 1989
Jean-Marie Lustiger, elected 1995
vacant
Marc Fumaroli, elected 1995
Jacqueline Worms de Romilly, elected 1988
Michel Déon, elected 1978
Alain Decaux, elected 1979
Florence Delay, elected 2000
Gabriel de Broglie, elected 2001
Jean d’Ormesson, elected 1973
Pierre Messmer, elected 1999
Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, elected 1990
Frédéric Vitoux, elected 2001
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, elected 2003
Érik Orsenna, elected 1998
Michel Serres, elected 1990
Pierre Moinot, elected 1982
Angelo Rinaldi, elected 2001
Félicien Marceau, elected 1975
René de Obaldia, elected 1999
Pierre Rosenberg, elected 1995
Jean-François Revel, elected 1997
Jean Bernard, elected 1975
Jean-Marie Rouart, elected 1997
Pierre Nora, elected 2001
Henri Troyat, elected 1959
Claude Lévi-Strauss, elected 1973
Maurice Druon, elected 1966
Jean Dutourd, elected 1978
vacant
Michel Mohrt, elected 1985
François Cheng, elected 2002
Yves Pouliquen, elected 2001
Jean-François Deniau, elected 1992
vacant
François Jacob, elected 1996
Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, elected 1986
Pierre-Jean Rémy, elected 1988

La Marseillaise: France national anthem

France.com — Sat, 24 Jan 2004 08:37:00 +0000

History
La Marseillaise is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle on April 24, 1792. Its original name is Chant de marche de l’Armée du Rhin (Marching song of the Rhine Army). It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and was so-called because it was first sung on the streets by troops from Marseille upon their arrival in Paris.

La Marseillaise was rearranged by Hector Berlioz around 1830.

In 1917, after the collapse of the tsarist regim La Marseillaise became the national anthem of Russia, the Russian lyrics being very different from the French lyrics. It was soon replaced with The International by the Bolsheviks.

The song was banned in Vichy France and German occupied areas during World War II and singing it was an act of resistance (see also: Chant des Partisans).

In France itself, the anthem (and particularly the lyrics) has become a controversial issue since the 1970s. Some consider it militaristic and racist, and many propositions have been made to change the anthem or the lyrics. However, La Marseillaise has been associated throughout history with the French Republic and its values. Thus, no change is likely to occur.

Recently, and despite the lyrics, it was largely sung by anti-racist protesters after the accession of Jean-Marie Le Pen to the second turn of presidential election in 2002.

Fiction
The song was part of a famous scene in Casablanca in which French resistance sympathizers used the song to drown out the Nazi soldiers who were singing “Die Wacht am Rhein”.

Music
There is various versions of the music, excerpt avaiblable at French National Defence website.

The official one from the French President website in RealAudio File (116 Ko) or Wave File (660 Ko).

media:marseillaise.mid (MIDI File)

Lyrics
Note: only the first verse (and sometimes the 6th and 7th) and the first chorus are sung nowadays in France.

French lyrics

Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé (bis)
Entendez-vous dans nos campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras,
Egorger vos fils, vos compagnes.

Refrain:
Aux armes citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons!
Marchons, marchons,
qu’un sang impur abreuve nos sillons.

Que veut cette horde d’esclaves
De traîtres, de rois conjurés ?
Pour qui ces ignobles entraves
Ces fers dès longtemps préparés ? (bis)
Français, pour nous, ah! quel outrage
Quels transports il doit exciter ?
C’est nous qu’on ose méditer
De rendre à l’antique esclavage !

Refrain

Quoi ces cohortes étrangères !
Feraient la loi dans nos foyers !
Quoi ! ces phalanges mercenaires
Terrasseraient nos fils guerriers ! (bis)
Grand Dieu! par des mains enchaînées
Nos fronts sous le joug se ploieraient
De vils despotes deviendraient
Les maîtres des destinées.

Refrain

Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides
L’opprobre de tous les partis
Tremblez! vos projets parricides
Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix ! (bis)
Tout est soldat pour vous combattre
S’ils tombent, nos jeunes héros
La France en produit de nouveaux,
Contre vous tout prêts à se battre

Refrain

Français, en guerriers magnanimes
Portez ou retenez vos coups !
Épargnez ces tristes victimes
A regret s’armant contre nous (bis)
Mais ces despotes sanguinaires,
Mais ces complices de Bouillé
Tous ces tigres qui, sans pitié
Déchirent le sein de leur mère !

Refrain
(“Couplet des enfants”)

Nous entrerons dans la carrière
Quand nos aînés n’y seront plus,
Nous y trouverons leur poussière
Et la trace de leurs vertus (bis)
Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre
Que de partager leur cercueil,
Nous aurons le sublime orgueil
De les venger ou de les suivre !

Refrain

Amour sacré de la Patrie
Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs
Liberté, Liberté chérie
Combats avec tes défenseurs ! (bis)
Sous nos drapeaux, que la victoire
Accoure à tes mâles accents
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire !

Refrain

English Translation

Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts

To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows

What do they want this horde of slaves
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!

What! These foreign cohorts!
They would make laws in our courts!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would cut down our warrior sons
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brow would yield under the yoke
The vile despots would have themselves be
The masters of destiny

Tremble, tyrants and traitors
The shame of all good men
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will receive their just reward
Against you we are all soldiers
If they fall, our young heroes
France will bear new ones
Ready to join the fight against you

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors
Bear or hold back your blows
Spare these sad victims

That they regret taking up arms against us
But not these bloody despots
These accomplices of Bouillé
All these tigers who pitilessly
Ripped out their mothers’ wombs

We shall enter into the career
When our elders will no longer be there
There we shall find their ashes
And the mark of their virtues
We are much less jealous of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them

Drive on sacred patriotism
Support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished liberty
Join the struggle with your defenders
Under our flags, let victory
Hurry to your manly tone
So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Regions and Departments

France.com — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 17:13:00 +0000

The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties and now grouped into 22 metropolitan and four overseas régions. They are subdivided into 342 arrondissements.

Administrative role
Each département is administered by a Conseil Général elected for six years, and by a préfet appointed by the French government and assisted by one or more sous-préfets based in district centres outside the departmental capital. An administrative reform in 1982 transferred some of the préfet’s powers to the president of the Conseil Général.

The capital city of a département bears the title of préfecture. Départements are divided into one to five arrondissements. The capital city of an arrondissement is called the sous-préfecture. The civil servant in charge is the sous-préfet.

The départements sub-divide into communes, governed by municipal councils. France (as of 1999) had 36,779 communes.

Most of the départements have an area of around 4,000-8,000 km² and a population between 250,000 and a million. The largest in terms of area is Gironde (10,000 km²) and the smallest the city of Paris (105 km² excluding the suburbs, now organised in adjacent départements). The most populous is Nord (2,550,000) and the least populous Lozère (74,000).

The départements are numbered: their two-digit numbers appear in postal codes and on car number-plates. Note that there is no number 20, but 2A and 2B instead. Note also that the two-digit code “98″ is used by Monaco. Together with the ISO 3166-1 country code FR the numbers form the ISO 3166-2 country subdivision codes for the metropolitain departments. The overseas departments get two letters for the ISO 3166-2 code.

History
Départements were created on January 15, 1790 by the Constituent Assembly to replace the country’s former provinces with a more rational structure. They were also designed to deliberately break up France’s historical regions in an attempt to erase cultural differences and build a more homogeneous nation. Most départements are named after the area’s principal river(s) or other physical features.

The number of départements rose from an initial 83 to 130 by 1810 with the territorial gains of the Republic and of the Empire (see Provinces of the Netherlands for the annexed Dutch departements), but they were reduced again to 86 with Napoleon I’s defeat in 1814-1815. Three more were added with the acquisition of Nice and Savoy in 1860. The numbering was estabished on the alphabetical order of those 89 départements.

Three were yielded to Germany in Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 (Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin and Moselle) re-joined France in 1919.

Reorganisations of the Paris region (1968) and the division of Corsica (1975) have added a further seven départements, raising the total to one hundred – including the four overseas départements d’outre-mer (DOM) of Guyane (French Guiana) in South America, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

Map and list of départements

The Politics of France

France.com — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 17:08:00 +0000

The Constitution
A popular referendum approved the constitution of the Fifth Republic in 1958, greatly strengthening the authority of the presidency and the executive in relation to Parliament.

The executive branch
France has an original system with an executive headed by two officials: the President and the Prime Minister.

The President of the Republic

Under the constitution, a president was originally elected for a seven year term; this however has now been reduced to five years. The president names the prime minister, presides over the cabinet, commands the armed forces, and concludes treaties. The president may submit questions to a national referendum and can dissolve the National Assembly. In certain emergency situations, the president may assume full powers.

Under the system created by Charles de Gaulle, the President is the pre-eminent executive figure, who names the Prime Minister and cabinet, which is composed of a varying number of ministers, ministers-delegates, and secretaries of state. Where the President’s political party or supporters control parliament, the President is in effect the dominant player in executive action, chosing whomever he wishes for government, and having it follow his political agenda. However where the President’s political opponents control parliament, the President’s dominance can be severely limited, as he must choose a prime minister and cabinet reflecting the majority in parliament. Where parties from opposite ends of the political spectrum control parliament and the presidency, the power-sharing arrangement is known as Cohabitation.

As of 2003, the President is Jacques Chirac (since 17 May 1995).

The cabinet of ministers

The gouvernement, or cabinet, is headed by the Prime Minister. It has at its disposal the civil service the government agencies and the armed forces.
The cabinet is responsible before Parliament, and the National Assembly may vote a motion of censure, which forces the resignation of the cabinet. Ministers have to answer questions from members of Parliament, both written and oral; this is known as the questions au gouvernement. In addition, ministers are to attend meetings of the houses of Parliament where laws pertaining to their area of responsability are discussed.

Traditionally, the cabinet comprises, in decreasing rank:

ministers
deputy ministers (ministres délégués), who assist a minister in parts of its duties;
secretaries of state (secrétaires d’état), who assist a minister in parts of its duties and attend cabinet meetings only occasionally.

In the past of the Fifth Republic, some ministers of particular importance were called “ministers of state” (ministres d’État), but this was of purely honorific signifiance.

The number of ministries and the splitting of responsabilities and administrations between them varies between the successive cabinets, but some positions tend to stay the same, even though the exact title of the position may vary:

Ministry of Finances (taxes, budget),
Ministry of the Interior (law enforcement, relationships with local governments),
Ministry of Justice (prisons, running the court system, supervision of the prosecution service),
Ministry of Education,
Ministry of Defense,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The prime minister signs decrees, which are countersigned by the competent ministers. All ministers may take administrative decisions (arrêtés) in their field of competence. Anybody with an interest in the case may sue before the Conseil d’État for the cancellation of a decree or decision.

The gouvernement has a leading role in shaping the agenda of the houses of Parliament. It may propose laws to Parliament , as well as amendments during parliamentary meetings. It may make use of some procedures to speed up parliamentary deliberations.

The cabinet has weekly meetings (in normal times, on Wednesday mornings) at the Élysée Palace chaired by the president.

As of 2003, the prime minister is Jean-Pierre Raffarin (since 6 may 2002).

The legislative branch
Parliament meets for one 9-month session each year: under special circumstances the president can call an additional session. Although parliamentary powers have diminished from those existing under the Fourth Republic, the National Assembly can still cause a government to fall if an absolute majority of the total Assembly membership votes to censure.

The National Assembly

The National Assembly is the principal legislative body. Its 577 deputies are directly elected for 5-year terms in local majority votes, and all seats are voted on in each election.

The National Assembly may cause the resignation of the executive cabinet by voting a motion of censure. For this reason, the prime minister and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president and assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as cohabitation.

The Senate

Senators are chosen by an electoral college of about 145,000 local elected officials for 6-year terms, and one half of the Senate is renewed every 3 years. There are currently 321 senators, but there will be 346 in 2010; 304 represent the metropolitan and overseas départements, 5 the other dependencies and 12 the French established abroad.

The Senate’s legislative powers are limited; on most matters of legislation, the National Assembly has the last word in the event of a disagreement between the two houses.

Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, the Senate has always had a right-wing majority. This, the indirect mode of election and the inequality of representation with respect to demographics prompted (now former) prime minister Lionel Jospin to declare the Senate an “anachronism”.

The Judiciary
The most distinctive feature of the French judicial system is that it is divided into the judiciary and the administrative orders of courts.

The Judicial Order
The judicial order of courts judges civil and penal cases. It consists in first instance courts, courts of appeal, and the Cour de cassation at its helm.
Judges are civil servants, but enjoy special statutory protection from the executive. They may not be moved or promoted without their consent. Their career are overseen by the High Council of the Magistracy

The prosecution service, on the other hand, responds to the Minister of Justice. This has in the past led to suspicions of pressures to drop litigation against politicians suspected of corruption, and the topic of the stat
us of the prosecutors comes up regularly in political discussions.

Trial by jury are used in the judgment of the most severe crimes.

Pre-judgment proceedings are inquisitorial, but the actual court appearance is rather adversarial.

As in all democracies respecting human rights, criminal justice legally respects the presumption of innocence.

Local Government
Traditionally, decision-making in France was highly centralized, with each of France’s departments headed by a prefect appointed by the central government. In 1982, the national government passed legislation to decentralize authority by giving a wide range of administrative and fiscal powers to local elected officials. In March 1986, regional councils were directly elected for the first time, and the process of decentralization continues, albeit at a slow pace.

Administrative units with a local government consist in:

about 36000 communes, headed by a municipal council and a mayor, grouped in
100 départements, headed by a conseil général and its president, grouped in
22 régions, headed by a regional council and its president.
Different levels of administration have different duties, and shared responsibility is common; for instance, in the field of education, communes run public elementary schools, while départements run public junior highschools and régions run public highschools, but only for the building and upkeep of buildings; curricula and teaching personnel are supplied by the national Ministry of Education.

Modern French Politics under President Chirac
During his first 2 years in office, President Jacques Chirac’s prime minister was Alain Juppé, who served contemporaneously as leader of Chirac’s neo-Gaullist (RPR) Party. Chirac and Juppé benefited from a very large, if rather unruly, majority in the National Assembly (470 out of 577 seats). Mindful that the government might have to take politically costly decisions in advance of the legislative elections planned for spring 1998 in order to ensure that France met the Maastricht criteria for the single European currency, Chirac decided in April to call early elections.

The Left, led by Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin, whom Chirac had defeated in the 1995 presidential race-unexpectedly won a solid National Assembly majority (319 seats, with 289 required for an absolute majority). President Chirac named Jospin prime minister on June 2, and Jospin went on to form a government composed primarily of Socialist ministers, along with some ministers from allied parties of the Left, such as the Communist Party and the Greens. Jospin stated his support for continued European integration and his intention to keep France on the path toward Economic and Monetary Union, albeit with greater attention to social concerns.

The tradition in periods of “cohabitation” (president of one party, prime minister of another) is for the president to exercise the primary role in foreign and security policy, with the dominant role in domestic policy falling to the prime minister and his government. Jospin stated, however, that he would not a priori leave any domain exclusively to the president.

Chirac and Jospin worked together, for the most part, in the foreign affairs field with representatives of the presidency and the government pursuing a single, agreed French policy. Their “cohabitation” arrangement was the longest-lasting in the history of the Fifth Republic. However it ended, following the National Assembly elections that followed Chirac’s heavy defeat of Jospin (who failed even to make it through to the second round of voting) in the 2002 presidential election. President Chirac’s current prime minister is the right wing Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Mona Lisa – La Joconde

France.com — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:40:00 +0000

Mona Lisa (also known as the Monna Lisa; Italian La Gioconda; French La Joconde), is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci showing a woman with an introspective expression-perhaps smiling would be the wrong word. It is the most famous painting in the world, going so far as to be iconic of painting, art, and even visual images in general. No other work of art is so romanticized, celebrated, or reproduced. It was accomplished between 1503 and 1506. Today it hangs in the Louvre in Paris and is the museum’s star attraction.

The Painting

It is an oil painting on poplar wood measuring 77 x 53 cm.

Although it is difficult to view the painting critically and ignore all the mythology behind it, it does display a technical mastery that seats it amongst Leonardo’s masterworks (although some count The Last Supper as a greater work).

The compelling nature of the image has been the subject of reams of discussion. In general, it can be stated that the vividness and ambiguity of the facial expression is due to Leonardo’s use of sfumato, blurring the most expressive portions of the face (the corners of the eyes and mouth) to give the picture greater mystery. The enigmatic ‘smile’ is the picture’s most famous feature (giving us the expression, “a Mona Lisa smile”).

Sigmund Freud interpreted the ‘smile’ as signifying Leonardo’s erotic attraction to his dear mother. Others have described it as both innocent and inviting.

The identity of the lady in the painting is not known for certain. The most probable suspect is the wealthy Florentine Madonna Lisa del Giocondo, giving rise to the painting’s name in Italian and French. However it is also possible that Leonardo did not portrait a specific person.

The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape. One interesting feature of the landscape is that it is uneven. The landscape to the left of the figure is noticably lower than that to the right of her. This has led some critics to suggest that it was added later.

The painting has been restored numerous times; x-ray examinations have shown that there are three versions of the Mona Lisa hidden under the present one.

Because of the painting’s overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produced modifications and carricatures, for instance by drawing a moustache in the woman’s face. The painting was reproduced as posters by Andy Warhol.

The Guinness Book of Records counts the painting as the most valuable object ever insured.

History
The painting was brought from Italy to France by Leonardo in 1516 when King Francois I invited the great painter to work at the Clos Lucé near the king’s chateau in Amboise. The king then bought the painting.

The painting first resided in Fontainebleau, later in Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon Bonaparte had it moved to his bedroom; later it was returned to the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, it was moved from the Louvre to a hiding place elsewhere in France.

On August 22, 1911, the theft of the Mona Lisa was discovered. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of theft on September 7 and Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning, but both were later released. At the time, the painting was believed lost forever. It turned out that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, believing that the painting belonged to Italy and shouldn’t be kept in France, stole it by simply walking out the door with it hidden under his coat. However, greed got the better of him and the Mona Lisa was recovered when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913.

During World War I and World War II the painting was again removed from the Louvre and stored at a safe place.

In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged after an acid attack. Several months later someone threw a stone at it. It is now being kept under security glass.

In 1962, the painting was loaned to the United States and shown in New York City and Washington D.C.. In 1974 it went on a tour and was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.

Regions of France

France.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 19:37:00 +0000

Regions oFrance has 26 régions, which are further subdivided into départements.

Alsace 67 Bas-Rhin 68 Haut-Rhin

Aquitaine 24 Dordogne 33 Gironde 40 Landes 47 Lot-et-Garonne 64 Pyrénées-Atlantiques

Auvergne 03 Allier 15 Cantal 43 Haute-Loire 63 Puy-de-Dôme

Basse-Normandie 14 Calvados 50 Manche 61 Orne

Bourgogne (Burgundy) 21 Côte-d’Or 58 Nièvre 71 Saône-et-Loire 89 Yonne

Bretagne (Brittany) 22 Côtes-d’Armor 29 Finistère 35 Ille-et-Vilaine 56 Morbihan

Centre (Val de Loire) 18 Cher 28 Eure-et-Loir 36 Indre 37 Indre-et-Loire 41 Loir-et-Cher 45 Loiret

Champagne-Ardenne 08 Ardennes 10 Aube 51 Marne 52 Haute-Marne

Corse (Corsica) 20a Corse-du-Sud 20b Haute-Corse

Franche-Comté 25 Doubs 39 Jura 70 Haute-Saône 90 Territoire-de-Belfort

Haute-Normandie 27 Eure 76 Seine-Maritime

Ile-de-France 75 Paris 77 Seine-et-Marne 78 Yvelines 91 Essonne 92 Hauts-de-Seine 93 Seine-Saint-Denis 94 Val-de-Marne 95 Val-d’Oise

Languedoc-Roussillon 11 Aude 30 Gard 34 Hérault 48 Lozère 66 Pyrénées-Orientales, see also Roussillon

Limousin 19 Corrèze 23 Creuse 87 Haute-Vienne

Lorraine 54 Meurthe-et-Moselle 55 Meuse 57 Moselle 88 Vosges

Midi-Pyrenees 09 Ariège 12 Aveyron 31 Haute-Garonne 32 Gers 46 Lot 65 Hautes-Pyrénées 81 Tarn 82 Tarn-et-Garonne

Nord-Pas-de-Calais 59 Nord 62 Pas-de-Calais

Pays de la Loire 44 Loire-Atlantique 49 Maine-et-Loire 53 Mayenne 72 Sarthe 85 Vendée

Picardie 02 Aisne 60 Oise 80 Somme

Poitou-Charentes 16 Charente 17 Charente-Maritime 79 Deux-Sèvres 86 Vienne

Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur 04 Alpes-de-Haute-Provence 05 Hautes-Alpes 06 Alpes-Maritimes 13 Bouches-du-Rhône 83 Var 84 Vaucluse

Rhône-Alpes 01 Ain 07 Ardèche 26 Drôme 38 Isère 42 Loire 69 Rhône 73 Savoie 74 Haute-Savoie

Départements d’Outre mer (DOM) (Overseas departments), each of them being a département and a région at the same time: 971 Guadeloupe 972 Martinique 973 French Guiana 974 La Réunion

The departments are further subdivided into 342 arrondissements.

The overseas departments are former colonies outside France that now enjoy a status similar to European or metropolitan France. They are considered to be a part of France (and the EU) rather than dependent territories, and each of them is a region at the same time.

The overseas territories and countries form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the Republic’s European territory or the EU fiscal area. They continue to use the French Pacific Franc as their currency, which was unaffected by the French franc’s replacement by the Euro in 2002.

The territorial collectivities have an intermediate status between overseas department and overseas territory.

France also maintains control over a number of other small islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, including Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin Island. See Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Map of France

France.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 19:27:00 +0000

Introduction

France.com — Sun, 23 Feb 2003 15:26:00 +0000

Not large by North American standards (about the size of the state of Texas), France is nonetheless extremely diverse: it concentrates a wealth of scenery, regional identities each with their own particular joie de vivre defined by cultural and historic differences.

Through the years, France’s stamp on western civilization has left an indelible mark in many domains and French savoir-faire remains a reference in the arts, politics, gastronomy, fashion and science.

Since World War II, French society has undergone great transformations. Whereas one person in 3 used to work in farming, today this ratio stands at 1 in 16. Concurently, religious practice (mostly Catholic) declined almost at the same rate.

This new age ushered in such changes in social habits as the wider acceptance of the practice of unmarried couples living together and the legalization of abortion. After the students took to the streets in infamous May 1968, conditions for women have tremendously improved and many social structures became less constructing for everyone.

Social Customs

France.com — Fri, 21 Feb 2003 15:36:00 +0000

French society likes formality in many aspects of everyday life as obligatory handshaking or cheek kissing , the use of the vous (rather then the familiar tu) and of titles when refering to a superior or a stranger and the concern about always dressing well.

Sex lives in France can be qualified as very liberal by American standards. Everyday relations between the sexes are very flirtatious and not at all confrontational, neither in public nor in the professional life. The “use” of a lover is rather frequent both for men and women.

Nudity is not seen as a sin and women generally go topless on the beaches of the Riviera. Many French TV shows do not hesitate to include partially or totally undressed men or women even during prime time.

As a result of Napoleon’s Civil Code, most of everyday life’s transactions follow written texts or laws. French people, however, take great pleasure and pride in finding new clever ways to bypass these restrictions or instructions.

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