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Aire Urbaine

Aire urbaine

In France an aire urbaine (literally: "urban area") is roughly the equivalent of a US Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is extremely confusing for English speakers because in English an "urban area" is not the same thing as a "metropolitan area". In English an urban area is a contiguously built-up area, which is smaller than a metropolitan area, as explained below. Despite its name, a French aire urbaine is indeed a metropolitan area. What is called "urban area" in English is called unité urbaine (literally: "urban unit") in France. An aire urbaine comprises a city, its independent suburbs, as well as its satellite towns and cities separated by some agricultural land. Metropolitan areas in the US also include satellite towns and the agricultural land in between. This reflects the modern phenomenon of long commutes where people may live in towns separated from the core of the urbanized metropolis by some agricultural land, but still work in the core of the metropolis. In that perspective, a metropolitan area is no more conceived as strictly speaking the urbanized area centered on a city, but rather as a hub of towns and suburbs around a central urban core where people interact and commute. The official definition of an aire urbaine is given by the INSEE (the national statistics office of France) as: an agglomeration of communes (municipalities) situated on an unbroken and enclave-free tract of land, made up of (1) an urban core (pôle urbain), i.e. the communes of the contiguously urbanized area around the city center; and (2) the communes in the peri-urban ring (outside of the urban core) in which at least 40% of the resident population in employment works in the communes of the urban core or in the other communes of the peri-urban ring. A pôle urbain is a unité urbaine (see first paragraph) in which there exists at least 5,000 jobs and which does not belong to the peri-urban ring of another pôle urbain. Here is a list of the fifteen largest aires urbaines of France based on population at the 1999 census:

Aire urbaine	Population (March 1999)	Yearly percent change (1990-1999)
01- Paris	11,174,743	+0.32 %
02- Lyon	1,648,216	+0.68 %
03- Marseille	1,516,340	+0.46 %
04- Lille (figures do not include the part of Lille's metropolitan area which lies on Belgian territory)	1,143,125	+0.32 %
05- Toulouse	964,797	+1.54 %
06- Nice	933,080	+0.51 %
07- Bordeaux	925,253	+0.67 %
08- Nantes	711,120	+1.10 %
09- Strasbourg (figures do not include the part of Strasbourg's metropolitan area which lies on German territory, see Eurodistrict)	612,104	+0.81 %
10- Toulon	564,823	+0.69 %
11- Douai-Lens	552,682	– 0.17 %
12- Rennes	521,188	+1.32 %
13- Rouen	518,316	+0.29 %
14- Grenoble	514,559	+0.65 %
15- Montpellier	459,916	+1.89 %

Insee

INSEE is the French abbreviation for the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (French: Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques). It collects and publishes information on the French economy and French society, carrying out the periodic national census. INSEE also maintains indices of inflation, construction costs, etc., that are sometimes used to revalue the charges made under certain contracts.

INSEE codes and numbers

INSEE gives numerical indexing codes (French: le Codes INSEE) to various entities in France:
- INSEE codes (known as COG) are given to various administrative units, notably the French communes (they do not coincide with postcodes). The 'complete' code has 8 digits and 3 spaces within, but there is a popular 'simplified' code with 5 digits and no space within :
- 2 digits (département) and 3 digits (commune) for the 96 départements of Metropolitan France
- 3 digits (département or collectivity) and 2 digits (commune) for the Overseas departments, Overseas Territorial Collectivities and Overseas Countries and Territories. See also : :fr:Code INSEE#Code communal.
- INSEE numbers (13 digits + a two-digit key) are national identification numbers given to people.
Their format is as follows: syymmlllllooo kk, where
- s is 1 for a male, 2 for a female,
- yy are the last two digits of the year of birth,
- mm is the month of birth,
- lllll is the COG for the location of birth,
- ooo is an order number to distinguish people being born at the same place in the same year and month.
- 'kk' is the "control key", equal to 97-(the rest of the number modulo 97).
There are exceptions for people in particular situations. [http://www.dsi.cnrs.fr/conduite-projet/phasedeveloppement/technique/etude-detaillee/modele-de-donnees/regles-numero-INSEE.pdf]
- SIREN codes are given to businesses and nonprofit associations, SIRET codes to their establishments and facilities ([http://www.sirene.tm.fr SIRENE database]).

External link

- [http://www.insee.fr/ Official site] Category:National identification numbers Category:National statistical services Category:Demographics of France Category:Economy of France Category:Government of France

Commune of France

The commune (in French: commune, word appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, meaning a gathering of people sharing a common life, from Latin communis, things held in common) is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to US incorporated municipalities/cities. French communes have no equivalent in the United Kingdom. A French commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants like Paris, a town of 10,000, or just a 10-person village.

General characteristics

Total number of communes

As of 1 January 2004, there were 36,782 communes in the French Republic, 36,568 of them in metropolitan France and 214 of them overseas. This is a staggering number, much higher than in any other European country. This peculiarity is explained in detail in the history section below; briefly, French communes still largely reflect the division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution more than two centuries ago. It should also be noted that, in contrast to the United States, the whole of the territory of the French Republic, outside of some small overseas possessions, is divided into communes. On the territory of the French Republic there is no such thing as unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority. Any piece of land in the French Republic is part of a commune, both in metropolitan France and in its overseas extensions (including uninhabited mountains or rain forests), with only the exceptions of:
- COM (collectivité d'outre-mer, i.e. overseas collectivity) of Wallis and Futuna (14,944 inhabitants), which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms (the only permanently inhabited territory in the French Republic which is not divided in communes).
- TOM (territoire d'outre-mer, i.e. overseas territory) of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (no permanent population, about 170 resident scientists).
- Îles Éparses ("Scattered Islands"), a grouping of five islands in the Indian Ocean (no permanent population, 55 soldiers and meteorologists).
- Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean (uninhabited).

Surface area of a typical commune

In metropolitan France, the average area of a commune in 2004 is 14.88 km² (5.75 sq. miles, or 3,676 acres). The median area of metropolitan France's communes (as of 1999 census) is even smaller, at 10.73 km² (4.14 sq. miles, or 2,651 acres). The median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than in most of the European countries, such as Italy where the median area of communes is 22 km² (8.5 sq. miles), Belgium where it is 40 km² (15.5 sq. miles), Spain where it is 35 km² (13.5 sq. miles), or Germany where the majority of Länder have communes with a median area above 15 km² (5.8 sq. miles). This very small size of the French communes is due to the extremely high number of communes, mentioned above, in a medium-sized territory such as France. In 2000, Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of French overseas départements such as Réunion and Guyane are large by French standards, larger than communes of metropolitan France. They usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances between them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes.

Population of a typical commune

The median population of metropolitan France's communes as of the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with the lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may have a smaller surface area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium where it was 11,265 inhabitants, or even Spain where it was 564 inhabitants. The median population given here should not hide the fact that differences in size are extreme among French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a village of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a couple hundred inhabitants; but there also exists a small number of communes that are highly populated. In metropolitan France, there are 20,982 communes with less than 500 inhabitants, which is 57.4% of the total of communes. In these 20,982 communes there live only 4,638,000 inhabitants, or 7.7% of the total population of metropolitan France. In other words, only 7.7% of the French population live in 57.4% of the communes, while 92.3% of the population live in just 42.6% of the French communes.

Status of the communes

Despite enormous differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal) which manage the commune from the mairie (city hall), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune (with the city of Paris as the only exception, where the city police are in the hands of the central state, not in the hands of the mayor of Paris). This uniformity of status is a clear legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences of status that existed in the kingdom of France. The size of a commune still matters, however, in two domains: French law determines the size of the municipal council according to the population of the commune; and the size of the population determines which voting process is used for the election of the municipal council. Since the PML Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements: these are Paris, Marseille, and Lyon. Municipal arrondissement is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic, but it exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements. French communes have legal "personality" since 1837: they are considered legal entities, and they have legal capacity. Municipal arrondissements have no legal personality, and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by the Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations.
- [1] (http://www.droit.org/code/index-CGCTERRL.html) Legislation
- [2] (http://www.droit.org/code/index-CGCTERRM.html) Decree

History of the French Communes

French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789-1790.

Kingdom of France

Before the French Revolution, there existed nothing such as the communes we know today. The lowest level of administrative division was the parish (paroisse), and there were up to 60,000 of them in the kingdom of France. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the agricultural land around the village. It should be remembered that France was the most populous country of Europe until the 19th century, more so even than Russia, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants before the Industrial Revolution (England had only 6 million inhabitants before the Industrial Revolution) -- this accounts for the stunningly-high number of parishes in the kingdom of France. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over a "realm of 100,000 steeples". However these parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually there was only a fabric committee (conseil de fabrique), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties -- and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. The priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials, since the Council of Trent and several royal edicts under kings Louis XIV and Louis XV. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places, the local feudal lord (seigneur) in his castle was still intervening in the village’s affairs, still collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée, still determining which agricultural land was to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. On the other hand, there existed chartered cities that had received charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself, or from local counts or dukes (such as the city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to several hundreds in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall. These cities had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, they had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore quite a resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: 1- these municipal bodies were not democratic, they were usually in the hands of some rich bourgeois families upon whom, over time, nobility had been conferred, so they can be better labeled as oligarchies rather than municipal democracies; 2- there was no uniform status for these chartered cities, each one having its own status and specific organization. In the north of France, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south of France cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on the same footing, and rendered decisions in collegiality; but for certain purposes there was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, being a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called: provost of the merchants (prévôt des marchands) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen, Orléans, Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg; maître échevin in Metz; maire royal in Nancy; or prévôt in Valenciennes.

French Revolution

On July 14, 1789, at the end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille, the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles, was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V, their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from the king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another local representative of the king, and no longer as the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On December 14, 1789, the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently-created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly-speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes, the National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment (les Lumières). They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform all across the country: the whole of France would be divided into départements, themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor (maire) at their head, and a municipal council (conseil municipal) elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the tens of thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house (mairie) had to be built in each of these villages, which would house the meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France, into tens of thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn from the priests of the parishes and became the responsibility of the mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional church ceremony, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God ("Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage." – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in the mairies. These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war, with the fervently religious regions of western France at its epicenter. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by the prefect, the local representative of the central government.

Trends after the French Revolution

Today, in their general principles, French communes are still very much the same as those that were established at the beginning of the French Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of the municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to the revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (the départements likewise), with only the central state having legal "personality".. By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to the chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the French Revolution approximately 44,000 communes were created, on a territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 44,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include the departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine, which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was less than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 44,000 was still a very big number, without any comparison in the world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, and the rural exodus all have depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90% of communes and departments are exactly the same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. As a consequence, countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or less. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that there urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at the time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes! Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris became rigid. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day density of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing the number of communes by two-thirds or more (the communes of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in just a few years), France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly during the 19th century. From 44,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, and 36,568 in 2004 (in metropolitan France). France is by far the country with the largest number of communes in Europe. For instance, reunited Germany (one-third more inhabitants than France) has only 13,800 communes, and Italy (almost as many inhabitants as France) has only 8,100 communes. In Europe, only Switzerland has as high a density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last ten years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: 1- the European Union (of 15 members, before May 2004) is made up of approximately 75,000 communes, and metropolitan France alone accounts for 35,568 of these, which means 47.5% of the communes of the European Union are in metropolitan France alone (France represents 16% of the total population of the European Union of 15 members). 2- the United States, with a territory 14 times larger than the French Republic, and 4.7 times the population of the French Republic, has only 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships (as of the 2002 Census of Governments), compared with 36,782 communes in the French Republic.

Current debate

For more than 30 years, there have been calls in France for a massive merger of communes, including such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). So far, however, local conservatism has been very strong, and no mandatory merging proposal ever has made it past committee in the French Parliament. In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law was a complete failure (only about 1,300 communes agreed to disappear and merge with other communes). So, complain those in favor of the merger, French cities have a ridiculously light weight compared to their European counterparts, because their limits still are those set more than 200 years ago. For instance, the city of Lyon is a small commune with only 445,500 inhabitants, which compares poorly with other European cities, whereas in fact the metropolitan area of Lyon has 1.65 million inhabitants and ranks as one of the major metropolises of Europe, on a par with a metropolitan area such as Munich. As a matter of fact, the population and economy of the metropolitan area of Munich is approximately comparable to the population and economy of the metropolitan area of Lyon, but the population of the commune (city) of Munich is about 1,265,000 inhabitants, compared with only 445,500 in the case of Lyon. Mayors of French cities often complain that their significance is undervalued when they travel outside of France, due to the fact that they rule only a small territory at the center of wider metropolitan areas. A good example of this phenomenon is Paris: although the metropolitan area of Paris is one of the very few in the world to have more than 10 million inhabitants, the population of the city of Paris itself is only 2,125,000 inhabitants, which is even less than the population of the city of Rome (2,650,000 inhabitants), whose metropolitan area of 3 million inhabitants is not in the same league as the metropolitan area of Paris. At the other end of the scale, there exist some countryside communes which the rural exodus left with few inhabitants, and which struggle to maintain and manage such basic services as running water, garbage collection, or properly-paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. A first obvious issue is that they reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. A more serious issue is that citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, who may be unaware or inattentive to their local needs. The Parti des Travailleurs far-left party has seized the issue and campaigns, by several means, against the regrouping of communes.

Intercommunality

Aware of the inadequacy of the communal grid, but unable or unwilling to tackle local conservatism, French politicians have pushed forward the so-called "intercommunalilty" (intercommunalité). Resulting from statutes enacted by the French parliament in 1959, 1966, and 1992, independent communes may gather together and form a syndicate in charge of managing some services (such as garbage collection or running water) for all the communes in the syndicate. Indeed, over the years it has become more and more frequent in the countryside to see some large garbage containers parked on the side of communal roads and bearing the name and logo of the local syndicate of communes. In urban areas, communes may team up with the city at the core of the urban area and form a community in charge of managing public transportation or even local taxes together. The Chevènement law in 1999 completely transformed the structures of intercommunality in France, abolishing some structures and creating new ones, and offering government money to entice communes to join intercommunal structures. Contrary to the failure of the Marcellin law in 1971, or the semi-success of former laws such as the statute enacted in 1966 which enabled urban communes to form urban communities, the Chevènement law has encountered a large success in its first five years, with a majority of French communes now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of intercommunal structures:
- Those without fiscal power. This is the loosest form of intercommunality. Mainly in this category are the traditional syndicates of communes. Communes gather and contribute financially to the syndicate, but the syndicate cannot levy its own taxes. Communes can leave the syndicate at any time. Syndicates can be set up for a particular purpose or to deal with several matters. These structures without fiscal power have been left untouched by the Chevènement law, and they are on a declining trend.
- Structures with fiscal power. This is what the Chevènement law was concerned with. The law distinguishes three structures with fiscal power: the Community of Communes (communauté de communes), aimed primarily at rural communes; the Community of Agglomeration (communauté d'agglomération), aimed at towns and middle-sized cities and their suburbs; and the Urban Community (communauté urbaine), aimed at larger cities and their suburbs. These three structures are given varying levels of fiscal power, with the Community of Agglomeration and the Urban Community having most fiscal power, levying the local tax on companies (taxe professionnelle) in their own name instead of those of the communes, and with the same level of taxation across the communes of the community. The communities must also manage some services previously performed by the communes, such as garbage collection or transport, like the old syndicates, but the law also makes it mandatory for the communities to manage other areas such as economic planning and development, housing projects, or environment protection. Communities of Communes are required to manage the least number of areas, leaving the communes more autonomous, while the Urban Communities are required to manage most matters, leaving the communes inside them with less autonomous power. In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for the communes to team up and form communities. Communities of Communes are given the least amount of money per inhabitant, whereas Urban Communities are given the most amount of money per inhabitant, thus pushing the communes to form more integrated communities where they have less powers, which they would have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures: quite a feat in such a conservative country as France. As of January 1, 2005, there were 2,509 such communities in metropolitan France (including 6 syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle, soon to disappear), made up of 32,220 communes (88.1% of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 50.75 million inhabitants, i.e. 84.0 % of the population of metropolitan France. However these impressive results may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a Community of Communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into a Community of Communes, the new Community of Communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these Communities of Communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to the law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together in the urban area. However in many places local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure, so that in some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to the benefit of poorer suburbs of the urban area. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposite political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures, the main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a Community of Agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an Urban Community for fear of losing too many powers, and opted for a Community of Agglomeration, despite the fact that a Community of Agglomeration receives less government funds than an Urban Community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there, the suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the Paris metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures but all without the city of Paris. One major problem with intercommunality, often raised, is the fact that the intercommunal structures do not have representatives directly elected by the people, so it is the representatives of each individual commune that sit in the new structure. As a consequence, civil servants and bureaucrats are the ones setting up the agenda and implementing it, with the elected representatives of the communes only endorsing key decisions. At the local level, this situation is quite like the one existing in Brussels, where power shared by many independent European states has resulted in that power being exercised by a bureaucracy not elected by citizens.

Future

The first five years of the 21st century have seen great changes at the communal level in France, but the situation still is unsettled. The new intercommunal structures, designed to solve the problem of a country with too many small communes, have met with clear success, but their powers -- as well as their relationship with the communes below them and the départements above them -- still need to be defined in practice. It is unclear yet where the trend is going. Will the intercommunal structures have representatives directly elected by the citizens in the future, as the Mauroy Report proposed in 2000? But then wouldn't this leave the communes as hollow administrative units? Already, a few well-known mayors of large French cities (communes) have abandoned their mayoral seats to become presidents of the Urban Communities, as in the case of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole. Or will these intercommunal structures break up, in the end, after the state stops transferring money? Or perhaps, as some believe, the Chevènement law was just a first step toward a massive merger of communes, an attempt to have the communes work together and see the advantages of it, before they are eventually merged. In any case, the debate is sure to rebound in the next few years.

Miscellaneous facts

Most and least populous communes

- The most populous commune of the French Republic is the commune of Paris: 2,125,246 inhabitants in March 1999.
- There are six communes in the French Republic with no inhabitants at all. These six communes are on the battlefield of Verdun: Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Haumont-près-Samogneux, Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre, Cumières-le-Mort-Homme, and Fleury-devant-Douaumont. These villages were completely destroyed during the gruesome Battle of Verdun in 1916: the land received so many shells that the area had become almost lunar, totally unrecognizable. After the war it was decided that these villages would not be rebuilt. The communes were maintained as a testimony to these villages which "died for France", as they were officially titled. These dead communes are each administered by a municipal council of three members appointed by the prefect of the Meuse département.
- Apart from these special cases, the communes with the least inhabitants in the French Republic are:
- commune of Rochefourchat, in the foothills of the French Alps, one inhabitant at 1999 census (a 38-year-old divorced man).
- commune of Leménil-Mitry, in the woodlands of Lorraine in eastern France, two inhabitants at 1999 census (a 42-year-old man and his 38-year-old wife, him being the owner of all the estates in the commune, descending from the family of the local lords).
- commune of Rouvroy-Ripont, near the Champagne area, two inhabitants at 1999 census (an unmarried 60-year-old man, and an unmarried 73-year-old man).

Largest and smallest commune territories

- The largest commune of the French Republic is Maripasoula (3,710 inhabitants) in the département of French Guiana: 18,360 km² (7,089 sq. miles).
- In metropolitan France the largest commune is the commune of Arles (50,513 inhabitants) near Marseilles, the territory of which encompasses most of the delta of the Rhone River: 759 km² (293 sq. miles), or 8.7 times the area of the city of Paris (excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes).
- The smallest commune of the French Republic is Castelmoron-d'Albret (62 inhabitants) near Bordeaux: 0.0376 km² (0.0145 sq. miles or 9.3 acres).

Most elevated commune

The most elevated commune of the French Republic (and of Europe) is Saint-Véran (267 inhabitants), in the French Alps: the altitude of the village is between 1,990 meters (6,529 feet) and 2,040 meters (6,693 feet) above sea level.

Communes furthest away from the capital city of France

- The commune of the French Republic furthest away from Paris is the commune of Île-des-Pins (1,671 inhabitants) in New Caledonia: 16,841 km. (10,465 miles) from the center of Paris.
- In continental France (i.e. European France excluding Corsica), the communes furthest away from Paris are Coustouges (134 inhabitants) and Lamanère (44 inhabitants) at the Spanish border: both at 721 km. (448 miles) from the center of Paris as the crow flies.

Shortest and longest commune names

- The commune of the French Republic with the shortest name is the commune of Y (89 inhabitants).
- There are three communes in the French Republic which have the longest name (38 letters):
- commune of Saint-Germain-de-Tallevende-la-Lande-Vaumont (1731 inhabitants)
- commune of Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson (592 inhabitants)
- commune of Beaujeu-Saint-Vallier-Pierrejux-et-Quitteur (739 inhabitants).

Names of communes other than in French

Names of French communes are normally in French. In areas where other languages than French were spoken, the names have been turned into French, such as Toulouse (formerly Tolosa in Occitan), Strasbourg (formerly Straßburg in German), or Perpignan (formerly Perpinyà in Catalan). However, many smaller communes have retained their native name. Here are examples of retained names in the languages once spoken, or still spoken, on the territory of the French Republic:
- German: e.g. commune of Mittelhausbergen (1,680 inhabitants).
- Dutch: e.g. commune of Steenvoorde (4,024 inhabitants).
- Breton: e.g. commune of Kermoroc’h (324 inhabitants).
- Occitan: e.g. commune of Belcastel (251 inhabitants).
- Basque: e.g. commune of Ustaritz (4,984 inhabitants).
- Catalan: e.g. commune of Banyuls-dels-Aspres (1,007 inhabitants).
- Corsican: e.g. commune of San-Gavino-di-Carbini (738 inhabitants).
- Comorian: e.g. commune of M’Tsangamouji (5,382 inhabitants).
- Polynesian: e.g. commune of Hitiaa O Te Ra (8,286 inhabitants).
- several Austronesian languages of New Caledonia: e.g. commune of Kouaoua (1,524 inhabitants).
- several American Indian languages: e.g. commune of Kourou (19,107 inhabitants).

Classification

INSEE codes: INSEE gives numerical indexing codes to various entities in France, notably the communes (they do not coincide with postcodes). The 'complete' code has 8 digits and 3 spaces within, but there is a popular 'simplified' code with 5 digits and no space within:
- 2 digits (département) and 3 digits (commune) for the 96 départements of France 'métropolitaine'.
- 3 digits (département or collectivity) and 2 digits (commune) for the Overseas departments, Overseas Territorial Collectivities and Overseas Countries and Territories. See also : :fr:Code INSEE#Code communal.

References

- La Documentation française [http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/intercommunalite/index.shtml Le développement de l'intercommunalité : la révolution discrète]
- Maryvonne Bonnard, Les collectivités territoriales en France, 2005, La Documentation française, ISBN 2110058749

Lyon

:This article is about the French city. For other usages, see Lyon (disambiguation) and Lyons (disambiguation). Lyon (often Lyons in English) (French pronunciation: ) is a city in east central France. Location: . Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the second largest metropolitan area in France after Paris, with 1,648,216 inhabitants at the 1999 census, and approximately the 20th to 25th largest metropolitan area of Western Europe. Lyon is the capital of the Rhône-Alpes région, and the préfecture (capital) of the Rhône département. The city gave its name to the Lyonnais province, of which it was the capital. Today the region around Lyon is still known as Lyonnais (French: le Lyonnais), or sometimes even as the Lyonnaise Region (French: Région Lyonnaise). Lyonnaise Region is an unofficial, popular name, not to be confused with the administrative région of Rhône-Alpes, which is much larger than the Lyonnaise Region. Lyon is also the international headquarters of Interpol.

Administration

Lyon is the capital of the Rhône-Alpes région, the préfecture of the Rhône département, and the capital of 14 cantons, covering 1 commune, and with a total population of 445,452 (1999). Lyon, similarly to Marseille and Paris is divided into 9 municipal arrondissements, referred to by number.

History

:Main article Lugdunum. Lyon was founded as a Roman colony in 43 BC by Munatius Plancus, a Caesar's lieutenant, on the site of a Gaulish hill-fort settlement called 'Lug[o]dunon', after the Celtic sun god Lug ("Light"); 'dúnon' meant "hill-fort". The name was latinised as Lugdunum; Lug (Old Irish 'Lugh', Modern Irish 'Lú') was equated by the Romans to Mercurius. Lug's 'totem' was a cock (rooster), hence the origin of the Modern French association with 'le coq'. Agrippa recognized that Lugdunum's position on the natural highway from north to south-eastern France made it a natural communications hub, and he made Lyon the starting-point of the principal Roman roads throughout Gaul. The three parts of Gaul mentioned by Caesar met at Lyon. It became then the capital of Gaul, partly thanks to its fortunate site at the convergence of two navigable rivers. Lugdunum quickly became the main city of Gaul. Two emperors were born in this city: Claudius and Caracalla. The Christians in Lyon were persecuted for their religious views under the reigns of the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Septimus Severus. The great Christian bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century was the Easterner, Irenaeus. Burgundian refugees from the destruction of Worms by Huns in 437 were resettled by the military commander of the west, Aëtius, at Lugdunum, which was formally the capital of the new Burgundian kingdom by 461. In 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, Lyon, with the country beyond the Saône, went to Lothair I. Fernand Braudel remarked, "Historians of Lyon are not sufficiently aware of the bi-polarity between Paris and Lyon, which is a constant structure in French development" from the late Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution (Braudel 1984 p.327). The fairs in Lyon, the invention of Italian merchants, made it the economic countinghouse of France in the late 15th century. When international banking moved to Genoa, then Amsterdam, Lyon simply became the banking center of France; its new Bourse (treasury), built in 1749, still resembled a public bazaar where accounts were settled in the open air. During the Renaissance, the city developed with the silk trade, especially with Italy; the Italian influence on Lyon's architecture can still be seen. Thanks to the silk trade, Lyon became an important industrial town during the 19th century. Lyon was a scene of mass violence against Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacres in 1572. The silk workers of Lyon, known as "canuts" staged two major uprisings: in 1831 and 1834. The 1831 uprising saw one of the first recorded uses of the black flag as an emblem of protest. Lyon was a centre for the occupying German forces, and also a stronghold of resistance during World War II, and the town is now home to a resistance museum. (See also Klaus Barbie.) The traboules, or secret passages, through the houses enabled the locals to escape Gestapo raids.

Geography

Gestapo The Rhône and Saône rivers meet at the south end of the city, which is dominated by the two hills Fourvière and the Croix-Rousse. Fourvière, known as the hill that prays is the location for the highly decorated Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica, several convents, the palace of the Archbishop, and a funicular. Croix-Rousse the hill that works was traditionally home to the many small silk workshops, an industry for which the city was renowned. The Saint-Jean and the Croix-Rousse areas, which are noted for their narrow passageways (traboules) that pass through buildings and link the streets either side, were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1998. On the peninsula (presqu'ile) between the rivers Rhône and Saône, is the third largest public square in France, and one of the largest in Europe, the Place Bellecour. Specifically, it is the largest clear square (i.e., without any patches of greenery, trees or any other kind of obstacles) in Europe. Across the Rhône from the presqu'ile sits modern Lyon, home to the urban center Lyon Part-Dieu; central France's only skyscraper; and most of the city's population. This area also contains the Parc de la tête d'or, one of Europe's largest urban parks. Interpol headquarters is located in this neighborhood.

Culture

Lyon was an early center for printing books, and nurtured a circle of 16th century poets. For several centuries Lyon has been known as the capital of gastronomy, fine handweaving, and the silk trade. The Lumière brothers invented cinema in the town in 1898. December 8 each year is marked by "la Fête de la Lumière" (the Festival of Lights), a celebration of thanks to the Virgin Mary, who purportedly saved the city from a deadly plague in the Middle Ages. During the event, the local population places candles in their windows and the city of Lyon organizes and projects impressive large-scale light shows onto the sides of important Lyonais monuments, such as the mediaeval Cathédral St-Jean. Middle Ages Two of France's best known wine-growing regions are located near Lyon: the Beaujolais to the North, and the Côtes du Rhône to the South.

Religion

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of the city holds the title "Primate of the Gauls" (Primat des Gaules) and is the leading Archbishop of France. The archdiocese dates to Roman times before Franks entered modern France (see history above). The red vestments of the canons of Lyon are said to have given rise to red becoming the signature color of the cardinals, in a decree promulgated under Pope Innocent IV at the First Council of Lyons, 1245.

Colleges and universities

- CPE Lyon
- École Centrale de Lyon
- EM Lyon (École de Management de Lyon)
- École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
- École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines
- École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon
- Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon
- Institut d'études politiques de Lyon
- Université Jean Moulin
- Université Claude Bernard
- Université Louis Lumière
- Ecole National des Travaux Public de l'Etat
- La Martiniere Lyons

Transportation

Airport: Saint-Exupéry International Airport Lyon is connected to the North (Lille, Paris) and the South (Marseille, Montpellier) by the TGV. It was the first city to be connected by the TGV c. 1982. Metro: see Lyon Metro In addition to the extensive metro and bus system, Lyon has a tramway system.

Vélo'v

Lyon Metro Lyon has a public bicycle network of 2000 bikes which can be picked up and dropped off at points around the city. Known as Vélo'v, it is owned and operated by the advertising company JCDecaux, which refers to it as Cyclocity. The system was introduced in May 2005 and was a huge success in its first few months of operation. Despite occasional problems with the technology infrastructure or lack of cards in vending machines, it seems to have been adopted as a viable means of public transport.

Buildings and structures

Cyclocity
- Tour metallique de Fourviere, 1894
- La Mouche Cattle Market and Abbatoir, 1914, 1928, Tony Garnier, architect
- Sainte Marie de La Tourette monastery, 1960, Le Corbusier, architect
- Satolas Airport, 1975. Guillaume Gilbert, architect
- Opéra National de Lyon, renovation and expansion 1993, Jean Nouvel, architect
- Lyon Railway Station, 1994, Santiago Calatrava, architect
- Cité Internationale, 1998, Renzo Piano, architect

Miscellaneous

Born in Lyon

The long list of notable Lyonnais includes:
- Shlomo Aviner, renowned Religious Zionist rabbi
- Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, painter
- Henri Cochet, tennis player
- Youri Djorkaeff, football player
- Jules Favre, republican statesman
- Tony Garnier, architect and utopian planner
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, aviation pioneer and writer
- Marie-France Gaîté (la Gribouille), singer
- Maurice Jarre, composer
- Jean-Michel Jarre, musician
- Bishop Mathias Loras, the first Bishop of the Dubuque, Iowa Diocese.
- Louise Labé, 16th century poet
- Raymond Domenech, trainer French football team

Twinning

Lyon is twinned with:
- Birmingham, England, 1951 [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/twins Birmingham's Partner City page]
- Guangzhou, China, 1988
- Milan, Italy, 1966
- Saint Louis, United States, 1975
- Frankfurt, Germany, 1960
- Yokohama, Japan, 1959 [http://www.city.yokohama.jp/me/soumu/kokusai/exchange/sisindex/lyon.html Yokohama's Sister City page]

Musical reference

- A historical article about a 19th century flood inspired the 1979 song The Flood at Lyons by Renaissance.

External links

- [http://www.mairie-lyon.fr/ Lyon town hall]
- [http://www.en.lyon-france.com/ tourist information]
- [http://www.toolyon.com/ TooLYON]
- [http://www.lyonweb.net.com/ Lyon Websites]
- [http://www.imprimerie.lyon.fr/imprimerie/sections/fr/ Musée de l'Imprimerie de Lyon]: one of the major printing history museums of Europe, with the Gutenburg at Mainz and the Plantin at Antwerp -- the Museum offers exhibits & conferences & classes for both adults and children -- occupies a beautiful old building (former city hall) in central Lyon.
- [http://ihl.enssib.fr/siteindex.php?page=134&aflng=en/ Institut de l'Histoire du Livre]: website resources and classes and lectures, many in English, on the History of the Book -- Lyon's role in this and also generally.
- [http://www.dboc.net/lyon/ Objectif Lyon] Pictures and descriptions of the monuments
- [http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lyon.htm Lyon City Guide] History, photos, descriptions of churches and other religious sites, and travel information.
- ko:리옹 ja:リヨン simple:Lyon

Lille

Lille is a city in northern France on the Deûle River. It is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais région. It is also the préfecture (capital) of the Nord département. It lies near the border with Belgium and its Dutch name is Rijsel. The city of Lille absorbed Lomme on February 27, 2000. Their combined population at the 1999 census was 212,597 inhabitants. The whole metropolitan area of Lille, both on French and Belgian territory (Kortrijk) was estimated in 2000 at around 1,730,000 inhabitants, ranking as one of the major metropolitan areas of Europe.

History

In the 19th century Lille became the centre of French industry due to the large nearby coal deposits. It thus became a central part of the country's rail network.

Ancient History

The legend of "Lyderic and Phinaert" puts the foundation of the city of "L'Isle" at 640. Although the first mention of the town appears in archives from the year 1066, some archeological digs seem to show the area as inhabited by as early as 2000 BCE, most notably in the modern-day quartiers of Fives, Wazemmes, and Old Lille. The name Lille comes from insula or l'Isla, since the area was at one time marshy. This name was used for the Count of Flanders' castle (Château du Buc), built on dry land in the middle of the marsh. The Count of Flanders controlled a number of old Roman cities (Boulogne, Arras, Cambrai) as well as some founded by the Carolingians (Valenciennes, Saint-Omer, Gand, Brugge, Anvers). The region of Flanders thus extended to the left bank of the River Escaut, one of the most rich and properous regions of Europe. The original inhabitants of this region were the Celts, who were followed by the Menapiens, the Morins, the Atrébates, and the Verviens, Germanic tribes. From 830 until around 910, the Vikings invaded Flanders. After the destruction caused by Norman and Hungarian invasion, the eastern part of the region fell under the eyes of the area princes. It is in this context that the city was created.

Middle Ages

From the 12th century, the fame of the Lille cloth fair began to grow. In 1144 Saint Sauveur parish was formed, which would give its name to the modern-day quartier saint Sauveur. The counts of Flanders, Boulogne, and Hainaut came together with England and the Holy Roman Empire of Germany and declared war on France and King Philippe Auguste, a war that ended with the French victory at Bouvines in 1214. Count Ferrand of Portugal was imprisoned and the county fell into dispute: it would be his wife, Jeanne, Countess of Flanders and Constantinople, who ruled the city. They say she was well-loved by the residents of Lille, who by that time numbered 10,000. In 1224, the monk Bertrand of Rains, doubtlessly encouraged by local lords, tried to pass himself off as Baldwin I of Constantinople (the father of Jeanne of Flanders), who had disappeared during battle in Andrinople. He pushed the kingdoms of Flanders and Hainaut towards sedition against Jeanne in order to recover his land. She called her cousin, Louis VIII ("The Lion"). He unmasked the imposter, who Countess Jeanne quickly had hanged. In 1226 the King agreed to free Ferrand of Portugal. Count Ferrand died in 1233, and his daughter Marie soon after. In 1235, Jeanne granted a city charter by which city governors would be chosen each All Saint's Day by four commissioners chosen by the ruler. On February 6th, 1236, she founded the Countess's Hospital, which remains one of the most beautiful buildings in Old Lille. It was in her honor that the hospital of the Regional Medical University of Lille was named "Jeanne of Flanders Hospital" in the 20th century. The Countess died in 1244 in the Abbey of Marquette, leaving no heirs. The rule of Flanders and Hainaut thus fell to her sister, Marguerite of Flanders, then to Marguerite's brother, Guy de Dampierre. Lille fell under the rule of France from 1304 to 1369, after the battle of Mons-en-Pévèle. The county of Flanders fell to the Duchy of Burgundy next, after the 1369 marriage of Marguerite de Male, Countess of Flanders, and Philippe II le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy. Lille thus became one of the three capitals of said Duchy, along with Brussels and Dijon. By 1445, Lille counted some 25,000 residents. Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, was even more powerful than the King of France, and made Lille an administrative and financial capital. On February 17, 1454, one year after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, Philippe le Bon organised a Patagruelian banquet at his Lille palace, the still-celebrated "Banquet of the Pheasant's Vow". There the Duke and his court undertook an oath to Christianity. In 1477, at the death of the last duke of Burgundy, Charles le Téméraire, Marie de Bourgogne married a Hapsburg, Maximilian of Austria, who thus became Count of Flanders. At the end of the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Spanish Flanders fell to his eldest son, and thus under the rule of Philip II of Spain, King of Spain. The city remained under Spanish rule until the reign of Philip IV of Spain.

The Modern Era

Philip IV of Spain The 16th century was marked, above all, by the outbreak of the Plague, a boom in the regional textile industry, and the Protestant revolts. The first Calvinists appeared in the area in 1542; by 1555 there was anti-Protestant repression taking place. In 1578, the Hurlus, a group of Protestant rebels, stormed the castle of the Counts of Mouscron. They were removed four months later by a Catholic Wallon regiment, after which they tried several times between 1581 and 1582 to take the city of Lille, all in vain. The Hurlus were notably held back by the legendary Jeanne Maillotte. At the same time (1581), at the call of England's Queen Elisabeth I , the north of the Spanish Netherlands, having gained a Protestant majority, successfully revolted and formed the United Provinces. In 1667, King Louis XIV (the Sun-King) successfully laid seige to Lille, resulting in it becoming French in 1668 under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, provoking discontent among the citizens of the prosperous city. A number of important public works undertaken between 1667 and 1670, such as the Citadel (erected by Vauban), or the creation of the quartiers of Saint-André and la Madeleine, enabled the King to gain the confidence of his Flemish subjects. During five years, from 1708 to 1713, the city was occupied by the Dutch, during the War of the Spanish Succession. Throughout the 18th century, Lille remined profoundly Catholic, which explains why the city did not really take part in the French Revolution, though there were riots and the destruction of churches. In 1790, the city held their first municipal elections.

After the French Revolution

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Austrians, then in the United Provinces, laid seige to Lille. The "Column of the Goddess", erected in 1842 in the "Grand-Place", is a tribute to the city's resistance, led by Mayor François André. François André The city continued to grow, and by 1800 held some 53,000 residents, leading to Lille becoming the county seat of the Nord départment in 1804. In 1846, a rail line connecting Paris and Lille was built. At the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon I's continental blockade against the United Kingdom led to Lille's textile industry developing itself even more fully. The city was known for its cotton, and the nearby towns of Roubaix and Tourcoing worked wool. In 1853, Alexandre Desrousseaux composed his famous lullaby Dors mon p'tit quinquin. In 1858, an imperial decree led to the annexation of the adjacent towns of Fives, Wazemmes, and Moulins. Lille's population was 158,000 in 1872, growing to over 200,000 by 1891. In 1896 Lille became the first city in France to be led by a socialist, Gustave Delory. By 1912, Lille's population was at 217,000: the city profited from the Industrial Revolution, particularly via coal and the steam engine. The entire region had grown wealthy thanks to the mines and to the textile industry.
World War I
From October 4th to 13th, 1914, the troops in Lille were able to trick the enemy by convincing them that Lille possesed more artillery than was the case; in reality, the city had only a single cannon. Despite the deception, the German bombardments destroyed over 2,200 buildings and homes. When the Germans realized they had been tricked, they burned down an entire section of town, subsequently occupying the city. Lille was liberated by the British on October 17th 1918, when General Birdwood and his troops were welcomed by joyous crowds. The general was made an honorary citizen of Lille on October 28th of that year.

The Années Folles, the Great Depression, and the Popular Front

In July 1921, at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin discovered the first antituberculosis vaccine, known as BCG ("Bacille de Calmette et Guérin"). From 1931 Lille felt the repurcussions of the Great Depression, and by 1935 a third of the city's population lived in poverty. In 1936, the city's mayor, Roger Salengro, became Minister of the Interior of the Popular Front, eventually killing himself after right-wing groups led a slanderous campaign against him.
World War II
Lille was taken by the Germans in May 1940, after brief resistance by a Morrocan Infantry division. When Belgium was invaded, the citizens of Lille, still marked by the events of World War I, began to flee the city in large numbers. Although Lille was part of the zone under control of the German commander in Brussels, the city was never controlled by the Vichy government. The départments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais (with the exception of the coast, notably Dunkerque) were, for the most part, liberated in five days, from the 1st to 5th September 1944 by British, American, Canadian, and Polish troops. On September 3rd, the German troops began to leave Lille, fearing the British, who were on their way from Brussels. Following this, the Lille resistance managed to retake part of the city before the British tanks arrived. Rationing came to an end in 1947, and by 1948, some normalcy had returned to Lille.
Post-War to the present
In 1967, the Chambers of Commerce of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing were joined, and in 1969, the Communauté urbaine de Lille (Lille urban community) was created, linking 87 communes with Lille. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the region was faced with some problems after the decline of the coal, mining and textile industries. From the start of the 1980s, the city began to turn itself more towards the service sector. In 1983, the VAL, the world's first automated subway, was opened. In 1993, a high-speed TGV train line was opened, connecting Paris with Lille in one hour. This, followed by the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994, then the arrival of the Eurostar train, puts Lille in the center of a triangle connecting Paris, London, and Brussels. Work on Euralille, an urban remodeling project, began in 1991. The Euralille Center was opened in 1994, and the remodeled district is now full of parks and modern buildings containing offices, shops, and apartments. In 1994 the "Grand Palais" was also opened. Lille tried an unsuccessful bid for the organization of the Games of the XXVIIIth Olympiad in 2004.
Economy
A former major textile manufacturing center, Lille forms the heart of a larger conurbation, regrouping Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing, which is France's 4th-largest urban conglomeration with a 1999 population of over 1.1 million.
Transport
Lille is an important crossroads in the European TGV network: it lies on the Eurostar line to London and the Thalys network to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. It has two train stations, which stand next door to each other: the Lille-Europe station (Gare Lille-Europe) and the Lille-Flandres station (Gare Lille-Flandres). The VAL system (véhicule automatique léger = light automated vehicle) is a driverless metro. Line 2 is 32 km long with 43 stations, the first and longest automatic metro line in the world, opened May 16, 1983. Trains are only 26 m long (two linked cars) and are rubber-tired. There are 60 stations which go as far as the Belgian border.
Highways
Five autoroutes pass by Lille, the densest confluence of highways in France after Paris:
- Autoroute A27 : Lille - Tournai - Brussels / Liège - England
- Autoroute A23 : Lille - Valenciennes
- Autoroute A1 : Lille - Arras - Paris / Reims - Lyon
- Autoroute A25 : Lille - Dunkerque - Calais - England
- Autoroute A22 : Lille - Anvers - Netherlands A sixth one, the A24, should link Amiens to Lille.
Air Traffic
Lille Lesquin (http://www.lille.aeroport.fr/) International Airport is 15 minutes from the city center. It is the 12th most frequented French airport in number of passengers:
- around 970,000 passengers in 2001
- almost 873,000 passengers in 2003 In terms of shipping, it ranks fourth, with almost 38,000 tonnes of freight which pass through each year.
Waterways
Lille is the 3rd largest French river port after Paris and Strasbourg. The river Deûle is connected to regional waterways with over 680 km of navigatable waters. The Deûle connects to Northern Europe via the River Scarpe and the River Escaut (towards Belgium and the Netherlands), and internationally via the Lys (to Dunkerque and Calais).
Shipping Statistics

Miscellaneous
Lille has one of France's largest university student population with, depending on the information source, from 95,000 to 149,533 students in 2002-2003. The urban area is one of the biggest in France with more than 1 million inhabitants. The Euralille urban development project, centred around the new TGV station has fostered a long debate among Lille's citizens. The project has finally been completed with modern architecture and disruption to the ancient city center. Lille was elected European Capital of Culture in 2004, along with the Italian city of Genoa Lille is part of the Lille Métropole Communauté urbaine (formerly also known as C.U.D.L.).
Famous people from Lille

Scientists and Industrialists

- Charles Joseph Panckoucke, (1736-1788), founder of the Moniteur Universel, owner of Mercure de France, promoter of the Lumières and editor of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.
- Antoine Scrive-Labbe (1789-1864), industrialist in the textile field and French spy.
- Auguste Scalbert (1815, 1899), creator of the first Nordiste bank.
- Alfred Mongy (1840-1914), modernizer of the city.
- Albert Calmette (1863 - 1933) and Camille Guérin (1872-1961), discovery of the antituberculosis vaccine.
- Jean Perrin (1870, 1942), Nobel Prize in physics and creator of the French CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research).
Artists

- Alexandre Desrousseaux (1820-1892), songwriter.
- Édouard Lalo (1823-1892), composer.
- Antoine Renard (1825-1872), composer (Temps des cerises).
- Carolus-Duran (1837-1917), painter.
- Pierre Degeyter (1848-1932), worker and composer of the music of the Internationale.
- Albert Samain (1858-1900), poet.
- Émile Bernard (1868-1941), neoimpressionist painter and friend of Paul Gauguin
- Line Dariel (1886-1956), comedian.
- Julien Duvivier (1896-1967), director.
- Renée Adorée (1898-1933), actress.
- Robert Arnoux (1899-1964), actor.
- Léopold Simons (1901-1979), poet, caricaturist, painter, sculptor.
- Raoul de Godewaersvelde (1928-1977), singer.
- Alain Decaux (1925~), television presenter, minister, writer, and member of the Académie Française.
- Yvonne Furneaux (1928~), actress.
- Philippe Noiret (1930~), actor.
- Gilles Béhat (1949~), actor and director.
Politicians and Military

- Lydéric, (620-?) legendary founder of the city.
- Jeanne de Flandre, (1188/1200? -1244), Countess.
- Jeanne Maillotte, (circa 1580), resistance fighter during the Hurlus attacks.
- Louis Faidherbe (1818-1889), general, founder of the city of Dakar and senator.
- Achille Liénart (1884-1973), « cardinal des ouvriers ».
- Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), general, resistance fighter, President of France.
- Roger Salengro (1890-1936), minister, deputy, and Mayor of Lille.
- Augustin Laurent (1896-1990), minister, deputy, resistance fighter, and Mayor of Lille.
- Madeleine Damerment (1917-1944), French Resistance fighter - Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre, Médaille combattant volontaire de la Résistance
- Pierre Mauroy (1928~), deputy, senator, Prime Minister of France, and Mayor of Lille.
- Martine Aubry (1950~), deputy, minister, and Mayor of Lille.
External link

- [http://www.lille2004.com/ European Capital of Culture 2004] Category:Communes of Nord Category:Cities in France Category:Lille ja:リール (フランス)

Nice

Nice (pronounced [nis]) (Occitan: Niça or Nissa; Italian: Nizza) is a city in southern France located on the Mediterranean coast, between Marseille and Genoa, with 933,080 inhabitants in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census. The city is a major tourist center and a leading resort on the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur).

Administration

Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région, Nice is a commune and the préfecture (administrative capital) of the Alpes-Maritimes département.

History

département There were settlements in the Nice area approximately 400,000 years ago: the site of Terra Amata shows one of the earliest uses of fire and construction of houses. Nice (Nicaea) was founded in the 5th century BC by the Greeks of Marseille and received the name of Νικαία ("Nikaia") in honour of a victory over the neighbouring Ligurians (Nike being the goddess of victory). It soon became one of the busiest trading stations on the Ligurian coast; but as a city it had an important rival in the Roman town of Cemenelum, which continued to exist as a separate city till the time of the Lombard invasions, and has left its ruins at Cimiez, which is now a quarter of Nice. In the 7th century Nice joined the Genoese league formed by the towns of Liguria. In 729 it repulsed the Saracens; but in 859 and 880 they pillaged and burned it, and for the most of the 10th century remained masters of the surrounding country. During the Middle Ages Nice had its share in the wars and disasters of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, and both the King of France and the Emperor endeavoured to subjugate it; but in spite of all it maintained its municipal liberties. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries it fell more than once into the hands of the Counts of Provence; and at length in 1388 the commune placed itself under the protection of the Counts of Savoy. The maritime strength of Nice now rapidly increased until it was able to cope with the Barbary pirates; the fortifications were largely extended and the roads to the city improved. During the struggle between Francis I and Charles V great damage was caused by the passage of the armies invading Provence; pestilence and famine raged in the city for several years. It was in Nice that the two monarchs in 1538 concluded, through the mediation of Pope Paul III, a truce of ten years. truce of ten years In 1543 Nice was attacked by the united forces of Francis I and Barbarossa; and, though the inhabitants repulsed the assault which succeeded the terrible bombardment, they were ultimately compelled to surrender, and Barbarossa was allowed to pillage the city and to carry off 2,500 captives. Pestilence appeared again in 1550 and 1580. In 1600 Nice was taken by the duke of Guise. By opening the ports of the countship to all nations, and proclaiming full freedom of trade, Charles Emmanuel in 1626 gave a great stimulus to the commerce of the city, whose noble families took part in its mercantile enterprises. Captured by Catinat in 1691, Nice was restored to Savoy in 1696; but it was again besieged by the French in 1705, and in the following year its citadel and ramparts were demolished. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 once more gave the city back to Savoy; and in the peaceful years which followed the "new town" was built. From 1744 till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) the French and Spaniards were again in possession. In 1775 the king of Sardinia destroyed all that remained of the ancient liberties of the commune. Conquered in 1792 by the armies of the French republic, the county of Nice continued to be part of France until 1814; but after that date it reverted to Sardinia. Sardinia of St Pons, founded 778, rebuilt in the 11th century: A Romanesque abbey with a Baroque belltower]] By a treaty concluded in 1860 between the Sardinian king and Napoleon III it was again transferred to France, and the cession was ratified by over 25,000 electors out of a total of 30,700 although the plesbicite was most likely sabotaged by the French. In the second half of the 20th century, Nice bore the influence of mayor Jean Medecin (mayor from 1947 to 1965) and his son Jacques (mayor from 1966 to 1990). October 16 1979 23 people died when the coast of Nice was hit by a tsunami. As accusations of political corruption against Jacques Medecin grew, he fled France in 1990 and was arrested in Uruguay in 1993, leading to his extradition in 1994. He was then convicted of several counts of corruption and associated crimes and sentenced to prison. Jacques Peyrat, the mayor of Nice since 1995, is a member of the UMP party and former member of the Front National. In 2003, local head prosecutor Eric de Montgolfier all