Ardèche (aʁdɛʃ; Ardecha, aɾˈdet͡ʃɔ; Ardecha) is a department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019. Its prefecture is in Privas, but its largest city is Annonay.
The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardèche river has extensive standing stones (mainly dolmens but fewer menhirs), erected thousands of years ago. The river has one of the largest canyons in Europe and the caves that dot the cliffs—which go as high as 300 metres (1,000 feet)—are known for signs of prehistoric inhabitants (arrowheads and flint knives are often found).
The Vivarais, as the Ardèche is still called, takes its name and coat-of-arms from Viviers, which was the capital of the Gaulish tribe of Helvii, part of Gallia Narbonensis, after the destruction of their previous capital at Alba-la-Romaine. Saint Andéol, a disciple of Polycarp, is supposed to have evangelized the Vivarais during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, and was supposedly martyred in 208. Legend tells of Andéol's burial by Amycia Eucheria Tullia. In 430, Auxonius transferred the see to Viviers as a result of the problems suffered at its previous site in Alba Augusta.
The area of the Vivarais suffered greatly in the 9th century with raids from Hungarians and Saracen slavers operating from the coast of Provence resulting in an overall depopulation of the region.
In the early 10th century, economic recovery saw the building of many Romanesque churches in the region including Ailhon, Mercuer, Saint Julien du Serre, Balazuc, Niègles and Rochecolombe. The medieval county of Viviers or Vivarais at this time was administratively a part of the Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles, formed in 933 with the fusion by Rudolph II of Burgundy of the realms of Provence and Burgundy and bequeathed by its last monarch Rudolph III of Burgundy to the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II in 1032.
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Occitania (Occitània utsiˈtanjɔ, u(k)siˈtanjɔ, ukʃiˈtanjɔ or u(k)siˈtanja) is the historical region in Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is occasionally used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France (except the French Basque Country and French Catalonia) as well as part of Spain (Aran Valley), Monaco, and parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys). Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages.
The Loire (lwɑːr , USalsoluˈɑːr , lwaʁ; Léger ˈledʒe; Lêre; Liger; Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the southeastern quarter of the French Massif Central in the Cévennes range (in the department of Ardèche) at near Mont Gerbier de Jonc; it flows north through Nevers to Orléans, then west through Tours and Nantes until it reaches the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) at Saint-Nazaire.
The French Wars of Religion refers to the period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. One of its most notorious episodes was the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who had converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots.
Parmi les doctorants actuels de l'EDAR-EPFL, trois ont été sélectionnés pour illustrer la recherche doctorale en 2014: Loïc Fumeaux, Marc Antoine Messer et Fiona Pia. En particulier, la recherche de Fiona Pia "Urbaniser les Alpes" a été choisie pour représenter le nouveau programme doctoral CompleXdesign, financé par le Fonds National Suisse de la recherche scientifique.
Flash flooding is a potentially destructive natural hazard known to occur in the Cevennes-Vivarais region in southern France. HyMeX (Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment) is an international program focused on understanding the hydrological c ...