Paris sewersThe sewers of the French capital Paris date back to the year 1370 when the first underground system was constructed under Rue Montmartre. Consecutive French governments enlarged the system to cover the city's population, including expansions under Louis XIV and Napoleon III, and modernisation programs in the 1990s under Mayor Jacques Chirac. The system has featured in popular culture through its existence, including Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables, and H. L. Humes' 1958 novel The Underground City.
French Forces of the InteriorThe French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l'Intérieur) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation to one of a nation being liberated by the Allied armies. As regions of France were liberated, the FFI were more formally organized into light infantry units and served as a valuable manpower addition to regular Free French forces.
MotorsportMotorsport, motorsports or autosports is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two-wheeled motorised vehicles under the banner of motorcycle racing, and includes off-road racing such as motocross. Four- (or more) wheeled motorsport competition is globally governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA); and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) governs two-wheeled competition.
PuttoA putto (ˈputto; plural putti ˈputti) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent a sort of baby angel in religious art, often called cherubs (plural cherubim), though in traditional Christian theology a cherub is actually one of the most senior types of angel. The same figures were also seen in representations of classical myth, and increasingly in general decorative art.
French Second RepublicThe French Second Republic (Deuxième République Française or La IIe République), officially the French Republic (République française), was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852. Following the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo, France was reconstituted into a monarchy known as the Bourbon Restoration. After a brief period of revolutionary turmoil in 1830, royal power was once again secured and the July Monarchy was established.
Treaty of VerdunThe Treaty of Verdun (Traité de Verdun), agreed in , divided the Frankish Empire into three kingdoms among the surviving sons of the emperor Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty was concluded following almost three years of civil war and was the culmination of negotiations lasting more than a year. It was the first in a series of partitions contributing to the dissolution of the empire created by Charlemagne and has been seen as foreshadowing the formation of many of the modern countries of western Europe.
École polytechniqueÉcole polytechnique, also known as Polytechnique or l'X liks, is a grande école located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution and was militarized under Napoleon I in 1804. It is still supervised by the French Ministry of Armed Forces. Originally located in the Latin Quarter in central Paris, the institution moved to Palaiseau in 1976, in the Paris-Saclay technology cluster.
Caló languageCaló (kaˈlo; kəˈlo; kaˈlɔ; kɐˈlɔ) is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani. It is a mixed language (referred to as a Para-Romani language in Romani linguistics) based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items through language shift by the Romani community. It is often used as an argot, a secret language for discreet communication amongst Iberian Romani. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish caló are closely related varieties that share a common root.
Old FrenchOld French (franceis, françois, romanz; Modern French: ancien français) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the 8th and the 14th century. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligible yet diverse. These dialects came to be collectively known as the langue d'oïl, contrasting with the langue d'oc in the south of France. The mid-14th century witnessed the emergence of Middle French, the language of the French Renaissance in the Île de France region; this dialect was a predecessor to Modern French.
Arrondissements of FranceAn arrondissement (aʁɔ̃dismɑ̃) is a level of administrative division in France generally corresponding to the territory overseen by a subprefect. , the 101 French departments were divided into 332 arrondissements (including 12 overseas). An additional arrondissement was established in 2022 in French Guiana, bringing the total to 333 with 13 overseas. The capital of an arrondissement is called a subprefecture. When an arrondissement contains the prefecture (capital) of the department, that prefecture is the capital of the arrondissement, acting both as a prefecture and as a subprefecture.
