Portal:France/Did you know archive

This is a selection of recently created new articles on Wikipedia that were featured on the France Portal as part of Did you know? (most recent on top):
 * ...that the Canal de Marseille, built in 1849, is an 80 km canal which runs through Provence to bring water from the Durance to Marseille, in France?
 * ...that the Éolienne Bollée (pictured) is a true turbine that is worked by the wind and, unlike modern wind turbines, has a stator and a rotor?
 * ...that the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme is a preserved railway in France that has dual gauge track with four rails?
 * ...that meetings of the Committee of Public Safety, the de facto executive government during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, were convened at the Pavillon de Flore in Paris' Palais du Louvre?
 * ...that both former German Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Blüm and former Secretary of State of France Alain Vivien have been recognized with the Leipzig Human Rights Award?
 * ...that Etaples Military Cemetery (pictured) is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in France, with over 11,500 burials?
 * ...that after the Champagne region, the Loire Valley produces more sparkling wine than any other region in France?
 * ...that the Great French Wine Blight, caused by the deadly phylloxera, destroyed over 40% of France's vineyards in the mid-19th century?
 * ...that Gavrinis, an island in the Gulf of Morbihan off the coast of Brittany, France, has a rich abundance of megalithic art from the New Stone Age?
 * ...that the French physician and agronomist Jules Guyot revolutionized the training of grape vines, and the Guyot-system is extensively used throughout vineyards in Europe?
 * ...that French artist Antoine Berjon's variations on flower painting included a still life with a shark's head?
 * ...that the Great French Wine Blight, caused by the deadly phylloxera, destroyed over 40% of France's vineyards in the mid-19th century?
 * ...that Gavrinis, an island in the Gulf of Morbihan off the coast of Brittany, France, has a rich abundance of megalithic art from the New Stone Age?
 * ...that the French physician and agronomist Jules Guyot revolutionized the training of grape vines, and the Guyot-system is extensively used throughout vineyards in Europe?
 * ...that French artist Antoine Berjon's variations on flower painting included a still life with a shark's head?
 * ...that Marthe Richard was a former prostitute and spy who worked to make brothels illegal in France?
 * ...that Du battant des lames au sommet des montagnes (French for "From the beating of the waves to the summit of the mountains") is a legal description of the manner in which the island of Réunion was divided into parcels?
 * ...that the French-designed Minié rifle was the dominant infantry weapon of the American Civil War?
 * ...that Louis-Sébastien Lenormand invented what is now known as BASE jumping by parachuting from the tower of the Montpellier observatory in 1783 (jump illustrated), and also coined the word parachute?
 * ...that despite plagiarizing a Chinese-French-Latin dictionary ordered by Napoleon, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes went on to become a member of the French Academy of Sciences?
 * ...that the late-15th century Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales, a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, is one of the most famous works composed by Josquin des Prez?
 * ...that Gavroche, a character from the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, lives inside an unfinished statue of an elephant in Paris?
 * ...that Barnabé Brisson's 1559 De Verborum became the standard legal dictionary of the time and an authoritative source for lexicographers for centuries afterwards?
 * ...that Ladurée, which sells 15,000 macaroons per day, opened a tea house in its Parisian pastry shop in the 1930s, to cater for society ladies, who at that time were not admitted to cafés?
 * ...that Free French Forces liberated all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy France in November 1940 in the Battle of Gabon?
 * ...that Louis IX of France resided in the walled city of Villeneuve-sur-Yonne before departing on the Eighth Crusade, during which he died in 1270 near Tunis?
 * ...that Sophie Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist and became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident?
 * ...that Guy de Rothschild temporarily moved to New York when the French Government under François Mitterrand nationalized his bank?
 * ...that French soprano Germaine Lubin was imprisoned for three years after World War II for her alleged support of Nazi Germany?
 * ...that Alix, the wife of Viscount of Rochechouart Aymeric VI, was imprisoned in Château de Rochechouart castle with a lion, but the animal did not hurt her and laid down at her feet?
 * ... that Henri Pitot was responsible for disproving the prevailing belief that speed of water increases with depth!
 * ...that the Château de Courances has been acclaimed as "the epitome of the French formal garden style in which château and environment form a whole"?
 * ...that, four years before her death, Madame de Pompadour paid almost 1,000,000 livres to buy the Château de Menars, selling some pearl bracelets to meet the first payment?
 * ...that the French Congress is the name given to the body created when both houses of the present-day French Parliament – the French National Assembly and the French Senate – reunite at the Château of Versailles to vote on revisions to the French constitution?
 * ...that The Counterfeiters (Les faux-monnayeurs) was a 1925 novel by French author André Gide?
 * ...that Princess Louise-Marie of France, the youngest of the 10 children of Louis XV of France and his Queen consort Maria Leszczyńska, amazed the court when she asked her father to allow her to become a Carmelite nun in 1770?
 * ...that during the Ulm Campaign in 1805, French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte eliminated an entire Austrian army by capturing 60,000 troops?
 * ...that French neoclassical architect Jean Chalgrin died before the completion of his most recognizable work, the Arc de Triomphe?
 * ...that the actor Michel Galabru was born in Safi, Morocco and worked with directors such as Bernard Blier, Costa Gavras, Luc Besson and Jean-Luc Godard ?
 * ...that the exterior walls of the Château de Madrid were covered in majolica and high relief, and as a result it was nicknamed the "Château de Faïence" ?
 * ...that the CPE, or "First Employment Contract", was dubbed by some opponents the "Kleenex contract", implying that the CPE allowed employers to discard young people like facial tissue ?
 * ...that the SI unit of charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after French revolution-era physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ?
 * ...that the famous Wallace fountains in Paris were provided by English philanthropist Richard Wallace as a source of free water for the poor?
 * ...that the amusement park "Vulcania" was founded by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as an incentive to bring tourism to Auvergne ?
 * ...that Roger Lemerre has won the Football World Cup, European Football Championship, Confederations Cup and the African Nations Cup ?
 * ...that Jean-Marie Perrot was assassinated during World War II and since then has been remembered in parts of Brittany on Easter Monday ?
 * ...that French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as VE day in Europe?
 * ...that despite having no inhabitants, the commune of Bezonvaux is administered by 3 municipal councillors?
 * ...that the French battleship France sunk after hitting an uncharted rock during a patrol of Quiberon Bay on August 26, 1922 ?
 * ...that Rennes is the smallest town in the world to have its own metro ?