The 19th arrondissement of Paris (XIXe arrondissement) is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as dix-neuvième. La petite Jérusalem (Little Jerusalem) is located in the Quartier de la Mouzaïa/Quartier d’Amérique. read more…
Île-de-France (literally “Island of France”) is the most populous of the 18 regions of France. It is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the Région Parisienne (“Paris Region”) because it includes the city of Paris. Île-de-France is densely populated and economically important: it covers only 12,012 square kilometres (4,638 square miles), about 2% of France’s territory, but has an official estimated population of 12,213,364 (18.2% of the population of France) and accounts for nearly 30% of the French Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although the modern name Île-de-France literally means “Island of France”, the etymology is in fact unclear. The “island” may refer to the land between the rivers Oise, Marne and Seine, or it may also have been a reference to the Île de la Cité, where the French royal palace and cathedral were located. read more…
The Regional Nature Park Grands Causses (French: Parc naturel régional des Grands Causses) is located in the Frenchdepartment of Aveyron in the Occitania region. The nature park was founded on May 6, 1995 and today covers an area of around 327,000 hectares. The park administration is based in Millau, where the “Maison du Parc” is located. The park is made up of 93 municipalities with a catchment area of around 68,000 inhabitants. A part of the Grands Causses Regional Nature Park is the Causses and Cévennes Property, which in turn is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Larger towns in the park are Millau, Saint-Affrique, Sévérac d’Aveyron (Commune nouvelle; formerly: Sévérac-le-Château), Creissels, Vabres-l’Abbaye and Saint-Georges-de-Luzençon. read more…
Saint-Astier is a small town and a Frenchmunicipality with 5,500 inhabitants in the Dordognedepartment in the Nouvelle-Aquitaineregion. The municipality consists of the main town as well as a few hamlets (hameaux) and individual farmsteads (fermes). The continued population growth of the small town is largely due to immigration from the surrounding rural areas as a result of the increasing mechanization of agriculture and the abandonment of smallholder farms. read more…
