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15 Jan Carve Industries makes the most of beetle-killed pines – The Joy Trip Project
Growth in the world of SUP takes shape in all forms and Ryan Wibeck's Carve Industries of Lyons, Colo. is making a bold statement through a line of handmade standup and surfboards made exclusively from wood of beetle-killed pine trees.
As climate change and a warming planet make the weather more hospitable to the dreaded pine beetle, it's continuing to lay waste to millions of trees across the west. Surrounded by a tremendous fire hazard, as well as an overwhelming surplus of perfectly good wood, land owners and the local bureau of management are eager to get rid of Wibeck's favorite building material. The board builder is now taking advantage of an excess in supply to create a demand for artistically rendered SUP boards.
SUP mag: What made you decide to start making surf and standup boards?
Wibeck: One of the main things about the boards is their footprint, comparatively anyway. Obviously we know what foam boards are made with and for me, ever since my daughter was born I've been kind of against plastic and it's effect on the ocean. I thought, 'how can I preach this and then ride these boards at the same time we were building them?' So, I went through the process to try to eliminate whatever and wherever that impacts the environment.
All of our wood comes right out of Colorado. I know the latitude and longitude of a lot of our wood. Basically, we're utilizing an environmental issue that we're having here in Colorado and across the west where both drought and forest fire suppression have given these beetles, which are native, this smorgasbord of trees to choose from.
The beetles are just like the wolves and the caribou. They go after diseased and sick trees. And there's been a huge movement to remove a lot of beetle kill, whether it's private land or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land.
So we're taking advantage of a local source for wood. Not only that, it has these incredible colors. The tree is infected with this fungus that the beetle carries. That's what actually kills the tree. It puts this blue stain in the wood. We're actually getting what is otherwise white pine with this incredible blue color through it, which is just phenomenal.
SUP mag: Tell me about your production process.
Wibeck: The other thing that we do, which is really big in my mind, is the adhesive that we use is a plant-based adhesive. It's a vegetable epoxy, but you don't want to butter your bread with it. The durability factor will go as long as we have trees.
SUP mag: How do your boards perform compared to those that might be made from lighter weight materials that are synthetic?
Wibeck: There are some differences between them to be sure. Our boards are heavier. Our 10'6″ SUP is in the range of four to six pounds heavier than a foam board. So weight-wise we are heavier and weight does affect certain types of surfing or paddling. Generally, a lot of what we deal with here is flat water. What I tell most people is the only time you're going to notice the weight is when you take it off the car and carry it.
There are some subtleties though. One of the benefits that I've noticed is when you paddle, wood absorbs vibration much better than foam. It's unbelievable. Paddling in chop is a much smoother ride. And it's a quieter. Also, paddling that little extra weight I actually enjoy because you carry your speed better between strokes, which I think is fantastic. I'm surprised you don't see more wood boards in the racing world. I understand light and fast and I guess maybe it's harder to carry your board's momentum when the load is a little bit heavier, but it does seem to hold your speed a little bit better.
Our goal is to not to replace foam boards. It's adding up to this movement toward a more sustainable industry. With that said, the industry is doing certain things. There are companies out there that are using greener foams than what they used to use. Are they green? No, they're greener. We're not solving the world's problem by making wood surfboards, but we are at least trying to push it in that direction.
SUP mag: Are you offering anything special with regard to shapes, hull design or different lengths?
Wibeck: Right now we're in the process of revamping the whole line. We've got the 7'6" Alaia— basically that's a finless board —shortboards and a 9' longboard. As far as standup boards, we have the 10'6" and the 11'6". The 10'6" is pretty solid, kind of a hybrid between a flatwater and an open ocean board. It has a fair amount of rocker on it and can still handle a fairly steep face, but at the same time, as far as flatwater boards, it's just got great stability. At 30 inches wide and 5 inches thick it's a nice, stable board. It's been a great river surfer too because the rails round-over continuously, all the way down the side, so it's very forgiving with those downstream currents that otherwise are pretty grabby on hard rails.
We'll be coming out with an expedition board, kind of a multi-day self-supported system for touring. I'd like to see that come out before the summer, but you know, I always seem to be a little ambitious on how much we can do in a single season.
SUP mag: What's your production capacity?
Wibeck: Right now our production is pretty time consuming. We're anywhere from 60 to 80 hours per board, which doesn't sound like a lot, but there are cure times that slow us down so we try to do more than one board at a time. Thirty boards a year is where we are right now. If we could get ourselves up to 60 or 80 boards, or more, it really depends on manpower. But some of the key components we're trying to get through Kickstarter with the CNC machine could reduce our production time by 50 percent, which could be huge! If we find the demand we could probably increase that.
SUP mag: Are the retailers you're working with carrying your boards that they buy from wholesale or are they working as brokers in their shops?
Wibeck: We're just establishing ourselves with a couple of different retailers now. The way it's structured, they would have a demo board available. It seems to be the trend that customers want to try the board that they're going to buy, at least in the SUP world. And then they'll have one on the floor sale. We can also take customer orders. And some dealers we work on a consignment type deal. They don't own the board but we can talk about selling it to them at wholesale if they have a buyer for it.
SUP mag: What are your ambitions for Carve?
Wibeck: We definitely want to grow. To what scale, it's kind of hard to say. We don't have a reputation nationally at this point. We are so new that if you went to the East Coast, aside from South Carolina or states where people know us, no one is going to know who we are. I think ultimately I'd like to see our boards in a select few retailers in coastal communities. I'd like to see wood boards become mainstream and I'd like to be part of that of course. I want to get away from just being a custom board operation. And as far as what production level that we reach, I'm not sure that I have expectations of hard numbers—it's more like this general movement within the industry where we see big guys like SurfTech responding to what we're doing. When they roll out a hollow wooden board, it's like, 'Yeah!' They get where we're coming from.
SUP mag: Is it fair to say that you're most interested in producing boards that you love?
Wibeck: Absolutely! I think even with the movement toward the CNC with custom boards, when you're working with wood there's only so much a machine can do before human hands and the shaper's eye have to get involved. Even foam boards require that.
I swear it's hard because they get prettier and nicer. It's the wood—every board is completely unique. It's so cool to watch each one come together and watch the grains interact and the combination of colors. Every one of our boards I love to death and the people who share that enthusiasm kind of creates this synergy and you have a friendship with the customers. You already have this common bond because we came together over a board and shared the same feeling. —As told to James Mills
This story originally appeared as a feature on the SUP Magazine blog Shop Talk on January 7, 2013
The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support sponsors Patagonia, Rayovac and the New Belgium Brewing Company


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Pokemon Go Supported devices:
- Android 4.4 to Android 6.0.1 (Android N will not supported until the official Android release)
- Preferred resolution of 720x1280 pixels (Not optimized for tablet)
- Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G)
- GPS and Location Services
- Intel CPUs are not supported
- iPhone 5+
- iOS 8+
- Strong internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G)
- GPS and Location Services
- Jailbroken devices are not supported
If you are new to Pokémon Go, be sure to check out the Pokémon Go Beginner's Guide.
In addition, mobile devices will require either Wi-Fi or a Data Plan to play Pokemon Go. If you have a limited data plan, make sure to check out the Best Ways to Reduce Data Usage.
Now most people know what type of phone they have, but not everyone knows what version OS their phone is running. So to prepare for the eventual official release of Pokemon Go, I would like to help everyone answer a very important question...
Does my mobile device currently run Android (Version 4.4 and up) or iOS (iPhone 5 and up)?
Do you Meet the Pokemon Go Requirements?
Well, the good news is that if you purchased a new iPhone or Android phone in the last 2-3 years, there is a very good chance that your phone will be Pokemon Go compatible! Even better, it's easy to find out what version of Android or iOS you are running, just by checking the settings on your phone! I bought my Galaxy S6 about a year ago and it currently happens to be running Android version 5.1.1, so I'm good to go!
If you are unsure which version you are running, please see below for directions for Android & iOS.
What version OS am I running on my Android Device?
To determine which OS software your Android phone uses, simply follow Method #1 (for newer phones) or follow the four steps below in Method #2 (older phones).
Method #1: For Newer Phones
Step 3: Slide your finger up to scroll down to the bottom of the Settings menu. Select the "About Phone" icon on the bottom of the screen.
To determine which iOS software your iPhone uses, simply follow the four steps below.
Step 2: Go to General.
How to Update iPhone with Latest iOS

subset: commoncrawl


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Overall Rating:
To test the Ferrari LaFerrari, we traveled to Italy to the storied marque's personal track, Fiorano. Ferrari's offer was this: We could either test there—or not at all. We chose to test.
The Fiorano circuit is nearly two miles long, a thirteen-turn rollercoaster built on what was once Italian farmland. Our usual testing venues, where we gather our zero-to-60-mph times, quarter-mile acceleration, braking figures, and grip numbers are nothing like racetracks. Putting a car through our battery of tests calls for a long, flat straight, usually one more than a mile in length, as well as a 300-foot skidpad to assess lateral acceleration.
But even when we test at our locations, Ferrari doesn't just let us jump into its cars and test them. An engineer watches the proceedings and provides an often-valuable briefing on the subsystems of the car, and mechanics are there to swap out tires if necessary. When asked why all the bother, Ferrari says it wants the test to go smoothly and being there ensures that any problems that arise can be hammered out that day. Every modern Ferrari we've tested with the factory's knowledge also had the automaker's own test equipment inside the car to record what we're doing and, as they tell us, as a backup should our own test equipment fail. We find this "generosity" completely unnecessary, however, and, aside from a recent McLaren 650S test, no other manufacturer proctors our normal battery of tests, and we test more than 200 cars per year.
The Results: Apply an Asterisk as You Deem Fit
0 to 60 mph: 2.5 sec
0 to 100 mph: 4.8 sec
0 to 150 mph: 9.8 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 9.8 sec @ 150 mph
Full disclosure: The Fiorano track introduces major limitations to our usual testing procedures. The straight has a slight kink in it as you pass under a bridge, and there's not much space to accelerate beyond the quarter-mile. C/D procedure calls for running in two directions to offset any potential elevation changes and the effects of wind. Fiorano's straight is ever so slightly downhill, but at least there was little to no wind on our test day. Ordinarily, we'd either reject the testing venue or we'd run in both directions and average the results. Running the straight in two directions is impossible, according to Ferrari, and reversing the FIA-approved racetrack would apparently poke the bureaucratic monster that rules over Italy. Or we might hit the bridge. Either way, that wasn't happening. So we were unable to average our best runs in each direction and have to use the best in one direction here. The results, we must note, are uncorrected for ambient conditions, meaning they're representative of what the LaFerrari did on this particular day. It's the same policy we applied to our 2003 test of the Enzo, and, in any event, the weather correction wouldn't have affected the LaFerrari numbers much at all.


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Sesame Salmon Salad
- Romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1/2 small avocado
- Juice of one lemon
- 2 tsps sesame oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/2 to 1 packet stevia
- Sesame seeds to taste
- Teriyaki smoked salmon (I buy a smoked salmon filet at the farmers' market)
- Smash the avocado in the bottom of a salad bowl.
- Add the lemon juice, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and stevia and mix well.
- Mix the dressing with the lettuce.
- Once the salad is dressed, sprinkle it with sesame seeds.
- Top with smoked salmon.
We had a nice weekend. On Saturday, we went to a Cherry Blossom Festival, where the kid got to go on a pony ride and a big slide.
On Sunday, there was lots of bouncy house and Piñata fun at a birthday party.
Questions: What's your favorite salad at the moment? What was the highlight of your weekend?
Be well,


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Continuing from where we left off on the Read-Only mode update for Zoho services, we are happy to announce that Zoho Invoice and Zoho Books services too are now running in read-only mode from our secondary data center in the New York metro region. You can access the services via the below mentioned URL's.
Zoho Invoice: https://invoice-ro.zoho.com
Zoho Books : https://books-ro.zoho.com
What you'll see here is an exact replica of your data which is stored in our secondary data center. If an unexpected outage renders the primary data center inaccessible, you'll still be able to access the read-only mode of your account.
What you can do : Search any record you want, run unlimited reports and also export various entities like the invoices list, estimates list, Items list etc.,
What you can't do: As this is a read-only mode, you will not be able to add, edit or delete any record. Integration with other applications like Zoho CRM or Zoho Project is also not possible as it involves adding or modifying records.
We understand the importance of having access to your data all the time, therefore we wanted to kick in the read-only mode to our customers as soon as possible. Go ahead and bookmark (Ctrl+D) the website links and access it anytime you want.


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Ottawa, ON, November 4, 2014– Buying a home is among the biggest financial commitments most Canadians will make in their lives. The home buying process is often complex and confusing.
Just in time for Financial Literacy Month, The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has collaborated with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) to develop a series of short videos that define key terms and concepts, such as amortization period and mortgage prepayment.
New videos will be released every Tuesday and Thursday throughout November on CREA's YouTube Channel. The first video was posted earlier today.
These videos complement CREA's previous contribution to Financial Literacy Month, the Homebuyers' Road Map.
"Every day, REALTORS® are on the front lines dealing with financial literacy, stated Beth Crosbie, CREA President. "I'm proud that we're helping consumers become more knowledgeable by providing videos that explain key terms and concepts. These are skills they'll need to make an informed, responsible decision about homeownership."
"Buying a home may be one of the biggest financial decisionsconsumers will ever make. That's why financial literacy is so important and why I'm pleased that November is Financial Literacy Month," said Kevin Sorenson, Minister of State (Finance). "When consumers have the financial knowledge they need, they are better able to make informed choices and contribute to a prosperous Canadian economy."
"Two years ago almost to the day, The Canadian Real Estate Association and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada launched the Homebuyers' Road Map toempower consumers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make responsible financial decisions about one of the largest purchases they will ever make," said Lucie Tedesco, Commissioner of FCAC. "The videos launched today—fittingly during Financial Literacy Month—are an excellent way to promote this guide on social media and other channels to help consumers make the right decisions when it comes to mortgages."
– 30 –


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Warning: This is the manual of the legacy Guile 2.0 series. You may want to read the manual of the current stable series instead.
Next: Trap States, Previous: Low-Level Traps, Up: Traps [Contents][Index]
The (system vm trace)
module defines a number of traps for
tracing of procedure applications. When a procedure is traced, it
means that every call to that procedure is reported to the user during a
program run. The idea is that you can mark a collection of procedures
for tracing, and Guile will subsequently print out a line of the form
| | (procedure args …)
whenever a marked procedure is about to be applied to its arguments. This can help a programmer determine whether a function is being called at the wrong time or with the wrong set of arguments.
In addition, the indentation of the output is useful for demonstrating how the traced applications are or are not tail recursive with respect to each other. Thus, a trace of a non-tail recursive factorial implementation looks like this:
scheme@(guile-user)> (define (fact1 n) (if (zero? n) 1 (* n (fact1 (1- n))))) scheme@(guile-user)> ,trace (fact1 4) trace: (fact1 4) trace: | (fact1 3) trace: | | (fact1 2) trace: | | | (fact1 1) trace: | | | | (fact1 0) trace: | | | | 1 trace: | | | 1 trace: | | 2 trace: | 6 trace: 24
While a typical tail recursive implementation would look more like this:
scheme@(guile-user)> (define (facti acc n) (if (zero? n) acc (facti (* n acc) (1- n)))) scheme@(guile-user)> (define (fact2 n) (facti 1 n)) scheme@(guile-user)> ,trace (fact2 4) trace: (fact2 4) trace: (facti 1 4) trace: (facti 4 3) trace: (facti 12 2) trace: (facti 24 1) trace: (facti 24 0) trace: 24
The low-level traps below (see Low-Level Traps) share some common options:
The maximum width of trace output. Trace printouts will try not to exceed this column, but for highly nested procedure calls, it may be unavoidable. Defaults to 80.
The VM on which to add the traps. Defaults to the current thread's VM.
A string to print out before each trace line. As seen above in the
examples, defaults to "trace: "
To have access to these procedures, you'll need to have imported the
(system vm trace)
(use-modules (system vm trace))
Print a trace at applications of and returns from proc.
Print a trace at all applications and returns within the dynamic extent of calls to proc.
Print a trace at all instructions executed in the dynamic extent of calls to proc.
In addition, Guile defines a procedure to call a thunk, tracing all procedure calls and returns within the thunk.
Call thunk, tracing all execution within its dynamic extent.
If calls? is true, Guile will print a brief report at each procedure call and return, as given above.
If instructions? is true, Guile will also print a message each time an instruction is executed. This is a lot of output, but it is sometimes useful when doing low-level optimization.
Note that because this procedure manipulates the VM trace level directly, it doesn't compose well with traps at the REPL.
See Profile Commands, for more information on tracing at the REPL.
Next: Trap States, Previous: Low-Level Traps, Up: Traps [Contents][Index]


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Diana- Barista at Habit, coffee shop on Pandora Ave in Victoria's Chinatown.
This shop was gorgeous on the inside. Very similar to a Stumptown coffee shop. One thing that I was told about Victoria before I went was that everyone is super friendly. This is so overwhelming true. Everyone we came into contact with was so warm and excited to tell us about Victoria and the places we should check out. What a great city.
Share on Facebook


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Starry Knight Design
Starry Knight Design - Saddle, Latte, Sable Moccasins Baby Infant & Toddler Shoes: 3 (9m) 4.75 / Sable (Dark Brown)
Starry Knight Design - Saddle, Latte, Sable Moccasins Baby Infant & Toddler Shoes: 3 (9m) 4.75 / Sable (Dark Brown)
Regular price
Regular price
Sale price
Unit price
Starry Knight Design shoes are handmade in Montana USA by a team of local women with high-quality 100% leather and suede. Since 2008, We have been designing and making soft soled leather shoes for your tiny babies up to kids. Our Shoes are great for ages newborn to 4years:
-Soft and non restrictive for developing feet
-Soft Elastic band around ankle
-Help keep socks on newborns
-great for babies crawling around
-perfect for balance when they start standing and walking
-suede bottoms help make non slip for floors
-good for house/daycare shoes for toddlers! Or with our Add on soles even outdoor shoes
Starry Knight Design Shoes
-- 100% high quality leather and suede
-- Handmade in Montana USA
-- Current Turnaround Time 1-2weeks
-- Please measure child's foot before ordering to select the correct size. Add 3/8"to measurement to get correct sole length.


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In 2003, Rusty Fowler stumbled upon an estate sale in Ehrhardt, where an old, cracked syrup kettle had bidders boiling over with offers of nearly $1,000. Though he didn't take home the item, the experience had Rusty fired up about the business potential of such a hot commodity. Ten years later, his and wife Sandy's Carolina Kettles have shipped to private and corporate buyers—even a celebrity or two—across 46 states, as well as the Virgin Islands, Canada, Sweden, and Ireland.
Working with a metallurgist at a Hardeeville foundry, the company produces 30- to 80-gallon replicas of 19th-century syrup kettles. While clients have used the customizable bowls for fountains, koi ponds, and planters, the cast ductile iron construction makes them especially suitable as outdoor fireplaces. "The more you burn in one, the better it looks," says Rusty. That use has also sparked a handful of complementary products: fire pokers, oyster cook tops, grill tops, wood racks, and three styles of handmade stands, one of which can be customized with panels designed by Walterboro welder-turned-artist Ken Drawdy.
"I love hearing from clients that our kettles have given them back family time, have helped them turn off the TV, gather together, and talk to one another," says Rusty. "That's the best thing about this business."


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Cofee shop and confectionery furniture, bistro lounges are available in wide range. High quality chairs and tables, supplement furniture are for sale in many types, colours and sizes for coffee shops, confectioneries and bistros. We offer more popular pieces from stock, unique pieces have a few weeks delivery time.
Feel free to browse through our references, pictures. We are happy to realize your ideas, please don't hesitate to contact us on any of our avilabilities!
Városliget Café&Bár — Budapest Városliget


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Hot Priest
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Effective Date: 1st August 2020
What's the point of this policy?
This policy tells you how we deal with your "personal data" (i.e. technical term for information about any identified or identifiable living person). Please read on to find out what kinds of personal data we collect, how we use and protect it, to whom we disclose it and how you can access and rectify it.
Please do not use our site unless you are completely happy with this policy. If you do use our site, we will assume that you do accept it.
Might the policy change?
It may well do and so you should check it whenever you visit our site. We will assume you agree to the revised policy if you use the site after the effective date shown at the top of the policy.
What personal or other data do we collect?
We collect and store the information which you give us via forms on our site - such as your name, address, email address, phone number and so on - or when communicating with us by email or in some other way.
We may receive and store certain information automatically when you interact with us. Examples include the internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, connection information such as browser type and version, your operating system and platform, a unique reference number linked to the data you enter on our system, login details, the full URL clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), cookie number, activity on our website including the pages you visited and searches you made.
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We use cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer. Our site's functionality will be limited if you do not accept cookies.
Cookies are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the site owner or others. Session cookies are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser only until you leave the site. They allow websites to link your actions during a browser session. Persistent cookies stay in the cookie file of your browser for longer (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie). For further information on cookies, including how to use your browser to block them, visit: www.allaboutcookies.org
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You can access and rectify your personal data by contacting us by the means shown on our website. We may charge an administration fee in line with data protection laws.
For information about your rights under UK data protection laws, see the website of the UK Information Commissioner.
Version 1.01


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France Free Tour
Paris Free Tour
Strasbourg Free Tour
Bordeaux Free Tour
Nice Free Tour
Lyon Free Tour
Marseille Free Tour
Toulouse Free Tour
Montpellier Free Tour
France, country of northwestern Europe. Historically and culturally among the most important nations in the Western world, France has also played a highly significant role in international affairs, with former colonies in every corner of the globe. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Alps and the Pyrenees, France has long provided a geographic, economic, and linguistic bridge joining northern and southern Europe. It is Europe's most important agricultural producer and one of the world's leading industrial powers.
France is among the globe's oldest nations, the product of an alliance of duchies and principalities under a single ruler in the Middle Ages. Today, as in that era, central authority is vested in the state, even though a measure of autonomy has been granted to the country's régions in recent decades. The French people look to the state as the primary guardian of liberty, and the state in turn provides a generous program of amenities for its citizens, from free education to health care and pension plans. Even so, this centralist tendency is often at odds with another long-standing theme of the French nation: the insistence on the supremacy of the individual. On this matter historian Jules Michelet remarked, "England is an empire, Germany is a nation, a race, France is a person." Statesman Charles de Gaulle, too, famously complained, "Only peril can bring the French together. One can't impose unity out of the blue on a country that has 265 kinds of cheese."
This tendency toward individualism joins with a pluralist outlook and a great interest in the larger world. Even though its imperialist stage was driven by the impulse to civilize that world according to French standards (la mission civilisatrice), the French still note approvingly the words of writer Gustave Flaubert:
I am no more modern than I am ancient, no more French than Chinese; and the idea of la patrie, the fatherland—that is, the obligation to live on a bit of earth coloured red or blue on a map, and to detest the other bits coloured green or black—has always seemed to me narrow, restricted, and ferociously stupid.
Britannica Quiz
Which Country Is Larger By Population? Quiz
France has also been influential in government and civil affairs, giving the world important democratic ideals in the age of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution and inspiring the growth of reformist and even revolutionary movements for generations. The present Fifth Republic has, however, enjoyed notable stability since its promulgation on September 28, 1958, marked by a tremendous growth in private initiative and the rise of centrist politics. Although France has engaged in long-running disputes with other European powers (and, from time to time, with the United States, its longtime ally), it emerged as a leading member in the European Union (EU) and its predecessors. From 1966 to 1995 France did not participate in the integrated military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), retaining full control over its own air, ground, and naval forces; beginning in 1995, however, France was represented on the NATO Military Committee, and in 2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the country would rejoin the organization's military command. As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—together with the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and China—France has the right to veto decisions put to the council.
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Paris skyline at dusk.
The capital and by far the most important city of France is Paris, one of the world's preeminent cultural and commercial centres. A majestic city known as the ville lumière, or "city of light," Paris has often been remade, most famously in the mid-19th century under the command of Georges-Eugène, Baron Haussman, who was committed to Napoleon III's vision of a modern city free of the choleric swamps and congested alleys of old, with broad avenues and a regular plan. Paris is now a sprawling metropolis, one of Europe's largest conurbations, but its historic heart can still be traversed in an evening's walk. Confident that their city stood at the very centre of the world, Parisians were once given to referring to their country as having two parts, Paris and le désert, the wasteland beyond it. Metropolitan Paris has now extended far beyond its ancient suburbs into the countryside, however, and nearly every French town and village now numbers a retiree or two driven from the city by the high cost of living, so that, in a sense, Paris has come to embrace the desert and the desert Paris.
Among France's other major cities are Lyon, located along an ancient Rhône valley trade route linking the North Sea and the Mediterranean; Marseille, a multiethnic port on the Mediterranean founded as an entrepôt for Greek and Carthaginian traders in the 6th century bce; Nantes, an industrial centre and deepwater harbour along the Atlantic coast; and Bordeaux, located in southwestern France along the Garonne River.
Land of France
Château Gaillard, a 12th-century castle, overlooks the Seine River in the Normandy region of northern France.
France lies near the western end of the great Eurasian landmass, largely between latitudes 42° and 51° N. Roughly hexagonal in outline, its continental territory is bordered on the northeast by Belgium and Luxembourg, on the east by Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and Andorra, on the west by the Bay of Biscay, and on the northwest by the English Channel (La Manche). To the north, France faces southeastern England across the narrow Strait of Dover (Pas de Calais). Monaco is an independent enclave on the south coast, while the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean is treated as an integral part of the country.
The French landscape, for the most part, is composed of relatively low-lying plains, plateaus, and older mountain blocks, or massifs. This pattern clearly predominates over that of the younger, high ranges, such as the Alps and the Pyrenees. The diversity of the land is typical of Continental Europe.
Three main geologic regions are distinguishable: the skeletal remains of ancient mountains that make up the Hercynian massifs; the northern and western plains; and the higher young fold mountains in the south and southeast, including the Alps and the Pyrenees, with their attendant narrow plains. Much of the detailed relief can be attributed geologically to the varying differences in the resistance of rocks to erosion. A great deal of the present landscape detail is due to glaciation during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago). France lay outside the range of the great ice sheets that descended upon the northern part of Europe, so the direct sculpting of the land by ice was restricted to the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Vosges, Corsica, and the highest summits of the Massif Central. Just outside these glacial areas, in what are known as periglacial lands, repeated freezing and thawing of unprotected surfaces modified slopes by the movement of waste sheets (formed of shattered bedrock), producing very much the landscape that exists today. Pleistocene periglacial action generated the sheets of the fine windblown limon, or loess, that is the basis of the most fertile lowland soils, and it possibly also created the Landes, a sandy plain in southwestern France. The development of river terraces (flat, raised surfaces alongside valleys) was another characteristic of periglacial action.
The Hercynian massifs
The physical structure of France is dominated by a group of ancient mountains in the shape of a gigantic V, the sides of which form the two branches of Hercynian folding that took place between 345 and 225 million years ago. The eastern branch comprises the Ardennes, the Vosges, and the eastern part of the Massif Central, while the Hercynian massifs to the west comprise the western part of the Massif Central and the Massif Armoricain.
These highlands are composed of resistant metamorphic, crystalline, and sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic Era (about 540 to 250 million years ago), the last including coal deposits. They share the common characteristic of repeated planation, or flattening. Some variety is provided by subsequent deformation and faulting, such as in the ridge-and-valley areas of the Massif Armoricain, where upland surfaces are deeply carved by valleys in dramatic fashion.
The Ardennes
The Ardennes massif is an extension, from Belgium into France, of the great Rhine Uplands, characterized by rocks of slate and quartz from the Paleozoic Era. Differential erosion of Paleozoic rocks has produced long ridges alternating with open valleys crossed by the Sambre and Meuse rivers.
The Vosges
The Alpine earth movements produced a great upswelling along the line of the present upper Rhine, leaving the Vosges with steep eastern slopes that descend to a rift valley containing the plains of Alsace and Baden; on the west the upland descends rather gently into the scarplands of Lorraine. The Vosges reaches its maximum elevation in the south, near the Alps, where crystalline rocks are exposed; the highest summits are called ballons, and the highest is the Ballon de Guebwiller (Mount Guebwiller), with an elevation of 4,669 feet (1,423 metres). To the north the Vosges massif dips beneath a cover of forested sandstone from the Triassic Period (about 250 to 200 million years ago). Britannica QuizFrance: A History Quiz
The Massif Central
Cinder cones of the Chaîne des Puys in the Massif Central, France.
The vast plateau of the Massif Central covers about 33,000 square miles (86,000 square km), or some one-sixth of the area of the country. The Massif Central borders the Rhône-Saône valley on the east, the Languedoc lowlands on the south, the Aquitaine Basin on the southwest, and the Paris Basin on the north. The planation that occurred following the creation of the Hercynian belt removed the ancient mountain chains, but the block was uplifted under the impact of the Alpine mountain-building movements, with a steep descent on the east and southeast, nearest the Alps, and a gentle decline under the later sediments of the Aquitaine Basin to the west and the Paris Basin to the north. Much of the western massif, notably Limousin, consists of monotonous erosion surfaces. The centre and eastern parts of the massif were much fractured in the course of the Alpine movements, leaving behind upthrust blocks, of which the most conspicuous is the Morvan, the forested bastion of the northeastern corner of the massif. Downfaulted basins filled with sediments from Paleogene and Neogene times (i.e., about 65 to 2.6 million years ago), such as the Limagne near the city of Clermont-Ferrand in south-central France, were also formed. Faulting was associated with volcanic activity, which in the central part of the region formed the vast and complex structures of the massifs of Cantal and Monts Dore, where the Sancy Hill (Puy de Sancy), at 6,184 feet (1,885 metres), is the highest summit of the Massif Central. Farther west, on the fringe of the Limagne, is the extraordinary Chaîne des Puys, whose numerous cinder cones were formed only about 10,000 years ago and still retain the newness of their craters, lava flows, and other volcanic features. Numerous mineral springs, such as those at Vichy in the central Auvergne region, are a relic of volcanic activity.
The eastern and southern portions of the massif, from the Morvan through the Cévennes to the final southwestern termination of the massif in the Noire Mountains (Montagne Noire), are marked by a series of hill masses that overlook the lowlands of the Rhône–Saône river valley and the région of Languedoc-Roussillon; at least one of these uplands, Beaujolais, has become famous for the grapevines grown at its foot. Between the hill masses lie infolded coal deposits at locations such as Alès, Decazeville, Saint-Étienne, and Blanzy (Le Creusot) that are of more historical than contemporary importance. To the southwest the rocks of the massif are overlain by a great thickness of limestones (causses) from the Jurassic Period (about 200 to 145 million years ago). Lacking in surface water and little populated, this portion of the massif is crossed by rivers that trench dramatic gorges, notably that of the Tarn. Extensive cave systems bear remains of prehistoric art, such as that of Pêche-Merle in the Lot valley and the Lascaux Grotto in the Vézère valley.
The Massif Armoricain
The Massif Armoricain is contained mostly within the région of Brittany (Bretagne), a peninsula washed by the Bay of Biscay on the south and the English Channel on the north. The massif continues beyond Brittany eastward and across the Loire to the south. It is much lower than the other Hercynian massif; its highest point, the Mont des Avaloirs, on the eastern edge of the massif, attains an elevation of 1,368 feet (417 metres). Alternating bands of Paleozoic sediments and granitic rocks give the massif a generally east-west grain, particularly expressed in the headlands and bays of its rugged coast.
The great lowlands
The Paris Basin
Between the Ardennes, the Vosges, the Massif Central, and the Massif Armoricain lie the sedimentary beds that make up the Paris Basin. Alternating beds of limestones, sands, and clays dip toward the central Paris Basin, their outcrops forming concentric patterns. Especially to the east, erosion has left the more resistant rocks, usually limestones, with a steep, outward-facing scarp edge and a gentler slope toward the centre of the basin. The central Paris Basin is filled by rocks from the Paleogene and Neogene periods, mostly limestones, that form the level plateaus of regions such as Beauce, Brie, Île-de-France, Valois, and Soissonnais. This area is mostly covered with windblown limon, which is the basis of an excellent loamy soil. The limestone levels overlap in sandwich formation. Eroded remnants of higher formations have been left behind as isolated hills called buttes, perhaps the most famous of which is in Paris—the Butte de Montmartre, on which is one of the city's most famous districts. Sandy areas adjoining the limestone formations bear forests, such as the Forest of Fontainebleau, southwest of Paris. In the east, in the regions of Lorraine and Burgundy, are Triassic and Jurassic rocks; among the scarps the Moselle Hills are noted for their minette, low-grade iron ore. In the extreme southeast the Jurassic limestone Plateau de Langres forms the watershed between the Seine and Rhône-Saône river systems; it is crossed by major routes linking Paris with the south. The eastern basin includes the chalk country of Champagne and the Argonne massif. In the western part of the Paris Basin, scarps in the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of Normandy are not prominent. The chalk plateau is trenched by the lower Seine in a course marked by spectacular meanders and river cliffs. The plateau surfaces are frequently mantled by clay-with-flints and other residual deposits, producing heavy soils with much forest, grassland, and orchard cultivation. Farther north the wide chalk plateaus of Picardy and Artois are generally covered with limon, which provides for a rich agriculture; many stretches of magnificent white chalk cliffs line the English Channel coast.
The Flanders Plain
In the extreme north the French boundary includes a small part of the Anglo-Belgian basin. Coastal sand dunes protect the reclaimed marshes of French Flanders from invasion by the sea.
The Alsace Plain
East of the Paris Basin is the Alsace Plain, bordered by the Vosges on the west, the Saône basin on the southwest, the Jura Mountains on the south, the Rhine River on the east, and Germany on the north. The terrace and foothills bordering the Rhine are covered with soil-enriching limon. Alluvial fans, which are laid down by tributaries emerging from the Vosges, and much of the floodplain of the Rhine and its major tributary, the Ill River, are forested. The Sundgau region of the Alsace Plain, which lies between the Jura and the Ill River above Mulhouse, is another great alluvial fan overlaying impermeable clays, which hold up numerous lakes. The Rhine River and its tributaries continue to deposit thick sediments on the floodplain. The river is canalized, to the considerable detriment of the water table on both sides.
The Loire plains
Toward the southwest the Paris Basin opens on a group of plains that follow the Loire valley. The hills of this area, such as the limestone plateaus of the Touraine region and the crystalline plateaus of the Anjou and Vendée areas, are cut by the broad valleys of the Loire and its tributaries. The middle Loire valley, which varies in width from about 3 to 6 miles (about 5 to 10 km), is famous for its châteaus and its scenic beauty.
The Aquitaine Basin
The Loire countryside links with the Aquitaine Basin of southwestern France through the gap known as the Gate of Poitou. The Aquitaine Basin is much smaller than the Paris Basin, and, while it is bounded in the south by the Pyrenees, in the northeast it runs into the low foothills of the Massif Central. The slopes of both the Pyrenees and the Massif Central decline toward the central valley of the Garonne River. The Aquitaine Basin lacks the clearly marked concentric relief of the Paris Basin. In the north it has limestone and marl plateaus cut by the fertile river valleys emerging from the Massif Central. The southern low plateaus were mostly filled by a mass of rather ill-defined Paleogene and Neogene sands and gravel called the molasse, stripped off the rising Pyrenees. The foot of the central Pyrenees is marked by a remarkable series of confluent alluvial fans forming the Lannemezan Plateau. The Landes, an area lying between the Garonne and Adour rivers to the west, has a surface that consists of fine sand underlain by impermeable iron pan, or bedrock. The area, once covered by heath and marshes, is now reclaimed and planted with maritime pine. South of the wide, deep Gironde estuary, the Bay of Biscay coast is lined by enormous sand dunes, behind which are shallow lagoons.
The younger mountains and adjacent plains
Pyrenees, Jura, and Alps
The Pyrenees, whose foothills shelter the picturesque Basque countryside, constitute the most ancient of the more recently formed mountains in France. They stretch for more than 280 miles (450 km), making a natural barrier between France and Spain. Their formation, which began in the Mesozoic Era (about 250 to 65 million years ago), continued in the Paleogene and Neogene periods and perhaps even in the beginning of the Quaternary Period (i.e., from about 2.6 million years ago). The central and highest part of the barrier is composed of a series of parallel chains with only a few, difficult-to-reach passes that have sheer drops at each end. A section of the mountain chain centring on Mont Perdu (Spanish: Monte Perdido) was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.
The Jura Mountains, extending into Switzerland, are composed of folded limestone. The northeastern part of the Jura, which has the most pronounced folding, is in Switzerland. The highest point, however, is Mount Neige (5,636 feet [1,718 metres]), in France.
The French Alps are only a part of the great chain that extends across Europe, but they include its highest point, Mont Blanc (15,771 feet [4,807 metres]). These majestic mountains were formed in a series of foldings during Paleogene and Neogene times. They include the two greatest regions of permanent snow and glaciers in Europe. The northern Alps are relatively easy to cross because of the numerous valleys created by the movement of glaciers. The relief of the southern Alps is much less orderly, and the valleys, which were not affected by glaciation, form narrow and winding gorges. Like the Pyrenees, the Alps form a natural barrier, dropping sharply down to the Po River plain in Italy.
The southern plains
The Mediterranean-washed pebble beach at Nice on the French Riviera.
Between these young mountains and the ancient Massif Central is a series of plains, including those of the Saône and the Rhône rivers, which extend southward to the great triangular delta of the Rhône on the Mediterranean coast. Its seaward face, the Camargue region, comprises a series of lakes, marshes, and sand spits and includes one of Europe's important wetland nature reserves. West of the Rhône delta the Languedoc coastal plain is broad and rather featureless; behind its sand-spit coast are several formerly mosquito-ridden lagoons, now part of a resort complex. At the southwestern end the foothills of the Pyrenees reach to the rocky coast of the Roussillon region. East of the Rhône delta the lowlands are more fragmentary; in the Côte d'Azur region the Alpine foothills and the ancient Maures and Esterel massifs reach to the Mediterranean, forming the coves, capes, and harbours of the country's most famous tourist and retirement area, the French Riviera. Corsica is also highly regarded for its natural scenery. A number of the island's peaks reach over 6,500 feet, and parts of it are under wild forest or covered with undergrowth called maquis.
Drainage of France
The river systems of France are determined by a major divide in the far eastern part of the country, running from the southern end of the Vosges down the eastern and southeastern edge of the Massif Central to the Noire Mountains, the southwestern promontory of the massif. This divide is broken by occasional cols (depressions) and lowland corridors, notably the Langres Plateau, across the Jurassic outer rim of the Paris Basin. Along the divide originate most of the rivers of the larger, western part of the country, including the Seine and the Loire. Other major rivers include the Garonne, originating in the Pyrenees, and the Rhône and the Rhine, originating in the Alps.
The Seine system
The Seine River flows past the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, France.
The main river of the Paris Basin, the Seine, 485 miles (780 km) in length, is joined upstream on the left bank by its tributary the Yonne, on the right bank south of Paris by the Marne, and north of the city by the Oise. While the Seine has a regular flow throughout the year, there may be flooding in the spring and, occasionally more severely, during the customary fall-winter peak of lowland rivers. Efforts have been made to reduce flooding on the Seine and its tributaries by the building of reservoirs. A number of islands dot the Seine along its meandering, generally westward course across the central Paris Basin and through the capital city itself. One of these, the Île de la Cité, forms the very heart of the city of Paris. Eventually the river enters the English Channel at Le Havre.
The Loire system
The Loire, the longest French river, flows for 634 miles (1,020 km) and drains the widest area (45,000 square miles [117,000 square km]). It is an extremely irregular river, with an outflow eight times greater in December and January than in August and September. Rising in the Massif Central on Mount Gerbier-de-Jonc, it flows northward over impervious terrain, with many gorgelike sections. Near Nevers it is joined by the Allier, another river of the massif. Within the Paris Basin the Loire continues to flow northward, as if to join the Seine system, but then takes a wide bend to the west to enter the Atlantic past Nantes and Saint-Nazaire. The Loire is artificially joined to the Seine by several canals. The river's torrential flow, a hindrance to navigation, covers its floodplain with sand and gravel, which has commercial importance. The river is also a source of cooling water for a chain of atomic power stations near its course, which has raised concerns among environmentalists, as have various dam projects along the river. UNESCO designated the valley, between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes, a World Heritage site in 2000.
The Garonne system
The Garonne, in the southwest, flows through the centre of the Aquitaine Basin. It is the shortest of the main French rivers, with a length of 357 miles (575 km), and it drains only 21,600 square miles (56,000 square km). Its outflow is irregular, with high waters in winter (due to the oceanic rainfall) and in spring, when the snow melts, but with meagre flows in summer and autumn. Its source is in the central Pyrenees in the Aran (Joyeuse) Valley in Spain, and its main tributaries, the Tarn, the Aveyron, the Lot, and the Dordogne, originate in the Massif Central. With the exception of the Gironde estuary, which is formed by the confluence of the Garonne and the Dordogne and is fully penetrated by the sea, the whole network is generally useless for navigation and is filled with powerful, rapid, and dangerous currents.
The Rhône system
In eastern France the direction of the main rivers is predominantly north-south through the Alpine furrow. The Rhône is the great river of the southeast. Rising in the Alps, it passes through Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) to enter France, which has 324 miles (521 km) of its total length of 505 miles (813 km). At Lyon it receives its major tributary, the Saône. The regime of the Rhône is complex. Near Lyon the Rhône and its important Isère and Drôme tributaries, draining from the Alps, have a marked late spring–early summer peak caused by the melting of snow and ice. While this peak is generally characteristic of the river as a whole, it is considerably modified by the contribution of the Saône, of the Durance, and of some tributaries in the Mediterranean south as a result of the fall-winter rainfall peak. Thus, the powerful Rhône has a remarkably ample flow in all seasons. The course of the river and the local water tables have been much modified by a series of dams to generate power and to permit navigation to Lyon. The Rhône also supplies cooling water to a series of atomic power stations. West of the Rhône the Bas Rhône–Languedoc canal, constructed after World War II to provide irrigation, has proved to be an essential element in the remarkable urban and industrial development of Languedoc. East of the Rhône the Canal de Provence taps the unpolluted waters of a Rhône tributary, the Durance, supplying Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Toulon, and the coast of Provence with drinking water and providing impetus for urban expansion. At its delta, beginning about 25 miles (40 km) from the Mediterranean, the Rhône and its channels deposit significant amounts of alluvium to form the Camargue region.
The Rhine system
The Rhine forms the eastern boundary of France for some 118 miles (190 km). In this section its course is dominated by the melting of snow and ice from Alpine headstreams, giving it a pronounced late spring–summer peak and often generally low water in autumn. The Ill, which joins the Rhine at Strasbourg, drains southern Alsace. The Rhine valley has been considerably modified by the construction on the French side of the lateral Grand Canal d'Alsace, for power generation and navigation. The eastern Paris Basin is drained by two tributaries, the Moselle, partly canalized, and the Meuse; the former reaches the Rhine by way of Luxembourg and Germany, and the latter, as the Maas (Dutch), reaches the Rhine delta at the North Sea by way of Belgium and the Netherlands.
The smaller rivers and the lakes
North of the Artois ridge, a number of small rivers flow into the Escaut (Flemish and Dutch: Schelde) to reach its North Sea estuary through Belgium. The Somme rises in northwestern France and flows a short distance into the English Channel, and in the southwest the Charente, rising in the western Limousin plateau, and the Adour, rising in the central Pyrenees, flow into the Atlantic.
The French hydrographic system also includes a number of natural lakes of different origin. There are the lakes in depressions carved out by glaciation at the western periphery of the Alps, such as the lakes of Annecy and Bourget, the latter being the largest natural lake entirely within France. Others occur on the surfaces of ancient massifs and include the lakes of the Vosges. Some lakes are caused by structural faults and are lodged in narrow valleys, as are the Jura lakes. There are also lakes of volcanic origin, such as those in the Massif Central (crater lakes and lakes ponded behind lava flows), and regions scattered with lagoons or ponds, either created by coastal phenomena, as on the Landes (Atlantic) and Languedoc (Mediterranean) coasts, or caused by impervious terrain and poor local drainage, as in the Sologne plain. Major artificial lakes include the Serre-Ponçon reservoir, on the Durance River in the Alps, and the Sarrans and Bort-les-Orgues reservoirs, both in the Massif Central.
Soils of France
On a broad, general scale, virtually the whole of France can be classified in the zone of brown forest soils, or brown earths. These soils, which develop under deciduous forest cover in temperate climatic conditions, are of excellent agricultural value. Some climate-related variation can be detected within the French brown earth group; in the high-rainfall and somewhat cool conditions of northwestern France, carbonates and other minerals tend to be leached downward, producing a degraded brown earth soil of higher acidity and lesser fertility; locally this may approach the nature of the north European podzol. The brown earth zone gives way southward to the zone of Mediterranean soils, which in France cover only a limited area. They are developed from decalcified clays with a coarse sand admixture and are typically red in colour because of the upward migration of iron oxides during the warm, dry summers. These soils can be quite fertile.
Over large areas of France, soils have developed not directly from the disintegrated bedrock but from the waste sheets created by periglacial action. These may provide a particularly favourable soil material; most notable is the windblown limon that mantles the Paleogene and Neogene limestone plateaus of the central Paris Basin and the chalk beds to the northwest, the basis of the finest arable soils of France. The quality of the soils depends heavily upon the origin of their waste sheets; sand spreads derived from the granites of the Hercynian massifs, for example, provide only poor soils. The bedrock, however, is not without influence. Soils developed over clays are likely to be heavy and wet, although not necessarily infertile, as in the Jurassic clay and chalk vales of the eastern Paris Basin. Limestone and chalk enrich soils with lime, which is generally favourable, but there is a marked north-south contrast. The limestone areas of southern France tend to be swept almost bare of soil by erosion; the soil then collects in valleys and hollows. The soils of the higher mountains are naturally stony and unfavourable.
Finally, human action is an extremely important factor in soil quality. As soon as the original forest was cleared, some modification of the soil was inevitable. Generally, farmers through the ages have maintained or improved soil quality by draining and manuring; especially noteworthy were the activities of Flemish peasants who virtually created their soil out of a marshy wilderness. Not all human intervention has been as successful, however. For example, the degradation of brown earths under heath in western France is not a natural feature but the product of human clearance and grazing practices. Large-scale arable cultivation with no use of animal manure is leading in places to soil degradation and soil erosion.
Climate of France
The climate of France is generally favourable to cultivation. Most of France lies in the southern part of the temperate zone, although the subtropical zone encompasses its southern fringe. All of France is considered to be under the effect of oceanic influences, moderated by the North Atlantic Drift on the west and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. Average annual temperatures decline to the north, with Nice on the Côte d'Azure at 59 °F (15 °C) and Lille on the northern border at 50 °F (10 °C). Rainfall is brought mainly by westerly winds from the Atlantic and is characterized by cyclonic depressions. Annual precipitation is more than 50 inches (1,270 mm) at higher elevations in western and northwestern France, in the western Pyrenees, in the Massif Central, and in the Alps and the Jura. In winter eastern France especially may come under the influence of the continental high-pressure system, which brings extremely cold conditions and temperature inversions over the cities, during which cold air is trapped below warmer air, with consequent fogs and urban pollution. The climate of France, then, can be discussed according to three major climatic zones—oceanic, continental, and Mediterranean, with some variation in the Aquitaine Basin and in the mountains.
The oceanic region
The pure oceanic climate prevails in the northwest, especially in Brittany. It is characterized by its low annual temperature variation, with Brest having an average temperature in January of 43 °F (6 °C) and in July of 61 °F (16 °C); by its extreme humidity and moderate rainfall (35 inches [890 mm] of rain falling through the year), accompanied by cloudiness and haze; by the frequency and sometimes the violence of the west winds that blow almost constantly; and by large variations in the weather, which can change several times a day. This oceanic climate is somewhat modified toward the north, where the winters are cooler, and toward the south, where, in the Aquitaine Basin, the winters are mild and the summers warmer. There is also less rainfall, although at Toulouse great summer storms are quite frequent.
The continental region
The plains of the northeast are particularly affected by a continental climate. The city of Strasbourg has the greatest temperature range in France. Winter is cold, with an average of 83 days of frost and with snow cover for several weeks, although the weather is often sunny. In summer, storms cause maximum precipitation in the region in June and July, although total rainfall is comparatively light.
The climate of the Paris Basin is somewhere between the oceanic and the continental. The average yearly temperature is 53 °F (11 °C) in Paris. In addition, the relatively light annual rainfall (23 inches [58 cm]) follows a pattern of moderately heavy rain in spring and early summer and autumn, as in the oceanic countries, but the maximum amount of rain falls in summer, with storms of the continental type. In summer, spray irrigation is needed for crops in the continental climatic region and the Paris Basin.
The Mediterranean region
In the southeast the Mediterranean climate extends over the coastal plains and penetrates the valley of the lower Rhône River as far as the Montélimar area. It affects the southern Alps, the southeastern slopes of the Cévennes and the Noire Mountains (in the Massif Central), and the eastern Pyrenees. The latitude and the proximity of the warm Mediterranean Sea contribute to mild winters, with an average temperature of 47 °F (8 °C) in January at Nice and with only a few days of frost. Precipitation is heavy and tends to fall in sudden downpours, especially in the autumn and spring, whereas summer is nearly completely dry for at least three months. In coastal Languedoc-Roussillon, annual rainfall totals can be as low as 17 to 20 inches (430 to 500 mm). It is a unique area because of its clear skies and the regularity of fine weather. This area is also subject to the violent north winds called the mistral, which are peculiar to southern France. The winds are caused by high-pressure areas from central France that move toward the low-pressure areas of the Gulf of Genoa. Permanent irrigation systems are characteristic of the Mediterranean lowlands.
The Aquitaine Basin is intermediate between the oceanic and the Mediterranean climates. Winters tend toward the oceanic type, but springs and summers are warm, although less arid than in the Mediterranean zone.
The mountains have varied climates. West-facing slopes in the Pyrenees have some of the highest precipitation figures in France. Snow cover stays from December to the end of April above 3,000 feet (900 metres) and is perpetual above 9,000 feet (2,700 metres) in the Alps and 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) in the Pyrenees. Locally, the contrast between the sunny south-facing valley slopes (adrets) and the shaded north-facing slopes (ubacs) can be of great importance for land use and settlement, while some intermontane basins can have quite advantageous climates as opposed to that of the surrounding peaks and plateaus.
Plant and animal life
Plant life
Vegetation is closely related to climate, so that in France it is not surprising that there are two major but unequal divisions: the Holarctic province and the smaller Mediterranean province. Most of France lies within the Holarctic biogeographic vegetational region, characterized by northern species, and it can be divided into three parts. A large area of western France makes up one part. It lies north of the Charente River and includes most of the Paris Basin. There the natural vegetation is characterized by oak (now largely cleared for cultivation), chestnut, pine, and beech in uplands that receive more than 23.6 inches (600 mm) of annual rainfall. Heathland is also common, as a predominantly man-made feature (created by forest clearance, burning, and grazing). Broom, gorse, heather, and bracken are found. South of the Charente, the Aquitaine Basin has a mixture of heath and gorse on the plateaus and several varieties of oak, cypress, poplar, and willow in the valleys. On the causses of the Massif Central and on other limestone plateaus, broom, heath, lavender, and juniper appear among the bare rocks. The vegetation of eastern France, constituting a second part of the Holarctic division, is of a more central European type, with trees such as Norway maple, beech, pedunculate oak, and larch; hornbeam is often present as a shrub layer under oak. The various high mountain zones form a third Holarctic part; with cloudy and wet conditions, they have beech woods at lower elevations, giving way upward to fir, mountain pine, and larch but with much planted spruce. Above the tree line are high mountain pastures, now increasingly abandoned, with only stunted trees but resplendent with flowers in spring and early summer.
The second major vegetation division of the country lies within the Mediterranean climatic zone and provides a sharp contrast with the plant life elsewhere in France. The pronounced summer drought of this zone causes bulbous plants to die off in summer and encourages xerophytic plants that retard water loss by means of spiny, woolly, or glossy leaves; these include the evergreen oak, the cork oak, and all the heathers, cistuses, and lavenders. Umbrella, or stone, pine and introduced cypress dominate the landscape. The predominant plant life of the plateaus of Roussillon is the maquis, comprising dense thickets of drought-resistant shrubs, characterized in spring by the colourful flowers of the cistuses, broom, and tree heather; in most areas this is a form that has developed after human destruction of the evergreen forest. A large part of Provence's hottest and driest terrain is covered by a rock heath known as garigue. This region is a principal domain of the vineyard, but lemon and orange trees grow there also. At elevations of about 2,600 feet (790 metres), as in the Cévennes, deciduous forest appears, mainly in the form of the sweet chestnut. At elevations of 4,500 feet (1,370 metres) this gives way to a subalpine coniferous forest of fir and pine.
Forest covers 58,000 square miles of France (15,000,000 hectares), which is more than a quarter of its territory. Most forests are on the upland massifs of the Ardennes and Vosges and within the Jura, Alps, and Pyrenees mountain chains, but extensive lowland forests grow on areas of poor soil, such as that of the Sologne plain south of the Loire River. The planted forest of maritime pine covering about 3,680 square miles (953,000 hectares) in the Landes of southwestern France is said to be the most extensive in western Europe. Increasingly, forests are less a source of wood and more a recreational amenity, especially those on the fringe of large urban agglomerations, such as Fontainebleau and others of the Île-de-France region.
Animal life
The fauna of France is relatively typical of western European countries. Among the larger mammals are red deer, roe deer, and wild boar, which are still hunted; the fallow deer is rather rare. In the high Alps are the rare chamoix and the reintroduced ibex. Hares, rabbits, and various types of rodents are found both in the forests and in the fields. Carnivores include the fox, the genet, and the rare wildcat. Among endangered species are the badger, the otter, the beaver, the tortoise, the marmot of the Alps, and the brown bear and the lynx of the Pyrenees. Seals have almost entirely disappeared from the French coasts. While French bird life is in general similar to that of its neighbours, southern France is at the northern edge of the range of African migrants, and such birds as the flamingo, the Egyptian vulture, the black-winged stilt, the bee-eater, and the roller have habitats in southern France.
All information come from Encyclopedia Britannica


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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer apologized Tuesday for making an "inappropriate and insensitive" comparison to the Holocaust in earlier comments about Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons — remarks that drew instant rebuke from Jewish groups and critics.
Spicer said in an interview with CNN that he was trying to make a point about Assad's use of chemical weapons and gas against his people but "mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison. And for that I apologize. It was a mistake to do that."
During the daily White House briefing, Spicer told reporters that Adolf Hitler "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons." Critics noted the remark ignored Hitler's use of gas chambers to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.
It was the second day in a row in which Spicer, President Donald Trump's main spokesman, appeared to struggle to articulate the president's foreign policy at a critical time. The White House generated criticism at the start of the year when a statement on international Holocaust Remembrance Day did not make any reference to Jews.
In the CNN interview, Spicer said his comments did not reflect Trump's views. "My comments today did not reflect the president's, were a distraction from him and frankly were misstated, insensitive and wrong." He added, "Obviously it was my blunder."
The interview capped several attempts by the White House to clarify Spicer's statement.
During the briefing, Spicer was asked about his initial statement but delivered a garbled defense of his remarks in which he tried to differentiate between Hitler's actions and the gas attack on Syrian civilians last week. The attack in northern Syria left nearly 90 people dead, and Turkey's health minister said tests show sarin gas was used.
"I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he (Hitler) was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing," Spicer said. "There was clearly ... I understand your point, thank you. There was not ... He brought them into the Holocaust center I understand that."
"I appreciate the clarification. That was not the intent," he said.
The comparison to World War II appeared to be part of a message the administration was trying to deliver as it explains its tactics in Syria. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis noted in a separate briefing that "the intent was to stop the cycle of violence into an area that even in World War II chemical weapons were not used on battlefields."
After the briefing, Spicer emailed a statement to reporters: "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust. I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable."
Democrats and Jewish organizations condemned the comments.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement that Spicer was "downplaying the horror of the Holocaust" and should be fired. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said on Twitter, "Someone get @PressSec a refresher history course on Hitler stat (hashtag)#Icantbelievehereallysaidthat."
The New York-based Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect called on Trump to fire Spicer, saying he denied that Hitler gassed Jews during the Holocaust.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Jewish Republican from New York, said in a statement that "as far as comments being made and comparisons of various tactics and methods between now and World War II, you can make the comparison a little differently and it would be accurate, but it's important to clear up that Hitler did in fact use chemical warfare to murder innocent people."
Spicer's comments came on the first day of Passover and a day after the White House held a Seder dinner marking the emancipation of the Jewish people, a tradition started during the Obama administration.
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis experimented with poison gas in late 1939 with the killing of mental patients, which was termed "euthanasia." Both mobile and stationary gas chambers were later used, with up to 6,000 Jews gassed each day at Auschwitz alone.
On Monday, the White House clarified remarks Spicer made from the podium that the use of barrel bombs by Assad's government might lead to further military action by the United States.
In an exchange with reporters, Spicer appeared to draw a new red line for the Trump administration when he told reporters that if a country gases a baby or it puts "a barrel bomb into innocent people, I think you will see a response from this president."
Until Monday the administration had maintained that last week's airstrikes were in response to the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against its own citizens. A White House spokesman said later that "nothing has changed in our posture" and the president retains the option to act if it's in the national interest.


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Mexican immigrants Antonio Jasso and Genoveva Ramirez Jasso, who picked cotton in South Texas, would see five of their sons go off to war.
Their granddaughter, Evelyn Jasso Garcia, set out to record their story, and that of her father and uncles. An associate professor at San Antonio College, she regrets she wasn't able to interview her uncles, but gratified her dad, Jose "Joe" Jasso lived to see the fruit of her research.
Born in 1881, Antonio learned to read and write from an uncle. He and wife Genoveva emigrated to South Texas from Zacatecas, Mexico, to work in the cotton fields of El Campo.
Three of their 11 children died in infancy. Four boys were born in a five-year span beginning in 1911 while the couple worked as sharecroppers. After two died and the remainder got sick, the couple sought a better life in San Antonio, Texas, where Antonio worked as a carpenter, while Genoveva opened portions of their rented home as a bed-and-breakfast.
While Genoveva battled depression after the premature death of her first daughter, she's remembered as an indomitable matriarch. Family members marvel at her enterprise during the Great Depression: She also ran a parking-lot business created after persuading the landlord to allow her to clean up an adjacent, empty tract of land.
Antonio transported each son called for duty to the train station, accompanied by his eldest son, Jesus "Jesse" Jasso. At age 35, Jesse had been rejected by the military. He was anguished he was unable to join his brothers.
"When he was drafted, his oldest children remember their dad crying because he was declared ineligible," Evelyn wrote the Project. "He wanted to go to war with his brothers but he was 35 years old, married and with five children."
His ineligibility, however, provided the family with a patriarch after their father died of pneumonia in 1943, at the age of 56. Genoveva would die 25 years later at the age of 78.
In a grainy photograph published in the San Antonio Light long ago, the five boys gather in the living room of their modest home, clad in their uniforms and surrounding their proud mother around the sofa.
The photo alone speaks volumes about the Jasso family's contributions to the war.
The elderly Genoveva manages a wan smile for the photographer. And in the background, barely visible, a photograph of their deceased father rests on a side table.
"It would not surprise me if my grandfather, in his conversations with God, had asked Him to bring all his sons home safely from the war and ... take him instead," his granddaughter reasoned.
Indeed, the five Jasso boys would return home. And, thanks to a niece's diligence, their stories are forever preserved.
Frank Jasso was studious, lured to the field of journalism at an early age. He began at the bottom of the industry ladder, selling the local paper at the St. Mary's and Travis streets intersection in downtown San Antonio. At 13, he joined La Prensa mailroom and later became editor of Lanier High School's El Nopal newspaper. He attended Trinity University.
He was drafted into the Army Air Corps in May of 1942, primarily stationed stateside at Brooks Air Force Base, and wrote for Air Force magazine The Observer.
By now the writer of the family, when they planned his dad's funeral, Frank helped compose "mourning notices" for family and friends. The task of alerting his brothers -- one in Africa, another in Missouri for basic training -- fell on him.
Entreating the censor not to delay the letter, "¡Ya acabo papa!" [father is finished] he wrote them.
Frank was later shipped to England, where he worked in communications for the 8th Air Force.
After the war, Frank became a credit manager at Penner's Clothing Store in San Antonio. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) twice named him Man of the Year for helping to found its La Feria de las Flores annual scholarship fundraiser in San Antonio.
Frank died June 30, 1987. He and his wife, Anita Bonilla, had three children: Alfonso, Aida and Jaime.
Trinidad Jasso was the first to volunteer, joining the U.S. Army Air Corps on March 26, 1941, during the time of the Lend-Lease Act providing for U.S. aid to Britain and other Allies. In Ellington Field, Texas, he repaired aircraft carburetors -- the same job he'd hold for 30 years after the war at Kelly Air Force Base. A supervisor, he was often sent to Langley Field in Virginia to learn the latest technology repair work for C-47 aircraft.
He enjoyed dancing. One of his best partners was the wife of a cousin. Their flawless steps were remembered long afterward.
"I have never seen anyone dance better to "In the Mood" than Trini partnered with Mary Loera," sister-in-law Dorothy Seevers Jasso recalled. "They were just terrific."
Trinidad and wife, Alicia Cardenas, had four children: Patricia, Robert, Carla and Jerome. After 43 years of marriage, she died in 1991. Trini died two years later.
A high school dropout, Tomas Jasso volunteered for the Civilian Conservation Corps and was stationed in New Mexico. He was still in basic training there after the Army drafted him in January of 1943, and was unable to attend his father's funeral.
Tomas served in the engineering corps as a demolition specialist in the China-Burma-India Theater. He helped build the 500-mile Ledo Road from India to Burma, which connected with the refurbished Burma Road in attempts to wrest control of China from the Japanese.
He returned home a changed man. Reluctant to discuss his war experiences, he turned to alcohol. He worked as a bicycle courier and as a janitor at a school district.
Among the brothers, his is the tragic tale. But in childhood, there were happy moments.
His nephews remember a time when they accompanied Tomas downtown to meet Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett in Walt Disney's "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," which aired in the 1950s. A local newspaper took a photograph of Parker with Tomas and the boys in their coonskin caps.
Tomas is remembered as having lived un dia a la vez [one day at a time] until his death of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 56.
Antonio Jasso dropped out of high school to help his mother after his dad died. But in 1944, at 17, he volunteered for the Navy, participating in the American Area Campaign in the Asiatic Pacific after training in San Diego, Calif. He spent 15 months at sea as an apprentice seaman, later promoted to Seaman 1st Class. In the Philippines, he transported U.S. troops to shore on landing-craft carriers. He was honorably discharged July 1, 1946.
He obtained his GED after the war. At 19, he married Eloida Gomez in Seguin, Texas, a brief union producing two children: Linda and Eddie.
Antonio worked as a surveyor with the Texas Department of Transportation, and then in Pasadena, Calif., where he met Dorothy Seevers, his second wife. The couple had two children: Tony and Elena. He later returned to San Antonio with his family.
He was "the family BBQ expert," one relative recalled; his soft chicharron tacos were quickly consumed at family gatherings. He died in October 1995.
The Jasso family contributed more than their sons to the war. Their daughters also played a part on the home front.
Lydia Jasso Tamez, born August 17, 1925, was a junior at Fox Tech High School when Pearl Harbor was attacked in December of 1941.
During the war years, she remembers registering citizens for their ration coupons at a local high school. The coupons were used to purchase items such as sugar, clothing and gasoline. Rationing gasoline was an effective way of conserving rubber, which was in short supply.
She recalls her grandmother proudly displaying a special flag with five stars, each star representing a son participating in the war effort.
Lydia graduated from high school -- the first woman in the family to do so -- and later graduated from Johnson's Beauty School, housed in the Majestic Building in downtown San Antonio.
She married Raul Tamez in 1951 and the couple had three children: Saul, Sonia and Sylvia.
Isabel Jasso was born in February 1938 and was raised by her grandparents as their own daughter. Although she was very young, she did what she could to boost the morale of her older brothers.
Evelyn wrote that "Mary Nell," as Isabel was called, would send photographs and short notes.
Family members also credit Isabel with boosting Genoveva's morale.
"Mary Nell was my mother's life," Lydia wrote. "Her love for my mother gave my mother life."
Isabel died in March of 1969; she had one daughter, Carol Jasso Nguyen.
Evelyn writes that she is proud of her family and the legacies they left behind: "...legacies of hope, faith, love, family, heritage, tradition and patriotism."
She encourages everyone to preserve their family's rich history.
"I wholeheartedly regret that I did not interview each of my uncles while they were alive," she wrote. "It is my hope that my regret will motivate others to ... start interviewing their dads, their parents, their tios and record their WWII stories and experiences. Do not wait another day."
Tribute by Tony Cantú, based on family records and interviews provided by Evelyn Jasso-Garcia


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What personal information should you safeguard?
Some 10 million identity thefts happen in the United States every year. Taking extra steps to protect your personal information—and knowing what information you need to safeguard—is the best way to prevent identity theft from happening to you.
Some 10 million identity thefts happen in the United States every year. Taking extra steps to protect your personal information—and knowing what information you need to safeguard—is the best way to prevent identity theft from happening to you. Let's review this information to help you protect yourself as much as possible:
Low Sensitivity
Among the information considered "low risk" in regard to personal information sensitivity is your full name, address, and phone number.
Medium Sensitivity
Information regarded as "medium" in terms of sensitivity includes your date of birth, place of birth, and mother's maiden name.
High Sensitivity
The most sensitive information to protect includes your bank account numbers, social security number, pin numbers, credit card numbers, and passwords.
Other Sensitive Information
Additional sensitive information likely to attract identity thieves includes your usernames, places of employment, medical records, employment history, residential history, children's names and dates of birth, and even anniversary dates.
What You Can Do Offline
There are numerous ways to protect your information offline as well as online. Offline tasks include locking all financial documents and records within your home in a safe place. Consider investing in a small safe to further protect important documents.
It also helps to limit the amount of information you carry. Take only what you need on a daily basis, such as your identification, ATM card, and credit cards, but only the ones you use on a regular basis. If you have a credit card in your wallet that you never use, put it in a safe place. Never keep your social security card in your wallet, and leave any other bank information at home.
Another way to protect yourself offline is to shred sensitive information, including credit card offers and applications, receipts, insurance forms, physician statements, checks, bank statements, and old credit cards. If you don't need it anymore, get rid of it, but not before shredding. Identity thieves are notorious for looking through trash and applying for credit cards in other people's names, so ensure that doesn't happen to you. Many communities host shredding events where you can shred your documents safely.
It also helps to destroy labels on prescription bottles before throwing them out, and to request a hold on your mail while on vacation. If a company is asking you for information and you aren't sure why, just ask.
What You Can Do Online
Keeping your information secure online involves removing any pertinent data that's stored on your computer before you get rid of it. Just because the device is on its last legs doesn't mean it hasn't stored a wealth of personal information. The same is true of your mobile devices.
Using strong passwords is key to protecting your information online, so avoid using the same, easy-to-crack passwords, no matter how much you love your pet. Infuse each password with numbers and symbols to make it as difficult as possible to figure out.
Another way to safeguard your personal information online is to encrypt your data. Keeping your browser secure via encryption software guards online transactions, as it scrambles information sent over the Internet. Look for a "lock" icon on your browser status bar to make certain the information you send is protected. You should also use quality security software on all of your devices, and remember to update them regularly.
Protecting your information online also means not oversharing on social media. Make your Facebook page private, and do the same with Twitter and Instagram if you have the habit of posting about where you are and what you're doing all the time. The less you share on social media, the less chance there is of someone taking advantage.
Wi-Fi is another method by which identity thieves and hackers can steal your information, so stick to protected Wi-Fi options instead of using a different one every day at a different coffee shop. Stay alert of phishing emails as well, and know what to look for. In other words, don't ever open a file sent from someone you don't know.
Know what data is the most sensitive, and do everything you can to protect it!
Editorial note: Our articles provide educational information for you. Our offerings may not cover or protect against every type of crime, fraud, or threat we write about. Our goal is to increase awareness about Cyber Safety. Please review complete Terms during enrollment or setup. Remember that no one can prevent all identity theft or cybercrime, and that LifeLock does not monitor all transactions at all businesses. The Norton and LifeLock brands are part of Gen Digital Inc.


text: The RTST splice and tee box is a NEMA 4X rated junction box designed to make straight or tee connections for all OMEGALUX™ heating cables. This model provides waterproof cable entry (for two cables for a splice or three cables for a tee), enclosure support, terminal block and a waterproof, corrosion resistant wiring enclosure. A pipe strap (PS series) is required to attach this model to a pipe. (To order, see page B-28.)


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Polarized lenses are responsible for reducing glare from flat surfaces, e. g. of the water sheet. The reduction of glare makes the image sharper and the colors more saturated.
Protective coatings that prevent the accumulation of moisture and fat on the lens surface.
Sport professionals demand nothing less than the best, and we've answered their challenge for decades. World-class athletes have driven us to create innovation after innovation, including interchangeable lens designs with unbeatable optical clarity. Flak Jacket sunglasses take that to the next level with the latest in performance technology.
Stays Ahead of the Sun:
Flak Jacket lets you change lenses in seconds to optimize vision in any sport environment. Multiple lens colors are available, and all lenses feature the unbeatable clarity of Oakley's High Definition Optics® (HDO®).
Offers a Secure, Custom Fit:
Choose the nose pads that give you the best fit — two sizes are included with every frame. Like the stem sleeves, they're made of Unobtainium® to increase grip with perspiration. Oakley's Three-Point Fit optimizes comfort and holds the lenses in precise optical alignment for superior clarity.
Optimizes Comfort, Protection and Clarity:
Flak Jacket is made of lightweight O Matter® for all-day comfort. Pure Plutonite® lens material filters out 100% of all UV, and Flak Jacket meets ANSI Z87.1 standards for impact protection. The semi-rimless design means there's no frame rim to block downward view. Optical clarity exceeds all ANSI Z87.1 standards, and XYZ Optics® extends razor-sharp vision all the way to the lens periphery.
- Interchangeable lenses to optimize performance in any environment
- Durability and all-day comfort of lightweight, stress-resistant O Matter® frame material
- Optimized peripheral vision and side protection of 8.75 base lens curvature
- Comfort and performance of Three-Point Fit that holds lenses in precise optical alignment
- Metal icon accents
- Optical precision and performance that meets all ANSI Z87.1 standards
- Impact resistance that meets all ANSI Z87.1 standards for high-mass and high-velocity impact
- UV protection of Plutonite® lens that filters out 100% of UVA / UVB / UVC & harmful blue light up to 400 nm
- Glare reduction and tuned light transmission of Iridium® lens coating
- Adapt to variable light conditions with " Transitions® SOLFX™" photochromic lenses
- Multiple interchangeable Unobtainium® nose pad options for customizable and comfortable secure fit
- Protective sports-specific Oakley Soft Vault included with capacity for extra lenses
- Available with Oakley Prescription Lenses