Aquitaine

The Aquitaine is a French Région south-west of the France. It includes/understands five departments: the Dordogne, the Gironde, Moors, Lot-et-Garonne and Yrénées-Atlantiques.

Aquitaine is crossed by three rivers: the the Garonne, the the Dordogne and the Adour. It opens in the west on the Atlantic Ocean by a 270 km length rectilinear coast, baptized Coast of Money and only stopped by the Basin of Arcachon.

Etymology and denominations

Aquitaine comes from Latin Aquitania, derived from two preceltic roots, meaning Near to the sea . In Occitan (dialects Gascon, Languedocien and the Limousin), Aquitaine says Aquitània , in Basque Akitania and in Saintongeais Aguiéne , contraction between Aquitaine and Guyenne.

Situation

The Aquitaine region is frontier following administrative areas:

The area is 3rd of France in terms of surface (1st: the Midday-Pyrenees, 2nd: the Rhone-Alps).

History

See also: History of Aquitaine

Administration

See also: District council of Aquitaine

Policy

See also: Political of Aquitaine

Transport

See also: Transport of Aquitaine

The highway network

Highways

  • the A10

  • the A62
  • the A63
  • the A660
  • the A64
  • the A89

The crossing of the Pyrenees

The rail network

Three large axes:

  • the line Paris - Bordeaux - Madrid by Irun, major axis for the economy and transport, which creates imbalances at the regional level:
    • capacities of attraction of Bordeaux, of Bayonne-Rebated joint-Biarritz,
    • turning into a desert of the Pyrenees, of the Dordogne, of the department of Lot-et-Garonne.
The line Paris - Bordeaux - Madrid by Irun was always a priority for the States French and Spanish, also there is a line TGV Paris - Tours very quickly then until Bordeaux and Dax…

detailed Article: FOR THE THIRD TIME Aquitanian

The river system

The Canal of the South is a channel French which connects the the Garonne to the the Mediterranean. It provides with the side Canal to the Garonne an inland waterway (the Canal of the two seas) of the Atlantique to the Mediterranean. It was prolonged by the Canal of the Rhone with Sète .

It is the trade of the Blé which justified its construction. Built at the 17th century, of 1666 with 1681, under the reign of Louis XIV, under the supervision of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the channel of the South is oldest channel of Europe still under operation.

The maritime transport

  • Wearing of Bordeaux

The Port authority of Bordeaux accommodates each year 1.600 ships and treats approximately 9 million tons of goods (including 4 million tons of hydrocarbons). The port authority of Bordeaux also accommodates the elements of the A380 in transit towards Toulouse.

Air transport

International airports in Aquitaine:

Economy

See also: Economy of Aquitaine

Demography

See also: Demography of Aquitaine

The population of Aquitaine rises with 2.988.395 inhabitants (census 2003 source INSEE 2005).

Culture

See also: Culture in Aquitaine

Language

The languages of Aquitaine are four: French, the Occitan, the Poitevin-saintongeais and the Basque (out of Basque: will euskara). In Occitan, Aquitaine says Aquitània , in Basque Akitania and in Poitevin-saintongeais Aguiéne .

The dialects occitans spoken in Aquitaine are:

Their speakers are in Aquitaine 160.600 according to a study of INSEE of 1999. It are found essentially in the rural world: a quarter are farmers or former farmers. The agricultural world and rural remainder to some extent the guard of the occitan: it is in the Dordogne that it is relatively spread the most, then in the Moors and the Yrénées-Atlantiques. It is in the latter department that the hearths of occitan are developed.

The Saintongeais is spoken in the Pays about Gabaye, in the north of the the Gironde, in the enclave of the Petite Gavacherie (the Gironde), like in the extreme-west of the Périgord.

The Basque is spoken traditionally in the Western part of the Yrénées-Atlantiques: Basque provinces of Low-Navarre, Drunk and the Labourd. In the Basque Country, one counts 63.000 adults bascophones. In the remainder of Aquitaine, there are 11.000 of them.

Gastronomy

  • First wine-producing area of France, Aquitaine generates the quarter of the wine production of the Hexagon, France being the first producer country in the world.

the Gironde

  • Oysters of Arcachon

  • Lamprey with Of Bordeaux the
  • Cêpes
  • Ox of Bazas
  • Grooved the
  • Lamb of Pauillac
  • Wood pigeons
  • Wine: The wine part of the the Gironde called in oenological terms, the Of Bordeaux (Vineyard of Bordeaux), is thus the first wine-producing area as well in quantity as in quality.

The Moors of Gascogne, the Béarn and the Basque Country offer all the gastronomical specialities of south-west:

  • crystallized Foie gras, , steaklet and other dishes derived from duck,
  • the Pipérade in Béarn and the Pays Basque
  • the Garbure
  • the tart plate and the croustade
  • the Madiran, wine in matter produced in Hautes-Pyrénées, Béarn, and Gers.
  • the Pacherenc
  • truffles of Sorges in Perigord

Béarn developed some specialities:

  • the Boiled chicken
  • the Jurançon, dry white wine or marrowy

And you will want to note that the B3earnaise sauce does not have anything inhabitant of Béarn since she was invented in Paris region.

The Basque Country has also its specialities:

  • And of course in the Batch and the Garonne the Prunes of Agen which suit us well!!!

Construction

Houses

  • the graver of Bordeaux

  • the Basque House
  • Firm landaises and bazadaises (the oustaou)
  • the villas of Arcachon
  • the social life and policy of the Basque S is organized around the etxe or etche .
Because only the owners household heads of a house attended the assemblies of the village. It is the initial element of integration in the community. The elder one of the family inherited the house.

  • the House inhabitant of Béarn

  • Like the etxe, the Basque house, the box inhabitant of Béarn is the angular stone of the identity of the family.
The social hierarchy was established on the basis of “box” transmitted with the whole of the grounds to the elder one. The house inhabitant of Béarn is built with rollers of the Gave gray in the mortar. Tiles punts or more frequently of slates are present on the roofs. One of the essential characteristics of the house inhabitant of Béarn is thus her roof: the slope can reach 50°, or even more.

In the Basque Country as in Béarn, the houses vary according to the valleys, the geographical surfaces.

Inheritance

There would be more than 1000 castles and manors; here most known:

  • the Dordogne:
Castelnaud-the-Vault, Commarque, Monbazillac, Beynac, Herm, Bourdeilles, Biron, Milandes (property of Joséphine Baker), Montfort, Castle of Puymartin/Marquay. The Valley of Vézère with the caves of Lascaux, the Caves of Eyzies, the Castling Saint-Christophe, the Rouffignac and celebrates it Abri of Cro-Magnon.

Famous cities of Sarlat, Bergerac, Nontron and its masquerade of Soufflaculs, its gardens of arts, its Pole of the Trades of Arts, its cutlery “Périgord”, Périgueux and its Gallo-Roman ruins.

The Village of Bournat, the abbey of Brantôme (11th century), the archaeological Park of Beynac, Mandacou.

  • the Gironde:

Castle of Roquetaillade, Villandraut, Langoiran, Trunk, Cazaneuve, Cadillac.

One also finds many country houses, in particular with Monpazier, Villefranche-of-Périgord the, Domme and his ramparts, and Eymet and his castle.

Aquitanian famous

See too

External bonds

  • http://aquitaine.fr: Site of the district council
  • http://www.tourisme-aquitaine.fr: Site of the tourist bureau
  • http://www.insee.fr/fr/insee_regions/Aquitaine: site of INSEE
  • http://www.aquitaine.equipement.gouv.fr: Regional management of the equipment
  • http://www.aquitaine.ecologie.gouv.fr: Regional management of the environment
  • http://www.aquitainagri.org: Site gate of Agriculture in Aquitaine
  • http://cesr-aquitaine.fr: Economic and Social Council of Aquitaine
  • http://crdp.ac-bordeaux.fr/ac: Site Arts and culture of the CRDP of Aquitaine
  • http://gallica.bnf.fr/SocietesSavantes: Learned societies in Aquitaine
  • http://aquitaine-pqa.fr: Territorial development in Aquitaine
  • http://fr.fc.yahoo.com/a/aquitaine.html: Current events on Yahoo!

Simple: Aquitaine

Random links:Dargnies | Völund | Unicode and HTML | C.J. Williams | Microrégion of Haut-Taquari