Photographie prise par Andim

The Arenae of Nîmes are Roman amphitheatre situated in the city of Nîmes, in France, in the Gard. It was built at the end of the I st century to entertain the population of Nimes. During the great invasions, it was transformed into a strengthened village where the population could take shelter. Then, in the Middle Ages, until the XIX th century, it became a district with its streets and its shops. In the XIX th century, the monument was reconverted to bullrings for bullfights. Everyday, they welcome about twenty bullfights and races that are typical of the Camargue as well as different cultural events, and the building also welcomes tourists all year long.

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A

• Marcel Achard
• Alain-Fournier
• Jean Anouilh — 20th century dramatist
• Guillaume Apollinaire
• Louis Aragon
• Antonin Artaud
• Marcel Aymé

B

• Honoré de Balzac — realist author
• Henri Barbusse
• Charles Baudelaire, 19th century poet
• Pierre Beaumarchais, comedy playwright
• Simone de Beauvoir — 20th century author
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• Georges Bernanos
• Tristan Bernard
• Maurice Blanchot
• Antoine Blondin
• Nicolas Boileau
• Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
• Pierre Boulle
• Fernand Braudel
• André Breton
• Restif de la Bretonne
• Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
• Michel Butor

C-E

• Albert Camus — existentialist author
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline — 20th century author
• Blaise Cendrars
• Aimé Césaire– 20th century author
• Nicolas Chamfort
• René Char, 20th century poet
• François-René de Chateaubriand
• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
• Emil Cioran
• Paul Claudel
• Jean Cocteau — 20th century poet and playwright
• Colette– 20th century author
• Benjamin Constant
• Tristan Corbière
• Pierre Corneille — classicist playwright
• Darry Cowl
• Marquis de Custine — travel writer
• Robert Desnos — 20th century poet
• Denis Diderot
• Alexandre Dumas, père, Author
• Alexandre Dumas, fils — Playwright/author
• Marguerite Duras – 20th century novelist
• Vanessa Duriès
• Paul Éluard

F-J

• René Fallet — 20th century author
• Frantz Fanon — 20th century author, psychiatrist
• Léon-Paul Fargue
• Georges Feydeau
• Marc Ferro
• Amanda Filipacchi — novelist (French and U.S. citizenship, writes in English)
• Alain Finkielkraut – essayist
• Gustave Flaubert — realist author
• Anatole France
• Marie de France — poet
• Romain Gary
• Jean Genet
• André Gide, Nobel Prize Winner
• Jean Giono
• Jean Giraudoux
• Françoise Giroud
• Julien Gracq
• Julien Green
• Pierre Guyotat
• Jean-Edern Hallier
• Auguste Himly, historian
• Victor Hugo — novelist, poet, and playwright
• Joris-Karl Huysmans
• Eugène Ionesco
• Jules-Gabriel Janin — author and theatre critic
• Alain Jouffroy — poet, art critic, plastician

L

• Jean de La Bruyère
• Jean de La Fontaine
• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
• Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse)
• Leconte de Lisle — parnassian poet
• Alphonse de Lamartine
• Jacques Lacan – psychoanalyst
• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie – historian
• Paul Lafargue
• Jules Laforgue
• Valéry Larbaud
• Maurice Leblanc, created Arsène Lupin
• Gaston Leroux- journalist and author, credited with creating the locked room puzzle mystery novel Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room) and author of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera)

M-O

• Stéphane Mallarmé — poet
• Hector Malot — 19th century author
• André Malraux
• Matthieu Marais — 18th century lawyer and writer
• Marcel Marceau — 20th century mime (and member of the French Resistance in World War II)
• Pierre de Marivaux – playwright
• Clément Marot — poet
• Guy de Maupassant novelist
• François Mauriac – Roman Catholic writer
• Prosper Mérimée – 19th century novelist
• Catherine Millet – art expert, editor and erotic memoirist
• Patrick Modiano
• Jean Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière — 17th century comedic playwright and actor
• Alfred de Musset — 19th century poet
• Gérard de Nerval
• Anaïs Nin
• Michel Ohl– 20th century poet and novelist

P-R

• Marcel Pagnol
• Charles Péguy — 20th century poet
• Charles Perrault — Mother Goose Tales
• Georges Perec
• Saint-John Perse
• Roger Peyrefitte
• Jean Piaget – psychologist
• Christine de Pizan, historian, poet, philosopher
• Jacques Prévert — 20th century poet
• Abbé Prévost
• Marcel Prevost
• Marcel Proust — novelist
• Raymond Queneau
• François Rabelais — Renaissance writer
• Raymond Radiguet
• Jean Racine — classicist playwright
• Pauline Réage, novelist
• Arthur Rimbaud — symbolist poet
• Alain Robbe-Grillet
• Pierre de Ronsard
• Edmond Rostand — neo-romantic playwright
• Raymond Roussel
• Maximilien Rubel

S-Z

• Marquis de Sade — erotic and philosophic author
• Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
• George Sand — feminist author
• Jean Paul Sartre — 20th century existentialist philosopher
• Nathalie Sarraute
• Pierre Seel, homosexual survivor of the concentration camps, activist, author
• Victor Segalen
• Madame de Sévigné
• Madame de Staël
• Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator.
• Claude Simon
• Stendhal — novelist (born Henry Beyle)
• François Truffaut — 20th century filmmaker
• Paul Valéry — 20th century poet
• Vercors
• Paul Verlaine — symbolist poet
• Jules Verne — novelist
• Boris Vian — 20th century author
• Alfred de Vigny — 19th century poet
• Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
• François Villon
• Voltaire
• Marguerite Yourcenar
• Émile Zola — naturalist author

Presidential elections

Presidential elections determine the man (or the woman) who will be the President of the Republic for a mandate of 5years. Before the constitution of 2002, the president was elected for 7 years.

When a president is reelected we can say his mandate is renewed: a mandate can be renewed twice.

Since the referendum of 1962, the presidential elections are a uninominal direct universal suffrage. If a candidate has the absolute majority of all the suffrages, he is elected.  Otherwise, a second ballot is organized to choose between the 2 candidates who got the best results during the first round. Then, the candidate who obtains the best results wins the election and becomes the new President. Never in our country history has a President been elected in the first ballot (Charles de Gaulle got 50%, the maximum ever). Results are proclaimed y the constitutional council who must ensure the regularity of the election.

His rights

The Presidents’ powers, defined by the constitution, are divided in 2 categories: strictly powers (for which he doesn’t need the approbation of the Prime Minister or a council) and shared powers (which are shared with the government and the Prime Minister).

To be the president of the 5^th republic is the highest function of the French State.

The French president:

·         Has the executive power

·         Is the chief of French army

·         Is the highest French magistrate

·         Is the master of the Legion of Honour

·         Is the co-prince of Andorra

His main prerogatives are defined in the Constitution of 1958 and its amendments:

• The President of the republic has to ensure the application of the Constitution. He also ensures the regular functioning of public powers and the State continuity. He vouches for national independence, territory integrity and the respect of treaties.
• He appoints the Prime Minister and can put an end to his functions if he presents his resignation.  At the Prime Minister’s suggestion, he also appoints the other members of the government and can put an end to their functions.
• He presides over the ministers’ council.
• He promulgates laws within fifteen days after they have been voted and transmitted to the government. 
• At the government’s or the two chambers’ suggestion, he can submit a law or the ratification of a treaty to a referendum.
• He can, after consultation of the Prime Minister and of the Assembly’s president, pronounce the dissolution of the National Assembly. He can’t proceed to a new dissolution in the year which comes after the first.
• He accredits an ambassador and representatives to foreign countries
• He is the chief of French armies. He presides over councils and superior committees   of the National Defense.  
• When Republican institutions, the independence of the Nation, the territory’s integrity or the execution of his internationals engagements are dangerously threatened and the regular constitutional functioning is stopped, the President of the Republic can take the required decisions in such circumstances, after official consultation of the Prime Minister, the presidents of the Assembly and of the Senate and the constitutional council. He informs the Nation by a message. The aim of these decisions must be to ensure constitutional public power’s mission: the constitutional council is consulted about this. The Parliament is called together too. The National Assembly can’t be dissoluted during the practice of special powers.
• The President has the right of reprieve.

Article 68
The President of the Republic is not personally responsible for his acts accomplished during the practice of his functions except in case of high treason.  So that the president can be prosecuted, the two assemblies must first vote to give their allowance for the procedure. He is judged by the High Court of Justice.

The Senate, in France, is one of the two legislative assemblies which exist in the 5^th Republic. Its members are called senators. The Senate sits in the Luxembourg Palace, in Paris.

The role of the Senate

The Senate vote laws which are presented by the government or the National Assembly.

In case of divergence in the text voted by the National Assembly and the Senate, the two assemblies form a mixed joint commission with 14 members who try to write a common text. If the divergence persists, the National Assembly has the last word.

The president of the Senate is the second figure of the State. He assures the interim of the Republic presidency in case of disappearance of the president elected (like in 1969 after the demission of De Gaulle and in 1974 after the death of Georges Pompidou).

The president of the Senate has a renewable mandate: he is elected for 3 years. He names 3 members of the constitutional council.

The senate is administered by a board elected after every partial renewal of the Senate. The senators belong to committees and parliamentary groups they work with.

Senatorial elections

Every 6years, 343 senators are elected by third. The last elections took place in 2008.

A new reform is in progress: the number of senators increased. In the past there were 321 senators elected for 9 years, then, in 2004 there were 331, now, there are 343 but this number should increase to 348, probably in 2011.

 How can you become a senator ?How can you become a senator?

A senator must be 35years at least. Senators are elected by “départements” by the indirect suffrage.

Their electors are deputies, general councilors and delegates of municipal councils of every “département”.

The poll is the majority with two rounds in “departements” which elect 4 senators and the proportional (the biggest average) for “départements” witch elect 5 senators.

Small districts (mostly rural) have more senatorial electors than bigger districts.

12 Senators represent French outside France.

Links
Amusement Parcs
Brittany
The French Riviera
Paris…
The Palace of Versailles