97 articles
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a Seine-et-Marne commune about 70 km southeast of Paris, home to the François I Renaissance château (UNESCO-listed since 1981) and the largest forest in Île-de-France, a 1998 biosphere reserve with 15–18 million annual visitors.
Fougères
Fougères, a commune in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, France, is a medieval frontier town of about 20,300 people, dominated by the Château de Fougères, one of Europe's largest preserved medieval fortresses, and formerly the French shoe capital.
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette is a commune in Essonne, 23 km southwest of Paris, on the RER B line. A ninth-century village renamed in 1930, it hosts CNRS laboratories and the growing Moulon quarter on the Saclay plateau.
Hamblain-les-Prés
Hamblain-les-Prés, a commune in Pas-de-Calais (Hauts-de-France), France, INSEE 62405, canton Brebières, population about 454. Known for its Gallo-Roman villa at Les Bonnettes, excavated 1981, occupied from La Tène I to the 4th century AD.
History of Paris
The history of Paris traces the French capital from Gallic and Roman Lutetia on the Seine through the medieval town, Baron Haussmann's nineteenth-century rebuilding, and the Paris Commune.
Isigny-sur-Mer
Isigny-sur-Mer is a commune in Calvados, Normandy, at the head of the Baie des Veys estuary, formed as a commune nouvelle in 2017. Known for Isigny AOP butter, cream, and caramels, the Cotentin and Bessin marshes, and its June 1944 liberation.
Ivry-sur-Seine
Ivry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne commune (INSEE 94041) on Paris's southeastern edge; 65,064 inhabitants in 2023; former industrial 'banlieue rouge' known for Cite Gagarine and the Gailhoustet-Renaudie social housing.
La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz
La Chapelle-des-Fougeretz (Chapel-Felgeriz) is a commune of about 4,700 people in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, near Rennes, in Rennes Métropole, known for a 2022 Inrap excavation of a Gallo-Roman sanctuary with two temples and a necropolis.
La Rochelle
La Rochelle, Atlantic port city in Charente-Maritime, France; founded 10th century, recorded as Rupella in 961. Known for its medieval towers, the 1627-1628 Great Siege under Richelieu, the Grand Port Maritime, and major tourism.
Langonnet
Langonnet (Breton: Langoned), INSEE code 56100, is a rural commune of 85.4 km² in Morbihan, Brittany, canton of Gourin; 1,930 inhabitants in 2023, home to the Cistercian abbey of Notre-Dame, later a national stud.
Larçay
Larçay, commune in Indre-et-Loire on the left bank of the Cher near Tours, France, known for its late Roman castellum (81 x 66 m, built about 256-270 AD, never finished), a reused mausoleum, a Gallo-Roman villa at Bellevue, and the Bléré-Tours aqueduct.
Le Havre
Le Havre, Normandy port city founded by François I in 1517; its WWII-destroyed center was rebuilt 1945–1964 under Auguste Perret in reinforced concrete and inscribed by UNESCO in 2005.
Le Mans
Le Mans, Sarthe prefecture in Pays de la Loire, France; ancient Vindinum, capital of the Cenomani, with 320–360 AD Roman walls, Plantagenêt old town, and the 13.629 km 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit; 146,249 inhabitants in 2023.
Le Mesge
Le Mesge is a commune in the Somme, Hauts-de-France, France (INSEE 80535, pop. 180), known for one of the largest Gallo-Roman villas found by Roger Agache's aerial survey and a royal villa donated by Childebert III to Amiens cathedral.
Le Ronssoy
Le Ronssoy is a rural commune in the Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France (INSEE 80679), near the Hindenburg Line; 577 inhabitants (2023), 751 ha, taken by British III Corps on 18 September 1918.
Lille
Lille, known in Dutch as Rijsel, is a city in northern France near the Belgian border, the prefecture of the Nord department and center of the Lille European Metropolis.
Limetz-Villez
Limetz-Villez is a Yvelines commune (INSEE 78337) on the Seine and Epte at the Île-de-France–Normandy border, known for its Gallo-Roman villa with hypocaust baths, 12th-century church, and links to Monet and Girodon.
Lisieux
Lisieux, commune in Calvados, Normandy (19,645 inhabitants in 2023), is France's second pilgrimage site after Lourdes, centered on Sainte-Thérèse: her Basilica (1929–1954), Carmel, and Les Buissonnets; two-thirds destroyed in June 1944.
Luzarches
Luzarches, a commune in Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, about 30 km north of Paris. Medieval market town and post relay on the Paris-Calais road; church of Saint-Côme-Saint-Damien classified 1912; population 5,008 (2023).
Marboué
Marboué, a commune in Eure-et-Loir (Centre-Val de Loire) near Châteaudun, France, population about 1,139, known for the Gallo-Roman villa of Mienne with its Steleco mosaic, used into the seventh century CE.
Marchélepot
Marchélepot is a commune in the Somme, Hauts-de-France, France, known for a Gallo-Roman villa with two nearly identical residences in one courtyard, a Magnentius solidus find, and a Merovingian cemetery.
Marne La Vallée
Marne-la-Vallée, a new town east of Paris created under the 1965 SDAURP with EPAMARNE (1972), spans three departments and four sectors; its Val d'Europe hosts Disneyland Paris, the region's dominant tourist employer.
Maubeuge
Maubeuge, commune in Nord, Hauts-de-France, France, on the Sambre near Belgium; founded around Saint Aldegonde's 7th-century monastery, Vauban-fortified, ceded to France 1678, rebuilt by André Lurçat after 1940 destruction.
Meaux
Meaux (INSEE 77284) is a Seine-et-Marne commune in Île-de-France, seat of its arrondissement, with 56,905 inhabitants in 2023, a Marne-river cathedral city, the Musée de la Grande Guerre, and the LREF road link to Roissy under construction.
Mercin-et-Vaux
Mercin-et-Vaux, a commune in the Aisne near Soissons, France, is known for the Gallo-Roman villa Le Quinconce with its T-shaped basin and painted décor, early medieval occupation, and the abbey of Notre-Dame de Soissons's lordship from 868.
Mézières-en-Santerre
Mézières-en-Santerre, a commune in the Somme (Hauts-de-France, France), canton of Moreuil, about 520 inhabitants, INSEE code 80545, mayor Paul Viollette, with a large Gallo-Roman villa called La Ziep.
Mont-Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel: tidal island commune in Normandy's Manche department with a Gothic Benedictine abbey founded in 966, UNESCO-listed in 1979, Europe's highest tides up to 15 m, managed solely by the EPIC since 2026.
Montreuil-Bellay
Montreuil-Bellay, a commune in Maine-et-Loire, France, on the Thouet: château founded by Foulques Nerra around 1025, Prieuré des Nobis (1097), collégiale Notre-Dame, Roman coin hoard, and a WWII internment camp.
Nanterre
Nanterre, prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department west of Paris, France; about 97,800 inhabitants, home of Université Paris Nanterre, the Sainte-Geneviève cathedral, and the birthplace of the 1968 movement, bordering La Défense.
Nantes
Nantes, Loire-Atlantique prefecture on the Loire in western France, historical capital of Brittany now in Pays de la Loire; 327,734 inhabitants (2023), former French slave-trade capital, shipbuilding-turned-services economy, tram network and Île de Nantes renewal.