Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille.
The Bay of Biscay, known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay, and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony, is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward to Cape Ortegal. The southern area of the Bay of Biscay that washes over the northern coast of Spain is known locally as the Cantabrian Sea.
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the Encyclopédie. D'Alembert's formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation is named after him. The wave equation is sometimes referred to as d'Alembert's equation, and the fundamental theorem of algebra is named after d'Alembert in French.
Hérault is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.
The Aude is a river of southern France that is 224 kilometres (139 mi) long. Its source is in the Pyrenees mountains then runs to Carcassonne and finally reaches the Mediterranean Sea near Narbonne. The river is navigable by raft or canoe for nearly all of its length. It is registered as essential to the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
Thomas Corneille was a French lexicographer and dramatist.
The French Riviera, known in French as the Côte d'Azur, is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from Cassis, just east of Marseille, to Menton, at the France–Italy border, although some other sources place the western boundary further east around Toulon or Saint-Tropez. The coast is entirely within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The Principality of Monaco is a semi-enclave within the region, surrounded on three sides by France and fronting the Mediterranean. The French Riviera contains the seaside resorts of Cap-d'Ail, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Cannes, Saint-Raphaël, Fréjus, Sainte-Maxime and Saint-Tropez.
Provençal is a variety of Occitan, spoken by people in Provence and parts of Drôme and Gard. Historically, the term Provençal has been used to refer to the whole of the Occitan language, but today it is considered more technically appropriate to refer only to the variety of Occitan spoken in Provence. However it can still be found being used to refer to Occitan as a whole, e.g. Merriam-Webster states that it can be used to refer to general Occitan, though this is going out of use.
The mistral is a strong, cold, northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into the Gulf of Lion in the northern Mediterranean. It produces sustained winds often exceeding 66 km/h, sometimes reaching 185 km/h. It is most common in the winter and spring, and strongest in the transition between the two seasons. Periods of the wind exceeding 30 km/h for more than sixty-five hours have been reported.
Occitania is the historical region in Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is occasionally used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France as well as part of Spain, Monaco, and parts of Italy.
Jacques Nicolas Bellin was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes.
Mistral (L9013) is an amphibious assault ship, a type of helicopter carrier, of the French Navy. She is the fourth vessel to bear the name, and is the lead ship of the Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.
Roquemaure is a small town and commune in the Gard department of southern France. The town lies 12 kilometres north of Avignon on the right bank of the Rhône. In 2017 the commune had a population of 5,481.
Tramontane is a classical name for a northern wind. The exact form of the name and precise direction varies from country to country. The word came to English from Italian tramontana, which developed from Latin trānsmontānus, "beyond/across the mountains", referring to the Alps in the North of Italy. The word has other non-wind-related senses: it can refer to anything that comes from, or anyone who lives on, the other side of mountains, or even more generally, anything seen as foreign, strange, or even barbarous.
Antoine Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., a French Benedictine monk, was born at Ménil-la-Horgne, then in the Duchy of Bar, part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Sainte-Maxime is a commune in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, 90 km (56 mi) west from Nice and 130 km (81 mi) east from Marseille, it had a population of 13,968 in 2017. Its inhabitants are called Maximois or Maximoises in French.
Le Cailar is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. It is located at the confluence of the River Vistre and the River Rhôny. It was an important port during the Iron Age at a time when lagoons connected to the Mediterranean Sea covered the adjoining low-lying land.
Pierre Tarin (1725–1761) was a French doctor, writer, and translator, born in Courtenay. He is best known for his contributions to Encyclopédie by Diderot and D'Alembert.
Émile Ripert (1882–1948) was a French academic, poet, novelist and playwright. He served as the inaugural Chair of Provençal Language and Literature at Aix-Marseille University. He was the author of three novels, four poetry collections, three plays and five non-fiction books about Provençal culture.
Jacques Montet was an 18th-century French pharmacist, chemist and encyclopediste.
