1. Ile de France Madame Gallaspie 2008

2. LÎle de France

3. LÎle-de-France The original name of this area was Pays de France. – Pays evolved to mean nation – Change to île around 1387 Lîle-de-France can be viewed as an island delimited by the Oise, Seine, Marne, and Ourcq rivers.

6. Villes principales Paris Meaux Marne-la-Vallée Melun Fontainebleau Chartres Versailles Giverny

7. Paris

8. Paris was originally a small fishing village prone to flooding. The Romans invaded and controlled this area in 52 B.C. Romans named the city Lutecia which means marshy place. Paris is about 41 square miles big. (New York City is 321 miles in size; Cincinnati is 79.6 miles in size.)

9. La Tour Eiffel The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution.

10. At 300 metres (320.75m including antenna), and 7000 tons, it was the world's tallest building until 1930.

11. La Tour Eiffel was almost torn down in 1909, but was saved because of its antenna - used for telegraphy at that time.

12. Kings Island Our Eiffel Tower is only one third of the size of the original Tour Eiffel in Paris

13. Paris – Ile de la Cité is known as the cradle of Paris.

14. Notre Dame de Paris

15. The construction began in 1163 when Louis VII was king of France. The towers were completed around 1245, and the cathedral was completed around 1345. Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress, the arched exterior supports.

16. Notre Dame de Paris The setting of The Hunch Back of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

17. Paris – la Seine The second longest river in France, the Seine divides Paris into the left and right banks.

18. Paris – la Seine un bateau mouche

19. Paris - Le jardin du Luxembourg This 55 acre park was designed in 1612. The palace was built for Marie de Medicis, mother to Louis XIII.

20. Paris – Le jardin du Luxembourg

21. Paris - Le Centre Pompidou http://www.cnac-gp.fr/ http://www.cnac-gp.fr/ This modern art museum, named after French president Georges Pompidou, was constructed in 1977.

22. The critics have described the design of Pompidou museum as an oil refinery in the centre of the city.

23. La fontaine Stravinsky Paris – Centre Pompidou

26. Meaux

27. Meaux - Le fromage

28. Meaux – le fromage

32. Au Parc Astérix

34. Le Parc Astérix

36. Marne-la-Vallée

38. Marne-la-Vallée 1914 World War I September – 1914 A fleet of 600 taxi cabs transported French soldiers to the battlefield outside Paris.

39. Un taxi de la Marne

40. La Bataille de la Marne

42. Le château de Vaux-le-Vicomte près de Melun This château dates from the 17 th century.

43. Le château de Vaux-le-Vicomte près de Melun

44. Fontainebleau

46. Fontainebleau is renowned for its large and scenic forests and was once the favorite hunting spot for French nobles. Located only 34 miles from Paris, Fontainebleau is now a favorite week-end trip for Parisians and tourists.

47. Fontainebleau

50. Fontainebleau Adieux de Napoléon

51. Chartres

52. Chartres – la ville

53. Notre Dame de Chartres Constructed between 1194 and 1220, this Gothic church is famous for its architecture, sculpture and stained glass.

54. Larchitecture gothique

56. Le style gothique

57. Larchitecture gothique

60. A Versailles

62. Versailles The official residence of King Louis XIV, the Sun King who ruled France from 1643 to his death on Sept. 1, 1715.

63. Reception of Le Grand Condé at Versailles, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1878)

64. He was only five when he became king on the death of his father, Louis XIII.

65. Versailles The Hall of Mirrors (La Galerie des Glaces)

66. Versailles In 1919, the First World War officially ended when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors.

67. A Giverny

68. Giverny

69. Giverny – une photo