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A well-known French seaside resort, the town of Royan (Charente-Maritime) - Nouvelle Aquitaine - France - was almost totally destroyed by bombs during WWII. In 1949 the government designated the town as a priority for reconstruction and Royan became a model of the architectural and urban culture of the 1950s. The program included the creation of the first Congress Center in France. This iconic building was inaugurated in 1957, awarded the "Heritage 20th century" label and was listed as a historical monument in 2011. In 2007 the town of Royan decided to rehabilitate the Congress Center which had undergone too many alterations since it was built, in particular due to refurbishments in the 1970s. The work was completed in 2023. Inside, on the 1st floor, you'll discover a magnificent fresco by Nadu Marsaudon, evoking the bombings that hit the city in 1945, as well as the maritime world, the sea, around fantastic female figures.
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France is affectionately referred to as "the Hexagon" for its overall shape.French history goes back to the Gauls, a Celtic tribe which inhabited the area circa 300BC until being conquered by Julius Caesar.The Franks were the first tribe to adopt Catholic Christianity after the Roman Empire collapsed. France became an independent location in the Treaty of Verdun in (843 AD), which divided up Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into several portions.The French monarchy reached its zenith during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who stood for seventy-two years as the Monarch of all Monarchs. His palace of Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors are a splendid treasure-trove of Baroque art.The French Revolution ended the rule of the monarchy with the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" On July 14th, 1789 angry mobs stormed La Bastille prison and began the Revolution in which Louis XVI, his wife Marie-Antoinette and thousands of others met the guillotine.One decade after the revolution, Napolean Bonaparte seized control of the Republic and named himself Emperor. His armies conquered most of Europe and his Napoleonic Code became a lasting legal foundation for concepts of personal status and property.During the period of colonization France controlled the largest empire in the world, second only to Britain.France is one of the founding members of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as one of the nuclear armed nations of the world.Text by Steve Smith.
