110-583: Barneville-Carteret ( French pronunciation: [baʁnəvil kaʁtʁɛ] ) is a commune in the Manche department in the Normandy region of north-western France. For many years it has been a popular seaside resort destination. The commune resulted from a merger of two communes in 1964: Barneville-sur-Mer and Carteret whose port has ferry connections to the Channel Islands . The inhabitants of
220-626: A "FamilyPlus" Beach. The town's seaside resort has been classified as a "Tourist Commune" since 1921. Together with Portbail and Denneville , Barneville-Carteret is part of the Coast of the Isles . Carteret is linked to Portbail by the Train touristique du Cotentin during the season. There is also a railway station in Barneville located between the town and the harbour bridge. Barneville Beach and
330-421: A "realm of 100,000 steeples". Parishes lacked the municipal structures of post-Revolution communes. Usually, one contained only a building committee ( conseil de fabrique ), made up of villagers, which managed the buildings of the parish church, the churchyard, and the other numerous church estates and properties, and sometimes also provided help for the poor, or even administered parish hospitals or schools. Since
440-477: A binding agent. Extracts from agave leaves are under preliminary research for their potential use as food additives . The sap of A. americana and other species is used in Mexico and Mesoamerica to produce pulque , an alcoholic beverage. The flower shoot is cut out and the sap collected and subsequently fermented. By distillation, a spirit called mezcal is prepared; one of the best-known forms of mezcal
550-445: A category currently being phased out), made up of 33,327 communes (91.1 percent of all the communes of metropolitan France), and 52.86 million inhabitants, i.e., 86.7 percent of the population of metropolitan France. These impressive results however may hide a murkier reality. In rural areas, many communes have entered a community of communes only to benefit from government funds. Often the local syndicate has been turned officially into
660-537: A commune for their administration. This is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions: Furthermore, two regions without permanent habitation have no communes: In metropolitan France , the average area of a commune in 2004 was 14.88 square kilometres (5.75 sq mi). The median area of metropolitan France's communes at
770-537: A community of communes, the new community of communes in fact managing only the services previously managed by the syndicate, contrary to the spirit of the law which has established the new intercommunal structures to carry out a much broader range of activities than that undertaken by the old syndicates. Some say that, should government money transfers be stopped, many of these communities of communes would revert to their former status of syndicate, or simply completely disappear in places where there were no syndicates prior to
880-406: A curved flower spike from which it derives one of its numerous common names – the foxtail agave. It is also commonly grown as a garden plant. Unlike many agaves, A. attenuata has no teeth or terminal spines, making it an ideal plant for areas adjacent to footpaths. Like all agaves, it is a succulent and requires little water or maintenance once established. Agave azul (blue agave) is used in
990-589: A density of communes as France, and even there an extensive merger movement has started in the last 10 years. To better grasp the staggering number of communes in France, two comparisons can be made: First, of the original 15 member states of the European Union there are approximately 75,000 communes; France alone, which comprises 16 percent of the population of the EU-15, had nearly half of its communes. Second,
1100-586: A different plant family and probably experienced convergent evolution . Further, cactus ( Cactaceae ) and stonecrop ( Crassulaceae ) lineages are eudicots , while aloes ( Asphodelaceae ) and agaves ( Asparagaceae ) are monocots . The agave root system, consisting of a network of shallow rhizomes, allows the agave to efficiently capture moisture from rain, condensation, and dew. In addition to growing from seeds, most agaves produce 'pups' – young plants from runners. Agave vilmoriniana (the octopus agave) produces hundreds of pups on its bloom stalk. Agave leaves store
1210-577: A ferry began service to Jersey . The small port was used as a shelter for fishermen during spring tide, In 1945 the port was enlarged with the help of combat engineers from the American 280th Battalion stationed in Carteret. Built on a hill and dating to the Middle Ages, Barneville is built around the church of Saint Germanus of Auxerre. Its architecture is Romanesque , and it was fortified during
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#17327840282571320-450: A hotel capacity of 151 rooms and 600 campsites. The summer population is estimated at 12000. Tourists are attracted by, among others, the marina (311 berths inside, 60 visitor berths, and 95 anchorages). Fishing activity is important and diversified in the fishing port: fish ( flounder , pouting , dogfish ), but mostly crustaceans ( spider crabs , crabs , and lobsters ). There are numerous activities: swimming and water sports, angling (on
1430-769: A massive merger of communes, including by such distinguished voices as the president of the Cour des Comptes (the central auditing administrative body in France). In 1971 the Marcellin law offered support and money from the government to entice the communes to merge freely with each other, but the law had only a limited effect (only about 1,300 communes agreed to merge with others). Many rural communes with few residents struggle to maintain and manage basic services such as running water, garbage collection, or properly paved communal roads. Mergers, however, are not easy to achieve. One problem
1540-592: A much larger territory covering 449,964 km (173,732 sq mi) and yet is divided into only 290 municipalities ( kommuner ). Alsace has more than double the total number of municipalities of the Netherlands which, in spite of having a population nine times larger and a land area four times larger than Alsace, is divided into just 390 municipalities ( gemeenten ). Most of the communes in Alsace, along with those in other regions of France, have rejected
1650-756: A primary school – Le Clos des Sources under the Academy of Caen. The Athletic Union Côte des Isles has a soccer team in the Basse-Normandie League and one in the District Division. Barneville-Carteret has featured in the following films: Located facing the Channel Islands ( Écréhous 12 km, Jersey 22 km, Sark 40 km, Herm 45 km, Alderney 45 km, Minquiers 45 km, Guernsey 55 km), and Chausey 55 km). There are 1578 second homes,
1760-581: A safe anchorage without the need to build a port. The village straddles the communes of Barneville-Carteret to the northwest and that of Saint-Jean-de-la-Rivière to the south-east. The Cap de Carteret is located at the end of the Armorican Massif and retains traces of the formation with Precambrian deformed granites and metamorphic schist , Cambrian folded arkose from the Variscan orogeny , and shale and armoricain sandstone from
1870-413: A small number of Agave species are polycarpic . Along with plants from the closely related genera Yucca , Hesperoyucca , and Hesperaloe , various Agave species are popular ornamental plants in hot, dry climates, as they require very little supplemental water to survive. Most Agave species grow very slowly. Some Agave species are known by the common name "century plant". Maguey
1980-485: A tower Argent port and windows masoned in Sable surmounted by 4 fusils in fess Argent. List of Successive Mayors The Municipal council is made up of 19 members including a Mayor and 5 deputies. Barneville-Carteret has twinning associations with: In 2017 the commune had 2,231 inhabitants. In the table and graph below, population data before 1964 refer to the former commune of Barneville. The commune has
2090-621: Is tequila . A. tequilana or A. tequilana var. azul is used in the production of tequila. A. angustifolia is widely used in the production of mezcal and pulque , though at least 10 other Agave species are also known to be used for this. Agave can be used as the raw material for industrial production of fructans as a prebiotic dietary fiber . Agave contains fructooligosaccharides, which are naturally occurring oligosaccharides that support safely subjecting peanut-allergic people to allergen immunotherapy. Resulting from its natural habitat in stressful environments, agave
2200-717: Is 35 km (14 sq mi); and in Germany , the majority of Länder have communes ( Gemeinden ) with a median area above 15 km (5.8 sq mi). Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany were the only places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of France's overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards. They usually group into
2310-407: Is 84.42% which varies only by about 2-3% throughout the year. The commune is served all year by two services operated by Manéo: An extra service is provided in summer: In festival periods on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, it is possible to go from Portbail to the centre of Carteret on the Train touristique du Cotentin . The nearest main railway is 29 km away at Valognes which
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#17327840282572420-563: Is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas . The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves . Many plants in this genus may be considered perennial , because they require several to many years to mature and flower. However, most Agave species are more accurately described as monocarpic rosettes or multiannuals, since each individual rosette flowers only once and then dies;
2530-465: Is a Spanish word that refers to all of the large-leafed plants in the Asparagaceae family, including agaves and yuccas. Maguey flowers are eaten in many indigenous culinary traditions of Mesoamerica. The succulent leaves of most Agave species have sharp marginal teeth, an extremely sharp terminal spine , and are very fibrous inside. The stout stem is usually extremely short, which may make
2640-604: Is a level of administrative division in the French Republic . French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes . Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage
2750-608: Is quiet out of season but experiences heavy traffic during the summer. The resort area spreads into the neighbouring town of Saint-Jean-de-la-Rivière, which was built on an ancient sand dune. Like the Village du Tôt , this village is a small hamlet located on the road that leads to the mouth of the Gerfleur from the town of Saint-Jean-de-la-Rivière . Built on the edge of the harbour, it was once home to fishermen who moored their boats close to their homes. Carteret harbour allowed them
2860-671: Is record. They also held the lordship of St. Ouen on the Isle of Jersey. Family members assisted William the Conqueror at Hastings and took part in the Crusades alongside Robert, son of the duke of Normandy. "Three times has the Island of Jersey been rescued by the valor and sagacity of members of this family from the dominion of the French, events of unequaled importance in its history...." In
2970-627: Is served by the SNCF Mantes-la-Jolie–Cherbourg railway Barneville : The "ville de Barni" (Barni town) after the name of a Scandinavian person. Carteret : From the Scandinavian Kart (stony ground) and the Scandinavian Reidh meaning "anchorage". Barneville appears as Barneville on the 1750 Cassini Map and the same on the 1790 version. Carteret appears as Carteret on the 1750 Cassini Map and
3080-531: Is significantly different from other types of agave because it is higher in fructose and much sweeter compared to the rest. It is also the primary source for agave syrup , a nectary sweetener made for consumption. Agave species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera ( butterfly and moth ) species, including Batrachedra striolata , which has been recorded on A. shawii . Some species contain components in their juice which can cause dermatitis for some people. The ethnobotany of
3190-402: Is that mergers reduce the number of available elected positions, and thus are not popular with local politicians. Moreover, citizens from one village may be unwilling to have their local services run by an executive located in another village, whom they may consider unaware of or inattentive to their local needs. In December 2010 the law n° 2010-1563 regarding reform of territorial collectivities
3300-516: Is the only administrative unit below the commune in the French Republic but exists only in these three communes. These municipal arrondissements are not to be confused with the arrondissements that are subdivisions of French départements : French communes are considered legal entities , whereas municipal arrondissements, by contrast, have no official capacity and no budget of their own. The rights and obligations of communes are governed by
3410-669: Is the smallest and oldest administrative division in France . " Commune " in English has a historical association with socialist and collectivist political movements and philosophies. This association arises in part from the rising of the Paris Commune (1871) which could have more felicitously been called, in English, "the rising of the City of Paris". There is nothing intrinsically different between "town" in English and commune in French. The French word commune appeared in
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3520-670: The APG II system , Agave was placed in the segregated family Agavaceae. When this system was superseded by the APG III system in 2009, the Agavaceae were subsumed into the expanded family Asparagaceae, and Agave was treated as one of 18 genera in the subfamily Agavoideae, a position retained in the APG IV system of 2016. Agaves and close relatives have long presented significant taxonomic difficulty. These difficulties could be due to
3630-532: The Belle Époque when seaside holidays came into vogue. After the invasion of June 1940 the communes of Carteret and Barneville-sur-Mer became important sites in the Atlantic Wall . The fortifications of Barneville-sur-mer, Hatainville, Beaubigny and Carteret bore the codes "Wn 329", "Wn 326", "Wn 325", "Wn324d" and "R 612". Most fortifications are still visible except at Baubigny where it was totally buried in
3740-552: The Code général des collectivités territoriales (CGCT) which replaced the Code des communes (except for personnel matters) with the passage of the law of 21 February 1996 for legislation and decree number 2000-318 of 7 April 2000 for regulations. From 1794 to 1977 — except for a few months in 1848 and 1870-1871 — Paris had no mayor and was thus directly controlled by the departmental prefect. This meant that Paris had less autonomy than certain towns or villages. Even after Paris regained
3850-565: The National Assembly ( Assemblée Nationale ) passed a law creating the commune, designed to be the lowest level of administrative division in France, thus endorsing these independently created communes, but also creating communes of its own. In this area as in many others, the work of the National Assembly was, properly speaking, revolutionary: not content with transforming all the chartered cities and towns into communes,
3960-482: The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 by Francis I , the priest in charge of the parish was also required to record baptisms, marriages, and burials. Except for these tasks, villages were left to handle other issues as they pleased. Typically, villagers would gather to decide over a special issue regarding the community, such as agricultural land usage, but there existed no permanent municipal body. In many places,
4070-474: The Ordovician period. From Barneville to Saint-Jean-de-la-Rivière the coast is lined with sand dunes backed by tidal marshes. The commune is bordered by the sea. The construction of the port in the 19th century was accompanied by the diversion of the Gerfleur river whose mouth was located at the current port. The town has a temperate ocean climate with an average humidity of 84 percent. Its location on
4180-631: The United States , with a territory fourteen times larger than that of the French Republic, and nearly five times its population, had 35,937 incorporated municipalities and townships at the 2002 Census of Governments, fewer than that of the French Republic. The number of barangays in the Philippines, villages of Indonesia, and muban in Thailand also have a higher number than the French communes. There have long been calls in France for
4290-444: The mairies . These abrupt changes profoundly alienated devout Catholics, and France soon was plunged into the throes of civil war , with the fervently religious regions of western France at its center. It would take Napoleon I to re-establish peace in France, stabilize the new administrative system, and make it generally accepted by the population. Napoleon also abolished the election of the municipal councils, which now were chosen by
4400-589: The offsets from the base of the stem. A. americana (a blue variety) occurs in abundance in the Karoo , and arid highland regions of South Africa . Introduced by the British settlers in 1820, the plant was originally cultivated and used as emergency feed for livestock. Today, it is used mainly for the production of syrup and sugar. A. attenuata is a native of central Mexico and is uncommon in its natural habitat. Unlike most species of agave, A. attenuata has
4510-716: The prefect , the local representative of the central government. Today, French communes are still very much the same in their general principles as those that were established at the beginning of the Revolution. The biggest changes occurred in 1831, when the French Parliament re-established the principle of the election of municipal councils, and in 1837 when French communes were given legal "personality", being now considered legal entities with legal capacity. The Jacobin revolutionaries were afraid of independent local powers, which they saw as conservative and opposed to
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4620-551: The 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia , for a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin communis , 'things held in common'. As of January 2021, there were 35,083 communes in France , of which 34,836 were in metropolitan France , 129 in the overseas departments , and 83 in the overseas collectivities and New Caledonia . This is a considerably higher total than that of any other European country , because French communes still largely reflect
4730-512: The 1999 census was even smaller, at 10.73 square kilometres (4.14 sq mi). The median area gives a better sense of the size of a typical mainland France commune than the average area since the average includes some very large communes. In Italy , the median area of communes ( comuni ) is 22 km (8.5 sq mi); in Belgium it is 40 km (15 sq mi); in Spain it
4840-401: The 36,683 communes have fewer than 500 inhabitants and, with 4,638,000 inhabitants, these smaller communes constitute just 7.7 percent of the total population. In other words, just 8 percent of the French population live in 57 percent of its communes, whilst 92 percent are concentrated in the remaining 43 percent. Alsace , with an area of 8,280 km (3,200 sq mi), and now part of
4950-614: The Ancient Greek αγαυή agauê from ἀγαυός agauós meaning "illustrious, noble" having to do with very tall flower spikes found on its many species. The genus Agave was erected by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, initially with four species. The first listed was Agave americana , now the type species . In the Cronquist system and others, Agave was placed in the family Liliaceae , but phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences later showed it did not belong there. In
5060-406: The Middle Ages for coastal surveillance. The main shops and services of the area are here and there is a market on Saturday. In the street below the town the remains of medieval walls that protected the city and seaside can be visited with a view of Cartaret harbour, the sea, and the Channel Islands. Barneville Beach is a residential area consisting primarily of campsites and vacation homes. The city
5170-565: The National Assembly also decided to turn all the village parishes into full-status communes. The Revolutionaries were inspired by Cartesian ideas as well as by the philosophy of the Enlightenment . They wanted to do away with all the peculiarities of the past and establish a perfect society, in which all and everything should be equal and set up according to reason, rather than by tradition or conservatism. Thus, they set out to establish administrative divisions that would be uniform across
5280-502: The Région Grand Est, used to be the smallest of the regions of metropolitan France , and still has no fewer than 904 communes. This high number is typical of metropolitan France but is atypical when compared with other European countries. It shows the distinctive nature of the French commune as a geo-political or administrative entity. With its 904 communes, Alsace has three times as many municipalities as Sweden , which has
5390-444: The agave was described by William H. Prescott in 1843: But the miracle of nature was the great Mexican aloe, or maguey, whose clustering pyramids of flowers, towering above their dark coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over many a broad acre of the table-land. As we have already noticed its bruised leaves afforded a paste from which paper was manufactured, its juice was fermented into an intoxicating beverage, pulque , of which
5500-499: The beach Barneville at low tide in the rocks or sand there are limpets , cockles , whelks , periwinkles , crabs, velvet crabs , and shrimp . At Carteret point it is possible to find Weever fish. There is also hiking in the dunes, golf, and horseback riding. Since 1993, the Foundation for Environmental Education has certified Barneville-Carteret (beaches and port) with a Blue Flag for environmental quality and since 2013 as
5610-452: The benefit of poorer suburbs. Moreover, intercommunal structures in many urban areas are still new, and fragile: Tensions exist between communes; the city at the center of the urban area often is suspected of wishing to dominate the suburban communes; communes from opposing political sides also may be suspicious of each other. Two famous examples of this are Toulouse and Paris. In Toulouse, on top of there being six intercommunal structures,
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#17327840282575720-461: The center of the rosette, the impression of the marginal spines is conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The plant is reported being hardy to −9.5 to −6.5 °C or Zone 8b 15-20f. Being succulents, they tend to rot if kept too wet. In areas such as America's Pacific Northwest , they might be hardy for cold winter temperatures, but need protection from winter rain. They mature very slowly and die after flowering but are easily propagated by
5830-532: The central government's calls for mergers and rationalization. By way of contrast, in the German states bordering Alsace, the geo-political and administrative areas have been subject to various re-organizations from the 1960s onward. In the state of Baden-Württemberg , the number of Gemeinden or communities was reduced from 3,378 in 1968 to 1,108 in September 2007. In comparison, the number of communes in Alsace
5940-410: The chartered cities) suddenly became legal entities for the first time in their history. This is still the case today. During the revolution, approximately 41,000 communes were created, on territory corresponding to the limits of modern-day France (the 41,000 figure includes the communes of the departments of Savoie , Haute-Savoie and Alpes-Maritimes which were annexed in 1795, but does not include
6050-535: The city of Toulouse chartered by the counts of Toulouse). These cities were made up of several parishes (up to c. 50 parishes in the case of Paris), and they were usually enclosed by a defensive wall . They had been emancipated from the power of feudal lords in the 12th and 13th centuries, had municipal bodies which administered the city, and bore some resemblance with the communes that the French Revolution would establish except for two key points: In
6160-532: The coast results in a strong sea breeze and frequent storms. There are significant seasonal variations in temperature and rare days of frost (7.3 days a year). The combined effects of wind and tides cause rapid weather changes: in the course of a day, sun and rain can follow one another within a few hours. The influence of the Gulf Stream and the mild winters allow the growing of Mediterranean and exotic plants such as mimosas , palms and agave . Average humidity
6270-464: The coast to Le Pont de La Roque . The commune is both a seaside resort and a port. The Port of Carteret is the present port of Barneville-Carteret. Sometimes called a "port of the isles", it is located on the right bank of the mouth of the Gerfleur River, at the end of Cape Carteret. A rescue station was built in 1865. The large pier and south mole were completed in 1880. In the following year
6380-496: The commune are known as Barnevillais or Barnevillaises and Carteretais or Carteretaises . Barneville-Carteret is located on the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula some 40 km south by south-west of Cherbourg and 10 km north of Portbail . Access to the commune is by highway D650 from Les Moitiers-d'Allonne to the north which passes through the north of the commune and continues south-east following
6490-544: The country: the whole of France would be divided into départements , themselves divided into arrondissements, themselves divided into cantons, themselves divided into communes, no exceptions. All of these communes would have equal status, they would all have a mayor at their head and a municipal council elected by the inhabitants of the commune. This was a real revolution for the thousands of villages that never had experienced organized municipal life before. A communal house had to be built in each of these villages, which would house
6600-464: The departments of modern-day Belgium and Germany west of the Rhine , which were part of France between 1795 and 1815). This was fewer than the 60,000 parishes that existed before the revolution (in cities and towns, parishes were merged into one single commune; in the countryside, some very small parishes were merged with bigger ones), but 41,000 was still a considerable number, without any comparison in
6710-412: The difference residing in the lack of administrative powers. Except for the municipal arrondissements of its largest cities, the communes are the lowest level of administrative division in France and are governed by elected officials including a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ). They have extensive autonomous powers to implement national policy. A commune
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#17327840282576820-599: The division of France into villages or parishes at the time of the French Revolution . (1) Within the current limits of metropolitan France, which existed between 1860 and 1871 and from 1919 to today. (2) Within the current extent of overseas France, which has remained unchanged since the independence of the New Hebrides in 1980. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes; even uninhabited mountains or rain forests are dependent on
6930-483: The end of the afternoon, following the storming of the Bastille , the provost of the merchants of Paris, Jacques de Flesselles was shot by the crowd on the steps of Paris City Hall. Although in the Middle Ages the provosts of the merchants symbolized the independence of Paris and even had openly rebelled against King Charles V , their office had been suppressed by the king, then reinstated but with strict control from
7040-480: The fact that there are pronounced differences in size between French communes. As mentioned in the introduction, a commune can be a city of 2 million inhabitants such as Paris, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or just a hamlet of 10 inhabitants. What the median population tells us is that the vast majority of the French communes only have a few hundred inhabitants, but there are also a small number of communes with much higher populations. In metropolitan France 57 percent of
7150-697: The false sisal hemp. A. americana is the source of pita fiber, and is used as a fiber plant in Mexico , the West Indies , and southern Europe. The agave, especially A. murpheyi , was a major food source for the prehistoric indigenous people of the Southwestern United States . The Hohokam of southern Arizona cultivated large areas of agave. In southern California and the Baja California Peninsula ,
7260-525: The foreshore of Cape Carteret at low tide are ideal places for recreational fishing. The popular and famous species in this area are: The commune has several buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments: A Railway Carriage called "Bruhat" No. BB44586 (19th century) is registered as an historical object. [REDACTED] The Church contains two items that are registered as historical objects: Communes of France The commune ( French pronunciation: [kɔmyn] )
7370-558: The form of a law on 22 March 1890, which provided for the establishment of single-purpose intercommunal associations. French lawmakers having long been aware of the inadequacy of the communal structure inherited from the French Revolution for dealing with a number of practical matters, the so-called Chevènement law of 12 July 1999 is the most recent and most thoroughgoing measure aimed at strengthening and simplifying this principle. In recent years it has become increasingly common for communes to band together in intercommunal consortia for
7480-548: The king, and so they had ended up being viewed by the people as yet another representative of the king, no longer the embodiment of a free municipality. Following that event, a "commune" of Paris was immediately set up to replace the old medieval chartered city of Paris, and a municipal guard was established to protect Paris against any attempt made by King Louis XVI to quell the ongoing revolution. Several other cities of France quickly followed suit, and communes arose everywhere, each with their municipal guard. On 14 December 1789,
7590-437: The kingdom. A parish was essentially a church, the houses around it (known as the village), and the cultivated land around the village. France was the most populous country in Europe at this time, with a population of approximately 25 million inhabitants in the late 18th century ( England in contrast had only 6 million inhabitants), which accounts for the large number of parishes. French kings often prided themselves on ruling over
7700-653: The law. In urban areas, the new intercommunal structures are much more a reality, being created by local decision-makers out of genuine belief in the worth of working together. However, in many places, local feuds have arisen, and it was not possible to set up an intercommunal structure for the whole of the urban area: some communes refusing to take part in it, or even creating their own structure. In some urban areas like Marseille there exist four distinct intercommunal structures! In many areas, rich communes have joined with other rich communes and have refused to let in poorer communes, for fear that their citizens would be overtaxed to
7810-552: The least money per inhabitant, whereas urban communities are given the most money per inhabitant, thus pushing communes to form more integrated communities where they have fewer powers, which they might otherwise have been loath to do if it were not for government money. The Chevènement law has been extremely successful in the sense that a majority of French communes now have joined the new intercommunal structures. On 1 January 2007, there were 2,573 such communities in metropolitan France (including five syndicats d'agglomération nouvelle ,
7920-414: The local feudal lord ( seigneur ) still had a major influence in the village's affairs, collecting taxes from tenant-villagers and ordering them to work the corvée , controlling which fields were to be used and when, and how much of the harvest should be given to him. Additionally, some cities had obtained charters during the Middle Ages, either from the king himself or from local counts or dukes (such as
8030-575: The lowest communes' median population of all the European countries (communes in Switzerland or Rhineland-Palatinate may cover a smaller area, as mentioned above, but they are more populated). This small median population of French communes can be compared with Italy, where the median population of communes in 2001 was 2,343 inhabitants, Belgium (11,265 inhabitants), or even Spain (564 inhabitants). The median population given here should not hide
8140-480: The main community of Toulouse and its suburbs is only a community of agglomeration, although Toulouse is large enough to create an Urban Community according to the law. This is because the suburban communes refused an urban community for fear of losing too much power, and opted for a community of agglomeration, despite the fact that a community of agglomeration receives less government funds than an urban community. As for Paris, no intercommunal structure has emerged there,
8250-466: The maximum allowable pay of the mayor and deputy mayors, and municipal campaign finance limits (among other features) all depend on the population echelon into which a particular commune falls. Since the PLM Law of 1982, three French communes also have a special status in that they are further divided into municipal arrondissements : these are Paris, Marseille , and Lyon . The municipal arrondissement
8360-486: The mayors. Civil marriages were established and started to be performed in the mairie with a ceremony not unlike the traditional one, with the mayor replacing the priest, and the name of the law replacing the name of God (" Au nom de la loi, je vous déclare unis par les liens du mariage. " – "In the name of the law, I declare you united by the bonds of marriage."). Priests were forced to surrender their centuries-old baptism, marriage, and burial books, which were deposited in
8470-425: The meetings of the municipal council as well as the administration of the commune. Some in the National Assembly were opposed to such a fragmentation of France into thousands of communes, but eventually Mirabeau and his ideas of one commune for each parish prevailed. On 20 September 1792, the recording of births, marriages, and deaths also was withdrawn as a responsibility of the priests of the parishes and handed to
8580-481: The most familiar species is A. americana , a native of tropical America. Common names include century plant, maguey (in Mexico), or American aloe (though not related to the genus Aloe ). The name "century plant" refers to the long time the plant takes to flower. The number of years before flowering occurs depends on the vigor of the individual plant, the richness of the soil, and the climate; during these years,
8690-417: The natives, to this day, are extremely fond; its leaves further supplied an impenetrable thatch for the more humble dwellings; thread, of which coarse stuffs were made, and strong cords, were drawn from its tough and twisted fibers; pins and needles were made from the thorns at the extremity of its leaves; and the root, when properly cooked, was converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The agave, in short,
8800-521: The north, cities tended to be administered by échevins (from an old Germanic word meaning judge), while in the south, cities tended to be administered by consuls (in a clear reference to Roman antiquity), but Bordeaux was administered by jurats (etymologically meaning "sworn men") and Toulouse by capitouls ("men of the chapter"). Usually, there was no mayor in the modern sense; all the échevins or consuls were on equal footing, and rendered decisions collegially. However, for certain purposes, there
8910-523: The number of communes in the process – the Gemeinden of West Germany were decreased from 24,400 to 8,400 in the space of a few years – France only carried out mergers at the margin, and those were mostly carried out during the 19th century. From 41,000 communes at the time of the French Revolution, the number decreased to 37,963 in 1921, to 36,569 in 2008 (in metropolitan France). Thus, in Europe, only Switzerland has as high
9020-404: The number of municipalities compared to the large and populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (396 Gemeinden in September 2007). Despite differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor ( maire ) and a municipal council ( conseil municipal ), which jointly manage the commune from the municipal hall ( mairie ), with exactly the same powers no matter
9130-631: The only partially successful statute enacted in 1966 and enabling urban communes to form urban communities or the more marked failure of the Marcellin law of 1971, the Chevènement law met with a large measure of success, so that a majority of French communes are now involved in intercommunal structures. There are two types of these structures: In exchange for the creation of a community, the government allocates money to them based on their population, thus providing an incentive for communes to team up and form communities. Communities of communes are given
9240-696: The original rosette dies. However, throughout the lifetime of many Agave species, rhizomatous suckers develop above the roots at the base of the rosette. These suckers go on to form new plants after the original rosette desiccates and dies. Not all agaves produce suckers throughout their lifetimes; some species rarely or never produce suckers, while others may only develop suckers after final maturation with inflorescence. Some varieties can live for 60 years before flowering. Agaves can be confused with cacti , aloes , or stonecrops , but although these plants all share similar morphological adaptations to arid environments (e.g. succulence ), each group belongs to
9350-403: The place of the former communes, which are represented by a delegated mayor and a delegated council. Between 2012 and 2021, about 820 communes nouvelles have been established, replacing about 2,550 old communes. The expression "intercommunality" ( intercommunalité ) denotes several forms of cooperation between communes. Such cooperation first made its appearance at the end of the 19th century in
9460-506: The plant appear as though it is stemless. Agave rosettes are mostly monocarpic , though some species are polycarpic . During flowering, a tall stem or "mast" (" quiote " in Mexico), which can grow to be 12 metres (40 feet) high, grows apically from the center of the rosette and bears a large number of short, tubular flowers and sometimes vegetatively produced bulbils (a form of asexual reproduction). After pollination / fertilization and subsequent fruit development, in monocarpic species,
9570-463: The plant is storing in its fleshy leaves the nourishment required for the effort of flowering. A. americana , century plant, was introduced into southern Europe about the middle of the 16th century and is now naturalized as well as widely cultivated as an ornamental, as it is in the Americas. In the variegated forms, the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe. As the leaves unfold from
9680-562: The plant's water and are crucial to its continued existence. The coated leaf surface prevents evaporation. The leaves also have sharp, spiked edges. The spikes discourage predators from eating the plant or using it as a source of water and are so tough that ancient peoples used them for sewing needles. The sap is acidic. Some agaves bloom at a height up to 9 m (30 ft) so that they are far out of reach to animals that might attack them. Smaller species, such as Agave lechuguilla , have smaller bloom stalks. The genus name Agave come from
9790-541: The populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. Communes vary widely in size and area, from large sprawling cities with millions of inhabitants like Paris , to small hamlets with only a handful of inhabitants. Communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes ( "lieu dit" or "bourg" ),
9900-529: The production of tequila . It is native to the Caribbean as well as many regions of Mexico like Colima, Nayarit, Jalisco and more. In 2001, the Mexican government and European Union agreed upon the classification of tequila and its categories. All 100% blue agave tequila must be made from the A. tequilana 'Weber's Blue' agave plant, to rigorous specifications and only in the state of Jalisco. Blue agave
10010-495: The provision of such services as refuse collection and water supply. Suburban communes often team up with the city at the core of their urban area to form a community charged with managing public transport or even administering the collection of local taxes. The Chevènement law tidied up all these practices, abolishing some structures and creating new ones. In addition, it offered central government finance aimed at encouraging further communes to join in intercommunal structures. Unlike
10120-790: The relatively young evolutionary age of the group (major diversification events of the group most likely occurred 8–10 million years ago ), ease of hybridization between species (and even genera), incomplete lineage sorting , and long generation times. Within a species, morphological variations can be considerable, especially in cultivation; a number of named species may actually just be variants of original wild-type species that horticulturalists bred to appear unique in cultivation. Some commonly grown species include Agave americana , A. angustifolia , A. attenuata , A. murpheyi , A. palmeri , A. parryi , A. parviflora , A. tequilana , A. victoriae-reginae , and A. vilmoriniana . One of
10230-489: The revolution, and so they favored a powerful central state. Therefore, when they created the communes, they deprived them of any legal "personality" (as they did with the départements ), with only the central state having legal "personality." By 1837 that situation was judged impractical, as mayors and municipal councils could not be parties in courts. The consequence of the change, however, was that tens of thousands of villages which had never had legal "personality" (contrary to
10340-469: The right to elect its own mayor in 1977, the central government retained control of the Paris police. In all other French communes, the municipal police are under the mayor's supervision. French communes were created at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789–1790. Before the revolution, France's lowest level of administrative division was the parish ( paroisse ), and there were up to 60,000 of them in
10450-669: The roasted hearts of A. shawii and A. deserti were historically among the most important foods for the Cahuilla , Kumeyaay , Kiliwa , and Paipai peoples, leaving ubiquitous archeological evidence in the form of agave-roasting pits throughout the region. The Navajo similarly found many uses for the agave plant. A beverage is squeezed from the baked fibers, and the heads can be baked or boiled, pounded into flat sheets, sun dried, and stored for future use. The baked, dried heads are also boiled and made into an edible paste, eaten whole, or made into soup. The leaves are eaten boiled, and
10560-406: The same as those designed at the time of the French Revolution more than 200 years ago, with the same limits. Countless rural communes that had hundreds of inhabitants at the time of the French Revolution now have only a hundred inhabitants or fewer. On the other hand, cities and towns have grown so much that their urbanized area is now extending far beyond the limits of their commune which were set at
10670-403: The same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them. In Réunion, demographic expansion and sprawling urbanization have resulted in the administrative splitting of some communes . The median population of metropolitan France's communes at the 1999 census was 380 inhabitants. Again this is a very small number, and here France stands absolutely apart in Europe, with
10780-591: The same on the 1790 version. The famed de Carteret family of the Norman nobility played powerful roles in English history. They held many possessions on the continent, the Channel Islands, and later, in the American colony. Their surname stems from Carteret, the stony anchorage site in Normandy. Guy de Carteret, a.k.a. "The Fowler", (circa 960-1004) was the first Lord of the Barony of Carteret in Normandy for which there
10890-482: The sand. On 18 June 1944 an armoured column of the 69th regiment of the 9th US Infantry Division entered Barneville and, after ten days of fighting, the town was liberated. The US military remained in Barneville and Carteret until autumn 1945. At Graffard mansion there were performances of the " Can-can " for the US soldiers. It was also the headquarters of the famed British 30 Assault Unit until July. Blazon: Gules,
11000-414: The size of the commune. This uniformity of status is a legacy of the French Revolution, which wanted to do away with the local idiosyncrasies and tremendous differences in status that existed in the kingdom of France. French law makes allowances for the vast differences in commune size in a number of areas of administrative law. The size of the municipal council, the method of electing the municipal council,
11110-420: The suburbs of Paris fearing the concept of a "Greater Paris", and so disunity still is the rule in the metropolitan area, with the suburbs of Paris creating many different intercommunal structures all without the city. Agave See text. See also full listing . Agave ( / ə ˈ ɡ ɑː v i / ; also UK : / ə ˈ ɡ eɪ v i / ; Anglo-Hispanic, also US : / ə ˈ ɡ ɑː v eɪ / )
11220-438: The summer, before the blossom, weigh several pounds each. Roasted, they are sweet and can be chewed to extract the sap or aguamiel , like sugarcane . When dried out, the stalks can be used to make didgeridoos . The leaves may be collected in winter and spring, when the plants are rich in sap, for eating. The leaves of several species also yield fiber, for instance, A. sisalana , the sisal hemp, and A. decipiens ,
11330-609: The time of the revolution. The most extreme example of this is Paris, where the urbanized area sprawls over 396 communes. Paris in fact was one of the very few communes of France whose limits were extended to take into account the expansion of the urbanized area. The new, larger, commune of Paris was set up under the oversight of Emperor Napoléon III in 1859, but after 1859 the limits of Paris rigidified. Unlike most other European countries, which stringently merged their communes to better reflect modern-day densities of population (such as Germany and Italy around 1970), dramatically decreasing
11440-473: The village of Barneville, behind the church, is the remains of a Motte-and-bailey castle which was transformed into a calvary that was called Mallet's Mound after the Mallet family of Carteret and Barneville mentioned in 1066. The square church tower from the 15th century has a parapet over a blind arcade which was besieged by the English in September 1499. Barneville and Carteret evolved into resorts during
11550-580: The world at the time, except in the empire of China (but there, only county level and above had any permanent administration). Since then, tremendous changes have affected France, as they have the rest of Europe: the Industrial Revolution , two world wars , and the rural exodus have all depopulated the countryside and increased the size of cities. French administrative divisions, however, have remained extremely rigid and unchanged. Today about 90 percent of communes and departments are exactly
11660-483: The young, tender flowering stalks and shoots are roasted and eaten as well. The fibers are used to make rope, the leaves are used to line baking pits, and the sharp-pointed leaf tips are used to make basketry awls. During the development of the inflorescence, sap rushes to the base of the young flower stalk. Agave syrup (commonly called agave nectar), a sweetener derived from the sap, is used as an alternative to sugar in cooking, and can be added to breakfast cereals as
11770-428: Was adopted, which created the legal framework for the communes nouvelles (lit. "new communes"). A commune nouvelle can be created by merger of a number of communes at the request of the municipal councils of all the communes or at the initiative of the state representative in the department (the prefect ). The municipal council of the new commune can decide to create communes déléguées (lit. "delegated communes") in
11880-623: Was meat, drink, clothing, and writing materials for the Aztec! Surely, never did Nature enclose in so compact a form so many of the elements of human comfort and civilization! The four major edible parts of the agave are the flowers, the leaves, the stalks or basal rosettes, and the sap (in Spanish: aguamiel , meaning "honey water"). The sap of some species can also be used as soap. Each agave plant produces several pounds of edible flowers during its final season. The stalks, which are ready during
11990-1053: Was one échevin or consul ranking above the others, a sort of mayor, although not with the same authority and executive powers as a modern mayor. This "mayor" was called provost of the merchants ( prévôt des marchands ) in Paris and Lyon; maire in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen , Orléans , Bayonne and many other cities and towns; mayeur in Lille ; premier capitoul in Toulouse; viguier in Montpellier ; premier consul in many towns of southern France; prêteur royal in Strasbourg ; maître échevin in Metz ; maire royal in Nancy ; or prévôt in Valenciennes . On 14 July 1789, at
12100-555: Was only reduced from 946 in 1971 (just before the Marcellin law aimed at encouraging French communes to merge with each other was passed, see Current debate section below) to 904 in January 2007. Consequently, the Alsace region—despite having a land area only one-fifth the size and a total population only one-sixth of that of its neighbor Baden-Württemberg—has almost as many municipalities. The small Alsace region has more than double
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