Page 65 - Northern Spain & Portugal: Pilgrimage into the Past

forces landed in Provence. Paris was liberated in August 1944, and France immediately
declared full allegiance to the Allies. A provisional government then took power under General,
Charles de Gaulle.

After World War II, the Fourth Republic was created; it collapsed in 1958 under the pressure
of a revolution in Algeria. A Fifth Republic, engineered by de Gaulle, was formed, and under a
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disturbances were begun by student riots in Paris. In 1981, Francois Mitterrand was elected
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1988. In 1995, Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris, was elected president.

France made international headlines on the technological front in 1990, when its new TGV
(Train à Grande Vitesse) clocked a world record of 322 mph on a practice run. Today, the TGV
operates daily service between a number of destinations. In 1997, the world’s largest library,
the Bibliotheque Nationale Francois Mitterrand, was inaugurated in Paris, and in 1998, France
hosted and won the soccer World Cup, amid enthusiastic crowds the likes of which had not
been seen since the end of the war. In 1999, France launched the euro—the single European
currency—on prices in shops and restaurants (the actual euro bills and coins were introduced
in January 2002).

Despite its many modern advances, however, visitors can, for the most part, still see the
country’s past. The French preserve their old buildings well, be they the royal chateaux of
Blois and Chambord in the Loire Valley or the splendid cathedrals of Chartres and Reims.
The landscapes of France are captivating, from the rugged Pyrenees mountains of southern
France, and the snow-covered Alps farther north, to the luxuriant vegetation and posh
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Normandy’s beaches.
Two of the most appealing areas in France, Provence and the Riviera, are adjacent to one
another. Sunny Provence includes towns unmatched anywhere for their charm and beauty;
they are set in the craggy mountains from Avignon southeast to Aix-en-Provence. Just south
and west is the Riviera, stretching along the coast from Menton to St. Tropez. This is a region
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stylish beaches.

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