Like for example the lake of Der-Chantecoq or smaller, that of Naussac. Even if they have made it possible to create a certain attractiveness in these regions by attracting tourists, these lakes are ultimately only the utility of large cities. The Der-Chantecoq is here to accommodate floods in the event of a flood in Paris, Naussac meanwhile, is only used increase river flows, because nuclear power plants need a lot of water. Indeed, France has 19 nuclear power plants, a total of 58 reactors. Nuclear power represents 3 quarters of the electricity produced in the country and it is the second largest electro-nuclear producer in the world after the United States.
France was also a producer of coal although not self-sufficient. With basins major mining companies in the north of the country but also in the Massif Central. The north of the country has thus been transformed in certain areas with industrialization massive and the installation of mines and this, from the 18th century. The coal has finished disappeared and the mines closed leaving behind mining towns and slag heaps, that is, the residue of what had been dug underground. It is clear that this deeply affected those regions whose economy was centered on coal. However, the small mining basins were the most seriously affected, the older ones have managed to retrain. The north of France has thus seen the birth of many large distribution companies such as Décathlon, Auchan, Leroy-Merlin, Castorama, La Redoute
Other regions are still very industrial, Auvergne and Franche-Comté, this is due to a delay in the supply of jobs in the tertiary sector. While employment in the primary sector fell drastically in the 1960s, it had to cope with an increase in demand for labor in industry, which led to a very strong immigration. Algerians, Moroccans, Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, Tunisian, Turkish, Polish. Then later immigration from sub-Saharan Africa French speaking, Asian. In addition to this foreign immigration, France had to face the independence of Algeria in the early 1960s and the massive return of the descendants of settlers. We are talking about the repatriation of French people from Algeria, nicknamed blackfoot
About a million French people are displaced across the Mediterranean. To cope with this sudden increase in the population, large housing estates emerge in the suburbs of the main French cities. The goal is also that to eradicate all the slums. But these neighborhoods built without cohesion social will quickly deteriorate, and the wealthiest populations will be able from end of the 1960s benefit from social access loans allowing them to become owner. Thus, a new form of town planning has saw the light of day, that of housing estates. Then later, as everywhere in Europe, that of the upgrading of city centers.
In short, the poorest populations remain in the suburbs, which has created a ghettoization of these neighborhoods where people from the same social backgrounds live. This which led to incidents, notably the riots in the Lyon suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s. Then the advent of a culture of suburbs in the 1980s and 1990s denouncing the social situation. In 2005 will take place the biggest riots in the suburbs in France, which will make the social and delicate situation of these urban spaces famous internationally. Since then, the districts built in France have tried to integrate a social mix. In development, major infrastructures have been put in place over the years 1960 to develop tourism. Languedoc which is the passing coast for Spain has been completely restructured to create seaside resorts thanks to
at the Mission Racine. The most famous of the resorts is Grande-Motte, a town completely new, built where before there were only swamps. The goal being to compete with Spain and develop this part of the French Mediterranean to the detriment of the French Riviera. Also in the 1960s, the Snow Plan will be implemented, there it concerns the creation of many ski resorts and the modernization old ones, with holiday villages and all the infrastructures that go with them. France therefore becomes a country of skiing and each year, the alpine resorts attract populations of the whole territory. This ski development policy will be stopped in 1977 because questioned for degradation of the landscape
France, moreover, is a member of the European Union as a founding member, member of the UN as a member of the Permanent Council, it thus has a right a vet that she rarely used. Like all permanent members, it has nuclear weapons. But she won’t sign the non-proliferation of arms treaty nuclear power when it was created in 1970, it was not until 1992 that it did so. In the meantime, it will have had time to develop its technology, doing aerial tests first in the Algerian Sahara, then in French Polynesia. Then only underground tests. Which is sure to attract enemies, especially the environmental association Greenpeace in the 1970s. In 1985, France will not hesitate to carry out an attack on the Greenpeace boat when it
The geography of France (a second part)
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