Wikipedia talk:WikiProject France/Archive 4

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Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
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Contents

Franks FAR

Franks has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.--Peter Andersen 20:11, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

What up dog. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blakeley (talkcontribs) 01:04, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Requested Articles

I've been doing some work tracking down frequently redlinked articles pertaining to France. My current project is putting together a list of Cabinet Ministers without articles if anyone is interested. Looking at what links to them should tell you which cabinets they were in and with which positions. Any of those would be a good topic for a new article. One I finish with the cabinet ministers, I may work on the municipalities and/or natural features still needing articles, just to give some options for people to work on. I'm also trying to sort the requests more specifically so people will be able to easily find articles they are interested in creating. matt91486 21:36, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


French territorial formation

I read somewhere that an article called Territorial formation of France is requested. I'm interested to translate and adapt the French fr:Formation territoriale de la France. Is anyone interested as well ? Franchute 12:34, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Just a comment: the French page still has huge holes in its information, especially in the Medieval and Early Modern periods.- NYArtsnWords 13:46, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Witch trial

Iv'e noticed that there is very little about French alleged witches on Wikipedia. If someone on this project is interested, it would be interesting to read. I cant specify any. Just a suggestion!--85.226.235.174 12:37, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

North Sea collaboration

The Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive has officially closed. North Sea is the current Article Creation and Improvement Drive collaboration. WikiProject France members may find that a relevant focus. I have refrained from rating the article pending the result of the collaboration. Perhaps a regular member of this project could find a place for the collaboration banner on the project page itself? __meco 22:32, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Banalites

This article about an aspect of feudalism could use some attention, especially in the area of sources. 24.4.253.249 02:34, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Need assistance with non-factual info being re-introduced to page(s)...

I have, on several occasions, edited out non-Lafayette escadrille pilots from the Lafayette escadrille page. I have shown and posted my source documents which are reference-grade materials written by the folks *in* the actual squadron.

What do we have to do to lock SaintAlban's revisionism off of the page? Am I going about the editing process incorrectly? Should I just conceed that Wikipedia really *doesn't* have accuracy of articles as a priority?

Escadrille Americaine 23:48, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd suggest you give up on the accuracy aspirations. Process (such as 3RR) is much more important than accuracy for many Wiki editors and admins. 24.4.253.249 18:38, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Sarcasm aside, the revert that prompted Escadrille Americaine's quest for assistance here was made by me. No sourced documents had been shown or posted on Talk:Eugene Bullard at all, no inline reference existed in the article, and the removal of the category went without edit summary. The user gave an explanation on my talk page, I acknowledged my error and indicated I wouldn't revert again. I think this one has been resolved. ---Sluzzelin talk 19:22, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

My Translation Project

Just a heads up, I'm working on translating the articles for the French nuclear power plants. Since I don't actually speak French, you may want to browse around and check my work at some point.

Navigation: Template:French nuclear power plants

Thanks! -Theanphibian (talkcontribs) 10:16, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm also trying to get the Template talk:Location map France to work for me, but I'm not having too much luck so far. -Theanphibian (talkcontribs) 10:30, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Opera (band)

A {{prod}} template has been added to the article Opera (band), suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice explains why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you endorse deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please tag it with {{db-author}}. User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:10, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Flag of pre-Revolution France

After some reading-up on the subject of flags of the Kingdom of France on various Wikipedias and the Flags of the World website, (not the most reliable of sources, I know) I realized that the notion of a national French flag does not really exist before the Revolution. Nevertheless, there are several different designs in use all over the project. I wrote a summary over at Template talk:Country data France.

There is a pair of naval ensigns officially used from the 17th century onward that seems to have been the de-facto flags of the French kings and therefore ("L'État, c'est moi") the flags of the French state of the era: (c.f. fr:Drapeau du royaume de France)

Variants featuring the greater arms include:

.

Using the plain white design to represent France might prove controversial, though, due to its likeness to the white flag of truce. So in the end, I suggest we use the fleur-de-lis ensign to represent France under the House of Bourbon where a flag is expected (e.g. conflict infoboxes etc.) It was in fact also the official national flag during the Bourbon Restorations [1] and seems to be a fairly well accepted symbol of the French state of this era. Being in the scope of this wikiproject, I'd like to hear you comments on this! --Himasaram 09:58, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Allegations of French apartheid

I suggest removing the label {{WikiProject France|class=start|attention=yes}}. The fact that the article was kept in Wikipedia (see Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Allegations_of_French_apartheid):, doesn't mean it must be kept as a part of the Wikiproject France. Teofilo talk 09:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Allegations of French apartheid merger proposal

Please go to Talk:Social_situation_in_the_French_suburbs#Merge_proposal_Allegations_of_French_apartheid_.3E_Social_Situation_in_the_French_suburbs and express your opinion on a proposal to merge Allegations of French apartheid into Social situation in the French suburbs. Lothar of the Hill People 20:18, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Honoré de Balzac

I just finished a major revision to the page Honoré de Balzac. Perhaps the project would like to review its rating (currently B-class).

Je viens de finir unu révision grande de la page Honoré de Balzac. Peut-être le projet voudrias vérifier le classement (maintenant B). (Je m'excuse s'il y a des fautes dans mon Française. Je suis seulment élémentaire.) -- Scartol 18:14, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Update: I'm doing another (more major) revision, after failing a GA review. I'll post another note here when I'm done. — ScartolTalk 06:49, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
I'm done. — ScartolTalk 22:51, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Request for suggestions

Hi, I'm putting together some images for a table on EU cities. I want to try to break from the cliché of landmarks or skylines, as it is on population I am trying to find some images that include the people of those cities and day-to-day life in that city. For example, the London images I've found are along the lines of the tube (everyone uses it and it is iconic), parks (a third of London is green) and markets. I was wondering if you guys knew of some good images that symbolise the people's Paris so to speak? Or at least tell me of something typical and this very much a part of the city, even if it is just like a typical street. If you know of something, please drop a note on my talk page. Thanks! - J Logan t: 12:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Emile or Émile Coué?

There's some disagreement on the Talk:Émile Coué page over whether the accent belongs over the first "E" in his name. I did a Google search, including a Google search of French language sites and didn't see the accent over the E, except in the French Wikipedia and Wikisource. If someone is certain about it (based on a really reliable source), please change it. The article name should be changed as well in that case. If the accent belongs, please leave a note on the talk page. Thanks! TryCoolCareful 01:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello. Though in French accents are optional on uppercase letters (there is no key for them on a standard French keyboard) the correct spell is É. In the Académie Française dictionnary, accents are kept on uppercase letters. You may add a redirect using template {{R from title without diacritics}}. — M-le-mot-dit (d) 10:57, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Cathedral naming conventions

Starting several weeks ago, User:HeartofaDog has changed the name of every cathedral on the List of cathedrals in France, from the normal French or even English name, to [City] Cathedral. For example, Cathédrale Saint-Jean de Lyon has been changed to Lyon Cathedral, Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Nantes has been changed to Nantes Cathedral, and so on.

The two problems with this are, first of all that in almost all cases the French name or direct English translation is much better known than his own self-imposed version (and consistant with Wikipedia:WikiProject France/Conventions), and secondly that what he is changing it to does not even make grammatical sense - it would be Cathedral of [City]. His edit summaries justify these changes with "usual English form of name consistent with comparable articles". The only reason that they are now "consistant" is that he has changed every one of them! Basically I'm looking for some consensus on this because it's going to take a lot of work to change every one back. Thanks Schcambo 17:35, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

You seem to be accusing me of some sort of vandalism. Yes, I have translated all of them to their clearest and most commonly used English language equivalents. I have also written a great many more, with comparable titles, to fill the numerous gaps. I see no mention of this issue on the Conventions page you refer to, and it would have been politer and more effective - in fact, more grown-up - to ask me directly about this before opening a general debate, especially phrased in the pointlessly and offensively aggressive way you have used.
In terms of an English language user, (e.g.) Lescar Cathedral is the obvious thing to call the cathedral in Lescar, not Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Lescar or indeed Cathedral of Lescar. We customarily refer to (e.g.) Salisbury Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, and indeed Chartres Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral etc - this is the usual short way to refer a cathedral in English, and scarcely "self-imposed" by me. I simply don't understand what this user means by "grammatical sense"- what is ungrammatical about "Lyon Cathedral"? And how - to an Anglophone - can (e.g.) Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon be "much better known" than Lyon Cathedral? (As Schcambo kindly demonstrates above by getting it wrong...)
The great majority of the French cathedral articles when I started this exercise were stubs taken directly off the List of cathedrals in France, which was itself then just a copy and paste of the list from the French language Wikipedia (I have translated it since and I think it is now far more useful). Obviously things with French names should keep those in English but things which translate naturally to an English language equivalent - as in this case, cathedrals - should do so.
So as far as I am concerned this is a non-issue and User:Schcambo's comments make little sense. But the question of how to deal with titles of articles on non-English subjects is a topical one at present, and I will be interested to see what other people have to say. HeartofaDog 18:37, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
The naming convention page specifically states that English names should only be used when the subjects are "most well-known by their English forms." And in the case of all the examples you have given above, the English name is not known at all. I would also like to remind you of your edit here, the main purpose of which was to change the style of the page from saying "Cathedral of Nantes" to "Nantes Cathedral", four times in total, thus ironically showing that the former is clearly the most obvious way in which to call the cathedral.
Finally I have not doubted the value of your contributions, which are excellent, but I do feel you have tried to impose your style on these pages. Schcambo 19:27, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
I regret that you continue to make no sense.
"And in the case of all the examples you have given above, the English name is not known at all."
What does that MEAN? You are surely not saying that "Lyon Cathedral" would mean nothing to an English speaker, whereas Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon would? Your assertion that the latter is somehow "better-known " and that the former is "not known at all", is meaningless. What is "better known" to an English speaker - "Chartres Cathedral" or "Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres"? I haven't moved that article, by the way, because it already has a viable English language title, "Cathedral of Chartres".
"I would also like to remind you of your edit here, the main purpose of which was to change the style of the page from saying "Cathedral of Nantes" to "Nantes Cathedral", four times in total, thus ironically showing that the former is clearly the most obvious way in which to call the cathedral."
For goodness' sake, you don't need to remind me of anything - I make all my edits while in sound mind and sober, I remember all of them and am happy that all of them are responsible! Your point is time-wasting: I renamed the present Nantes Cathedral, but not from "Cathedral of Nantes": it previously had the cumbersome title "Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Nantes", which can scarcely be anyone's "better-known" preference. Having renamed the article, I also updated the four references to "Cathedral of Nantes" within it so that they read the same as the title (they are also BTW slightly shorter as "Nantes Cathedral") - this is called "consistency", of which I happen to be fond, and which, until you popped into my world a few minutes ago, I had thought to be a good thing on an encyclopedia.
I am of course continuing to assume your good faith but your arguments are starting to get silly, and I am starting to get the feeling that what you are really interested in is an argument for its own sake. We have said more than enough for our respective positions to be clear to third parties, and I suggest we now wait for other people to comment.HeartofaDog 20:31, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
Footnote: To give a clearer picture of what we're talking about, the stats of the relevant articles that I've worked on since June:
Articles renamed from French to English (ie, Cathédrale Saint-A de X to X Cathedral) - 108
Articles renamed from one English title to another - 6 (of which 3 refer to the two cathedrals at Carcassonne)
Articles created by me in the form X Cathedral - 41 HeartofaDog 00:45, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
And to give some examples of where wiki style conventions are at:
Names such as 'Salisbury Cathedral' are mostly being used only when the the dedicatee is unknown or of little interest. More examples can be found here, note the cathedrals' real names are being used in all cases, and in the case of the French cathedrals in question, I don't see any need to cut these names, either. Schcambo 09:39, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

(outdent for clarity) Will somebody else please express a view?

(1) St Paul's and St. Patrick's are named the way they are because both London and Dublin have more than one operating cathedral - Westminster Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral, for example: please note the form of the name - and there is thus a need to distinguish. For this reason I have not renamed Notre-Dame in Paris, for example, and have distinguished the other cathedrals there, such as St. Louis' Cathedral, although as most are of different denominations - Ukrainian Catholic etc - I generally used those as more informative distinguishers than the dedications.

(2) Names such as 'Salisbury Cathedral' are mostly being used only when the the dedicatee is unknown or of little interest.

This is a completely ludicrous thing to say, and it makes it clear that you are arguing for the sake of it, without any grasp of or interest in the subject. It is simply untrue to say that (eg) the dedication of Salisbury Cathedral - to the Blessed Virgin Mary - "is unknown" and it is absurd on your part to say that it "is of little interest". Why is Salisbury any less interesting than Vannes or Nantes? The article is entitled "Salisbury Cathedral" because that is how it is "most well-known".

(3) I note the List of cathedrals in the United States. Now you please note (e.g.) List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom - Winchester Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, etc etc etc. All of these have known dedications, of equal interest to those of any other cathedral. It is very glib of you to presume that a cathedral's "real name" is whatever you happen to think it should be. They can be equally validly referred to in a number of different ways, depending on context. My view, as you have made me repeat several times, is that unless there is a good and specific reason for a longer name - as there generally is, for example, in large cities with more than one cathedral - the most useful form of name is the one by which they are most commonly referred to in English, which is the short form "X Cathedral".

(4) To keep this in some sort of context, the edits of mine to which you take exception were for the most part translating foreign language names which are rarely if ever used in the English speaking world. There is simply no need to refer to a French cathedral in French - we have the word "cathedral", which is an exact equivalent. I cannot think of a single instance where I have changed the Eng lang form "St. A's Cathedral, X" to X Cathedral", except for the two cathedrals in Carcassonne, where in the end I decided it was more accurate to distinguish between them on the basis of current use as the cathedral and the basilica.

(5) Before you make any more ill-thought-out comments please READ the above and try and think it through. This is taking a great deal of my time, and after your unbelievable remark about Salisbury Cathedral I am finding it increasingly difficult to believe that you are interested in a serious discussion of the issue. HeartofaDog 11:55, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

(1) Point taken, bad examples on my part.
(2) Maybe you should, you know, read the article? You obviously haven't noticed that this dedication isn't even mentioned in the lead paragraph! I mean, if something is that relevant then it should be there!
(3) You just don't seem to be able to understand this - the standard in England is to say X Cathedral - while the standard in other English speaking countries like Ireland, the US, Australia, or any other on this list: List of cathedrals, is to say Cathedral of St. A. In addition to all that, the standard in France itself is also to say Cathedral of St. A (please see fr:Cathédrales françaises.)
"It is very glib of you to presume that a cathedral's "real name" is whatever you happen to think it should be."
Well I'm sorry, but a) I'm going by the cathedrals' real, official names and b) I'm going by what the French themselves call them, not the English. And so the only one creating names is yourself.
(4) First of all, don't forget that you changed Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Nantes to Nantes Cathedral. Second, I am fully in favour of using English words in the titles (i.e. Cathedral of Saint X) but I completely against altering names in order to remove what they are rightfully and normally called.
(5) Now how about leaving this for others to comment? That includes footnotes. Schcambo 19:13, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
  • I wholeheartedly support the changes - the previous ones were a ridiculous blot on the landscape. How anyone can claim that the old titles were better known is beyond me. "Cathedral of Foo" is ungrammatical and should be avoided as a title. Consistency is also important. Johnbod 23:11, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Proposed merger

As many of you may know, Wikipedia:WikiProject French départements is currently inactive. I was wondering what your project might think of taking on that project as a named subproject, maybe changing the name in the process, so that it deals more specifically with France's overseas territories and departments. Those areas seem substantial enough to me to benefit from some focused attention. The areas in particular I am thinking it could focus upon would be French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, New Caledonia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Réunion, and maybe Clipperton Island and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands as well. Thank you for your attention. John Carter 14:02, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Request for help regarding citations on Dassault Rafale

Hey guys. A while ago I added citation requests to the article, and I'm not sure any of them have been actioned. Is there anyone here with an interest in French military aviaton who could help out? Obviously English-language sources would be best, but I think even French-language ones would be appropriate if the only other option is no citations.

The article isn't too bad, but I think it needs those citations added as a priority in terms of article development. John Smith's 17:55, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Project tags and assessment

Bonjour. Just wanted to give you a heads-up that as part of an article assessment drive for WikiProject Ships, I recently tagged all of the French Navy ship disambiguation pages with the {{WikiProject France}} project banner as well as our normal {{WikiProject Ships}} and {{WPMILHIST}} banners. While I do not generally assess articles for projects of which I am not a member, the instructions at WikiProject France/Assessment were very clear and concise, so I went ahead and marked each of the dab pages as having Disambig as the class and NA as the importance. Please let me know if you have any questions, issues, or if I screwed it up. Merci beaucoup, --Kralizec! (talk) 17:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Premier Gaou

Odd place to advertise for a song, but I just started the Premier Gaou article and would be grateful if any Ivorian/Francophone guy who understands the many slang words in the lyrics can help me out, and maybe add more info on the track before it became a hit in France. Thanks for reading! -Onomatopoeia 11:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Errors at Culoz

Just a quick heads-up about an issue that was raised at VPA yesterday. Back in May, an IP editor raised some errors with the Culoz article (and possibly other articles that may have been bot-generated, though Culoz was apparently human-generated). Anyone who knows the correct information for Culoz should check the article and correct the errors. Adrian M. H. 11:06, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I've corrected the infobox. — M-le-mot-dit (T) 13:17, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, that's great. Adrian M. H. 16:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

And I've added some info. from the Fr:Wiki Dickie (talk) 16:32, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

National Front (France): Problems with images

Some images on National Front (France) apparently aren't displaying correctly and I don't know how to fix. As far as I can tell, they haven't been deliberately removed. -- 201.19.77.39 00:26, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Request for help from French speaking editors

Bonjour ou Bon Soir. I apologize for jumping into a discussion page on France. We have a problem on an English Wikipedia article, Jean-Paul Ney, with two editors, one who may be Ney himself. Editors are using have highly inappropriate language, threats,and are citing personal web-sites and blogs many of which are in French. I haven't translated for awhile so I am not a good candidate to see if these sites are ok, that is to translate them, are what they editors citing them says they are and so on. The article could really use a neutral editor over there to take a look and maybe check some of these sites. I suppose this topic could be part of Wikipedia France. Thanks for your consideration. (olive 21:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC))

Here's a handy link: Jean-Paul Ney. Thanks olive! Dreadstar 01:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Lords of France

Imput is requested on an issue of translations of the words sieur and seigneur and on a proposed deletion of categories associated with them. Please see Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_October_16#Lords_of_France_and_subcategories. Thanks - NYArtsnWords 21:41, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Lost in France

Hi everyone As a relative newbie to Wikipedia, I hope I’ve been doing things in the correct way I have had some time spare to create entries needed as shown on ProjectFrance. During the last fortnight, I have created the following pages on the English Wikipedia from stubs of ‘Cantons of France’. Wailly-Beaucamp Beaulieu-lès-Loches Wamin Wambercourt Fruges Fressin Chérisy In all but one case (Chérisy), I have taken the French Wiki pages and cut & pasted ( translating as I go). These are all places I know quite well, hence my attempting them in the first place. If anyone has time, especially a native French speaker, to compare translation and content, I would be grateful. Thanks Dickeybird Dickie 15:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC) PS I’d appreciate any feedback – including negative opinion. PPS Is this where I should post this? It’s more like an email, really.

Rives, Isere

Hello there. I have created a stub for Rives and added your Wikiproject tag to its talkpage. I hope it's all right. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 11:06, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Reply from Dickie 12:22, 25 October 2007 (UTC). Yes - that's great. So, as I'm improving communes and cantons that I know well, I've done my treatment on your page. I go onto French Wikipedia sites and cut and paste from the edit of a page - You could do the same). Feel free to criticise, re-translate etc.
Thanks. Replied on your talk page. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 12:43, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Catalonia and France

Hi, everybody. I would like to have your opinion about some editions at Wikimedia Commons that tend to add to pages about Catalonia the categories "(...) of France". It is, as far as I know a nationalist attempt to state that Catalonia is split into Spain and France, I suppose because of the Roussillon. This way of categorizing is found by some Catalan nationalists as an alternative to just delete any allusion to Spain. The problem is that almost all the contents in this categories are about Catalonia, the Spanish autonomous community, and I find the categories confusing as they are by now. Which denomination would you find best to describe the French territories that nationalists claim as Catalonia, in order to categorize their images properly?

Only some examples: [2], [3], [4]

Thank you for your attention.--Garcilaso 19:43, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Anybody there?--Garcilaso (talk) 23:24, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
I would probably deal with it on a case per case basis. A "...of France" category should only be used for people or things that are related to or found in the French Catalan-speaking areas of Roussillon/Northern Catalonia and French Cerdagne. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 00:28, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

New articles page

Is the new articles page inactive? It looks like there is very little activity there recently. I made a semi-decent stub for the journalist Jean-François Kahn, but it probably needs somebody other than me to give it a bit of TLC. I intend to do something similar but even briefer for the cultural website evene.fr. Both have substantial articles on the French Wikipedia, if someone wanted to pick them up and run with them that would be great. Purgatorio 14:40, 29 October 2007 (UTC) I've added translations from the French Wiki page for M. Kahn - I hope it's OK ! Dickie 11:04, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Templates for french municipalities

Hallo, i write from Italy and i've got a question: I've found lot of "navigators" for almost all municipalities in Europe, excepted for France. It sounds like me very strange... Why this ? I would start doing some templates (but, of course, i can't do all) and then export to en. and fr. wiki (than they could be copied others interested...). Have you got some projects for template of navigation in french communes ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.11.15.62 (talk) 01:33, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

If you mean infobox by "template of navigation", then we do have one, at {{French commune}} and the French also have one at {{fr:Modèle:Infobox Commune de France}}. If this is not what you are looking for, then could you please be more precise in your demand. ChrisDHDR 12:54, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
There are also templates like {{Arrondissements of Gironde}} and {{Departments of France}} whicb I believe are referred to as "navigation templates". Kiwipete 09:15, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
No, i mean navigation templates for communes.... hmmm, for exemple, as this one in Germany: {{Cities and towns in Märkisch-Oderland (district)}}. Or others for Italy, Poland, Spain etc... I've seen that there's no one wiki with these. I'm askin'for that also in french and italian version :) Thanx
Due to the huge number of communes in France, it is impossible to make one template for them all, how ever there is a template that links to lists of the communes in all the départements, {{Communes of France}}. I think this is what you are looking for. ChrisDHDR 17:41, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Not really one template for 35.xxx communes, of course :) . One for every département.

A Wikipedia Ad???

Why not have a banner/ad for this project? I think it could be a good idea that would cause no halm and a lot of projects already have one (they just reached 100 ads). Even WikiProject Antarctica Highways has one. What do you imagine for the catch phrase and the design? I thought about something like this (the franglais adds a nice and humourous touch) but can't think of a background (any suggestions?.) ChrisDHDR 09:09, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Template made! Based on the design below but feel free to modify it. ChrisDHDR 17:59, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
Do you speak some Français?

Know a bit about le Culture Français?

Or are you just a bit Intéressé?

If any of these suit you ...

... join Wikiproject France today!

Centennial celebration of the French Revolution

I've come across a string of articles that refer to the centennial celebration of the French Revolution (without including a redlink like that!) but there doesn't seem to be a central article to bring the various strands together. A couple of examples:

I imagine there was a great deal of pomp and ceremonial - surely more than the typical Bastille Day. I've seen writers refer to the "success" of the centennial celebration (e.g. "the centennial and bicentennial celebrations of 1789 are only the most obvious signs that, to date, the Revolution has won out" [5]). I've also seen claims that in a context of political tension, with conflict between extreme nationalists (many of whom who saw the Revolutionary tradition as un-French) and left-wing syndicalists, the French government was involved in a propaganda campaign to emphasise the "Frenchness" of Republican ideals and the official centennial celebrations formed part of this effort (e.g. [6]).

This certainly seems a very significant event, at least on a par with the Victorian Jubilee celebrations (indeed, it seems to have left a more substantial legacy), and there's enough scope here (the celebrations themselves, the politics behind them, their legacy) for a potentially quite meaty article, certainly not one condemned to perpetual stubdom. Despite that, I've not found an English-language source specifically devoted to the centennial celebrations, just mentions in passing (there's much more on the web about the bicentennial celebrations, but it's hard to believe that in 100 years time they will be considered to have left as large a legacy as the centennial ones). I'm certain this is because the Expo draws attention away from the wider celebrations and their context: surely the Expo was just an aspect of the celebrations, rather than the centennial celebrations being part of the Expo? So maybe this could do with an article of its own. But maybe not, if it was effectively subsumed by the Expo. Since I could only contribute a pretty dire stub on the subject, and wouldn't really know where to look for better sources, I'm just posting here to see what better-informed people think about it. TheGrappler 20:21, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it would be a great idea to start an article on the subject. I think that the Expo could be considered as part of the celebrations since the Celebrations would of happened with or without the Expo and that they chose to have an Expo that year because it was the 100th anniversary. You seem to have the resources already but if you need any help, just give me a shot. ChrisDHDR 14:49, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
Unfortunately the sources I've found so far tend to mention the celebrations only in passing, generally as context to their main point. So I'd be synthesising from scraps, which is rarely the best way to produce an article! Probably I ought to try to find paper references - I don't have much on late nineteenth century France so I'll try raiding a library. I'll also have a look on the web for French language sources which are likely more numerous. I wonder if there are digitized newspaper archives dating back that far, and who would have access to them?TheGrappler 23:28, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Battles of macrohistorical importance involving invasions of Europe GA Sweeps Review: On Hold

As part of the WikiProject Good Articles, we're doing sweeps to go over all of the current GAs and see if they still meet the GA criteria. I'm specifically going over all of the "Conflicts, battles and military exercises" articles and just reviewed Battles of macrohistorical importance involving invasions of Europe. I believe the article currently meets the majority of the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. In reviewing the article, I have found there are some issues considering sourcing that should be addressed, and I'll leave the article on hold for seven days for them to be fixed. I am leaving this message at this project page, along with the other relevant task forces/WikiProjects to the article, since the article falls under this topic and figured you might be interested in helping to improve the article further. The article needs some more inline citations, an expanded lead, and uniform inline citation formatting. If added, I'll pass the article. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Nehrams2020 00:14, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

France Portal - Featured Portal Nomination

I have nominated Portal:France for Featured portal status. Please visit Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates (and specifically Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:France) to voice your support for the nomination.

Thanks- NYArtsnWords (talk) 17:45, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Hey all - Portal:France has become a Featured portal!! - NYArtsnWords (talk) 04:25, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Rennes-le-Château needs your help!

Rennes-le-Château needs some serious cleanup. In particular, it has perhaps the worst cite I've seen on Wikipedia in the last few years:

"An international spiritual ascension community has formed around what is regarded by the "new age" community as a strong energy centre in the Rennes Le Chateau region causing real estate prices to have sky rocketed in recent years" -- Cited as: "this is common knowledge in Southern France - the trend can be verified with a cursory reading of net postings""

See WP:VERIFY and WP:CITE for good citation style. -- 201.37.229.117 (talk) 13:23, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for bring it to our attention, I have added it to {{France tasks}}. You could, however, register an account and take on the task yourself if you like. ChrisDHDR 18:44, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Naval Troops → Troupes de marine

Troupes de marine was renamed as Naval Troops unilaterally, so there is now a WP:RM to move it back. 70.51.10.176 (talk) 05:10, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for bring it to our attention and the discusssion is now well under way at WP:RM. ChrisDHDR 19:28, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Pied-noir needs your help

Pied-noir "does not cite any references or sources." Tag added January 2007. -- 201.37.229.117 (talk) 15:35, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for bring it to our attention, I have added it to {{France tasks}}. You could, however, register an account and take on the task yourself if you like. ChrisDHDR 19:23, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Multiple place-names within train station names

See Talk:Châtelet – Les Halles (Paris RER)#Requested move.

The correct French usage per RATP website appears to be to use a hyphen without any spaces: Châtelet-Les Halles, Houilles-Carrières-sur-Seine, Le Vésinet-Centre, Cergy-Saint-Christophe, Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy. (See http://www.ratp.fr/ ). However, this image of an actual RER platform shows "Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy", using "space-en-dash-space" instead of just a "hyphen". So it can go both ways.

Wikipedia articles usually use "space-hyphen-space" or "space-dash-space": Châtelet – Les Halles (Paris RER), Houilles – Carrières-sur-Seine (SNCF), Le Vésinet – Centre (Paris RER), Gare de Cergy - Saint-Christophe, Gare de Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy.

Also, we are not clear whether to use "(Paris Métro)", "(Paris RER)", "(SNCF)", etc. instead of "Gare de". Can you weigh in on the discussion at Talk:Châtelet – Les Halles (Paris RER)#Requested move?

This should be clarified in WP:FR/CON. Merci beaucoup.--Endroit (talk) 19:04, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes needs you!

I noticed that the Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes has an inactive tag. I wonder whether WP France should take charge of it? For anyone looking for simple, repetitive wiki activity (a little like knitting), WP French communes is a great project. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 03:17, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

  • Depends what's required - I see that many départments have half their communes listed in red (i.e. they have no entry) - Does this mean creating (pesumably from fr:wiki) an entry for each - or is there an automated method that can create a stub? Whenever I have time spare, I copy and translate fr:wiki versions of communes in (mostly) Pas-de-Calais. I'm happy to continue with this. If my efforts could be made any easier, I'd be grateful for guidance. Should the inactivity tag be removed too ? Dickie (talk) 13:15, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
I wonder if perhaps the two should merge and make "communes" a task-force of some kind. --Kimontalk 16:59, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
Merge would be a good idea. In terms of the work, if you don't want to spend a lot of time translating a page, you can limit yourself to cut-and-pasting the info box from the French wiki, and then using Template:French commune, replacing "{{tableau comm|" by "{{French commune|". You will also need to add "|date-dens=" anywhere in the table, to anglicize the figures, and to add the right cats and fr: tag. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 20:25, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
I think Arts idea is best. If no objection arises in the next weeks, and all the members are notified, be bold and go ahead! ChrisDHDR 18:35, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Paris, "b-quality" article - commentary, critique?

I noticed today that, not only has the Paris article been demoted from its "good article" status, but it has been demoted from A-class to B. Could the person who gave it these ratings be so kind as to provide some commentary as to the reasons why the article was demoted, and what can be improved therein? This could give those interested some guidelines for future cleanup. Cheers. THEPROMENADER 12:52, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Were they Kings of France?

At the articles Louise, Duke of Augouleme and his nephew Charles, comte de Chambord, the content has them described as Kings of France (including their reigns). I thought they were never recognized by historians as Kings (accept for legitemist)? Would someone check out those articles, please. GoodDay (talk) 01:36, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

You mean "Henri, comte de Chambord"? john k (talk) 17:36, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Oops, yes I meant 'Henry, comte de Chambord'. GoodDay (talk) 17:43, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Louis, before he also signed an abdication, he was Louis XIX, but for only 20 minutes in 1830, which is why he’s never listed in ‘true’ lists of kings of France. According to a chronicler of the time, he asked ‘Let me reign for an hour”. His father (Charles X), who had just abdicated, said “You ? – certainly not !” Henri, comte de Chambord, again, was theoretically king of France, after his cousin, Louis, above. But in those days of Monarchism v Republicanism, the choice wasn’t just his. People and Parliament decided his fate. His intransigence regarding the tricolour led to his downfall. Before Parliament had decided to offer the throne to Louis-Philipe, Henri was in effect, ‘Henry V’ of France, for 7 days.

Some English analogies: The story of the two young princes in the Tower (of London), imprisoned by their uncle, Richard III. Had the eldest (Edward V) been killed first, then the younger brother, also called Richard, would have been king, in theory, until he was then killed. He’s never officially listed as a king, of course. There’s little evidence of their murders, either, but as they were never seen again, one can only assume… Lady Jane Grey was pronounced Queen of England by her cousin Edward VI on his deathbed, but ‘reigned' for only 9 or 13 days, before being imprisoned and executed. Was she a true ‘Queen’ of England? James Francis Edward Stuart and his son, Charles Edward Stuart had claims to be the true kings of England, as James III and Charles III. Again, depending on your viewpoint, the claims could be valid. But as with France, it was Parliament (the ‘people’) that decided on the Protestant line.

I’m happy with the approach of both articles. The French Wiki versions deals with the facts in the same vein and as with en:wiki, the two men aren’t in the formal lists of kings of France from 1804 - 1870. (Napoléon, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis-Philippe and Napoléon III). Dickie (talk) 10:26, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Even the Legitimist don't recognize Louis & Henry as having reigned as Kings in 1830. GoodDay (talk) 18:08, 19 December 2007 (UTC) 11 January 2008 (UTC)