République Française (Republic of France) CVnU Location

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_France_

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#1  Edited By _France_
"Vive la France"

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe, with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three countries (Morocco, Spain) to have both Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines. From its shape, it is often referred to in French as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon"). It is a member of the European Union.

France is the largest country in Western Europe and the third-largest in Europe as a whole. It possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military, and political influence in Europe and around the world. France has its main ideals expressed in the 18th-century Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second-largest colonial empire of the time, ruling large portions of first North America and India and then Northwest and Central Africa; Madagascar; Indochina and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan; and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.

France is a developed country, possessing the world's fifth-largest and Europe's second-largest economy by nominal GDP. It is also the world's ninth-largest by GDP at purchasing power parity. France is the wealthiest nation in Europe – and the fourth-wealthiest in the world – in aggregate household wealth. French citizens enjoy a high standard of living, high public education level, and one of the world's longest life expectancies. France has been listed as the world's "best overall health care" provider by the World Health Organization. It is the most-visited country in the world, receiving 79.5 million foreign tourists annually. France has the world's fifth-largest nominal military budget, as well as (in terms of personnel) the largest military in the EU, the third-largest deployable force in NATO, and the 26th-largest military in the world. France also possesses the third-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world – with around 300 active warheads as of 25 May 2010 – and the world's second-largest diplomatic corps (behind the United States). France is a founding member of the United Nations, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. It is also a founding and leading member state of the European Union and the largest EU state by area. In 2013, France was listed 20th on the Human Development Index and, in 2010, 24th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

- Government -

As a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions, Frances constitution of the Fifth Republic, approved by referendum on 28 September 1958, greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic who is also the head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years),and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister. The parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. With a National Assembly representing local constituencies and who are directly elected for 5-year terms.This Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008. The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament. French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and now its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Since the 2012 elections, the executive branch is currently composed mostly of the Socialist Party.

- Tourism -

France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of the United States (62.3 million in 2011) and China (57.6 million in 2011). This 79.5 million figure excludes people staying less than 24 hours in France, such as Northern Europeans crossing France on their way to Spain or Italy during the summer. It is third in income from tourism due to shorter duration of visits. The "Remarkable Gardens" label is a list of the over two hundred gardens classified by the French Ministry of Culture. This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks. France also attracts many religious pilgrims on their way to St. James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées that hosts a few million visitors a year. France, and especially Paris, have some of the world's largest and renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world, but also the Musée d'Orsay, mostly devoted to impressionism, and Beaubourg, dedicated to Contemporary art. The brilliant beauty of the French Riviera (or Côte d'Azur), in south-eastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country. According to the Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency, it benefits from 300 days of sunshine per year, 115 kilometres (71 mi) of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses, 14 ski resorts and 3,000 restaurants. Each year the Côte d'Azur hosts 50% of the world's superyacht fleet, with 90% of all superyachts visiting the region's coast at least once in their lifetime. An other major destination are the Châteaux of the Loire Valley, this World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Nantes, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours, but in particular for its castles (châteaux), such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry and Chenonceau, which illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the French Renaissance. The most popular tourist sites include: (according to a 2003 ranking[189] visitors per year): Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Louvre Museum (5.7 million), Palace of Versailles (2.8 million), Musée d'Orsay (2.1 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Centre Pompidou (1.2 million), Mont Saint-Michel (1 million), Château de Chambord (711,000), Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), Carcassonne (362,000).

- Art -

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The origins of French art were very much influenced by Flemish art and by Italian art at the time of the Renaissance. Jean Fouquet, the most famous medieval French painter, is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance at first hand. The Renaissance painting School of Fontainebleau was directly inspired by Italian painters such as Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, who both worked in France. Two of the most famous French artists of the time of Baroque era, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, lived in Italy. The 17th century was the period when French painting became prominent and individualized itself through classicism. Louis XIV's prime minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded in 1648 the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture to protect these artists, and in 1666 he created the still-active French Academy in Rome to have direct relations with Italian artists.

French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of old baroque style, the works of court-endorsed artists Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style as Jacques-Louis David and the highly influential Académie des Beaux-Arts defined the style known as Academism. At this time France had become a center of artistic creation, the first half of the 19th century being dominated by two successive movements, at first Romanticism with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, and Realism with Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, a style that eventually evolved into Naturalism. In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting became even more important, with the development of new styles of painting like Impressionism and Symbolism. The most famous impressionist painters of the period were Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir.

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Second generation of impressionist-style painters Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions,[272] as well as fauvist artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck. At the beginning of 20th century, Cubism was developed by Georges Braque and Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, living in Paris. Other foreign artists also settled and worked in or near Paris, like Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Wassily Kandinsky. Many museums in France are entirely or partly devoted to sculptures and painting works. A huge collection of old masterpieces created before or during the 18th century are displayed in the state-owned Musée du Louvre, such as Mona Lisa, also known as La Joconde. While the Louvre Palace has been for a long time a museum, the Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station Gare d'Orsay, in a major reorganization of national art collections, to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century (mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements). Modern works are presented in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which moved in 1976 to the Centre Georges Pompidou. These three state-owned museums welcome close to 17 million people a year. Other national museums hosting paintings include the Grand Palais (1,3 million visitors in 2008), but there are also many museums owned by cities, the most visited being the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (0,8 million entries in 2008), which hosts contemporary works. Outside Paris, all the large cities have a Museum of Fine Arts with a section dedicated to European and French painting. Some of the finest collections are in Lyon, Lille, Rouen, Dijon, Rennes and Grenoble.

- Fashion -

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Fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the 17th century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses. The expression Haute couture is, in France, a legally protected name, guaranteeing certain quality standards. The association of France with fashion and style (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. But France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (French: couture or haute couture) industry in the years 1860–1960 through the establishing of the great couturier houses such as Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy. In the 1960s, the elitist "Haute couture" came under criticism from France's youth culture. In 1966, the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established Haute Couture norms by launching a prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing. With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH.

- Media -

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Compared to other developed countries, the French do not spend much time reading newspapers, due to the popularity of broadcast media. Best-selling daily national newspapers in France are Le Monde and Le Figaro, with around 300,000 copies sold daily, but also L'Équipe, dedicated to sports coverage. In the past years, free dailies made a breakthrough, with Metro, 20 Minutes and Direct Plus distributed at more than 650,000 copies respectively. However, the widest circulations are reached by regional daily Ouest France with more than 750,000 copies sold, and the 50 other regional papers have also high sales. The sector of weekly magazines is stronger and diversified with more than 400 specialized weekly magazines published in the country. The most influential news magazine are left-wing Le Nouvel Observateur, centrist L'Express and right-wing Le Point (more than 400.000 copies),but the highest circulation for weeklies is reached by TV magazines and by women’s magazines, among them Marie Claire and ELLE, which have foreign versions. Influential weeklies also include investigative and satirical papers Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, as well as Paris Match. Like in most industrialized nations, the print media have been affected by a severe crisis in the past decade. In 2008, the government have launched a major initiative to help the sector reform to be financially independent,but in 2009 it had to give 600.000 euros to help the print media cope with the economic crisis, in addition to existing subsidies.

In 1974, after years of centralized monopoly on radio and television, the governmental agency ORTF was split into several national institutions, but the three already-existing TV channels and four national radio stations[341][342] remained under state-control. It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory, ending state monopoly on radio. French television was partly liberalized in the next two decade with the creation of several commercial channels, mainly thanks to cable and satellite television. In 2005 the national service Télévision Numérique Terrestre introduced digital television all over the territory, allowing the creation of other channels. The four existing national channels are now owned by state-owned consortium France Télévisions, while public broadcasting group Radio France run five national radio stations. Among these public media are Radio France Internationale, which broadcasts programs in French all over the world, and Franco-German TV channel TV5 Monde. In 2006, the government created global news channel France 24. Long-established TV channels TF1 (privatized in 1987), France 2 and France 3 have the highest shares, while radio stations RTL, Europe 1 and state-owned France Inter are the least listened to.

Undeniably influential, France's overall cultural appeal continues to be at the forefront of cutting edge aristocratic popularization. Perpetually authenticated, the voguish culmination of France's generational appeal and style have undeniably served as the countries fashionable face. Attracting tourists from all walks of life while maintaining an intoxicating image.

{ This is a Location thread for the CVnU accessible by all for interactions and rpgs}

Disclaimer - Major Portions of this were copied from Wikipedia but altered enough for my satisfaction.

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arquitenens

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This is still new for all of us? Well, I like to think we're at least somewhat adjusted.

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Pyrogram

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Awesome :D

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Eternelle

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Bogeyman

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Nice ;)

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Pro_Nelson

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Noiiice

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Guardian_of_Gravity

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LEAD BY A SOCIALIST!!!!!!!11!!111!

Nah I don't care about that.

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Lady_Grimm

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Sweeeeet

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The_Ghostshell

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Feels like home.

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Guardian_of_Gravity

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I'd make a Scandinavia thread, but I have too much Cyberpunk in mind.

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The_Ghostshell

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#11  Edited By The_Ghostshell
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Eternelle

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@gambler said:

Feels like home.

It does, doesn't it?

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The_Ghostshell

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@gadai: What happened to her face in that av?

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Eternelle

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#14  Edited By Eternelle
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The_Ghostshell

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#15  Edited By The_Ghostshell
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Eternelle

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#16  Edited By Eternelle
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Grumpy_Cat

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I'll throw it into space.

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The_Ghostshell

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arquitenens

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Haha!

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Eternelle

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#20  Edited By Eternelle
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AmazingAngel

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#21  Edited By AmazingAngel

I'm calling it the Eiffel Tower is gonna be blown up in like a week.

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Pyrogram

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I'm calling it the Eiffel Tower is gonna be blown up in like a week.

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MasterMouse

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"You mean,LIKE THIS?"
*Detonates bombs that were planted in the Eiffel Tower"
Lol

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The_Ghostshell

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I'm calling it the Eiffel Tower is gonna be blown up in like a week.

lol with the same profound, "know one cares" as the Statue of Liberties destruction. whomp whomp

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arquitenens

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@gambler: *No one cares.

I'd help you stop them.

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The_Ghostshell

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@arquitenens: What makes you think I wouldnt be one of the people trying to blow it up :O

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arquitenens

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@gambler: Because Val Hunt would kill you.

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The_Ghostshell

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LIONS WIN!!!!!!!!!!

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AmazingAngel

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@gambler said:

@amazingangel said:

I'm calling it the Eiffel Tower is gonna be blown up in like a week.

lol with the same profound, "no one cares" as the Statue of Liberties destruction. whomp whomp

True, with how messed up the Prime universe seemed to get the Moon could get blown up and nobody would give two sh!ts around here.

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The_Ghostshell

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@amazingangel: Yeah it seems like we're all slipping back into those bad habits. Was probably inevitable. It is cool though to see all those new kids kicking ass in the Academy thread. They stay busy lol

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arquitenens

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That makes me feel bad.

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Eternelle

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@gambler said:

LIONS WIN!!!!!!!!!!

This is shocking.

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The_Ghostshell

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#33  Edited By The_Ghostshell

@gadai: First time in 21 years we've gone into DC and won :)

@arquitenens: We can pull a Scrooge and turn it around, its not to laaaaate

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Eternelle

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The_Ghostshell

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#35  Edited By The_Ghostshell

@gadai: Yeah not surprised. When you schedule scrubs you're suppose to win ;)

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AmazingAngel

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@gambler: I've glanced once or twice at the academy but still have no idea what it actually is, today's the longest I've been on the vine in like a month.

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Eternelle

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Lady_Grimm

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Everyone is talking about blowing stuff up and im stting here playing with dead people...lol

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The_Ghostshell

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Everyone is talking about blowing stuff up and im stting here playing with dead people...lol

Is that as fun as it sounds?

@gambler: I've glanced once or twice at the academy but still have no idea what it actually is, today's the longest I've been on the vine in like a month.

You making a comeback?

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Eternelle

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#40  Edited By Eternelle
No Caption Provided

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AmazingAngel

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@gambler said:

@gambler: I've glanced once or twice at the academy but still have no idea what it actually is, today's the longest I've been on the vine in like a month.

You making a comeback?

We'll see what happens.

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Lady_Grimm

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@gambler said:

@lady_grimm said:

Everyone is talking about blowing stuff up and im stting here playing with dead people...lol

Is that as fun as it sounds?

Blowing stuff up? Excitingly so. Playing with dead people? Not so much. lol

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Eternelle

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#43  Edited By Eternelle

This is gonna be fun :)

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The_Ghostshell

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No Caption Provided

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Eternelle

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The_Ghostshell

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#46  Edited By The_Ghostshell

@voleur: Chateaus usually are, but I concur :D

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Eternelle

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@gambler: Well that's generally a given, we've all seen pictures, but that one is top notch. And the photograph itself is beautiful, with the reflection.

Making that anything specific or posting it just to post?

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Laughingstock

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#48  Edited By Laughingstock

Nonchalantly eats French Fries while wearing beret...

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The_Ghostshell

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#49  Edited By The_Ghostshell

The Spanish created french fries I believe...

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Legacy_

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A game of thrones.