Picard language

Picard is a language or a set of languages closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. It is spoken in two regions in the far north of France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy) and in parts of the Belgian region of Wallonia, the district of Tournai (Wallonie Picarde) and a part of the district of Mons (toward Tournai and the Belgian border).

Picard is known by several different names. Residents of Picardie simply call it picard, but it is more commonly known as chti or chtimi in the south part of French Flanders (around Lille and Douai) and in North-East Artois (around Béthune and Lens), or rouchi around Valenciennes; or simply as patois by Northerners in general. Linguists group all of them under the name Picard. In general, the variety spoken in Picardy is understood by speakers in Nord-Pas-de-Calais and vice versa.

Recognition

Belgium's French Community gave full official recognition to Picard as a regional language along with Walloon, Gaumais (Lorraine), Champenois (Champagne) and German Frankish in its 1990 decree. The French government has not followed suit and has not recognised Picard as a regional language (in line with its policy of linguistic unity, which allows for only one official language in France), but some reports have recognized Picard as a language distinct from French.

Italie 13

Italie 13 (or Italie XIII) is the name of a large urbanism project in Paris which started in the 1960s and was interrupted in the 1970s. Its purpose was to profoundly modify the structure of some areas of the 13th arrondissement, mainly around the Avenue d'Italie which inspired its name. The partially completed project led to the creation of numerous towers in the south of the arrondissement, notably Les Olympiades.

Origins of the project

The Italie 13 project was one of the answers proposed by urbanists to the insalubrity of some areas of the city, mainly the 13th arrondissement which was generally considered to be "badly built". Raymond Lopez, the advising architect at the Paris city hall, and his assistant Michel Holley, considered this renovation to be an opportunity to completely reorganize those areas, in the spirit of the Athens charter and Le Corbusier. This meant that new construction should be tall in order to liberate more space at the ground level and to bring a better luminosity to apartments, and separating heavily traveled roads from smaller local roads and pedestrian areas. Other principles from Le Corbusier, such as surrounding towers with parks were, however, put aside.

Italie 2

Coordinates: 48°49′49″N 2°21′19″E / 48.83028°N 2.35528°E / 48.83028; 2.35528 Italie 2 is the name of a large shopping centre in Paris' south east in the 13th arrondissement. It features a Printemps, fnac and over 130 stores, most of which are based overseas. The centre is situated over 3 levels with one level being subterranean (bas), one at ground level (rdc) and one above ground level (haut). The shopping centre is the largest within the perimeter of boulevard périphérique, Paris' ring road that typically confines Paris itself and is an unofficial boundary. This is mainly because the only other places with a department store in Paris are not situated within a shopping centre with the exception of Galeries Lafayette Montparnasse which is situated in a small shopping centre of about 10 stores at the base of Tour Montparnasse.

The centre is situated on Place d'Italie and is above Place d'Italie metro station.

External links

(French) Italie 2 homepage