text:
Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (settlements)/Archive 4

Untitled
What's up with the subject page? I thought we worked out that we would use commas when needed, disambiguate US cites in the [City, State] format, Canadian ones in the [City, Province] format and most other cities in the [City, Nation] format (all of course only when needed). The current subject page says nothing of this. Please redo the main page to be similar to the movie naming convention which is disambiguation based and is only used when ambiguites exist (therefore it is a set of guidelines on how to disambiguate -- which is what I thought we agreed to). --mav

 * I wanted to, but some details aren't worked out yet. Therefore, I wanted to discuss that here first. For example, the USA/Canada thing was agreed on, but do we always disambiguated a city like [City, State], even if all other cities are abroad? To prevent a load of commments when I put it as a "policy" page, I wanted to talk about it here first. What is on the page right now is the _only_ thing that is absolute clear after the vote, at least as far as I'm concerned. The rest is just details, but details also count. Jeronimo

 * Jeronimo, by your own comments we have only agreed on two issues 1. Don't disambiguate pre-emptively, and 2. Use commas instead of parentheses. That should have gone on the revised subject page.  Your comments also seem to suggest agreement on the default [City, Country] format as well as the [City, State/Province] for USA and Canada, but a reference to the vote on these points is completely missing.  I know that this entire discussion has been very messy, and I may be saying the same thing as Mav by asking that the subject page should at least include th points on which we have come to an agreement.  A clearly identified listing of items still under discussion would be optional. Eclecticology 12:09 Aug 18, 2002 (PDT)

Yes, the second issue was voted on, but still contains several points that are not clear enough to put this on the subject page (IMO), and these details were not included in the vote. It has been reasonably well established that the [City, State/Province] format is the natural English language disambiguator for cities in these countries; there's been enough input from US/Canadian wikipedians for that, and I can support the format as well, having read enough texts where the format appears. If you feel there's an agreement on more points: go ahead and add it. I won't, because I'm not sure what the agreement is exactly on. Jeronimo

I cannot figure out what this means: "If the two cities are within the same country, use the common local disambiguator for that nation in English language, or for that country if none available." Can someone help me? Does "if none available" mean "if there isn't one in English"? What does "or for that country if none available" have us doing? Vicki Rosenzweig

What I meant to say, but didn't was: An example of the second could be Frankfurt-am-Main and Frankfurt-am-Oder, which the Germans use to distinguish between the two cities of Frankfurt. Jeronimo
 * if there's a natural English disambiguator, use it
 * if there is no such one, but a natural disambiguator used in that country, use it

It's "Frankfurt-an-der-Oder", or better still why not the accepted English versions "Frankfurt on the Main" and "Frankfurt on the Oder" Eclecticology 10:16 Aug 23, 2002 (PDT)

Because if I'm looking for a foreign city I would search for that country's spelling convention (if I knew it). Of course, in this example I would probably search only for "Frankfurt"... At any rate, for the Wikipedia to be complete the native spelling should exist, at least as a re-direct. But then there's the counter-example where an English version of a city name is more common than the foreign country's spelling, eg. "The Hague" vs. "Den Haag"... Bob Jonkman bjonkman@sobac.com

We have a longstanding convention (not always a favourite of mine) to use common English spellings in favour of local spellings for placenames. That really goes beyond the convention on this page, since it applies to far more than just cities, and you could take it up at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (anglicization) if you wish. You're certainly right, however, that redirects with alternative names are a good idea. — Toby 06:08 Sep 20, 2002 (UTC)

I'm all for disambiguating city names when necessary. I would suggest beginning any city entry as a disambiguation page (unless we're sure the city is the only one with its name, which is possible) and then going to city, State or city, country from there. JHK

I'm starting to get confused again. I thought we had decided that all U.S. cities would be in the [City, State] format; now it seems that this only happens when disambiguation is necessary. Being in favor of the second, I would not mind, but it does means I have misunderstood the question when answering it; maybe others have as well.

I personally am in favor of 'necessary level', but if the other is chosen, then please take a better way of stating it than 'natural disambiguator for each country' - because to me that sounds like we should use some disambiguator within each country, rather than having the country itself being a possible disambiguator. Only when the example was given, did I understand what was meant. Furthermore, I would favor having the possibility of using different levels of ambiguation within one country where appropriate - using a courser disambiguation when possible, a finer one when necessary.Andre Engels

 * I think soom people don't have a clear idea about what a "natural" disambiguator is. For me a natural disambiguator is one that is a part of the name itself.  Thus "City" in New York City or Oklahoma City or Mexico City would be a natural disambiguator, but it doesn't work with Kansas City. Eclecticology

 * some countries already have internal disambiguators, which result in the full city name being unique. "Kansas City" is precisely that: it's a local disambiguator to distinguish it from the state of "Kansas". Other examples: the two Frankfurts in Germany; all the places called Neuilly in France (which end up as "Neuilly-sur-Seine" for example). Also "Hull" in England, which shares its name with other places until we give it its full name, Kingston upon Hull. (reading the page Kansas City I see there are two Kansas Cities... the plot thickens) -- Tarquin

 * The two "Kansas City"s are distinguished by what has always seemed to me to be their full names, "Kansas City, Kansas" and "Kansas City, Missouri". This is why I like having commas in the names of US cities; I just didn't like assuming that every other country did things the same way, when Germany, France, and England, at least, do not. (For the thickening of plots, however, note that mav, although as American as I, never saw the "Missouri" as part of Kansas City's full name.) — Toby 10:44 Sep 22, 2002 (UTC)

FWIW, a discussion on the topic of city disambiguation has occured at WikiProject Cities. There are a *lot* of cities. It was easiest to make every city into the format "City, State" for U.S. cities. This makes for standard naming for all cities (in the U.S.). There was the additional problem of more than one "City, State" name. These are disambiguated by "City, County, State", e.g. Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. -- Ram-Man

Just to be difficult, I have 2 exceptions in New Zealand. Wellington and Auckland are names that apply to two of the major cities, but the also apply to the regions (a provincial administration level) that encompass the greater urban areas known by the same names. The Wellington region is administered by the Wellington Regional Council, while Wellington (not Wellington City) is administered by the Wellington City Council. The city and the region are known as Wellington but the primary meaning of Wellington is the city, with the reagon as a secondary meaning. Since Wellington City, New Zealand is rather obscure and using Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand seems totally redundant, very obscure and both are still ambiguous, I have left Wellington, New Zealand for the city unchanged and added Wellington (region), New Zealand for the greater urban area, with cross linking on both pages. Is this a reasonable approach? -- kiwiinapanic 16:41 Dec 31, 2002 (UTC)

 * My personal opinion: I think keeping Wellington, New Zealand for the city is sensible. For the region however, I think the usage of two different ambiguation schemes in one article title is very ugly. I would have preferred Wellington (region), or if that was still ambiguous, Wellington (New Zealand region). Andre Engels 17:12 Mar 19, 2003 (UTC)

What is wrong with using Racine, Wisconsin -- instead of Racine, Wisconsin ? Vera Cruz

 * I've always used the latter form because it was simpler and it was also what most people were using. I thought it was fine, because you can click on Racine, Wisconsin and its article should have a link to Wisconsin.  Keeps the article from being too cluttered and you can easily get to the state.  I wonder what other people think. -- RM

 * Unfortunately, the rambot-generated city pages don't have links to the states, but to the county articles. Thus two extra clickthroughs are required to find the state, by going through both city and county pages along the way. Maybe that'd be great if we were an evil advertising-driving corporation, but we're not. ;) It's been suggested that the "pipe trick" be extended to work for commas as well as parentheticals, so we could write , which I guess would be a slight improvement. --Brion 02:12 Feb 2, 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes please extend the pipe trick to cover commas too. I was just about the suggest that on the tech mailing list. --mav

I started using Lubbock, Texas after noting that not all towns have articles, and thus Sometown, Wherever is completely useless for finding out about the region, whilst, Sometown, Wherever is useful. Vera Cruz

Linking to cities
When I want to refer to a city, is it better to use "CityName" or "CityName,_Country", e.g., "Paris" or "Paris,_France"? Paris or the redirected one Paris? -- mkrohn 21:56 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

 * How about Paris, France? --mav

 * Erm, no offense or anything, but that sounds very American! "Paris" will do if it's obvious from the context that the one in France is meant; otherwise you could say, "the French city of Paris", or something... -- Oliver P. 23:06 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

 * P.S. - Tarquin says...

 * My (current) number one Wikipedia grouse is this: "Venice, Italy", "London, England" and so forth. That is how cities are indentified in the US; not in the rest of the world. A rout through UK train timetables for the few duplicate towns shows they use "Gillinham (Kent)", for example. The same form or "Gillinham in Kent" is usual in newspaper or reference articles if readers may not know which country a place is in. However, in the interests of consistency in page names, we're stuck with the stateside terminology. It's probably all irrational reactions to cultural imperialism. That or seeing that dratted comma always reminds me of Marilyn Monroe saying "Paris, France is in Europe?" in Gentlemen prefer blondes...

 * Yes, I was refering to the cases, where it is clear from the context which "Paris" I refer to. Since I am new, I was interested if there is some kind of policy for that. I did not find anything and before messing things up I decided to ask here. Since it seems common usage to give certain cities priorities, e.g., the main page of Paris is "Paris" and not "Paris,_France" it makes sense to me in these cases to set the link directly to "Paris". -- mkrohn 00:23 Mar 23, 2003 (UTC)

 * I think he meant "Gillingham", though. :) -- Oliver P. 23:12 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

This discussion seem to have come to sleep, and maybe that's good for the moment. :-)) But I do actually have a question which isn't particularly related to the disputes above. I guess still some people have this talk-page on their watchlist, and will see:

The borders in Europe have been redrawn a few times in the least hundreds of years, and many cities have come under new governments, with new dominant languages. This is valid for virtually all towns in presentday Poland, but not only there. I'm itched by the city of Wiburg (German), Viipuri (Finnish), Vyborg (Russian transliteration) or Viborg (Swedish but ambiguous since there is a town in Denmark with the same name).

Personally I'm not too fond of transliterations. Often transliterations to French, to English, to German aswell as to other languages exist concurrently, and for us with other mother tongues than English, this is a problem.

English being, after all, a Germanic language makes me believe that Germanic forms would result in less confusion: Think of Szczecin compared to Stettin.

But that's not the main problem. The problem is: How to know under which name a city is "known" to the English speaking world, when realistically and in all modesty one must assume that the English speaking world doesn't know much about the city at all.

-- Ruhrjung 19:36 May 1, 2003 (UTC)

There are several pages on Australian cities that are listed [City, State] rather than [City, Australia], although the later is the majority usage. I'm moving them to [City, Austrlia]. Any objections? - Efghij

 * Yes. They should be just City unless there is a compelling reason otherwise, such as other cities of the same name and equal or greater prominence. Tannin 13:45 10 Jul 2003 (UTC)


text:
French Riviera

The French Riviera, known in French as the Côte d'Azur (Còsta d'Azur, ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending from the rock formation Massif de l'Esterel to Menton, at the France–Italy border, although some other sources place the western boundary further west around Saint-Tropez or even Toulon. The coast is entirely within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. The Principality of Monaco is a semi-enclave within the region, surrounded on three sides by France and fronting the Mediterranean. The French Riviera contains the seaside resorts of Cap-d'Ail, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Cannes, and Theoule-sur-Mer.

Riviera is an Italian word that originates from the ancient Ligurian territory of Italy, wedged between the Var and Magra rivers. Côte d'Azur is originally a nickname given by France to the County of Nice after its annexation in 1860, because the climate was similar to that of the north of Italy, even in winter, with "a sky as blue as its sea". When the Mistral (north) and the Tramontane (Northwest) winds are blowing in the Languedoc and Provence areas, the temperature of the Mediterranean can be very cool in summer. This phenomenon is observed very little or not at all on the coast between the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera.

After the 2000s, the French Riviera was extended to the rest of Southern France, although the geography, culture, and climate are different.

This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria, Tsar Alexander II and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. In the summer, it also played home to many members of the Rothschild family. In the first half of the 20th century, it was frequented by artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Francis Bacon, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley, as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II, it became a popular tourist destination and convention site. Many celebrities, such as Elton John and Brigitte Bardot, have homes in the region.

Officially, the French Riviera is home to 163 nationalities with 83,962 foreign residents, although estimates of the number of non-French nationals living in the area are often much higher. Its largest city is Nice, which has a population of 340,017 as of 2017. The city is the centre of a métropole—Nice-Côte d'Azur—bringing together 49 communes and more than 540,000 inhabitants and 943,000 in the urban area. Nice is home to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, France's third-busiest airport (after Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport), which is on an area of partially reclaimed coastal land at the western end of the Promenade des Anglais. A second airport at Mandelieu was once the region's commercial airport, but is now mainly used by private and business aircraft.

The A8 autoroute runs through the region, as does the old main road generally known as the Route nationale 7 (officially now DN7 in Var and D6007 in Alpes-Maritimes). High-speed trains serve the coastal region and inland to Grasse, with the TGV Sud-Est service reaching Nice-Ville station in five and a half hours from Paris. The French Riviera has a total population of more than two million. It is home to a high tech and science park (French: technopole) at Sophia-Antipolis (north of Antibes) and a research and technology centre at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. The region has 35,000 students, of whom 25 percent are working toward a doctorate. The French Riviera is a major yachting and cruising area with several marinas along its coast. According to the Côte d'Azur Economic Development Agency, each year the Riviera hosts 50 percent of the world's superyacht fleet, with 90 percent of all superyachts visiting the region's coast at least once in their lifetime. As a tourist centre, the French Riviera benefits from 310 to 330 days of sunshine per year, 115 km of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses, 14 ski resorts and 3,000 restaurants.

Origin of term
The term French Riviera comes by analogy with the term Italian Riviera, which extends east of the French Riviera (from Ventimiglia to La Spezia). As early as the 19th century, the British referred to the region as the Riviera or the French Riviera, usually referring to the eastern part of the coast, between Monaco and the Italian border. Riviera is an Italian noun which means "coastline".

The name Côte d'Azur was given to the coast by the writer Stéphen Liégeard in his book, La Côte d’azur, published in December 1887. Liégeard was born in Dijon, in the French department of Côte-d'Or, and adapted that name by substituting the azure colour of the Mediterranean for the gold of Côte-d'Or.

In Occitan (Niçard and Provençal) and French, the only usual names are Còsta d'Azur in Occitan and Côte d'Azur in French. A term like "French Riviera" (Ribiera Francesa in Occitan, Riviera Française in French) would only be used in literal translation, or adaptations of it. For instance, in French, "Riviera Française" is found in the online Larousse encyclopedia to refer to the holidays of a group of English workers (moreover, in Occitan, the word ribiera "coastline" mostly works as a common name, whereas in French, the old-fashioned term Rivière de Gênes was used to refer to the Italian Riviera whose center is Genoa).

Disputes over the extent of the Riviera and the Côte d'Azur
Côte d'Azur and the French Riviera have no official boundaries. Some sources put the western boundary at Saint-Tropez. Others include Saint Tropez, Hyères or Toulon in the Var (departement), or as far as Cassis in the Bouches-du-Rhône departement. In her 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith describes the Riviera as including all of the coast between Toulon and the Italian border.

From prehistory to the Bronze Age
The region of the French Riviera has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Primitive tools dating to between 1,000,000 and 1,050,000 years ago were discovered in the Grotte du Vallonnet, near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, with stones and bones of animals, including bovines, rhinoceros, and bison. At Terra Amata (380,000 to 230,000 years ago), near the Nice Port, a fireplace was discovered that is one of the oldest found in Europe.

Stone dolmens, monuments from the Bronze Age, can be found near Draguignan, while the Valley of Marvels (Vallée des Merveilles) near Mount Bégo, at 2000 m elevation, is presumed to have been an outdoor religious sanctuary, having over 40,000 drawings of people and animals, dated to about 2000 BC.

Greek influence
Beginning in the 7th century BC, Greek sailors from Phocaea in Asia Minor began to visit and then build emporia along the Côte d'Azur. Emporia were started at Olbia (Hyères); Antipolis (Antibes) and Nikaia (Nice). These settlements, which traded with the inhabitants of the interior, became rivals of the Etruscans and Phoenicians, who also visited the Côte d'Azur.

Roman colonization
In 8 BC the Emperor Augustus built an imposing trophy monument at La Turbie (the Trophy of the Alps or Trophy of Augustus) to mark the pacification of the region.

Roman towns, monuments and amphitheatres were built along the Côte d'Azur and many still survive, such as the amphitheatre and baths at Cimiez, above Nice, and the amphitheatre, Roman walls and other remains at Fréjus.

Barbarians and Christians
Roman Provence reached the height of its power and prosperity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. In the mid-3rd century, Germanic peoples began to invade the region, and Roman power weakened.

In the same period, Christianity started to become a powerful force in the region. The first cathedrals were built in the 4th century, and bishoprics were established: in Fréjus at the end of the 4th century, Cimiez and Vence in 439, and Antibes in 442. The oldest Christian structure still in existence on the Côte d'Azur is the baptistery of Fréjus Cathedral, built at the end of the 5th century, which also saw the founding of the first monastery in the region, Lerins Monastery on an island off the coast at Cannes.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the first half of the 5th century was followed by invasions of Provence by the Visigoths, the Burgundians and the Ostrogoths. There was then a long period of wars and dynastic quarrels, which in turn led to further invasions by the Saracens and the Normans in the 9th century.

The Counts of Provence and the House of Grimaldi
Some peace was restored to the coast by the establishment in 879 of a new kingdom of Provence, ruled first by the Bosonids dynasty (879–1112), then by the Catalans (1112–1246), and finally by the Angevins (1246–1382, elder branch, 1382–1483 (younger branch).

In the 13th century, another powerful political force appeared, the House of Grimaldi. Descended from a Genoese nobleman expelled from Genoa by his rivals in 1271, members of the different branches of the Grimaldis took power in Monaco, Antibes and Nice, and built castles at Grimaud, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Antibes. Albert II, the current Prince of Monaco, is a descendant of the Grimaldis.

In 1388, the city of Nice and its surrounding territory, from the mouth of the Var to the Italian border, were separated from Provence and came under the protection of the House of Savoy. The territory was called the Comté de Nice after 1526, and thereafter its language, history and culture were separate from those of Provence until 1860, when it was re-attached to France under Napoleon III.

Provence retained its formal independence until 1480, when the last Comte de Provence, René I of Naples, died and left the Comté to his nephew, Charles du Maine, who in turn left it to Louis XI of France. In 1486, Provence formally became part of France.

Popularity with the British upper class in 18th and 19th centuries
Until the end of the 18th century, the area later known as the Côte d'Azur was a remote and impoverished region, known mostly for fishing, olive groves and the production of flowers for perfume (manufactured in Grasse).

A new phase began when the coast became a fashionable health resort for the British upper class in the late 18th century. The first British traveller to describe its benefits was the novelist Tobias Smollett, who visited Nice in 1763 when it was still an Italian city within the Kingdom of Sardinia. Smollett brought Nice and its warm winter climate to the attention of the British aristocracy with Travels through France and Italy, written in 1765. At about the same time, a Scottish doctor, John Brown, became famous for prescribing what he called climato-therapy, a change in climate, to cure a variety of diseases including tuberculosis, known then as consumption. The French historian Paul Gonnet wrote that, as a result, Nice was filled with "a colony of pale and listless English women and listless sons of nobility near death".

In 1834, a British nobleman and politician named Henry Peter Brougham, First Baron Brougham and Vaux, who had played an important part in the abolition of the slave trade, travelled with his unwell daughter to the south of France, intending to go to Italy. A cholera epidemic in Italy forced him to stop at Cannes, where he enjoyed the climate and scenery so much that he bought land and built a villa. He began to spend his winters there and, owing to his fame, others followed: Cannes soon had a small British enclave.

Robert Louis Stevenson was a later British visitor who came for his health. In 1882 he rented a villa called La Solitude at Hyères, where he wrote much of A Child's Garden of Verses.

Railway, gambling and royalty
In 1864, six years after Nice became part of France following the Second Italian War of Independence the first railway was completed, making Nice and the Riviera accessible to visitors from all over Europe. One hundred thousand visitors arrived in 1865. By 1874, residents of foreign enclaves in Nice, most of whom were British, numbered 25,000.

In the mid-19th century, British and French entrepreneurs began to see the potential of promoting tourism along the Côte d'Azur. At the time, gambling was illegal in France and Italy. In 1856, the Prince of Monaco, Charles III, began constructing a casino in Monaco, which was called a health spa to avoid criticism by the church. The casino was a failure, but in 1863 the Prince signed an agreement with François Blanc, a French businessman already operating a successful casino at Baden-Baden (southwestern Germany), to build a resort and new casino. Blanc arranged for steamships and carriages to take visitors from Nice to Monaco, and built hotels, gardens and a casino in a place called Spélugues. At the suggestion of his mother, Princess Caroline, Charles III renamed the place Monte Carlo after himself. When the railway reached Monte Carlo in 1870, many thousands of visitors began to arrive and the population of the principality of Monaco doubled.

The French Riviera soon became a popular destination for European royalty. Just days after the railway reached Nice in 1864, Tsar Alexander II of Russia visited on a private train, followed soon afterwards by Napoleon III and then Leopold II, the King of the Belgians.

Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor. In 1882 she stayed in Menton, and in 1891 spent several weeks at the Grand Hotel at Grasse. In 1892 she stayed at the Hotel Cost-belle in Hyères. In successive years from 1895 to 1899 she stayed in Cimiez in the hills above Nice. First, in 1895 and 1896, she patronised the Grand Hôtel, while in later years she and her staff took over the entire west wing of the Excelsior Hôtel Régina, which had been designed with her needs specifically in mind (part of which later became the home and studio of the renowned artist Henri Matisse). She travelled with an entourage of between sixty and a hundred, including chef, ladies in waiting, dentist, Indian servants, her own bed and her own food.

The Prince of Wales was a regular visitor to Cannes, starting in 1872. He frequented the Club Nautique, a private club on the Croisette, the fashionable seafront boulevard of Cannes. He visited there each spring for a two-month period, observing yacht races from shore while the royal yacht, Britannia, was sailed by professional crewmen. After he became King in 1901, he never again visited the French Riviera.

By the end of the 19th century the Côte d'Azur began to attract artistic painters, who appreciated the climate, the bright colors and clear light. Among them were Auguste Renoir, who settled in Cagnes-sur-Mer and in Mougins, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

Inter-war period, American visitors and decline of the aristocracy
The First World War brought down many of the royal houses of Europe and altered the nature and the calendar of the French Riviera. Following the war, greater numbers of Americans began arriving, with business moguls and celebrities eventually outnumbering aristocrats. The 'High Society' scene moved from a winter season to a summer season.

Americans began coming to the south of France in the 19th century. Henry James set part of his novel The Ambassadors on the Riviera. James Gordon Bennett Jr., the son and heir of the founder of the New York Herald, had a villa in Beaulieu. Industrialist John Pierpont Morgan gambled at Monte Carlo and bought 18th-century paintings by Fragonard in Grasse – shipping them to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

A feature of the French Riviera in the inter-war years was the Train Bleu, an all first-class sleeper train which brought wealthy passengers down from Calais. It made its first trip in 1922, and carried Winston Churchill, Somerset Maugham, and the future King Edward VIII over the years.

While Europe was still recovering from the war and the American dollar was strong, American writers and artists started arriving on the Côte d'Azur. Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence (1920) at a villa near Hyères, winning the Pulitzer Prize for the novel (the first woman to do so). Dancer Isadora Duncan frequented Cannes and Nice, but died in 1927 when her scarf caught in a wheel of the Amilcar motor car in which she was a passenger and strangled her. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald first visited with his wife Zelda in 1924, stopping at Hyères, Cannes and Monte Carlo – eventually staying at Saint-Raphaël, where he wrote much of The Great Gatsby and began Tender Is the Night.

While Americans were largely responsible for making summer the high season, a French fashion designer, Coco Chanel, made sunbathing fashionable. She acquired a striking tan during the summer of 1923, and tans then became the fashion in Paris.

During the abdication crisis of the British Monarchy in 1936, Wallis Simpson, the intended bride of King Edward VIII, was staying at the Villa Lou Viei in Cannes, talking with the King by telephone each day. After his abdication, the Duke of Windsor (as he became) and his new wife stayed at the Villa La Croë on the Cap d'Antibes.

The English playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham also became a resident in 1926, buying the Villa La Mauresque toward the tip of Cap Ferrat, near Nice.

Second World War
When Germany invaded France in June 1940, the remaining British colony was evacuated to Gibraltar and eventually to Britain. American Jewish groups helped some of the Jewish artists living in the south of France, such as Marc Chagall, to escape to the United States. In August 1942, 600 Jews from Nice were rounded up by French police and sent to Drancy, and eventually to death camps. In all about 5,000 French Jews from Nice perished during the war.

Following D-Day in Normandy, Operation Dragoon (initially Operation Anvil), the code name for the Allied invasion of Southern France, commenced on 15 August 1944, when American parachute troops landed near Fréjus, and a fleet landed 60,000 troops of the American Seventh Army and French First Army between Cavalaire and Agay, east of Saint-Raphaël. German resistance was not as fanatical as Hitler and the High Command had ordered, and crumbled in days.

Saint-Tropez was badly damaged by German mines at the time of the liberation. The novelist Colette organized an effort to assure the town was rebuilt in its original style.

When the war ended, artists Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso returned to live and work.

Post-war period and late 20th century
The Cannes Film Festival was launched in September 1946, marking the return of French cinema to world screens. The Festival Palace was built in 1949 on the site of the old Cercle Nautique, where the Prince of Wales had met his mistresses in the late 19th century. The release of the French film Et Dieu… créa la femme (And God Created Woman) in November 1956 was a major event for the Riviera, making an international star of Brigitte Bardot, and making an international tourist destination of Saint-Tropez, particularly for the new class of wealthy international travellers called the jet set.

The marriage of American film actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco on 18 April 1956, attracted world attention once again. It was viewed on television by 30 million people.

During the 1960s, the Mayor of Nice, Jacques Médecin, decided to reduce the dependence of the Riviera on ordinary tourism, and to make it a destination for international congresses and conventions. He built the Palais des Congrès at the Acropolis in Nice, and founded a Chagall Museum and a Matisse Museum at Cimiez. High-rise apartment buildings and real estate developments began to spread.

At the end of August 1997, Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed spent their last days together on his father's yacht off Pampelonne Beach near Saint-Tropez, shortly before they died in the Alma Tunnel in Paris.

Places
Places on the Côte d'Azur (following the broadest definition), following the coast from south-west to north-east, include:

 * Cassis
 * La Ciotat
 * Bandol
 * Sanary-sur-Mer
 * Six-Fours-les-Plages
 * La Seyne-sur-Mer
 * Toulon
 * Hyères and the Îles d'Hyères (Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Île du Levant)
 * Le Lavandou
 * Cavalaire-sur-Mer
 * Saint-Tropez
 * Inland – Grimaud, with Port-Grimaud on the coast
 * Sainte-Maxime
 * Roquebrune-sur-Argens
 * Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël
 * Inland – Fayence
 * Les Adrets-de-l'Estérel
 * Tanneron
 * Théoule-sur-Mer
 * Mandelieu-la-Napoule
 * Inland – Grasse
 * Inland – Mougins
 * the Îles de Lérins – Île Sainte-Marguerite and Île Saint-Honorat
 * Cannes
 * Inland – Vallauris
 * Inland – Valbonne
 * Inland – Sophia-Antipolis
 * Golfe-Juan
 * Juan-les-Pins
 * Antibes
 * Inland – Biot
 * Villeneuve-Loubet
 * Cagnes-sur-Mer
 * Inland – Vence
 * Inland – Saint-Paul-de-Vence
 * Inland – Saint-Jeannet
 * Saint-Laurent-du-Var
 * Inland – Belvédère
 * Nice
 * Villefranche-sur-Mer
 * Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
 * Beaulieu-sur-Mer
 * Èze
 * Cap d'Ail
 * Monaco (including Monte-Carlo)
 * Beausoleil
 * Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
 * Menton

Tourism
Some data related to tourism on the Riviera in 2006:
 * More than 14 million tourists
 * 52% of customers from abroad
 * 65 million nights stayed
 * Tourists spending €5 billion
 * 75,000 jobs; tourism is 18% of total employment in the Alpes-Maritimes.
 * 500,000 tourists in the High Country
 * 500,000 delegates
 * 3 million admissions to museums and monuments
 * More than 45% of tourists come by air

Climate
The French Riviera is mostly subtropical, featuring a Mediterranean climate, with sunny, hot, dry summers and mild winters. Winter temperatures are moderated by the Mediterranean; days of frost are rare. The average daily low temperature in Nice in January is 5.4 C; the January average daily low temperature in Toulon is 6.2 C. The average high temperature in August in Nice is 28.6 C; in Toulon the average daily high temperature is 29.7 C

The Côte d'Azur receives more rainfall annually than Paris (803.3 mm annually in Nice and 684.8 mm in Toulon compared with 649.8 mm in Paris), but the rainy days are much less frequent and the Riviera is considerably sunnier; 111 rainy days a year in Paris compared with 61 days in Toulon and 63 in Nice. Rain is generally more common in the Autumn and Winter months while the summers are drier. Toulon has 2,793 hours of sunshine a year, Nice has 2,668 hours.

Micro-climates exist in these coastal regions, and there can be great differences in the weather between various locations. Strong winds such as the mistral, a cold dry wind from the northwest or from the east, are another characteristic, particularly in the winter. Nice, in particular is surrounded by mountains to the North, protecting it from the Mistral winds making it feel milder on sunny days.

The Sirocco is a southerly wind, coming from the African continent and often felt on the Mediterranean coast of Europe. It is a hot and humid wind, occasionally carrying sand from the Sahara which is then deposited in coastal areas across Southern Europe.

The French Riviera is one of the mildest locations in the world for its latitude, owing to the Gulf Stream which moderates the temperatures in Western Europe, particularly in winter and the warming effect of the Mediterranean Sea. Because of this, the region boasts a long growing season and supports the growth of exotic flora such as Citrus Fruits and Palm Trees. Snow is very uncommon in the winters and the long, hot and sunny summers have long been a draw for tourists since the days of British Aristocracy.

Nice and Alpes-Maritimes
Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes département are sheltered by the Alps. The winds are usually gentle, from the sea to the land, though sometimes the mistral blows strongly from the northwest, or, turned by the mountains, from the east. In 1956 a mistral from the northwest reached 180 km/h at Nice Airport. Sometimes, in summer, the sirocco brings high temperatures and reddish desert sand from the Sahara (see Winds of Provence).

Rain can be torrential, particularly in the autumn, when storms and rain are caused by the difference between the colder air inland and the warm Mediterranean water temperature (20 - 24 C). The rainiest months are September (75.6 mm average rainfall); October (143.9 mm); November (94.3 mm) and December (87.8 mm).

Snow on the coast is rare, falling on average once every ten years. 1956 was exceptional, when 20 cm blanketed the coast. In January 1985 the coast between Cannes and Menton received 30 to 40 cm. In the mountains, snow is present from November to May.

Var
The département of Var (which includes Saint-Tropez and Hyères) has a climate slightly warmer, drier and sunnier than Nice and Alpes-Maritimes, but is less sheltered from the wind.

The mistral, which brings cold and dry air down from the upper Alpine regions via the Rhône valley and extends with diminishing intensity along the Côte d'Azur, blows frequently during the winter. Strong winds blow for about 75 days a year in Fréjus.

Events and festivals
Several major events take place:
 * Monaco and southeast France: Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo, JanuaryBarrichello 2009 Monaco GP 1.jpg race]]
 * Monaco: International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, January / February
 * Mandelieu-la-Napoule: La Fête du Mimosa, February
 * Nice: Carnival, February
 * Menton: Lemon Festival, February
 * Tourrettes-sur-Loup: Violet Festival, March
 * Monaco: Monte-Carlo Masters, April–May
 * Monaco: Formula One Grand Prix race, May
 * Grasse; Rose Festival, May
 * Cannes: Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Film Market, May
 * Nice: Jazz Festival, July
 * Juan-les-Pins: Jazz à Juan, late July.
 * Grasse: Jasmine Festival, August
 * Toulon: Toulon Tournament, Tall Ships' Race

Painters
The climate and vivid colors of the Mediterranean attracted many famous artists during the 19th and 20th centuries. They included:
 * Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947); retired to and died at Le Cannet.
 * Roger Broders (1883–1953); Parisian travel poster illustrator.
 * Marc Chagall (1887–1985); lived in Saint-Paul-de-Vence between 1948 and 1985.
 * Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910); discovered the Côte d'Azur in 1883, and painted at Monaco and Hyères.
 * Maurice Denis (1870–1943); painted at St. Tropez and Bandol.
 * Raoul Dufy (1877–1953); whose wife was from Nice, painted in the region, including in Nice.
 * Albert Marquet (1873–1947); painted at St. Tropez.
 * Henri Matisse (1869–1954); first visited St. Tropez in 1904. In 1917 he settled in Nice, first at the Hôtel Beau Rivage, then at the Hôtel de la Méditerranée, then at la Villa des Alliés in Cimiez. In 1921 he lived in an apartment in Nice, next to the flower market and overlooking the sea, where he lived until 1938. He then moved to the Hôtel Régina in the hills of Cimiez, above Nice. During World War II he lived in Vence, then returned to Cimiez, where he died and is buried.
 * Claude Monet (1840–1927); visited Menton, Bordighera, Juan-les-Pins, Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes, Beaulieu and Villefranche, and painted a number of seascapes of Cap Martin, near Menton, and at Cap d'Antibes.
 * Edvard Munch (1863–1944); visited and painted in Nice and Monte Carlo (where he developed a passion for gambling), and rented a villa at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in 1891.
 * Pablo Picasso (1881–1973); spent each summer from 1919 to 1939 on the Côte d'Azur, and moved there permanently in 1946, first at Vallauris, then at Mougins, where he spent his last years.
 * Auguste Renoir (1841–1919); visited Beaulieu, Grasse, Saint-Raphaël and Cannes, before finally settling in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1907, where he bought a farm in the hills and built a new house and workshop on the grounds. He continued to paint there until his death in 1919. His house is now a museum.
 * Paul Signac (1863–1935); visited St. Tropez in 1892, and bought a villa, La Hune, at the foot of citadel in 1897. It was at his villa that his friend, Henri Matisse, painted his famous Luxe, Calme et Volupté in 1904. Signac made numerous paintings along the coast.
 * Yves Klein (1928–1962); a native of Nice, considered an important figure in post-war European art.
 * Sacha Sosno (1937–2013); French painter and sculptor who lived and worked in Nice.

History

 * Henry de Lumley, La Grand Histoire des premiers hommes européens, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2010 (ISBN 978 2 7381 2386 2).
 * Aldo Bastié, Histoire de la Provence, Éditions Ouest-France, 2001.
 * Mary Blume, Côte d'Azur: Inventing the French Riviera, Thames and Hudson, London, 1992.
 * Patrick Howarth, When the Riviera was Ours, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1977.
 * Jim Ring, Riviera, the Rise and Fall of the Côte d'Azur, John Murray Publishers, London, 1988.
 * Edouard Baratier (editor), Histoire de la Provence, Editions Privat, Toulouse, 1969 (ISBN 2 7089 1649 1).

Painters

 * La Méditerranée de Courbet à Matisse, catalog of the exhibit at the Grand Palais, Paris from September 2000 to January 2001. Published by the Réunion des musées nationaux, 2000.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: French Riviera


text:
Frederic Madden

Sir Frederic Madden KH (16 February 1801 – 8 March 1873) was an English palaeographer.

Biography
Born in Portsmouth, he was the son of William John Madden (1757–1833), a captain in the Royal Marines of Irish origin, and his wife Sarah Carter (1759–1833). From his childhood he displayed a flair for linguistic and antiquarian studies. In 1826 he was engaged by the British Museum to assist in the preparation of the classified catalogue of printed books, and in 1828 he became assistant keeper of manuscripts. In 1832 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At the age of 32 he was made a knight, entitling him to the initials KH after his name, and in 1837 he succeeded Josiah Forshall as Keeper of Manuscripts. He did not get on well with his colleagues, and retired in 1866. Madden was the leading palaeographer of his day. However, his ignorance of German prevented his ranking high as a philologist, although he paid much attention to the early dialectical forms of French and English. His minor contributions to antiquarian research were numerous: the best known, perhaps, was his dissertation on the spelling of Shakespeare's name, which, mainly on the strength of a signature found in John Florio's copy of the work of Montaigne, he contended should be "Shakspere". This led to a lengthy debate and to a period when the "Shakspere" spelling nearly became the norm.

On his death at his home in St Stephen's Square, London, he bequeathed his journals and other private papers to the Bodleian Library, where they were to remain unopened until 1920.

Scholarship
He edited for the Roxburghe Club Havelok the Dane (1828), discovered by himself among the Laudian manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, William and the Werwolf (1832) and the old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum (1838). In 1839 he edited the ancient metrical romances of Syr Gawayne for the Bannatyne Club, and in 1847 Layamon's Brut, with a prose translation, for the Society of Antiquaries. In 1850 the magnificent edition, in parallel columns, of what are known as the "Wycliffite" versions of the Bible, from the original manuscripts, upon which he and his coadjutor, Josiah Forshall, had been engaged for twenty years, was published by the University of Oxford.

In 1866–69 he edited the Historia Minor of Matthew Paris for the Rolls Series. In 1833 he wrote the text of Henry Shaw's Illuminated Ornaments of the Middle Ages; and in 1850 he edited the English translation of Joseph Balthazar Silvestre's Paléographie universelle.

He was one of the three contributors to Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica.

Conservation
In April 1837, when still the Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, Madden was shown a garret of the old museum building which contained a large number of burnt and damaged fragments and codices of vellum manuscripts. Madden immediately identified them as part of the Cotton library collection, which had been badly damaged in a fire of 1731.

During his tenure as Keeper of Manuscripts, Madden undertook extensive conservation work on the Cotton manuscripts (often in the face of opposition from the museum's board, who deemed the enterprise prohibitively expensive). In collaboration with the bookbinder Henry Gough, he developed a conservation strategy that restored even the most badly damaged fragments and manuscripts to a usable state. Vellum sheets were cleaned and flattened and mounted in paper frames. Where possible, they were rebound in their original codices.

As well as the fragments found in the garret, he carried out conservation work on the rest of the collection. Many manuscripts had become brittle and fragile, including the codex that contains the only known copy of Beowulf (Cotton Vittelius A xv). By 1845, the work was largely complete, though Madden was to suffer one more setback when a fire broke out in the museum bindery, destroying completely some further works from the collection.

Family
In the summer of 1837 in the district of Edmonton, then in Middlesex, he married Emily Sarah Robinson (1813–1873). She was the daughter of William Robinson (1777–1848), lawyer and historian of Tottenham, and his wife Mary Ridge (1781–1856), daughter of the Chichester banker William Ridge. Some sources suggest that William Robinson was the illegitimate son of Anne Nelson, unmarried sister of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson.

Frederic and Emily had six known children, the eldest being Frederic William Madden (1839–1904), who in 1860 married Elizabeth Sarah Rannie (1839–1893) and had four children. Frederic, a numismatist of note, was Secretary and Bursar of Brighton College 1874–88 and then Chief Librarian of the Public Library in Brighton 1888–1902.

Works
With Forshall:

 * The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal books, in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, (1850)

As editor:
 * Syr Gawayne; a Collection of ancient Romance-Poems, by Scotish and English Authors, relating to that Celebrated Knight of the Round Table, with an Introduction, Notes, and a Glossary. London, 1839 (Google Books)

title: Frederic Madden


text:
Eustace I, Count of Boulogne

Eustace I, Count of Boulogne, was a nobleman and founder of the Boulogne branch of the House of Flanders. He held the county of Boulogne from 1024 until his death in 1047.

Life
Eustace was the elder son of Count Baldwin II of Boulogne and Adelina of Holland. He succeeded his father as count of Boulogne in 1024. Eustace was also the count of Lens. In 1028 Eustace confirmed the foundation of a college of canons in his castle at Lens and despite accounts of Lens passing to Baldwin V of Flanders circa 1036 it was still held by Eustace and was passed to his son Lambert at his death.

During the minority of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, Eustace's grandfather, Arnulf III, Count of Boulogne had broken free of Flanders and operated as an independent prince, as did Eustace's father and Eustace himself. In 995, having attained his majority, Baldwin IV attempted to recover several of the independently held castles and to expand the Flemish borders. This had caused considerable animosity between Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders and Eustace's father, but when Baldwin IV's son Baldwin V succeeded him in 1035 Eustace and Baldwin V of Flanders cooperated on several ventures including several charters and in limiting the powers of the Castellan-advocates of several abbeys including the Abbey of Saint Bertin in Flanders.

Eustace was allied to the ducal house of Normandy by the marriage of his son Eustace II to Goda, niece of Richard II. This had far reaching alliances to other branches of these families including that of Edward the Confessor, King of England. Under Eustace the counts of Boulogne rose to great prominence in Northern France. Eustace I died in 1047.

Eustace was apparently a patron of Samer Abbey near Calais and he is said to have been buried there.

Family and children
Eustace married Matilda of Louvain, daughter of Lambert I of Louvain and Gerberga of Lower Lorraine and had:

 * Eustace II of Boulogne.
 * Godfrey, Bishop of Paris from 1061 to 1095
 * Lambert II, Count of Lens.
 * Gerberga, married Frederick, Duke of Lower Lorraine

title: Eustace I, Count of Boulogne


text:
Maillane

Maillane (Malhana) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France in the former province of Provence.

Geography
Maillane is located 7 km north-west of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and 15 km north-east of Tarascon.

People
Maillane was the birthplace of the 19th century poet Frédéric Mistral (1904 Nobel Prize in literature).

title: Maillane


text:
Talk:Rabbit Don't Come Easy

Untitled
I just copied the track listing from their website. Is the layout standard enough in format to be free from copyright? If not, maybe it should be changed a bit... -- Oliver P. 11:29 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Rating
In the allmusic website the rating is 4 stars, I don't know why in the article there's only a 1 star rating.--190.87.100.233 (talk) 04:30, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Rabbit Don't Come Easy. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110606234057/http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=10142 to http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=10142

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 04:41, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

title: Talk:Rabbit Don't Come Easy


text:
Dyke

Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to:

General uses

 * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
 * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment
 * Dike (mythology), Dikē, the Greek goddess of moral justice
 * Dikes, diagonal pliers, also called side-cutting pliers, a hand tool used by electricians and others
 * Dyke (automobile company), established 1899

Structures

 * Dyke (embankment) or dike, a natural or artificial slope or wall to regulate water levels, often called a levee in American English
 * Ditch, a water-filled drainage trench
 * A regional term for a dry stone wall

People

 * Dyke (surname)
 * Dyke baronets, a title in the Baronetage of England
 * Dykes (surname), a British surname found particularly in northern England

Settlements

 * Dike, Iowa, United States
 * Dykes, Missouri, United States
 * Dyke, Moray, Scotland
 * Dike, Texas, United States
 * Dyke, Virginia, United States
 * Dyke, Lincolnshire, England
 * Little Dyke, Nova Scotia, Canada

Earthworks

 * Car Dyke, a Roman boundary ditch in Eastern England
 * Devil's Dyke (disambiguation), one of several ancient embankments or ditches (or both)
 * Foss Dyke, a Roman canal in England linking the River Trent to the River Witham at Lincoln
 * Offa's Dyke, historic earthwork dividing Mercia and Wales
 * Wansdyke (earthwork), dividing Wessex from the lands south west of it
 * Wat's Dyke, An earthwork running through the northern Welsh Marches from Basingwerk Abbey to Maesbury

Geological features

 * The Great Dyke, a mineral-rich feature that runs through Zimbabwe
 * Mount Desire Dyke, an igneous intrusion in South Australia

title: Dyke


text:
Gabriel Monod

Gabriel Monod (7 March 1844 – 10 April 1912) was a French historian, the nephew of Adolphe Monod.

Biography
Born in Ingouville, Seine-Maritime, he was educated at Le Havre then went to Paris to complete his education, lodging with the de Pressensé family. The influence of Edmond de Pressensé, a pastor and large-minded theologian, and of Madame de Pressensé, a woman of superior intellect and refined feeling, who devoted her life to educational works and charity, made a great impression on him. In 1865 he left the École normale supérieure, and went to Germany, where he studied at the University of Göttingen and Humboldt University in Berlin. The teaching of Georg Waitz definitely directed his studies towards the history of the Middle Ages. Returning to France in 1868 he was nominated by Victor Duruy to give lectures on history, following the method used in German seminaries, at the École des hautes études.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Gabriel Monod, with his cousins Alfred and Sarah Monod, organized an ambulance with which he followed the whole campaign, from Sedan to Le Mans. He wrote a small book of memoirs of this campaign, Allemands et Français (1871), in which he spoke of the conquerors without bitterness; this attitude was all the more praiseworthy as his mother was originally from Alsace, and he was unable to resign himself to the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. The war being over he returned to teaching. At this period of his life he wrote Grégoire de Tours et Marius d'Avenche (1872); Frédégaire, whose history, taken from original manuscripts, he published in 1885; a translation of a book of W. Junghans, Histoire critique des règnes de Childerich et de Chlodovech, with introduction and notes (1879); Études critiques sur les sources de l'histoire carolingienne (1898, 1st part only published); and Bibliographie de l'histoire de France (1888). He himself said that his pupils were his best books; he intended to teach them not so much new facts as the way to study, endeavouring to develop in them an idea of criticism and truth. They showed their gratitude by dedicating a book to him in 1896, Études d'histoire du moyen âge, and after his retirement in 1905 by having his features engraved on a slab (see À Gabriel Monod, en souvenir de son enseignement: École pratique des hautes études, 1868–1905, École normale supérieure, 1880–1904. 26 May 1907).

Monod married Olga Herzen, daughter of Russian political thinker Alexander Herzen, in 1873.

In 1876 he founded the Revue Historique, which rapidly became a great authority on scientific education. Some of his articles in this and other periodicals were put together in book form, Les Maîtres de l'histoire: Ernest Renan, Hippolyte Taine, Jules Michelet (1894); Portraits et souvenirs (1897: on Victor Hugo, Fustel de Coulanges, Victor Duruy, etc.) In 1903 he published Souvenirs d'adolescence, and in 1905 Études sur Michelet, sa vie et ses Œuvres.

Gabriel Monod died in 1912 in Versailles and is buried there in the Cimetière des Gonards.

title: Gabriel Monod


text:
John Sessions

John Sessions (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), born John Marshall, was a British actor and comedian. He was known as a regular performer on comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as co-creator, co-writer and co-star of the sitcom Stella Street, as a panellist on QI, and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and Hollywood.

Early life
John Sessions was born John Marshall on 11 January 1953 in Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was a gas engineer. He had an older brother, Bill, and a twin sister, Maggie. His family moved to Bedford, England when he was aged 3.

Education
Sessions was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), and Verulam School, St Albans, followed by the University College of North Wales in Bangor, from which he graduated with an MA in English literature. At university, he had begun to appear to audiences with his comedy in shows such as "Look back in Bangor" and "Marshall Arts". He later studied for a PhD on John Cowper Powys at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, although he did not complete the doctorate.

This period in his life was unhappy. In a "Worst of Times" column for The Independent from around 1990, he talked of how the freezing Canadian weather had depressed him, he was smoking "far too many cigarettes" and "had a couple of disastrous flings", and described his PhD dissertation as "200 pages of rubbish".

Career
Sessions attended RADA in the late 1970s, studying alongside Kenneth Branagh; the two would work together on many occasions later in their careers. His name change occurred when he became a performer, owing to the presence of a John Marshall already on the Equity register. In the early 1980s, he worked on the small venue comedy circuit with largely improvised freewheeling fantasy monologues. He topped a double bill with French and Saunders during this period. He had a number of small parts in films including The Sender (1982), The Bounty (1984) and Castaway (1986).

Sessions played to his strengths in improvisation and comedy with his one-man stage show Napoleon, which ran in London's West End for some time in the mid-1980s. He and Stephen Fry were the only two regular panellists on the original radio broadcast of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the late 1980s. When the show, still hosted by Clive Anderson, made the transition to television, Fry departed from regular appearances, but Sessions remained the featured panellist for the first season. A frequent player in the second, he did not appear again after his two appearances in the third series.

A gifted impressionist who also voiced characters for Spitting Image, he drew heavily on his extensive literary education and developed a reputation for being "a bit of a swot", being able to quote extensive passages of text and make endless cultural and historical references. His ready ability to switch between accents and personae meanwhile allowed his career in improvisation to flourish. On Whose Line Is It Anyway?, his ability to affect the contrived witticisms of Restoration Comedy became an audience favourite. In 1987 he played Lionel Zipser in Channel 4's mini-series Porterhouse Blue.

In 1989, he starred in his own one-man TV show, John Sessions. Filmed at the Donmar Warehouse in London, the show involved Sessions performing before a live audience who were invited to nominate a person, a location and two objects from a selection, around which Sessions would improvise a surreal performance for the next half-hour. This series prompted two further one-man TV shows: John Sessions' Tall Tales (1991) and John Sessions' Likely Stories (1994). Although billed as improvisation, these were increasingly pre-planned. In an interview headlined 'Who The Hell Does John Sessions Think He Is?' in Q magazine in the early 1990s, he admitted that some of his improv was not entirely spontaneous, but that if it were advertised as scripted 'it had to be funnier'. 1991 also saw Sessions in the BBC drama Jute City, a three-part thriller based around a sinister Masonic bunch of villains, co-starring with vocalist Fish (Derek W. Dick, singer in the first incarnation of rock band Marillion).

In 1996, he was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts to write "Paint, said Fred", the life of Frederic, Lord Leighton, the pre-eminent Victorian artist, in a one-man show that used his comic writing abilities and his gift for impersonation.

Sessions also starred in Stella Street, a surreal "soap opera" comedy about a fantasy suburban British street inhabited by celebrities such as Michael Caine and Al Pacino, which he conceived with fellow impressionist Phil Cornwell, the two of them playing several parts in each episode.

Sessions later returned to formal acting, with parts ranging from James Boswell (to Robbie Coltrane's Samuel Johnson) in the UK TV comedy drama Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles (1993) to Doctor Prunesquallor in the BBC adaptation of Gormenghast (2000) and in 1998 as Hercules Fortesque, a BBC HR manager in the BBC mini-series In The Red adapted from the book and the BBC radio series by Mark Taverner. He provided the voice of the Professor in The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1996. He also appeared in several Shakespeare films, playing Macmorris in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989), Philostrate in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), and Salerio in the movie The Merchant of Venice (2004), with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. He also contributed "Sonnet 62" to the 2002 compilation album When Love Speaks (EMI Classics), which consists of famous actors and musicians interpreting Shakespearean sonnets and play excerpts.

In between appearing in regular film and TV roles, Sessions made appearances on Have I Got News for You and, more recently, as a semi-regular panellist on QI. He was one of four panellists, including the permanent Alan Davies, on the inaugural episode of QI, in which he demonstrated his effortless memory of the birth and death dates of various historical figures (while simultaneously and apologetically deeming the knowledge of such facts "a sickness").

On radio, Sessions was a guest in December 1997 on the regular BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions, presented by Michael Berkeley, not as himself but as a 112-year-old Viennese percussionist called Manfred Sturmer, who told anecdotes (about Brahms, Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and others) so realistically that some listeners did not realise that the whole thing was a hoax. Other Sessions' creations appeared on Berkeley's show in subsequent years. Sessions had taken the role of narrating the popular Asterix stories for audiobook, since the death of Willie Rushton.

Sessions made a guest appearance in a special webcast version of Doctor Who, in a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he played General Tannis. He occasionally appeared in the BBC series Judge John Deed as barrister Brian Cantwell QC. In 2007, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure 100.

In 2006, Sessions presented some of the BBC's coverage of The Proms and featured in one of the two Jackanory specials, voicing the characters and playing the storyteller in the audiobook version of Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's children's book Muddle Earth. In 2007 he appeared in the final episode of the second series of Hotel Babylon, playing hotel owner Donovan Credo, and as Geoffrey Howe in 2009's Margaret. In 2010, he played Kenny Prince in Sherlock.

Sessions appeared in the teen drama TV show Skins in 2011 as one of two adopted fathers of Franky Fitzgerald. He also appeared as a Brummie vicar in an episode of Outnumbered on BBC One.

He had the distinction of playing two British prime ministers in films, Harold Wilson in Made in Dagenham and Edward Heath in The Iron Lady. In 2013 he appeared in the premiere production of the new play Longing.

In 2014, he made a short appearance in Outlander as Arthur Duncan. In October 2014, Sessions was heard as Gus, the mysterious, psychopathic computer that controlled the eponymous train/spaceship in the Doctor Who episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" as well as appearing as Mycroft Holmes in the 2015 film Mr. Holmes.

In addition to appearing in the role of Arthur Lowe in the 2015 drama ''We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story''. he also played Dr Hermann in the 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins.

Sessions narrated a 10-part radio adaptation of The Adventures of Captain Bobo on Fun Kids in 2020, which was still running at the time of his death.

Personal life
Sessions was gay. He was outed in a 1994 Evening Standard article, while starring in the comedy My Night with Reg, a play set in London's gay community.

A Eurosceptic, Sessions voiced his support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2014. He stated, "I get so bored with people going, 'UKIP are a bunch of racists.' They're nothing of the kind. Nigel Farage talks more sense than the rest of the politicians put together. The United States of Europe is madness."

He was also critical of Scottish nationalism, and argued for the abolition of the Scottish, Welsh and European parliaments. In August 2014, he was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

Death
Sessions died of a heart attack at his home in South London on 2 November 2020, aged 67. The team behind the BBC television programme QI praised his "incredible wit and encyclopaedic knowledge [which] played a huge part in the show's history."

title: John Sessions


text:
Adolphe Monod

Adolphe-Louis-Frédéric-Théodore Monod (21 January 1802 – 6 April 1856) was a French Protestant churchman. His elder brother was Frédéric Monod.

He was born in Copenhagen, where his father, Jean Monod (Sept. 5, 1765 – April 23, 1836; himself the eldest son of pastor Gaspard Joël Monod /1717-1782/ and his wife Suzanne Madeleine Puerari /1739-1799/), was a pastor of the French Reformed church and where Jean Monod met his wife and consequently Adolph's mother, Louise-Philippine de Coninck (1775-1851). Educated at Paris and Geneva, Adolph began his life-work in 1825 as founder and pastor of a Protestant church in Naples, moving to Lyon in 1827. Here his evangelical preaching, and especially a sermon on the duties of communicants (Qui doit communier?), led to his deposition by the Catholic Minister of education and religion. Instead of leaving Lyon he began to preach in a hall and then in a chapel.

On 2 September 1829 he married Hannah Honyman (1799-1868) in Lyon. They had seven children, including pastor André John William Honyman Monod (1834–1916), philanthropist and feminist Alexandrine Elisabeth Sarah Monod (1836–1912), Émilie Monod, Camille Monod (1843–1910).

In 1836 he took a professorship in the theological college of Montauban, removing in 1847 to Paris as preacher at the Oratoire. He died in Paris on 6 April 1856.

Monod was considered by some the foremost Protestant preacher of 19th-century France (e.g. Guillaume Guizot (1833-1892), son of the French statesman and Protestant historian François Guizot (1787-1874) referred to him in an article published in the “Journal des débats politiques et littéraires” (Journal of political and literary debates) on April 11, 1856, i.e. a few days after Adolphe Monod's funeral, as "one of the foremost Christian speakers of his time." He published three volumes of sermons in 1830, another, La Crédulité de l'incrédule in 1844, and two more in 1855. Two further volumes appeared after his death. One of his most influential books was the posthumous, Les Adieux d'Adolphe Monod à ses Amis et à l'Église (1857).

title: Adolphe Monod


text:
Steve Coogan

Stephen John Coogan (born 14 October 1965) is an English comedian, actor and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which he developed while working with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris on On the Hour and The Day Today. Partridge has featured in several television series and the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. In 1999, he co-founded the production company Baby Cow Productions with Henry Normal. For his work he has garnered numerous accolades including four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.

Coogan began his career in the 1980s as a voice actor on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image and providing voice-overs for television advertisements. Coogan grew in prominence in the film industry in 2002, after starring in The Parole Officer and 24 Hour Party People. He continued to appear in films such as Around the World in 80 Days (2004), the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006-2014), Tropic Thunder (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Our Idiot Brother (2011), Ruby Sparks (2012), Irreplaceable You (2018), and Greed (2019). He co-starred as himself with Rob Brydon in A Cock and Bull Story (2005), and the BBC series The Trip (2010), The Trip to Italy (2014), The Trip to Spain (2017), and The Trip to Greece (2020), all of which were condensed into films.

In 2013, he co-wrote, produced, and starred in the film Philomena, which earned him nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and at the Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Coogan has also played dramatic roles, including Marie Antoinette (2006), What Maisie Knew (2012), The Look of Love (2013) and The Dinner (2017). For his portrayal of Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie (2018), he earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role nomination. For his portrayal of Jimmy Savile in the BBC drama The Reckoning (2023), he received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.

Early life and education
Stephen John Coogan was born on 14 October 1965 in Middleton, Lancashire, the son of housewife Kathleen (née Coonan) and IBM engineer Anthony "Tony" Coogan. He has four brothers and one sister, and was raised Roman Catholic in what he described as a "lower-middle or upper-working class" family which emphasised the values of education. His younger brother Brendan was, for a few months, a presenter of Top Gear, while his elder brother Martin became the lead singer of rock band the Mock Turtles.

Coogan's mother is Irish and hails from County Mayo, while his father is also of Irish descent, his paternal grandparents – Margaret (from County Kilkenny) and Thomas Coogan (a tailor from County Cork) – having settled in Manchester shortly before the First World War. During the 1950s, his paternal grandfather established a dance hall for Irish immigrants. Coogan has stated that he had a happy childhood, and his parents fostered children on a short-term basis.

Coogan lived on Manchester New Road in Alkrington. His father Anthony stood for the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the Middleton South ward at the Rochdale Borough Council elections in both May 1983 and May 1984. Anthony Coogan was chairman of the Catholic Grammar Schools Parents Association, and protested against the proposal by the Salford Roman Catholic Diocesan Schools Commission to close the sixth form (which ultimately did not happen).

Coogan attended St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Primary School and Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School. He passed two O-levels in 1983, which were likely re-take exams, when aged 17. In 1984 he gained 4 A-levels: English Literature, British Government and Politics, Art, and General Studies. In the same year his brother Kevin acquired nine O-levels at the same school, and took part in local and regional sports competitions, notably in basketball and cross country running. His eldest sister trained to be a teacher at the nearby Hopwood Hall College.

As a family, it was assumed that all the children would become teachers. Coogan had a talent for impersonation and wanted to go to drama school, despite being advised by a teacher that it could lead to a precarious profession. After five failed applications to various drama schools in London, he received a place at the New Music theatre company before gaining a place at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama, where he met future collaborator John Thomson.

1989–2002: Breakthrough as Alan Partridge
Coogan began his career as a comic and impressionist, performing regularly in Ipswich, before working as a voice artist for television advertisements and the satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In 1988, he provided vocals for the acid house record 'Don't Believe the Hype' credited to Mista E. The record peaked at number 41 in December 1988, narrowly missing the main chart rundown. In 1989, he appeared in a series of specially shot sketches in the Observation round in the long-running ITV game show The Krypton Factor. In 1992, Coogan won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his performance with long-time collaborator John Thomson, and starred alongside him and Caroline Aherne in a one-off Granada TV sketch show, The Dead Good Show. His most prominent characters developed at this time were Paul Calf, a stereotypical working class Mancunian, and his sister Pauline, played by Coogan in drag. While working on the Radio 4 comedy On the Hour, Coogan created Alan Partridge, a parody of British sports presenters, with producer Armando Iannucci. Coogan described Partridge as a Little Englander, with right-wing values and poor taste. He is socially inept, often offending his guests, and has an inflated sense of importance and celebrity. According to Coogan, Partridge was originally a "one-note, sketchy character" and "freak show", but slowly became refined as a dysfunctional alter ego.

In 1992, Partridge hosted a spin-off Radio 4 spoof chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. On the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today in 1994, followed by Knowing Me, Knowing You later that year. In 1997, Coogan starred as Partridge in a BBC sitcom, I'm Alan Partridge, written by Coogan, Iannucci and Peter Baynham, following Partridge's life in a roadside hotel working for a small radio station. It earned two BAFTAs and was followed by a second series in 2002. After I'm Alan Partridge, Coogan tired of Partridge and limited him to smaller roles. Coogan said he did not want to say goodbye to Partridge, and that "as long as I can do my other things, that, to me, is the perfect balance". He later said that Partridge had once been an "albatross" but had become "a battered, comfortable old leather jacket". Critics have praised Partridge's complexity, realism and pathos. Vanity Fair called him a British national treasure and the Guardian described him as "one of the greatest and most beloved comic creations of the last few decades". Partridge is credited with influencing cringe comedies such as The Inbetweeners, Nighty Night and Peep Show. In 2001 a poll by Channel 4, Partridge was voted seventh on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. Paul Calf began as a character named 'Duncan Disorderly' in Coogan's early stand-up routines. Calf first came to wider public notice in 1993, with several appearances on Saturday Zoo, a late-night variety show presented by Jonathan Ross on Channel 4. Paul has appeared in two video diaries, an episode of Coogan's Run, and in various stand-up performances. He is an unemployed Mancunian wastrel with a particular hatred of students. His catchphrase, spoken to disparage something or someone, is "Bag o' shite". Paul lives in a council house in the fictional town of Ottle with his mother and his sister, Pauline Calf (also played by Coogan). His father, Pete Calf (played by Coogan in Coogan's Run) died some time before the first video diary was made. For a long time he was obsessed with getting back together with his ex-girlfriend, Julie. Paul's best friend is "Fat" Bob (played by John Thomson), a car mechanic who eventually married Pauline. Paul supports Manchester City and is very partial to Wagon Wheels. He wears Burton suits, sports a bleached mullet hairstyle, and drives a Ford Cortina. Pauline Calf's Wedding Video won the 1995 BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy.

Other Coogan creations include Tommy Saxondale, Duncan Thicket, Ernest Eckler and Portuguese Eurovision Song Contest winner Tony Ferrino. Duncan Thicket has appeared in a tour of live shows. Coogan, along with his writing partner Henry Normal, founded Baby Cow Productions in 1999. Together, they have served as executive producers for shows such as The Mighty Boosh, Nighty Night, Marion and Geoff, Gavin & Stacey, Human Remains and Moone Boy, as well as the Alan Partridge feature film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. They have also produced Where Are the Joneses?, an online sitcom which uses wiki technology to allow the audience to upload scripts and storyline ideas. Other TV shows he has starred in include Coogan's Run, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Monkey Trousers and Saxondale. Coogan has provided voices for the animated series I Am Not an Animal and Bob and Margaret, two Christmas specials featuring Robbie the Reindeer, and an episode of the BBC Radio Four spoof sci-fi series Nebulous. He played the Gnat in the 1998 TV adaptation of Alice Through the Looking-Glass starring Kate Beckinsale,

2003–2009: Film roles and standup
Coogan starred in BBC2's The Private Life of Samuel Pepys in 2003, and Cruise of the Gods in 2002 and portrayed Factory Records boss, Tony Wilson in the film, 24 Hour Party People (2002). In 2006, he had a cameo in the Little Britain Christmas special as a pilot taking Lou and Andy to Disneyland. Coogan has played himself several times on screen. First, in one of the vignettes of Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes, alongside Alfred Molina. Second, in 2006 Coogan starred with Rob Brydon in Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, a self-referential film of the "unfilmable" self-referential novel Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. In the film, Coogan plays a fictional, womanising version of himself. The first film that Coogan co-wrote with Henry Normal was The Parole Officer, in which he also acted alongside Ben Miller and Lena Headey. He has an uncredited cameo in Hot Fuzz, scripted by Shaun of the Dead writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. He also starred in the Night at the Museum trilogy in which he played Octavius, a miniature Roman general figure, alongside Owen Wilson's Jedediah, a miniature cowboy figure. In 2007, Coogan played a psychiatrist on Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO, and in 2008, starred in the BBC1 drama Sunshine.

In March 2008, it was confirmed that Coogan would return to doing comedy as part of his first stand-up tour in ten years. The tour, named "Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and other less successful characters", saw the return of some of his old characters including Paul Calf and Alan Partridge. Reviews of the tour were mixed. Much of the criticism focused on the apparent unrehearsed quality of some of the performances and on Coogan's nervous stage presence. Chortle comedy guide described it as "most definitely a show of two-halves: the superlative Alan Partridge plus a collection of characters that are not only less successful, but woefully less funny".

As the tour progressed and the problems were ironed out, reviews were very positive. Dominic Maxwell of The Times described the show as "twice as entertaining as most other comedy shows this year". Brian Logan of The Guardian awarded it four stars and described it as "shamelessly funny". Reviews such as the one from the Trent FM Arena exemplified how much the show had improved after dealing with the glitches on its first few dates: "When Steve Coogan first brought this show to Nottingham last month, the reviews were poor... the intervening weeks have made a big difference, and last night's audience at the Trent FM Arena went home happy. More please, and soon."

In 2008, BBC Worldwide bought a 25% stake in the production company. It did not offer the largest sum, but was chosen by Coogan and Normal owing to their previous work with and strong connection with the BBC. In 2009, Coogan was featured, alongside Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer and Julia Davis, in the spoof documentary TV film Steve Coogan – The Inside Story. The same year he spoke on the influence of Monty Python on his comedy when he appeared in the television documentary, Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyers Cut).

2010–2019: The Trip and Philomena
In 2010, he worked again with Brydon and Michael Winterbottom for the partially improvised BBC2 sitcom The Trip, in which he and Brydon tour northern restaurants. The movie was followed in 2014 with the film, The Trip to Italy, about him and Brydon taking a food-tasting trip through Italy, followed by The Trip to Spain (2017) and The Trip to Greece (2020). He worked again with director Winterbottom in The Look of Love (2013), about '50s porn-king, Paul Raymond. Partridge returned in 2010 with a series of shorts, Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, written with new writers Rob and Neil Gibbons. It was followed by the spoof memoirs I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan (2011) and Nomad (2016), the feature film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013), and several TV specials. In his memoir, Coogan wrote that Alpha Papa was the hardest he had ever worked and that the production was fraught; however, he was proud of the finished film.

Coogan produced, co-wrote and co-starred in the drama film Philomena (2013). He portrayed the journalist Martin Sixsmith, who helps a former nun Philomena Lee, played Judi Dench, find her son after decades long absence. The film received acclaim and was a financial success. The Variety critic Justin Chang wrote, "The two leads make decent sparring partners and better allies, and Coogan is especially good whenever Martin's impatient manner tilts into genuine moral indignation." Coogan received the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay as well as nominations for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. The film earned four Academy Award nominations including for Best Picture losing to Steve McQueen's historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013). Coogan's autobiography, Easily Distracted, was published in October 2015. In 2016, after Henry Normal stood down, Christine Langan (head of BBC Film at the time) was hired by Coogan (creative director of Baby Cow Productions) as the new CEO; this led to BBC Worldwide increasing its stake to 73%. Since joining, Langan has executive-produced all of the content from Baby Cow Productions, including Camping, Stan & Ollie, Zapped and The Witchfinder.

Coogan played the comedian Stan Laurel in the 2018 biographical film Stan & Ollie, alongside the American actor John C. Reilly, who played Oliver Hardy. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Coogan "slips neatly into the role" and added, "Coogan and Reilly not only excel at creating convincing impressions of one of the most famous comic teams of the last century, but they do an uncanny job of recreating a handful of their famous routines, which today mostly play as mild yet expertly timed delights." For his performance, he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 2019, Partridge returned to the BBC with This Time with Alan Partridge, a spoof of magazine shows such as The One Show, followed by an Audible podcast, From the Oasthouse, in 2020. The podcast has now run for three seasons, including a free teaser episode where Partridge commented on the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

2020–present
In April 2022, Coogan began an Alan Partridge tour, Stratagem. Reviewing the show for the Guardian, Brian Logan noted that though Coogan had once tired of Partridge, he now "clearly takes pleasure in the performance". Coogan starred in the 2022 film The Lost King, playing the husband of the writer Philippa Langley, who discovered the bones of King Richard III.

Coogan played Jimmy Savile in the BBC One series The Reckoning (2023). Coogan said the decision to play Savile was "not one I took lightly", and that the script "tackled a horrific story which – however harrowing – needs to be told". Despite the controversy surrounding the series, Coogan's performance was mostly praised by critics. He received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.

Coogan is due to star, in multiple roles, in a London stage version of the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, adapted by his Alan Partridge co-creator Armando Iannucci. The play will open at the Noël Coward Theatre on 8 October 2024. Coogan has a role in the 2024 film Joker: Folie à Deux. Filming for the next Partridge project, And Did Those Feet.. With Alan Partridge, began in early 2024.

Public image

Coogan has said that he likes to "keep [himself] private", and added: "I have never wanted to be famous, as such – fame is a by-product." He has been a British tabloid fixture since as early as 1996, and has stated that such outlets have subjected him to entrapment and blackmail, printed obvious lies about him, and have targeted his family and friends in attempts to extract stories from them. Coogan in some cases strongly denied allegations, but in others did not contest them because he wanted to shield vulnerable friends from adverse publicity.

The tabloids also published intrusive information about his relationships and the schooling of his child. Coogan has also been critical of the broadsheet press, saying they have colluded with the tabloids in the interests of selling newspapers. In 2005, he said "The Guardian tends to have its cake and eat it. It waits for the tabloids to dish the dirt and then it talks about the tabloids dishing the dirt while enjoying it themselves." He later gave credit to the same newspaper for its investigation of the phone hacking scandal. He has said that the press, by persistently intruding in his private life, has effectively made him "immune" to further attack as his "closet is empty of skeletons".

Phone hacking scandal
Coogan favours reform and regulation of the British press. He became a prominent figure in the News International phone hacking scandal as one of the celebrities who took action against the British tabloids in light of these events. He was made aware by his phone service provider of "possible anomalies" on his phone in 2005 and 2006. In 2010, Coogan's legal firm obtained a partially redacted version of Glenn Mulcaire's hacking notebook by a court order which showed Coogan had been targeted and his personal information was in the possession of Mulcaire.

Mulcaire was forced by the High Court of Justice to disclose to Coogan's legal team who amongst the staff at the News of the World ordered him to hack phones. This information was obtained by Coogan's lawyers on 26 August 2011. Interviewed on Newsnight on 8 July 2011, Coogan said he was "delighted" by the closure of the News of the World and said it was a "fantastic day for journalism". He said the idea of press freedom was used by the tabloids as a "smokescreen for selling papers with tittle-tattle" and said the argument against press regulation was "morally bankrupt".

Coogan provided an eight-page witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry, and appeared at the inquiry on 22 November 2011 to discuss the evidence. He said he was there reluctantly representing a lot of celebrities who felt they could not speak out for fear of reprisals from the tabloid press.

In March 2021, Coogan said "the tabloid press is controlled by a handful of tax shy billionaires with an agenda. Anyone who stands up to the press is attacked by them because they're bullies." He added "the fact that Meghan Markle and Harry were attacked has nothing to do with jet-setting hypocrisy. It's because they broke the golden rule, which is to leave us alone and we'll go easy on you next time."

Personal life
In 1993 he lived in Didsbury, Greater Manchester. Until 2017, Coogan resided in Ovingdean Grange in Ovingdean, East Sussex.

Coogan married Caroline Hickman in 2002; they divorced in 2005. He entered rehab for personal issues. He dated model China Chow for three years. In March 2011, Coogan was guest editor for lads mag Loaded, where he met and began dating glamour model Loretta "Elle" Basey. They were together until 2014. He has a daughter from a previous four-year relationship with solicitor Anna Cole.

Although raised Catholic, Coogan is now an atheist. A motoring enthusiast, he has owned a number of Ferraris, but ceased after calculating that the overall costs exceeded those of running a private plane. In February 2016, he was fined £670 and banned from driving for 28 days after being caught speeding in Brighton. In August 2019, he escaped the usual six-month ban for a further speeding offence by saying that his next TV series depended on his ability to drive; he was given a two-month ban and a £750 fine. He has been open about his struggle with depression and has said "I will always be a recovering addict". In March 2023, Coogan completed the process of applying for Irish citizenship. Interviewed by irishcentral.com that month Coogan described himself as "half-Irish".

Political views
Coogan has supported both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. He believes that the Conservative Party think "people are plebs" and that "they like to pat people on the head". In 2013 he voiced his support for abolishing the British monarchy. In August 2014, Coogan was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the Scottish independence referendum.

Coogan endorsed the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 general election. He hosted a rally for Corbyn in Birmingham, saying: "The Tory tactic was to try to make this a choice between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, but this has backfired as people – and I readily admit to being one of them – have started to listen to what Jeremy Corbyn says rather than what other people have been saying about him."

In November 2019, along with other public figures, Coogan signed a letter defending Corbyn, describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 general election. In December 2019, along with 42 other cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party in the election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few".

In September 2023, Coogan addressed the Liberal Democrat Conference by video link, expressing that he would tactically vote for the Liberal Democrats over the Labour Party in the 2024 general election, as "the candidate best placed to kick the Tories out is the Lib Dem candidate".

In October, Coogan, Tilda Swinton, Miriam Margolyes, Charles Dance, Maxine Peake and Peter Mullan were among more than 2,000 cultural figures to sign a letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire and accused the UK government of "not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them" in the wake of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. Following criticism that the letter did not acknowledge or condemn the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, Coogan said that "it goes without saying that what Hamas did is evil beyond imagination — it was horrific and brutal". In June 2024, Coogan was one of more than 100 cultural figures to sign a letter calling for Labour to halt sales of arms to Israel if it is elected.

In June 2024, ahead of the 2024 General Election, Coogan endorsed the Green Party, and campaigned for Sian Berry.

Awards and nominations
Coogan's show Steve Coogan in character with John Thomson was winner of the Perrier Award for best show at the 1992 Edinburgh Fringe. He has won numerous awards for his work in TV including British Comedy Awards, BAFTAs and The South Bank Show award for comedy. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2005, a poll to find the Comedians' Comedian saw him being voted amongst the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

title: Steve Coogan