2837 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - The Limousins and the Blondes d'Aquitaine

Situated largely in the Massif Central, Limousin, the least populated region of mainland France, is an essentially rural region. Famed for some of the best beef farming in the world, herds of Limousin cattle, a distinctive chestnut red, are a common sight in the region. Initially used mainly as draft animals, interest in Limousins as a source of high quality meat grew about two hundred years ago. The first Limousin herd book was then established in France in 1886 to ensure the breed's purity and improvement by only recording and breeding animals that satisfied a strictly enforced breed standard.

2800 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - At the well sweep

2800 Landes (Gascogne) - At the well sweep

A well sweep is an device used to bring water up from a well. The materials needed to construct it are wooden poles and a heavy weight of stone or clay. A vertical post, with a Y notch at the top, is mounted near the well hole. On the post is placed a horizontal pole, or sweep, which has the weight at one end, and a long, thin pole with an attached bucket at the other. A person would pull the thin pole and bucket down into the well and fill it with water, and the sweep’s weight would then lift the bucket up.

2792 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Sequences of traditional life in La Marche

La Marche is a French historical and cultural region, corresponding to a former province whose capital was Gueret (approximately the modern département of Creuse). The name of Marche means an intermediate zone between two territories, in this case the English Aquitaine under the Plantagenets and the French Berry, but also between Limousin and Auvergne. It first appeared as a separate fief about the middle of the 10th century, when William III, Duke of Aquitaine, gave it to one of his vassals, who took the title of count. In 1527 it became part of the domains of the French crown.

2790 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle

Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle is a village in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. The village is scattered in several neighbourhoods, with a main nucleus located at a crossroads. As its name in French conveys, the village is located on the river Nivelle. The village is renowned for the "Herri Urrats" festival in support of the Basque-language schools (ikastolak) held in May on a yearly basis at the Lake of Senpere since the early 1980s.

2302 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - The Green Venice of the Poitevin Marsh

The Marais Poitevin is a large area of marshland in western France, a remnant of the former Gulf of Poitou, consisting for two thirds of a western zone near the sea called the "dry marsh", used for farming and breeding, and for one third of an eastern zone called the "wet marsh", a maze of islets criss-crossed by picturesque canals now used for tourist rowboating and nicknamed la Venise Verte (The Green Venice). It's the largest marsh on the Atlantic coast and the second largest of the whole country.

1299 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas in Bordeaux

Lying along the Garonne River, 24km above its junction with the Dordogne and 96 km from its spilling into the Atlantic, in a plain east of the wine-growing district of Médoc, Bordeaux became a prosper city because it was the place from which the famous wines went to other horizons. The city is built on a bend of the river, and is divided into two parts: the right bank to the east and left bank in the west. Historically the left bank is more developed because when flowing outside the bend, the water makes a furrow of the required depth to allow the passing of merchant ships, which used to offload on this side of the river. On this bank is its historic center, Port of the Moon, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But Bordeaux isn't only a city of the past, but also one of the present.

1266 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Château des Milandes, Josephine Baker's nest

The Château des Milandes is a small castle in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle (Dordogne), built by Francois de Caumont around 1489 for his young wife, who found medieval castle of Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle rather cold and unwelcoming. It is a fine example of Renaissance architecture, and it was the main house of the lords of Caumont until 1535. It fell into ruin after the French Revolution, but was restored by the legendary music hall star Josephine Baker, who rented the castle in 1940, and then bought it in 1947. She began her famous 'rainbow tribe' adopting children from different nationalities and religions. However, Josephine's generosity and naivety led to bankruptcy and she had to sell the castle.

0996 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Bordeaux, Port of the Moon (UNESCO WHS)

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River, in southwestern France, known mainly as the world's wine industry capital. At first a Celtic settlement, it came under Roman rule around 60 BC, being sacked by the Vandals, then by the Visigoths and Franks, who have taken it in possession. It started to play a regional role on the fringes of the Frankish Duchy of Vasconia, being meant to keep in check the Basques and defend the mouth of the Garonne from the Vikings. Between 12th and 15th centuries it regained importance following the marriage of Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine with Count Henri Plantagenet, the future King Henry II of England. The city flourished, even being for a while the capital of an independent state, but in the end was annexed by France. In the 16th century it became the center of the distribution of sugar and slaves from the West Indies, along with the traditional wine. The 18th century was its golden age, many downtown buildings being built in this period. In 1870, at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, the French government relocated to Bordeaux. This happened again during the WWI and again very briefly during the WWII, when it was also a submarine base from Axis powers.

0918, 0919 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion (UNESCO WHS)

Located at 35km northeast of Bordeaux, Saint-Émilion is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux. Its history goes back to prehistoric times, and in 27 BC began the Roman occupation, with the first vineyards by grafting new varieties of grape on the Vitis biturica that grew naturally in the region. The first Christian monasteries appeared in the 7th century, and the town was named after the monk Émilion, who lived in a hermitage carved into the rock there in the 8th century. Actually the monks started up the commercial wine production in the area. As the region was on the Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela, from the 11th century onwards it experienced great prosperity. It retained the medieval appearance until the 18th century, when its fortifications were dismantled, and this had an adverse effect on the vineyards, only after 1853 starting to recover. In the 18th century the quality of its wines was recognized as exceptional. During the Second Empire the production of red wines in the region became generalized, replacing the white wines that had been most common in the medieval period. Nevertheless Saint Émilion wines weren't included in the 1855 Bordeaux classification, the first formal classification being made in 1955.

The relief of the region is characterized by a stratum of limestone which disappears to the north, being replaced by a heterogeneous mixture of clayey sands and gravels. Before viticulture predominated, medieval and Renaissance castles were built on dominant sites as seigniorial residences. Settlements are characterized by modest stone houses, found in small groups, for the use of vineyard workers. The chais (wine storehouses) are large functional rectangular structures built from stone or a mixture of brick and stone, with tiled double-pitched roofs. The primary grape varieties used are the Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon. Château Ausone and Château Cheval Blanc are the only two wines currently classified as Premiers grands crus classes A (First Great Growths category A). There are then 13 Premiers grands crus classés B and 53 grands crus classés. In addition, a large number of vineyards are classified as Grand Cru. Because it is an outstanding example of an historic vineyard landscape that has survived intact and in activity to the present day, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.