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The royal fortress of Chinon , like many castles , is built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Vienne and the city. This strategic position allows it to ensure control of the passage over the Vienne, a tributary of the Loire . The village has developed below, on the shore. Gradually, the space was structured into three distinct parts, which the kings called their “three castles”, and which are stylized in the form of three towers on the coat of arms of the city. Thus, from west to east , the spur is blocked by a series of ditches - dry moats - which separate the three castles: Fort du Coudray, Chateau du Milieu, and Fort Saint-Georges. Each of the three castles has an independent enclosure. It is in the main castle, the Château du Milieu, that the main residences and the Saint-Melaine priory are developed.
France is affectionately referred to as "the Hexagon" for its overall shape.French history goes back to the Gauls, a Celtic tribe which inhabited the area circa 300BC until being conquered by Julius Caesar.The Franks were the first tribe to adopt Catholic Christianity after the Roman Empire collapsed. France became an independent location in the Treaty of Verdun in (843 AD), which divided up Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into several portions.The French monarchy reached its zenith during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who stood for seventy-two years as the Monarch of all Monarchs. His palace of Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors are a splendid treasure-trove of Baroque art.The French Revolution ended the rule of the monarchy with the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" On July 14th, 1789 angry mobs stormed La Bastille prison and began the Revolution in which Louis XVI, his wife Marie-Antoinette and thousands of others met the guillotine.One decade after the revolution, Napolean Bonaparte seized control of the Republic and named himself Emperor. His armies conquered most of Europe and his Napoleonic Code became a lasting legal foundation for concepts of personal status and property.During the period of colonization France controlled the largest empire in the world, second only to Britain.France is one of the founding members of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as one of the nuclear armed nations of the world.Text by Steve Smith.
