1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
National Order of Merit (France)
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The National Order of Merit is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. It comprises about 187,000 members worldwide, the President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the order and appoints all its members by convention on the advice of the Government of France. The order has a common Chancellor and Chancery with the Legion of Honour, every Prime Minister of France is made a Grand cross of the order after 24 months of service. The medal of the order is a six-armed Maltese asterisk in gilt enamelled blue, the obverse central disc features the head of Marianne, surrounded by the legend République française. The reverse central disc has a set of crossed tricolores, surrounded by the name of the order, the badge is suspended by a laurel wreath. The star is worn by Grand-Croix and Grand Officier respectively, it is a twelve-armed sunburst, the central disc features the head of Marianne, surrounded by the legend République française and the name of the Order, and in turn surrounded by a wreath of laurel. The ribbon for the medal is a blue field. For the grade of Officier and above, a rosette is centered in the field, for the grades of Commandeur, Grand Officier, and Grand-Croix, the rosette is centered bar of silver, silver and gold, and a solid gold respectively
4.
France national basketball team
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The French national basketball team is the national basketball team representing France. It is administrated by the Fédération Française de Basket-Ball, France has been a regular at FIBA EuroBasket, with 37 appearances, the most of any nation. Its best results have been a medal at FIBA EuroBasket 2013. The French squad has won two silver medals at the Summer Olympics, in 1948 and 2000. Frances best result at the FIBA Basketball World Cup came in 2014, throughout its history, Frances national basketball team has experienced many ups and downs. The time periods where the team earned medals have been quite streaky. In Europe, team France started out as a fierce competitor and its period of glory at the world stage began in the late 1940s / early 1950s. At the 1948 Olympics in London, the France team led by Robert Busnel won an Olympic silver medal, the French finished second only to the United States. The following years were less glorious, Frances basketball team seemingly declined gradually to disappear almost completely from the two major world competitions during the 1960s and 1970s. After the disappointing 60s and 70s, the 1980s were marked by a generation of hope, counting in its ranks French basketball icons such as Richard Dacoury, Stephane Ostrowski, during this decade, France returned to the Olympics, and the 1986 FIBA World Championship. During the 1990s Team France had its moments to shine despite some internal struggles, at the European meetings, the team did not win a medal despite some good performances. The years 1999 and 2000, however, marked a turnaround for French basketball, in 2000, team France traveled to the Olympics in Sydney, full of ambition, which developed the means for major achievement. After this event, the Olympic vice-champion gained new backbone in Tony Parker who was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2001 NBA Draft, France lost the quarter-finals to Germany 77–81 and finished 6th place overall. During this time, most of Frances players cleared their spots for a new generation of players, the stated objective was the title, which would come as the second within a short time-period to Tony Parker who had won the NBA title only a few months ago. At the end, France even failed to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, hoping not to repeat the disappointing performance of 2003, Frances squad again saw some considerable changes in 2005. The new coach Claude Bergeaud, surprisingly also selected Frédéric Weis, a player once drafted at the 1999 NBA Draft. After a sobering first round, team France improved to stunning performances in the playoffs, first, France eliminated world champion Serbia-Montenegro on their home court, then the team defeated the European champion Lithuania. Then, in a game against Greece where both side battled each other through tough defense, France failed in the last second after leading by seven points,45 seconds before the game ended
5.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
6.
Dirk Nowitzki
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Dirk Werner Nowitzki is a German professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. Listed at 7 ft 0 in, Nowitzki is considered to be among the greatest power forwards of all time, Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 15 NBA Playoffs, including the franchises first Finals appearance in 2006 and only championship in 2011. He is a 13-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, Nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA-history and the sixth player to achieve over 30,000 regular-season points. He is also one of seven players who achieved a 50–40–90 season and he is the first Maverick voted onto an All-NBA Team and holds several all-time Mavericks franchise records. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Nowitzki are the players to achieve four consecutive 30-point. Nowitzki led the German national basketball team to a medal in the 2002 FIBA World Championship and silver in EuroBasket 2005. He was named the Euroscar European Basketball Player of the Year by the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport for five years running from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2011. He was also named the Mister Europa European Player of the Year by the Italian sports magazine Superbasket in 2005, on December 18,2011, Nowitzki was named the 2011 German Sports Personality of the Year, the first basketball player to receive the award. On December 10,2012, he became the first non-American player to receive the Naismith Legacy Award and his older sister Silke Nowitzki, a local champion in track and field, also became a basketball player and now works for the NBA in International TV. Nowitzki was a tall child, most of the time he stood above his peers by a foot or more. He initially played handball and tennis, but soon tired of being called a freak for his height. Furthermore, Geschwindner encouraged Nowitzki to play an instrument and read literature to make him a more complete personality. After a year, the coach was so impressed with Nowitzkis progress that he advised him, if you choose the latter, we will stop training immediately, because nobody can prevent that anymore. But if you want to play against the best, we have to train on a daily basis, after pondering this lifetime decision for two days, Nowitzki agreed to enter the full-time training schedule, choosing the path to his eventual international career. When Nowitzki joined the team, DJK played in the Second Bundesliga and his first trainer was Pit Stahl, who played the tall teenager as an outside-scoring forward rather than an inside-scoring center to utilise his shooting skills. DJK finished second in the South Division, but could not earn promotion after losing, 86–62, in the match versus BG Ludwigsburg, in that game. In the 1996–97 Second Bundesliga season, the top scorer Kuisma left the team. Filling the void, Nowitzki averaged 19.4 points per game and led DJK again to place after the regular season
