Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc Massif French Alps Chamonix Savoie France Europe EU A cable car from Chamonix takes travellers to near the summit at 3842 metres Skiers can ski down via the Vallee Blanche piste This photo was taken from a light airplane

Joliot-Curie Frederic Joliot Paris 1900-1958 French Physicist who investigated the Artificial Radioactivity and the structure and the fission of the atom He and his wife Irene Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935

Illustration by Gustave Dore 1832 1883 French artist and illustrator for Paradise Lost by John Milton Book 1 lines 221 and 222

Mademoiselle Sophie Arnould 1740 1802 French soprano operatic actress Phot etching after the painting by La Tour From the book Lady Jackson s Works IV The Old Rgime II Court Salons and Theatres Published London 1899

Napoleon Bonaparte at the seige of Toulon December 1793 Napoleon Bonaparte 1769 1821 Emperor of the French Engraved by Pannemaker Ligny after Viollat From Histoire de la Revolution Francaise by Louis Blanc

Joan of Arc 1412 1431 aka Jeanne d Arc or Jeanne la Pucelle French heroine and Saint of the Catholic church Engraved by W H Mote after G Staal From the book World Noted Women by Mary Cowden Clarke published 1858

Three Women Wearing Cloche & Decorated Wraps 20th Century French Advertisment Pieces 1911 Irbie, Barbier & Lepape Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Pierre Simon de Laplace 1749 1827 French astronomer physicist and mathematician He developed Newton s theories in the Treaty on Celestial Mechanics 1789 1825

Aidez LEspagne Artwork appealing for French solidarity with the Spanish Republic by Joan Miro in Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York

Under a French Sky William Merrit Chase (1849-1916 American) Oil on wood panel David David Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Cessna waits for take off at Courchevel Heliport in mountains of the Trois Vallees Three Valleys ski region of French Alps France Europe

Engraving by Gustave Dore 1832 1883 French artist and illustrator of Sancho Panza being tossed in a blanket from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Part I chapter 16

DESCARTES RENE LA HAYE TURENA FRANCE 1596- ESTOCOLMO 1650 French philosopher scientific and mathematician He wrote the scientific texts La Dioptria La Geometra and El discurso del mtodo

Illustration by Gustave Dore 1832 1883 French artist and illustrator for Paradise Lost by John Milton Book IV lines 172 and 173

Courchevel Ski resort in winter on piste with mountain alpine peaks in early morning sun Trois Vallees Three Valleys ski area in the French Alps France Europe EU

Illustration for Paradiso by Dante Alighieri Canto XIV lines 96 and 97 by Gustave Dore 1832 1883 French artist and illustrator