Page created by: Rachel Valverde
SOAN 246- Cultural Geography
Professor Roger Baty
Spring 2002

France 

The beautiful country of France is located in Western Europe. It borders the Bay of Biscay and English Channel, and it’s between Belgium and Spain. It also borders the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain. It is also the largest West European nation. 

The climate in France is quite normal. It has generally cool winters and mild summers. Along the Mediterranean there is mild winters and hot summers.  Occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind occurs there. The terrain in France is mostly flat plains or gentle rolling hills in the north and west. The remainder is full of mountains. The lowest point in France is the Rhone River delta, which is 2 m. The highest point is Mont Blanc, which is 4,807m. 

France's population in July 2001 was 59,551,227. France is not filled with only Frenchmen. There are also Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, and Basque minorities. The languages in France consist of French 100%, and rapidly declining regional dialects and languages such as: Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, and Flemish.

Roman Theatre 

The Roman Theatre located in Orange, France is the first permanent theatre made from stone for the Romans. The theatre is the best one preserved in the entire former Roman Empire and is one of the finest Roman monuments in all of Europe. The Roman theater, similar to the Greek theater, developed a magnificence in keeping with Rome's status.  This grandeur is obvious in the stage building, which was raised to the height of the seating area. The stage building is three stories high, as opposed to the usual Greek theatres which were only two stories high. No permanent theaters in Rome have survived, but the Roman stage building can be seen in this theater. 

The theater was constructed in such a way that it could be seen as serving a religious purpose rather than for mere entertainment.   A temple of Venus was placed at the top of the seating area so that the rows of seats appeared to be steps leading up to the temple.

The theater, which is still in excellent shape, was built at the base of the St Eutrope hill, and the seating was cut into the hill. Five gates serve as entrances to the theater through the stage. The central gate was called the ‘Royal Gate’, and a niche above contained a statue of Emperor Hadrian.