Geography of France
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GEOGRAPHY OF FRANCE GEOGRAPHY OF FRANCE By RAOUL BLANCHARD Professor of Geography, University of Grenoble French Exchange Professor, Harvard University, 1917 and MILLICENT TODD Lecturer in Geography to A. E. F. School Detachment University of Grenoble, 1919 RAND McNALLY & COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK Copyright, 19x9, by Rand McNally & Company 33C|g Utb K 19(9 ©Ci.A561087 / y^2- -y THE CONTENTS // PAGE The Preface 9 A Foreword 13 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. Structure and Relief 17 II. Climate and Vegetation 24 NATURAL REGIONS III. The Mediterranean Region 31 IV. The French Alps 37 V. The Jura 44 VI. The Depression of the Saone and the Rhone . 48 VII. The Massif Central 56 VIII. The Pyrenees 68 IX. The Basin of Aquitaine 74 X. The Massif Armoricain ........ 84 XI. The Paris Basin: Plains of the South and THE Northwest 95 XII. The Paris Basin: The Nord; Flanders, Artois, Picardy 107 XIII. The Paris Basin: The Plateaus of the Ile-de-France 118 XIV. The Paris Basin: Champagne 123 XV. The Paris Basin: Lorraine 129 XVI. The Vosges 138 XVII. Alsace-Lorraine 141 XVIII. Paris 148 5 THE CONTENTS 6 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER PAGE XIX. Coal 159 XX. White Coal 164 XXI. Metals and Metallurgy 169 XXII. The Textile Industry 175 XXIII. The Industrial Regions i8t XXIV. Wheat [ . 187 XXV. Cattle 192 XXVI. The Vine 198 XXVII. Transportation Routes 206 XXVIII. The Colonial Empire 212 A Pronouncing Index 219 The Index 229 A LIST OF THE MAPS PAGE Europe in IQ14 End Sheet r A Structural Map 19 The Mediterranean Region . 32 French Alps, Jura, Sa6ne-Rh6ne Depression 38 The Massif Central 57 The Pyrenees and the Basin of Aquitaine 69 The Massif Armoricain 85 The Paris Basin: Plains of North, Center, and South . 96 The Paris Basin: Northern Battle Fields, Ile-de-France, Champagne 112 The Paris Basin: Lorraine, Plateaus and Cotes .... 130 Cross-Section of Cotes of Lorraine . 131 Lorraine and Alsace 135 Paris 150 Coal Deposits 160 Metallurgy Centers 170' Textile Centers 177 Principal Wheat Regions . 188 Principal Cattle Regions 193 Principal Wine Regions 200 Waterways 208 Europe in IQIQ End Sheet ^^The features which have produced French unity and have made France a world-center of civilization have a geographic foundation. Physically France is made up of basins fringing plateaus of old rocks. A happy distribution of lowlands has provided avenues through which far-spread influences have penetrated the country. Up the sunny corridor of Provence and Burgundy and through the narrow gate of Carcassonne came the visions of Mediterranean civilization to brighten the cloudier northern basins. The gates of Metz-Verdun, the Meuse-Sambre, and that of Ypres gather up roads from Central Europe and from Asia beyond. Then there are the ways of the sea. The channel, that passed on Gallic civiliza- tion to Britain, gave the northerners an entry to France. The way of the open sea, Brittany, is one of those Celtic lands whose contributions to the life of Western Europe have been little appreciated as yet. "The meeting point of these roads is the Paris Basin, and there have met and blended the ideas and ideals that have traveled along them. And from the rich interweaving has been created the national spirit, of which the high expression is the Frenchman's ability to keep in sympathetic touch with the ideals and '^ thoughts of other nations. THE PREFACE It is difficult to pique the curiosity of the public with the word "geography," when for so long it has meant arid lists of countries, rivers, mountains, plains, and cities, forced as so many isolated facts into a child's reluc- tant mind. Such it is no longer. But the modern geographer finds himself confronted with a problem : how is it possible to convey an idea of the changed character of geography while using the same old label? It has become a university study, with wide knowledge as a prerequisite. It is a live, alluring, suggestive subject, yet still we continue to call it "geography" for lack of a better term. Like other sciences, geography has gradually l^een taking shape during the last thirty or forty years, encoun- tering many obstacles by the way. Specialists in other branches have objected that it tends to overestimate the importance of environment; or that it is too diffuse, con- cerned with too many vague generalities difficult if not impossible to define. It is asked what the field of geog- raphy really is, what its subject-matter, what its aim. In France much has already been done to answer such questions. The science has been developed, yet at the same time made more exact; elaborated, yet clarified. The outcome is the French School of Regional Geography. The French geographer begins with a tabula, rasa. His mind is as unprejudiced as a photographic plate. He understands the laws of physiography, of course, and climatology; he is awake to life responses, both past and present. But, confining himself to a given region, he is lo THE PREFACE content to accumulate knowledge. He studies natural factors influencing man, human factors touched by nature. His is a science of relationships and explanations. With- out theories as to what he should expect to find, without attempting to establish laws, he studies facts as they present themselves. With what facts, then, is he concerned? What is meant by the term "regional geography"? As the name would indicate, it is the study of "natural regions." When a botanist uses that term he refers to characteristic types of vegetation within a given region, a geologist to rock formations, a physiographer to drain- age systems and other surface features. But each is occupied with only a single aspect of the region. The geographer, on the other hand, takes a locality distin- guished from its neighbors by relief, soil, climate, vege- tation, or a combination of several of these features, studies each in turn, then describes the place as a com- plete and living whole. Nothing is important except in so far as it contributes to this end. Next, natural con- ditions influencing human activities are taken up, and lastly, man's adaptation to such conditions. What use has he made of the means at his disposal? How far can his various activities be accounted for by the conditions? Other branches of study may deal with many of the same facts in the same region —geology with structure, agri- culture with soils, economics with raw materials and manu- factures —but geography makes the synthesis, connecting divergent sorts of information, and explaining human occupations in the light of all these conditions. Thus geography is seen to be primarily not descriptive — though it needs the art of such a master as Vidal de la THE PREFACE ii Blache, the founder of the modern school of French geography, to show it as its best — but largely explanatory. It does not hold that natural endowments can always create a local activity. It cannot always even explain. But Jor a given region it shows to what degree man and his environment affect each other — for natural conditions unquestionably form the frame within which he is obliged to act. With such ideas in mind, we find the old word "geography" vitalized with new meaning. A distinctive feature of the French school is that in every case the region chosen is sufficiently restricted to make a thorough, complete study possible. There are few countries so small or so uniform as to be composed of but a single natural region. Such a country as France, for instance, must be divided into a dozen or more parts, to each of which the method of study is applied afresh from beginning to end, the emphasis on different stages varying according to necessity. At least ten books of over 500 pages each have already been written about regions of France. One of the best known is "La Flandre" by Professor Raoul Blanchard of the University of Grenoble. To Professor Blanchard also is due the credit of being a pioneer in a specialized branch of regional geography known as urban geography. The development of so artificial and so localized a growth as a great city is shown to be preeminently dependent on physical factors, its situation, site, natural resources, transportation facilities, and so on explaining in large part its pursuits. One of the first works on urban geography to appear was a study of Grenoble published by Professor Blanchard in 19 10. "Geography" may be considered a blanket term. "Physical geography," "human geography," "economic 12 ^ THE PREFACE geography" are all included in the study of a given region, each contributing to an understanding of the whole. No country is without interest; the most repellent, the most monotonous holds the attention merely by challenging an explanation of why it should be repellent or monotonous. The battle within a given region between man and nature — in which man's success depends on his understanding his adversary, submitting to her requirements in order gradually to transform her and make her obey him in the end — this is the subject-matter of regional geography. It may be classed with the humanities; in fact, in French universities it is taught in the Faculty of Arts and Letters. This book, a brief summary of the geography of France, is intended to show the methods of regional geography, using by way of illustration the country where not only detailed studies of many regions have been made, but where the subject itself has been most extensively devel- oped. There is no French edition. The book was written after the armistice for the American Expeditionary Force and is for the first time appearing in the United States.