Читать книгу Cycle Touring in France. Eight tours in Brittany, Picardy, Alsace, Auvergne/Languedoc, Provence, Dordogne/Lot, the Alps and the Pyrenees онлайн

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Ironically it was to be his nephew, Louis-Napoleon, who led a coup in 1851 and proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III after the establishment of the Second Republic. During the 1850s France prospered both economically and industrially, but the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was Napoleon III's downfall and he was defeated, resulting in a Third Republic. France also lost Alsace and most of Lorraine to Germany as a result of this war, only regaining them at the end of World War I (1914–18). A Fourth Republic began in 1946 after World War II (1939–45), and women were finally given the vote. The Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 under the leadership of President Charles De Gaulle who remained in power until 1969, the year before his death. François Mitterrand, leader of the Socialist Party, won the presidential election in 1981 and stayed in power for 14 years, thus becoming the longest-serving president in France's history to date. In 1993 France, together with 11 other members of the European Community, ratified the Treaty on European Union and so became one of the EU countries. A year later the Channel Tunnel was completed, linking France with England.