Historical holiday hotspots in France

You may want to visit recent history locations such as the D-Day landing beaches across Normandy. U.S. First Army established the temporary St. Laurent cemetery, the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. After the war, the present-day cemetery was established a short distance to the south of the original site. France has granted the United States a special, perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery, officially making it United States soil. In 12th and 13th centuries, a new religion, Catharism, was established across the south of France. This "alternative" Christianity was perceived as a serious threat by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), his clergy and his successors. Under the reigns of the French Capetian kings Philip I Augustus (1180-1223), Louis VIII (1223-1226) and Louis IX (Saint Louis 1226-1270), a "holy" war of unprecedented violence and savagery, combining mainly northern French barons and the papacy, was undertaken between 1209 and 1229, against the Cathars in the southern Languedoc-speaking regions (the langue d’oc was a language very similar to Catalan today). This crusade was also against the Albigensians, whose military challenges continued in fact until 1244 (fall of Montségur Castle, execution by burning of 205 Cathars), and even 1255 (capture of Quéribus). The direct consequences of this were the taking over of a large part of the southern region by the northern-based Capetian monarchy, as well as the virtual extinction of the Languedoc way of life. For more than a century after 1229, the Catholic Inquisitors and their executioners continued to seek the complete eradication of "the heresy" until its total disappearance. You may want to visit the stes of the French revelution - The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Enlightenment principles of democracy, citizenship, and inalienable rights. These changes were accompanied by violent turmoil, including executions and repression during the Reign of Terror, and warfare involving every other major European power. Subsequent events caused by the revolution include the Napoleonic wars, the restoration of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape.