Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Its inhabitants are called Gardannais.
Geography
It is close to
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille ...
and
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
and on the rail link connecting the two cities.
It is bordered by the Massif du Montaiguet, which expands to Luynes, Aix en Provence and Bouc-Bel-Air. It comprises chalky plateaux bordered by cliffs, forests of pines and oaks, and crops areas. In 1979 and 2005 the area was devastated by bush fires. Following these incidents, garrigue is now covering a wide area.
History
Walls dating back to the first century AD have been found.:: Ville de Gardanne :: /ref>
In 1454 René d'Anjou bought the estate and would go there until 1480. In 1482 it was bought back by the
Forbin
Forbin is a French surname.
Members of an ancient Provence family (which now has many branches, the principal ones being the ''Forbin des Lasarts'' branch and the ''Forbin Janson'' branch) bearing the name include:
* Palamède de Forbin (died 15 ...
s and in 1676 the villagers themselves bought back their own land.
In the 1860s a railway was built and a little later mines were dug, thus attracting Italian, Armenian, Polish, Czech, Spanish and African workers to the village. The deep mine, one of the last surviving in France, was closed down in 2003.
Energy
The Centrale thermique de Provence, a thermal power station is located in Gardanne. It runs on coal and biomass and uses the technology known as the circulating fluidized bed. It has the highest chimney in France which rises to 297 m. In 2018, the site director presented it as the third tallest building in France, after the Eiffel Tower and the Millau viaduct. The plant will be closed before 2022 in order to reduce greenhouse gas () emissions in accordance with the PPE law.
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European ...
under Mayor Roger Meï from 1977 until 2020. Voting is usually towards the left-wing, but rather uncharacteristically,
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012.
Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...
gained 53.1% of the vote at the second round of the
2007 French presidential election
Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April 2007 to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France (and ''ex officio'' Co-Prince of Andorra) for a five-year term. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, ...
.
Picture gallery
Image:Gardanne, power station and mine.jpg, Centrale Thermique de Provence and the preserved Puits Z
Image:Puits Yvon-Morandat.jpg, Puits Yvon-Morandat
Image:Cooling Tower Gardanne, Peter Atkinson 2006..jpg, Cooling tower of the coal-fired Centrale Thermique de Provence