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Mont-de-Marsan

(Encyclopedia)Mont-de-Marsan môN-də-märsäNˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 31,864), capital of Landes dept., SW France. It is a commercial center where important fairs are held. The town's products include lumber, goo...

Mont-Saint-Jean

(Encyclopedia)Mont-Saint-Jean môN-săN-zhäN [key], village, Walloon Brabant prov., central Belgium, on a height S of Waterloo. The British resisted the French onslaught there at the end of the Waterloo campaign (...

Chamonix

(Encyclopedia)Chamonix shämônēˈ [key], town, Haute-Savoie dept., E France, at the foot of Mont Blanc. The ...

La Vallière, Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de

(Encyclopedia)La Vallière, Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc de lwēz fräNswäzˈ də lä bōm lə bläN də lä välyĕrˈ [key], 1644–1710, mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Maid of honor to Louis's ...

Bonatti, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Bonatti, Walter, 1930–2011, Italian mountain climber. He became famous for such feats as the first climb (1951) of Grand Capucin in the Mont Blanc massif and the ascent (1958) of Gasherbrum IV in th...

Brigue and Tende

(Encyclopedia)Brigue and Tende brēg, täNd [key], Ital. Briga and Tenda, two small districts, Alpes-Maritimes dept., SE France, on the French-Italian border. The districts are on the “Route Royal,” opened in 1...

Alps

(Encyclopedia)Alps, great mountain system of S central Europe, c.500 mi (800 km) long and c.100 mi (160 km) wide, curving in a great arc from the Riviera coast on the Mediterranean Sea, along the borders of N Italy...

Mer de Glace

(Encyclopedia)Mer de Glace mĕr də gläs [key] [Fr.,=sea of ice], glacier (3.5 mi/5.6 km long; 16 sq mi/41 sq km), Haute-Savoie dept., E France, on the northern slope of Mont Blanc. It is formed by the junction of...

Aosta, Valle d'

(Encyclopedia)Aosta, Valle d' väldäôˈstä [key], region, 1,260 sq mi (3,263 sq km), NW Italy, bordering on France in the west and on Switzerland in the north. Aosta is the capital o...

Janssen, Pierre Jules César

(Encyclopedia)Janssen, Pierre Jules César pyĕr zhül sāzärˈ zhäNsĕnˈ [key], 1824–1907, French astronomer. In 1857–58, in Peru, he worked on the determination of the magnetic equator; in the Azores (1867...