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ValenciennesFrance
Valenciennes is a town and commune in northern France in the Nord département on the Escaut river. While the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded. As of 1999, the commune has a population of 41,278 while the metropolitan area numbers 399,677. This renewed growth is particularly notable for Valenciennes, as well as some suburbs. Valenciennes is first mentioned in 693 in a legal document written by Clovis II. In the 9th century the region was overrun by the Normans. Once the Empire of the Franks was established, the city began to develop. In 1008, a terrible famine brought the Plague. In the 14th century, the Tower of Dodenne was built. In the 15th century, the County of Hainault, of which Valenciennes is part, was re-attached to Burgundy. In 1524, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, arrived at Valenciennes. With its manufacturers of wool and fine linens, the city was able to become economically independent. Around 1560, Valenciennes became an early centre of Calvinism. In 1562, here occurred the first act of resistance against religious persecution in the Netherlands, when a crowd liberated some Protestants condemned to die at the stake. In 1580, the town, by then a Calvinist stronghold, was conquered by Alexander Farnese and Protestantism was eradicated. By the Treaty of Nijmegen, the French took control of Valenciennes (1678) and the surrounding southern part of Hainault, roughly cutting the former county in halves. Shortly thereafter, Vauban visited the city in the effort to fortify the northern reaches of France. The city was under siege in 1793, during the Napoleonic wars. External links All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details). About Wikipedia Disclaimers
You, all already know, when Hui Chin tells me to jump, I politely ask, how high? Hui Chin, a registered nurse has been working at the Little Sisters of the Poor's Hospital in Auckland for the past 14 years or more. Mother Imelda was the House Mother there for a few years, where they had a close working relation as Hui Chin was the Nurse Manager at the time. We arrived Valenciennes around about 8 pm and we asked a few people for directions to the Little Sisters of the Poor Hospital. After a few unsuccessful questioning we came to a restaurant's back door to ask a young lady for directions. Another lady came from behind us, she was unloading some goods from her car and she 'jumped' to our help. After the two kind ladies checked the map for directions, the older lady said, the place isn't far from there, but hard to explain, shall we jump in her car and she'll take us there. She promptly whisked us there and deposited us on the front steps of the hospital. Thank you very much, very kind lady. God Bless you and your family. We hope you will read these lines. Many, many thanks. Next day we have tried to find the kind lady or her restaurant, but we couldn't and how would we have asked for it. We never even asked for her name or the name of her restaurant, we should have, really. Mother Imelda and Hui Chin had a very happy and memorable reunion. We immensely enjoyed Valenciennes. Valenciennes also have very modern trams and as you all know, I like trams and modern ones even more 'modernly'.
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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