French author Louis Charpentier claimed that the Ark was taken to Chartres Cathedral by the Knights Templar.

The Spanish Empire claimed the islands by discovery in the early 16th century, but never settled them, and subsequent years saw the English, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Danish all jostling for control of the region, which became a notorious haunt for pirates.

Rumours of a battle first appeared in the French press as early as 7 August, although credible reports did not arrive until 26 August, and even these claimed that Nelson was dead and Bonaparte a British prisoner.

His views little endeared him to the French high command, but are claimed by some to have influenced Heinz Guderian.

The 97 children were taken from their homes in October 2007 by a then-obscure French charity, Zoé's Ark, which claimed they were orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

The Ivorian government claimed the attack on the French was unintentional, but the French insisted that the attack had been deliberate.

However, it was French explorer Jacques Cartier who made the first detailed reconnaissance of the region for a European power, and in so doing, claimed the region for the King of France.

In 1651, John French published The Art of Distillation the first major English compendium of practice, though it has been claimed that much of it derives from Braunschweig's work.

The French later claimed the area for New France.

The Detroit River — and the larger area surrounding it — was taken from the French by the British Empire during the French and Indian War and eventually claimed by the newly formed United States during the American Revolution.

Nonetheless, the islands have been a matter of controversy, as they have been claimed by the French, British, Spaniards and Argentines at various points.

John Byron, who was unaware of the French presence in the east, explored Saunders Island, in the west, named the harbour Port Egmont, and claimed this and other islands for Britain on the grounds of prior discovery.

In 1753, the French began expanding their military control into the " Ohio Country ", a territory also claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

These events had international consequences ; the French accused Washington of assassinating Jumonville, who they claimed was on a diplomatic mission.

He also claimed that it was a corruption of the French Canadian word " gonzeaux ," which means " shining path ," although this is disputed.

In 1664, the newly established French West India Company took control of the new colony, and France formally claimed control of the western portion of the island of Hispaniola.

While the French settlers debated how new revolutionary laws would apply to Saint-Domingue, outright civil war broke out in 1790 when the free men of color claimed they too were French citizens under the terms of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

The CEA claimed that there was little circulation ( and hence little need for concern ) at the dump site between Nice and Corsica, but French public opinion sided with the oceanographers rather than with the CEA atomic energy scientists.

The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown.

The Kerguelen Islands, along with the islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, and the Crozet archipelago were officially annexed by France in 1893, and were included as possessions in the French constitution in 1924 ( in addition to that portion of Antarctica claimed by France and known as Adélie Land ; as with all Antarctic territorial claims, France's possession on the continent is held in abeyance until a new international treaty is ratified that defines each claimant's rights and obligations ).

This purported transcontinental journey is related by Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, a French ethnographer who lived for a period in Louisiana, where he claimed to have met Moncacht-Apé and recorded the details of his travels.

It was originally claimed by Spain, but also claimed by the French, who established most of the colonists as part of New France.

Acadia ( in the French language Acadie ) was a colony of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine to the Kennebec River.

During King William's War, some Acadians, the Wabanaki Confederacy and the French Priests participated in defending Acadia at its border with New England, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine.

Thousands of Irish and French Canadian immigrants used the Old Canada Road ( now a scenic byway ) section of U. S. Route 201 during the 19th century to find seasonal or project employment, and later make the Kennebec River Valley region their home.

Seeking to separate at least the western Kennebec from French influence, he adopted a fairly hard line, threatening to withhold trade that was vital to their survival, and reiterated claims of British sovereignty over the Abenaki.

George French Angus may have collected a description of a bunyip in his account of a " water spirit " from the Moorundi people of the Murray River before 1847, stating it is " much dreaded by them … It inhabits the Murray ; but … they have some difficulty describing it.

Alarmed by reports of French preparations on the Mediterranean coast, Lord Spencer at the Admiralty sent a message to Vice-Admiral Earl St. Vincent, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet based in the Tagus River, to despatch a squadron to investigate.

* http :// www. chateaudevayres. com / home. html In French and English, with views of the Castle by Louis de Foix, the 16th century French Engineer who deviated the River Adour near Bayonne.

The French consolidated their legal claim to the area through an 1887 convention with Congo Free State, which granted France possession of the right bank of the Oubangui River.

During the sixth and final colonial war, the French and Indian War, the military conflicts in Nova Scotia included: Battle of Fort Beauséjour ; Bay of Fundy Campaign ( 1755 ); the Battle of Petitcodiac ; the Raid on Lunenburg ( 1756 ); the Louisbourg Expedition ( 1757 ); Battle of Bloody Creek ( 1757 ); Siege of Louisbourg ( 1758 ), Petitcodiac River Campaign, Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign ( 1758 ), St. John River Campaign, and Battle of Restigouche.

The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as " River of the Strait ".

That is why the river was originally called the River of the Strait by early French settlers.

French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac sailed up the Detroit River on July 23, 1701.

* French River, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada

* French River, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

* French River ( Ontario ), Canada

* French River ( Massachusetts ), Massachusetts

Portugal lost part of Guinea to French West Africa, including the center of earlier Portuguese commercial interest, the Casamance River region.

* 1673 – French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reach the Mississippi River and become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.

The English had laid siege to Orléans, one of the few remaining loyal French cities and a strategic position along the Loire River, which made it the last obstacle to an assault on the remainder of the French heartland.

in Domrémy, a village which was then in the French part of the duchy of Bar, or Barrois mouvant, situated West of the Meuse River, while the rest of the duchy ( East of the Meuse ) was a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Following the Seven Years War and French defeat by Great Britain, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi River.

Lake Erie was the last of the Great Lakes to be explored by Europeans, since the Iroquois who occupied the Niagara River area were in conflict with the French, and they did not allow explorers or traders to pass through.

The earliest reference that might be relevant to Mokèlé-mbèmbé stories ( though the term is not used in the source ) comes from the 1776 book of Abbé Lievain Bonaventure, a French missionary to the Congo River region.

Despite the occasional recurrence of a border conflict over Lete Island in the Niger River, Benin and Niger, both former French subjects of French West Africa, relations are close.