"Les Salces"

The Village, "Les Salces"

Because that is what they are, Villages, many families live in tiny villages.
Les Salces is a tiny village. If you include the Village of St. Privat (also the name of the commune) you get about 300 residents.
We are staying in a tiny "Village House," which is like a town house/condo. We have three levels with a balcony and a basement outside level with two "caves" or cellars, or storage units. It's made of stone and concrete and the "caves" have dirt floors. The first level is outside in the ally where the entrance to the two caves are and the front door. Walk through the front door and up the stairs. The second level has a kitchen, dining, fireplace, bathroom, dedroom (master). Third level has a tiny office/living space, small ded area and entrance to balcony outside. The house is attached on either side to other houses and on the back side. So the Village house is a town home/condo in the Village, where a proper house would be seperate from other houses. Running water, electicity, internet, TV, radio, it's all here. Heat is plug in electric heaters or the fire place (nice!).


Here is a rundown on how the naming of Villages, Communes, Cities, etc. works.


A.  France: The Country


B.  Regions: 27 (like states)
          -Paris is in "Il-De-France" (soul of France!)
          -"Languedoc-Roussillon" is where we are staying. It is along the south coast of the Meditranean Sea and starts near the Provence Region-(Think Marseilles & the French Riviera) and goes all the way down to Spain (the Pyrenees Mountains). The capital of Languedoc-Roussillon is Montpellier.Languedoc-Roussillon and is named after the Medevil French language that was spoken in this region.


C.  Departments: 5 (Like county & city combined but not quite like a burough)
          -Paris is a department in the "Il-De-France". There are 8 departments in the "Il-De-France" and Paris is its capital.
          -Paris is also the capital of France the country.
          -In the region of Languedoc-Roussillon there are 5 Departments.
          -L'Herault is the department we are staying in named after the Herualt river.


D. Communes: 343 (like a municipality)
          -Paris is itself also a commune.
          -Our commune is St. Privat (there are many St. Privat(s) & ours is in L'Herault Department, Languedoc-Roussillon Region.


E. Arrondissements: 3 (Neighborhoods - more adminstrative)
          -Paris has 20 Arrondissements
          -This is more of an adminstrative activity and somewhat seperate from location, but location determines which Arrondissements a commune is in.
          -We are in the Lodeve Arrondissement.


F. Cantons: 8 (subdivision of Arrondissements)
          -More administration stuff
          -Paris is basically its own Canton (Paris being a department, commune, canton is seen as creating its own problem as there are not enough officials to oversee its own administration)
          -Lodeve is our Canton


G. Confusion:
          -Here is how it works. The Country is split into 27 "Regions". Each region has "Departments" split up for adminsitrative reasons. The next step is the "Commune" which is divided into 343. The "Departments" are divided into "Arrondissements" and these "Arrondissements" are also divded into "Cantons"
          -Looks like this:
Country: Region: Department: Commune
Country: Region: Department: Arrondisements: Cantons (used to organize public service and elections)



***H. Further still: Villages***
          -Our Village is Les Salces
          -The village is what it really gets down to and where we are at