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Orange
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ORANGE
was the former seat of the counts of Orange, a title created by Charlemagne in the eighth century and passed to the Dutch crown in the sixteenth century. The family's most famous member was Prince William, who ascended the English throne with his consort Mary in 1689's "Glorious Revolution". Today the town is best known for its spectacular
Roman theatre
, which hosts the important summer Choregies
music festival
. While the rest of the Orange is attractive enough, there's not a lot to detain you once you've visited the theatre and adjacent museum and taken a quick look at the Roman triumphal arch at the northern approach to the town centre. Unfortunately, the victory of Le Pen's Front National in the municipal elections of 1995 forced the May strip-cartoon festival, which brought in all kinds of weird and wonderful entertainment, to be abandoned, and led many artists to boycott Orange's festivals, creating strong and unpleasant divisions. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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France,
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