The village is in the mountains, surrounded by olive and cherry trees. The city was protected by high walls and eleven towers which were built in the 12th century. Three of the gateways in the wall are still standing. The church, Notre Dame de l’Assomption, was built in the 13th century.
Maubec, Vaucluse
Maubec is a commune of 1,581 people (1999). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France.
Mazan
Mazan is a commune of 4,943 people (1999). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France.
Ménerbes
Ménerbes is a commune of 1,157 people (2006). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France.
Mérindol
Mérindol is a commune of 1,923 people (2006). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France. The town has a Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and mild winters. It does not rain very often and snow is rare. Protected by the Luberon, a mountain range, the town is sheltered from the mistral, a cold dry wind that blows from the north. The town was first built on a hill which was easy to defend. After the town was destroyed in 1545, it was rebuilt on the plain, near the river.
A ferry was in use to cross the Durance River in the year 1240. Mérindol was abandoned, probably because of plague, in the 15th century.
In the late Middle Ages, Louis II of Provence sold the land to the lords of Abacus-Cental and Rocca Sparviera. They moved in farming families from Piedmont. The farmers were followers of Pierre Vaudes (Peter Waldo). They were part of a group, known as the Vaudois or Waldensians, who had separated from the Catholic Church in 1170. They believed in a simple life based on a line in the Gospel of Matthew. This put them in opposition to the rich and powerful church. In 1530, a Dominican priest, Jean de Roma, began a campaign against the Vaudois because he said they were heretics. His gangs attacked the town and burnt many houses and killed many of the people.
In 1540, de Roma arrested a flour miller from Mérindol, took his mill, and then burned the man at the stake. On November 18 1540, 19 more people were sentenced to death by burning at the stake, and the town was ordered to be completely destroyed. A group from the town went to the king to save the people and the village. He gave them until 1545 AD to give up their religion and rejoin the Catholic Church. On April 18 1545, the village was completely burned and about 12 of the Vaudois still living there were killed. Over one week there were attacks on 11 other small villages, and it is thought that about 3000 people were killed. Many of the Vaudois from Mérindol were able to escape and ran away to Switzerland.
In 1977, members of Vaudois organizations in Germany, France and Italy built a path in memory of the people who had been killed for their religious beliefs. The path leads to the ruins of the Vaudois church.
Méthamis
Méthamis is a commune of 397 people (1999). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France.
Mirabeau, Vaucluse
Mirabeau is a commune of 907 people (1999). It is in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in the Vaucluse department in the south of France.
Voice over Internet Protocol
Voice over Internet protocol (or VoIP) is a term used for a number of protocols that are used to carry "voice data" over packet switched networks. Beforehand, telephony used a dedicated line, that was only for calls. This was known as PSTN (or "public switched telephony network"). Using VOIP will reduce costs, as the "dedicated line" for telephony (and fax) is no longer needed.
There are a number of technical problems that must be solved first, though:
The vast majority of VoIP systems rely on the two main protocols.
SIP :- SIP, or also known as session initiation protocol, has become the standard for multimedia sessions on the internet. The Engineering Task Force thinks of this protocol as the standard for audio, video and even instant messaging solutions. This task force is simply a large, international community, composed of anyone involved in the networking evolution online. SIP is modular, meaning that it can be changed around in whatever way needed. Depending on the type of data your business is wishing to transmit, your SIP deployment will need to be designed specifically for this. With that being said, VoIP and IM communications will need to work around these aspects, and be designed for one total approach.
H.323 :- This protocol has become the international standard for all communication over packet-switched networks. This includes LAN, WAN and even the general internet networks we all connect to. H.323 is considered an umbrella that includes all types of standards, which is what the internet is based on. H.323 focuses on voice, video, and data communications, designed specifically to operate over IP networks. At this point, this protocol has become the world market leader for voice and voice communications over IP networks. H.323 was developed by the international telecommunications union, which is the organization responsible for building the public telephone network.
Vaucluse
The Vaucluse () is a department in the southeast of France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Its prefecture is Avignon.
It is named after a famous spring, in the "commune" Fontaine-de-Vaucluse. The name Vaucluse comes from the Latin "Vallis Clausa" ("closed valley") as the valley here ends in a cliff from which rises a spring.
Vaucluse was not one of the 83 French departments made during the French revolution, on 4 March 1790. It was created on 12 August 1793 with four districts: Apt, Orange, Ouvèze (Carpentras), Vaucluse (Avignon); its capital was Avignon.
In 1800, with the creation of the "arrondissements" in France, the districts were changed into "arrondissements": Avignon, Apt, Carpentras and Orange.
After the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), the department was occupied by the Austrian army from June 1815 to November 1818.
On 10 September 1926, the "arrondissement" of Orange was eliminated and the subprefecture of Apt was moved to Cavaillon but went back to Apt in 1933.
Vaucluse is part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in southeast France, with an area of . The department has an exclave to the north, the canton of Valréas, surrounded completely by Drôme department.
The department borders with 3 regions and 6 other departments:
The are several chains of mountains in the Vaucluse department, mainly in the eastern half; from northeast to southeast, they are:
The highest mountain in the department is "Mont Ventoux" () that is high. It stands alone to the north of the Luberon range, separated by the Vaucluse Mountains, and just to the eastern base of the Dentelles de Montmirail.
There are several valleys and plain in the department. The main important plain is the plain of Comtat where is most of the population of the department. It is to the south and the west of the Mont Ventoux and has the Rhône river to the west, the Durance river to the south and the Vaucluse Mountains to the east.
The main rivers are the Rhône and the Durance, tributary of the Rhône. Other rivers are tributaries of those two rivers.
The climate in Avignon, at an altitude of , is of the subtype Csa (Mediterranean climate) in the Köppen climate classification.
The average temperature for the year in Avignon is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Avignon is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is January with an average of .