Talk:Béarn

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It is requested that a map or maps be included in this article to improve its quality. Wikipedians in France may be able to help!

[edit] Distracting blank spaces

Formatting that encases the framed table of contents in text, in just the way a framed map or image is enclosed within the text, is now available: {{TOCleft}} in the HTML does the job.

Blank space opposite the ToC, besides being unsightly and distracting, suggests that there is a major break in the continuity of the text, which may not be the case. Blanks in page layout are voids and they have meanings to the experienced reader. The space betweeen paragraphs marks a brief pause between separate blocks of thought. A deeper space, in a well-printed text, signifies a more complete shift in thought: note the spaces that separate sub-headings in Wikipedia articles.

A handful of thoughtless and aggressive Wikipedians revert the "TOCleft" format at will. A particularly aggressive de-formatter is User:Ed g2s

The reader may want to compare versions at the Page history. --Wetman 20:00, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Is it really necessary to spam this everywhere? And is a table of contents not meant to be separate from the rest of a text? A table of contents is found at the beginning of a book in a separate section, not on the first page with the main text. This is hardly worth warring about. Adam Bishop 20:58, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] controversial ?

The Béarn page currently contains this text:

"Although Béarn was included in the original borders of France as established by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, its inclusion in the kingdom was controversial"

I think that this is unlikely to be true. The incusion of the territory that was to become the southern (ie Spanish) part of kingdom of Navarre was probably contraversial because it was south of the pyrenees mountain range, difficult to reach and hardly controlled. But the future viscounty of Béarn was very much to the north of the pyrenees and yet to emerge as a distinct territory. It would first be an undistinct part of Vascony before becoming a viscounty 200 years later.

Alternatively, it could be that the inclusion of the whole south western region south of the Adour ... or even south of the Garonne was contraversial. The Vascons (Basques) captured the area from the Francks which became known as Vascony, Gascony.

--83.193.236.119 13:00, 18 October 2005 (UTC) Neil McCarthy