Joseph Poelaert (21 March 1817 – 3 November 1879) was a Belgian architect. He was entrusted with important projects in Brussels, such as Saint Catherine's Church, the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the Congress Column, the Royal Theatre of la Monnaie and above all, the Palace of Justice. He was also the great-uncle of the architect Henri Van Dievoet.
Maud Fontenoy (born September 7, 1977) is a French sailor known for her rowings across the Atlantic (2003) and Pacific (2005) oceans.
Most recently, she completed a sailing trip around the Antarctic alone, against prevailing winds. Departed from the Réunion island on October 15, 2006, she crossed the finish line on March 14, 2007, having sailed for 14,500 km (9,000 mi). Fontenoy was named the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the World Ocean Network Spokesperson for the Ocean on 3 June 2009Maud Fontenoy has four children: Mahé (with Thomas Vollaire), Hina (with an unknown man), Loup (with Raphaël Enthoven), and Côme (with Olivier Chartier).
Yamina Benguigui (born Yamina Zora Belaïdi; in Lille on 9 April 1955) is a French film director and politician of Algerian descent. She is known for her films on gender issues in the North African (both Berbers and Arabs) immigrant community in France. Through her films, Benguigui gave a voice to many from the Maghrebi population in France.
Dominique Senequier (born 1953) is a French businesswoman. She is president of Ardian (formerly Axa Private Equity), a private equity firm she founded in 1996.
Laurent Naouri, Chevalier L.H. (born May 23, 1964) is a French bass-baritone. Initially beginning his education at the École Centrale de Lyon, Naouri decided to concentrate on opera in 1986 and continued his musical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Naouri was born in Paris. His professional career in France began in 1992 with performances in the title role of Darius Milhaud’s Christophe Colomb (Christopher Columbus) for the opening of the Imperial Theatre in Compiègne. Progressing rapidly, his career quickly comprised a very varied repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to contemporary composers under such conductors as Maurizio Benini, William Christie, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, and Kent Nagano.
Naouri made his debut at the Opéra Garnier in the role of Thésée in Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, followed by Eugene Onegin at the Opéra de Nancy, interpreting at the Opéra Bastille the roles of the Comte Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro. A wide range of roles has followed, including many from the Baroque era including Rameau's Platée and Les Indes galantes and Handel's Alcina.
In Britain, he has appeared at the Royal Opera House in 2006 in the role of Escamillo in Carmen; in the United States at the Santa Fe Opera he appeared in the same role in the 2006 Carmen . Also at the Santa Fe Opera, he is scheduled for the role of Falstaff in Verdi's opera of the same name for June/July 2008 and as Germont in the 2009 La traviata starring his wife as Violetta.
Naouri is married to soprano Natalie Dessay, and they have two children.
Isidore Jules Bonheur (Bordeaux 15 May 1827 – 10 November 1901 Paris), best known as one of the 19th century's most distinguished French animalier sculptors. Bonheur began his career as an artist working with his elder sister Rosa Bonheur in the studio of their father, drawing instructor Raymond Bonheur. Initially working as a painter, Isidore Jules Bonheur made his Salon debut in 1848.
Claude Guéant (born 17 January 1945) is a French civil servant. The former chief of staff to Nicolas Sarkozy, he served as Minister of the Interior from 27 February 2011 until 15 May 2012. He is a member of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
Jean-Robert Ipoustéguy ((1920-01-06)January 6, 1920 – (2006-02-08)February 8, 2006), a figurative French sculptor, was born "Jean Robert" in Dun-sur-Meuse. His artwork had a distinct style, combining abstract elements with the human figure, often in the écorché style of French anatomists. The American writer John Updike once wrote that he "may be France's foremost living sculptor, but he is little known in the United States".: 157 He and other critics noted sharp contrasts between rough and smooth, abstract and realistic, tender and violent, delicate and crude, and many other paired oppositions in his artwork, and his recurrent themes of sex, birth, growth, decay, death, and resurrection.: 158–171
Ipoustéguy was unafraid to depict emotional intensity in a sometimes controversial way; several of his major commissioned works were rejected, but later installed as planned, or in other locations.
Gilles Uriel Bernheim (French pronunciation: [ʒil y.ʁjɛl bɛʁ.nɛm]; born 30 May 1952) is a French-Israeli rabbi who was formerly the Chief Rabbi of France. Born in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie, in 1952, he was elected by the general assembly of the Central Consistory chief rabbi of France on 22 June 2008, for a seven-year mandate starting from 1 January 2009. Until then, he had been rabbi of synagogue de la Victoire, the main synagogue in Paris, since 1 May 1997. The Chief Rabbi of France was respected as a scholar not only in the Jewish community but in the wider academic world. However, he resigned as chief rabbi in April 2013 before his term had ended, amid revelations of plagiarism and deception about his academic credentials.
He succeeded chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk. He was very critical of the lifting of the excommunication of bishop Richard Williamson.The French Government appointed him Knight [Chevalier] in the Légion d'honneur, on 10 April 2009.
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (French: [ʒan maʁi lɑ̃vɛ̃]; 1 January 1867 – 6 July 1946) was a French haute couture fashion designer. She founded the Lanvin fashion house and the beauty and perfume company Lanvin Parfums.