The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, abbreviated TAAF), full name Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises), consist of:
- Kerguelen (Archipel des Kerguelen), a group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa, approximately equidistant between Africa, Antarctica and Australia;
- St. Paul and Amsterdam islands (Îles Saint Paul et Amsterdam), a group to the north of Kerguelen;
- Crozet Islands (Îles Crozet), a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar;
- Adélie Land (Terre Adélie), the French claim on the Antarctica continent;
- the Scattered Islands (Îles Éparses), a dispersed group of islands around the coast of Madagascar.
The territory is also often called the French Southern Lands (French: Terres australes françaises) or French Southern Territories, which excludes Adélie Land where French sovereignty is not recognized internationally. The lands are not connected to France Antarctique, a former French colony in Brazil.
The territory has no permanent population; the population consists of military personnel, civilian officials, scientific researchers and support staff. Some of the territory's exclusive economic zone is of great importance for fishing.
Read more about French Southern And Antarctic Lands: Administration, Geography, Economy, Miscellaneous
Famous quotes containing the words french, southern and/or lands:
“In French literature, you can choose “à la carte”; in Spanish literature, there is only the set meal.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)
“I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous ... as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I call
to the spirits of other lands to make fecund my existence”
—Frank O’Hara (1926–1966)