French ship Soleil Royal (1670) French ship Soleil Royal (1670) Soleil Royal ("Royal Sun") was a French 104-gun ship of the line, flagship of Admiral Tourville. She was built in Brest between 1668 and 1670 by engineer Laurent Hubac, was launched in 1669, and stayed unused in Brest harbour for years. She was recommissioned with 112 guns and 1200 men when the Nine Years' War broke out in 1688 as the flagship of the "escadre du Ponant" (squadron of the West). She was said to be a good sailing ship and her decorations were amongst the most beautiful and elaborate of all baroque flagships. The
Portes du Soleil Portes du Soleil Les Portes du Soleil (literally "The Doors of the Sun") is a major skisports destination in the Alps, encompassing thirteen resorts between Mont Blanc in France and Lake Geneva in Switzerland. With more than 650 km of marked pistes (claimed by the lift companies; an independent expert measured about 426 km ) and about 200 lifts in total, spread over 14 valleys and about , Portes du Soleil ranks among the two largest ski areas in the world (the other being Les Trois Vallées). Almost all of the pistes are connected by lifts – a few marginal