Vichy in the context of "Vichy regime"

Vichy France (French: Régime de Vichy, lit. 'Vichy regime'; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State (État français), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of Germany victory in the Battle of France. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy.

Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under the harsh terms of the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone" (zone libre). The occupation of France by Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country. In November 1942, the Allies occupied French North Africa, and in response the Germans and Italians occupied the entirety of Metropolitan France, ending any pretence of independence by the Vichy government.

The Government of Vichy France was the collaborationist ruling regime or government in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. Of contested legitimacy, it was finally headquartered in the town of Vichy in occupied France, but it initially took shape in Bordeaux under Marshal Philippe Pétain as the successor to the French Third Republic in June 1940. The government remained in Vichy for four years, but was escorted to Germany in September 1944 after the Allied invasion of France. It then operated as a government-in-exile until April 1945, when the Sigmaringen enclave was taken by so-called Free French forces. Pétain was permitted to travel back to France (through Switzerland), by then under control of the technically illegal Provisional French Republic, and subsequently put on trial for treason.

The zone libre (French pronunciation: [zon libʁ], free zone) was a partition of the French metropolitan territory during World War II, established at the Second Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. It lay to the south of the demarcation line and was administered by the French government of Philippe Pétain based in Vichy, in a relatively unrestricted fashion. To the north lay the zone occupée ("occupied zone"), in which the powers of Vichy France were severely limited.

In November 1942, the zone libre was invaded by the German and Italian armies in Case Anton, as a response to Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. Thenceforth, the zone libre and zone occupée were renamed the zone sud (southern zone) and zone nord (northern zone) respectively. From then on both were under German military administration.

Blaise Pascal University (French: Université Blaise-Pascal), also known as Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II, was a public university with its main campus in Clermont-Ferrand, France, with satellite locations in other parts of the region of Auvergne, including Vichy, Moulins, Montluçon, and Aubière. On 1 January 2017, the university merged with the University of Auvergne to form the Clermont Auvergne University.

Allier (UK: /ˈælieɪ/ AL-ee-ay, US: /ælˈjeɪ, ɑːlˈjeɪ/ a(h)l-YAY; French: [alje] ; Occitan: Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named after the river Allier, it had a population of 334,872 in 2021. Moulins is the prefecture; Montluçon and Vichy are the subprefectures. Its INSEE and post code is 03.

Before 2018, the inhabitants of the department did not have a demonym. The inhabitants of the department have officially been known in French as Bourbonnais since 2018, a reference to the historic province of Bourbonnais. Until then, the unofficial term Elavérins had been used.

The liberation of France (French: libération de la France) in the Second World War was accomplished through the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers including Free French forces in London and Africa, and the French Resistance.

Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the almost undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain, an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with the north and west of France under German military occupation. Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy, in the southern zone libre ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations and aided German forces in anti-partisan actions in Occupied France as well as in combat actions in Africa.