What is "calais"

city on the French coast of the English Channel, from Gaulish Caleti, the name of a Celtic people who once lived along the shore there.

Calais ( , traditionally ; ; ; ) is a town and major ferry port in northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. The population of the metropolitan area at the 2010 census was 126,395. Calais overlooks the Strait of Dover, the narrowest point in the English Channel, which is only wide here, and is the closest French town to England. The White Cliffs of Dover can easily be seen on a clear day from Calais. Calais is a major port for ferries between France and England, and since 1994, the Channel Tunnel has linked nearby Coquelles to Folkestone by rail.

Due to its position, Calais since the Middle Ages has been a major port and a very important centre for transport and trading with England. It was annexed by Edward III of England in 1347 and grew into a thriving centre for wool production. The town came to be called the "brightest jewel in the English crown" owing to its great importance as the gateway for the tin, lead, lace and wool trades (or "staples"). Calais was a territorial possession of England until its capture by France in 1558. In 1805 it was a staging area for Napoleon's troops for several months during his planned invasion of the United Kingdom. The town was virtually razed to the ground during World War II, when in May 1940, it was a strategic bombing target of the invading German forces who took the town during the Siege of Calais. During World War II, the Germans built massive bunkers along the coast in preparation for launching missiles on England.

The old part of the town, Calais proper (known as Calais-Nord), is situated on an artificial island surrounded by canals and harbours. The modern part of the town, St-Pierre, lies to the south and south-east. In the centre of the old town is the Place d'Armes, in which stands the Tour du Guet, or watch-tower, a structure built in the 13th century, which was used as a lighthouse until 1848 when a new lighthouse was built by the port. South east of the Place is the church of Notre-Dame, built during the English occupancy of Calais. It is arguably the only church built in the English perpendicular style in all of France. In this church former French President Charles de Gaulle married his wife Yvonne Vendroux. South of the Place and opposite the Parc St Pierre is the Hôtel-de-ville (the town hall), and the belfry from the 16th and early 17th centuries. Today, Calais is visited by more than 10 million annually. Aside from being a key transport hub, Calais is also a notable fishing port and a centre for fish marketing, and some 3,000 people are still employed in the lace industry for which the town is also famed.

1. redirect Calais, Maine

Calais is a city in France. The name can also refer to:

• Calais, Maine, United States, a city
• Calais, Vermont, United States, a town
• Arrondissement of Calais, France
• Calais (constituency), the electoral area of Calais, France, represented in the Parliament of England before the French reconquest in the 16th century
• Calais, Alberta, Canada, an unincorporated community
• Calais, Limpopo, South Africa, a village
• Mount Calais, Alexander Island, Antarctica
• A crater on Saturn's moon Phoebe (moon)

• Cadillac Calais
• Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais
• Holden Calais

• Calaïs, one of the Boreads in Greek mythology
• Saint Calais, French hermit-saint, namesake of commune of Saint-Calais
• Calais Campbell (born 1986), American National Football League player

• Calais (Reuters Product), an internet toolkit
• Calais (genus), a genus of beetles

Calais is a genus of click beetle belonging to the family Elateridae subfamily Agrypninae.

Calais was a former constituency of the Parliament of England.

The French town of Calais was under English rule from 1347 until 7 January 1558. During part of that time it was represented in the Parliament of England by two members.

In 1360 the Treaty of Brétigny assigned Guînes, Marck and Calais – collectively the " Pale of Calais" – to English rule in perpetuity, but this was only informally and partially implemented.

In 1363 the town was made a staple port. It had become a parliamentary borough sending burgesses to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England by 1372.

Calais is a service by Thomson Reuters that automatically extracts semantic information from web pages in a format that can be used on the semantic web. Calais was launched in January 2008, and is free to use.

The Calais Web service reads unstructured text and returns Resource Description Framework formatted results identifying entities, facts and events within the text. The service appears to be based on technology acquired when Reuters purchased ClearForest in 2007.

The technology has also been used to automatically tag of blog articles and organize museum collections.

Calais uses natural language processing technologies delivered via a web service interface.