France

He may have lost, but Napoleon still holds a fascination for thousands of re-enactors who came to Belgium this week to eat, sleep and wage mock war in the manner of the 1815 battle of Waterloo.

France has one of the world's highest dropout rates, and the reforms are meant to make the middle school curriculum more interesting. But critics say the changes amount to a "dumbing down."

"If you're standing for the freedom of expression, you can't be at one moment for this freedom of expression, and two or three minutes later, against that," film critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret says.

The Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France to America in 1780 to help the new nation defeat the British. A $29 million replica of the Hermione tall ship is retracing that journey.