For those of you interested in our Royal Family:
The press office of the Queen had confirmed that Princess Maxima, wife of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, is two months pregnant. They expect their first child in January. The baby will be second in line to the throne, after his father.
It's the second grand child for Queen Beatrix (and her late husband Claus).

Thanks for sharing Marc.

Thanks Marc. We saw them swim by when they were staying at Bellafonte last year.

Hi Marc,
Do you happen to know where in southern France the House of Orange originated (I know the region was called Orange, but wondering where)?

Thanks,

Scott

Scott, if you go to http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl, you'll find a complete family tree of our Royal family somewhere.
This means I don't know either . I'm not aware of any ties with France, other than the occupation by Napoleon. There are links to England and Germany though.

More specifically, here:
http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/UK/monarchy/monarchy.html

Seems you were right on the french ties... Guess I had blocked those from my memory ;-)

Thanks Marc,
I've been reading The Oxford History of Early Modern Europe..volume The Dutch Republic 1477 to 1806. One chapter discusses William (the silent) Of Orange and his role in defeating the Spanish rule in The Netherlands, but it really doesn't say much about the territory Orange, except that it is in southern France.

Scott

Thank-you for sharing the website Marc!

I really, really need to read up on my national history knowledge, it seems... [g]

Scott
After an hour or so of hunting around I arrived at this page. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/O/OrangeF1r.asp
Then I sort of ran out of gas. It gets pretty close but I,m sure more can be found.
I also found that Orange is in Provence.
Mickey

Thanks Mickey,
Looks like Orange would be a nice place to visit! By the way...just read that Provence got it's name from the Romans when they established an early northern defensive area to protect themselves from the Gauls...they named it Province.

Scott