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Guadeloupe (/ɡwɑːdəˈluːp/; French pronunciation: ​[ɡwadəlup]; Guadeloupean Creole: Gwadloup, pronounced: [ɡwadlup]) is a Caribbean island located among the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles arc, a natural volcanic boundary between the northeastern Caribbean Sea and the western Atlantic Ocean. A result of its colonial history, Guadeloupe is currently under French sovereignty and bears the status of overseas region of France. As such, the island is an integral part of the French Republic, the European Union and the Eurozone. No need to say that the official language is French, even though Guadeloupean Creole remains the mother tongue of most people. With a land area of 1,628 square kilometers (629 sq. mi) and a population of over 400,000, Guadeloupe is actually an archipelago comprising two main islands: Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre (French for "Big-Land" and "Low-Land". – Ironically, Basse-Terre is bigger than Grande-Terre ; and Grande-Terre is lower than Basse-Terre), separated only by a narrow sea-channel called Rivière Salée (Salty River) ; and the smaller adjacent islands of Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes group (literally: "Islands of the Saints"). Also called Karukéra (The island of beautiful waters) by its first inhabitants the Arawak people ; or more recently referred to as le Papillon d'émeraude (the Emerald Butterfly), because of the shape of its two main islands ; Guadeloupe got its actual name in 1493 from Christopher Columbus, who named the island after the Virgin Mary venerated in the Spanish town of Guadalupe, in Extremadura. With an economy mostly based on tourism and agriculture, Guadeloupe has gained from an history rich of cultural instreamings from the rest of the world, matching its today population, counting of descendants from Africa, Europe and Asia. x230px Panorama of Pointe de la Grande Vigie (near the village of Anse-Bertrand), the northern most point of the island of Grande-Terre, in Guadeloupe-2007. Satellite view of Marie-Galante (NASA). Marie-Galante is an island of the Caribbean Sea located South of Guadeloupe and North of Dominica. Marie-Galante is a dependency of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas department of France. With a land area of about 158 km² (61 sq. miles), a population count of 12,009 inhabitants on 2006 census (down from 1961 census figure: 16,341 inhabitants), and a population density of 76 inh. per km² (2006 figure), the island comprises three communes: Grand-Bourg, Capesterre-de-Marie-Galante, and Saint-Louis, which together are forming an intercommunal entity : the Community of Communes of Marie-Galante (French: Communauté de communes de Marie-Galante). Created in 1994, this entity is the oldest intercommunal structure in overseas regions of France. Marie-Galante is more commonly known as "La grande galette" (The Big Cookie) due to its round shape and almost flat surface (its highest peak, the Morne Constant Hill, rises up to 670 ft). Once counting over 106 sugar mills, it is also called the "Island of a hundred windmills", or the "Grande dependence", being the biggest dependency of Guadeloupe. Marie-Galante is undulating substrate calcareous, fanned by the trade winds and subject to cyclones and earthquakes. French-Guadeloupean former soccer star Lilian Thuram, at the Paris Book Fair, in March 2012. Guadeloupe News at Wikinews Laura Flessel-Colovic, after an assault at the European Fencing Championships, on july 6th, 2007. Laura Flessel-Colovic (born November 6, 1971 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe) is a French épée fencer. She is currently number one on the all-time list of French female Winter or Summer Olympic medal winners with five medals, one more than Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and two more than the following on joint third place: Micheline Ostermeyer, Marielle Goitschel, Pascale Trinquet-Hachin, Perrine Pelen, Anne Briand-Bouthiaux, Félicia Ballanger, Laure Manaudou and fellow Guadeloupean athlete Marie-José Pérec. Laura Flessel begins fencing in Guadeloupe at the age of 6 and soon shows real talent for this sport. She progresses rapidly becoming champion fencer of Guadeloupe and building her fencing experience competing in Caribbean, Pan-American and Central-american tournaments. In 1990, she wins the Pan-American championship in foil and épée, before flying to Paris to join the Racing club de France and train at the INSEP, the French National Institute for Sports, Expertise and Performance. Soon, Laura Flessel earns international success as a full member of France National fencing team : for the 1995 World Fencing Championships held in The Hague (Netherlands), she wins consequently bronze medal in individual épée, and silver medal in team épée. And a year later, in Atlanta for her first participation to the Olympic Games, she wins gold both in individual and team épée. London 2012 Games welcomed her fifth coming to the Olympics, featuring Laura Flessel as France's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony's Parade of Nations. 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