CAPITAL Paris
France, officially the French Republic (French: République française) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and North Sea, and from the Rhine River to the Atlantic Ocean. French people often refer to Metropolitan France as l'Hexagone (the "Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory.
France is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. In some of its overseas departments, France also shares land borders with Brazil, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. France is also linked to the United Kingdom via the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel (La Manche in French).
The French Republic is a democracy which is organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is a highly developed country with the sixth-largest economy in the world.[2] Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. France is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of La Francophonie, the G8, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council wielding veto power, and it is also one of eight acknowledged nuclear powers. With almost 75 million foreign tourists each year, France is the most popular international tourist destination in the world above Spain (52 millions) and USA (41 millions).
The name France originates from the Franks, a Germanic tribe that occupied the region after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. More precisely, the region around Paris, called Île-de-France, was the original French royal demesne.
GEOGRAPHY
While the main territory of France (metropolitan France; French: la Métropole, France métropolitaine or informally l'hexagone) is located in Western Europe, France is also constituted from a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica (sovereignty claims in Antarctica are governed by the Antarctic Treaty System). These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas département to "overseas country".
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Metropolitan France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges in the south-east (the Alps) and the south-west (the Pyrenees). The highest point in western Europe is situated in the French Alps: Mont Blanc at 4,810 metres (15,781 ft) above sea-level. There are several other elevated regions such as the Massif Central, the Jura, the Vosges, and the Ardennes which are quite rocky and forested. France also has extensive river systems such as the Loire, the Rhône, the Garonne and the Seine.
Due to its overseas departments and territories scattered on all oceans of the planet, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 square kilometres (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind the EEZ of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia (8,232,000 km² / 3,178,000 sq mi).[3] The EEZ of France covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, whereas the land area of the French Republic is only 0.45% of the total land area on Earth.
Contrast and diversity
France is known around the world to be a contrasted country in its people, architectures and landscapes. About 50% of the French population claim to have foreign background which makes France one of the most diverse countries in the world. Old and more recent immigrants came to France from the five continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas). France is also home of the lowest point of Europe, Delta du Rhone, (-5m/-15ft).
On one hand, France is highly densified with extremely old architecture such as the city of Paris or the Center of Troyes.The French Familly code is 200 years old and has been written under Napoleon. On the other hand, France is a highly developed country with an extensive highway network, In comparaison (France is slightly bigger than California but its highway network is more than twice longer);moreover, 32,000km (20,000 miles) of railways (SNCF) along with modern ski resort and gigantic malls. France is also the country with the fastest average internet connection speed ,and in 2004, for the 3rd time in a row, the French healthcare system has been ranked number one in the world by the World Health Organisation.
LANGUAGES
The sole official language of France is French, according to Article 2 of the Constitution since 1992. However, several regional languages (including Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, West Flemish, Franco-Provençal dialects, Lorraine German dialect, Norman, Occitan (Gascon and Provençal), and some Oïl dialects - e.g., Picard) are also occasionally understood and spoken, mostly by elderly people. Also several creole languages are spoken in overseas departments. However, the French government and state school system discouraged the use of any of those languages until recently. These historical regional languages have been known as patois, though this has been considered depreciative. They are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national. Some languages spoken by immigrants are also frequently spoken, especially in large cities: Portuguese, Maghreb Arabic, several Berber languages, several languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkish, several spoken variants of Chinese (most notably Wu, Cantonese, Min Nan, and Mandarin), Vietnamese, and Khmer are the most frequently spoken.
Despite popular stereotypes, many French people can speak at least one foreign language, especially in border regions such as the Pyrennées, Alsace, or the Alps. German, Spanish, Italian and even English are spoken with various degrees of proficiency and many families living near the borders are perfectly bilingual.
