Facts About France

France Facts: French Alps, Arc de Triomphe, Provence

Here are some interesting France Facts:

• Population: more than 66.7 million people live in the country (2016)
• Capital: Paris, with 2,2 million inhabitants
• Name: Republique Francaise (French Republic)
• Motto: ‘Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite’ (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)
• Government: Democracy
• Language: French
• Religion: mainly Christians (Roman Catholics 64%)
• Currency: 1 Euro=100cents, until 2002 French Franc
• History: In 700-500BC the Celtic Gauls arrive in France. In 58-50BC Roman Emperor Julius Caesar defeats the Gauls and France becomes part of the Roman Empire until 476AD. French was ruled by kings for many centuries until the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789. Then Napoleon becomes Emperor of the French Republic until he is sent to exile.
• Flag: blue, white and red. The French refer to the flag as ‘Tricolore’ (french for ‘three colours’)

France Map and Geography

Map of France

• France is situated in Western Europe, 1 hr flight from London/England, 5.5 hrs from New York/USA. On the France outline you will see the little island of Corsica, which belongs to France, also in the French flag colors.

• The western-european country shares borders with Belgium to the North East, Germany and Luxemburg in the East as well as with Switzerland, Italy to the South East. The Pyrenees, a mountain range to the South of France, form a natural border between Spain and France. The highest mountain in France is the Mont Blanc, that is 4,810m high and stands at the border between France and Italy.

Mainland France is divided into 27 regions and these into 101 departments. The Mediterranean island of Corsica belongs to France too as you can see in the outline above. Of the 101 departments there are also 5 ROM (‘regions d’outre mer’ or overseas regions) also belonging to France: French Guyana in South America, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean, La Reunion and Mayotte in Africa in the Indian Ocean.

France Facts:
Tourist Attractions in France

Louvre

• Paris: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre (which you can see in the image to the right), Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe, river Seine and many other great attractions
• Versailles : castle of French kings
• Lasceaux Caves for 17,000year old rock paintings

Mont St Michel

• Cote d’Azur for turquoise blue sea and great beaches
• Corsica: in the Mediterranean sea
• French Alps: great skiing and snowboarding
• Mont St. Michel: Island with high tide
• La Provence for lavender fields and old historic towns like Avignon

There are so many exciting places and landmarks, gorgeous beaches, historic cities and villages, ancient ruins and majestic castles to visit. Start with these France Attractions everybody should know about:

Interesting French Language Facts

French is the official language in France and it is also the second major language in Europe.

French is one of the Romance languages. These languages, including also Italian and Spanish, have their origins in the Latin language. Today, French is the second most studied language after English and spoken by more than 300million people around the world as first or second language.

France Facts:
Famous French People

Eiffel Tower in Paris

Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), a French engineer who designed the famous Eiffel tower in Paris, which is named after him. He also worked together with Auguste Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

France is famous for the ‘beaux-arts’ with many masters of the arts such as the many great painters, artisans and sculptors.

Famous French painters are:

• Claude Monet
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Edgar Degas
• Paul Cezanne

and Auguste Rodin is certainly one of the most famous French sculptors.

French composers which are very famous are: Maurice Ravel (Bolero) and Georges Bizet (Carmen). Children all around the world love French literature, like the famous “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas and “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

French political leader Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was born on Corsica. He reformed the French laws. He declared himself Emperor of the French in 1804. Napoleon’s army was defeated by the British in the Battle of Waterloo (now in Belgium) in 1815. He was exiled to the island St. Helena in the Mediterranean Sea where he died in 1821.

The current president of France is François Hollande. The next elections will be held 23 April 2017, and eventually again on 7 May 2017 should no candidate win a majority in the first round in April.

France Facts: French Food

The French main dishes contain: fresh vegetables, meat and cheeses. French cuisine is well known for its freshness and high quality dishes. The French people enjoy their main meal in the evening and this meal often consists of three courses starting with a ‘hors d’oeuvre’, a starter dish which often is soup or a salad and bread, then the main course and afterwards some cheese or fruit.

Baguette – French Bread

The bread you will get in France in a typical French “boulangerie” (bakery) is mostly white wheat bread or bread sticks, called “baguette”.

Here is some typical French food:

• Baguette: long bread stick
• Croque Monsieur/Croque Madame: ham and cheese grilled sandwich while Croque Madame is the more heavy version with ham, cheese and a fried egg on top
• Escargots: snails
• Foie Gras: Goose liver pate
• Ratatouille: vegetable stew
• Pain au chocolat: similar to a croissant filled with chocolate
• Crepes: French very thin pancakes with filling

Try to visit also a patisserie for the wonderful sweet like cakes like the petit fours or pain au chocolat. Not to forget to eat some pancakes in the many creperies. In Paris, you will find the oldest café or coffee shop in the world which was opened in 1694. It is called Le Procope.

Here is a good picture of a typical boulangerie in Paris. You can see the white church of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre in the background.

A French Bakery

Click here to read more about 10 Typical French Dishes:

Food in France

Did you know…?

…the Tour de France, which is the world’s most famous cycle race, was started already in 1903. The winning bike rider gets to wear a yellow shirt to show that he is the leader of the race.