France’s official name is the French Republic (République Française). It became a republic in 1792, after centuries of royal rule, as a result of the French Revolution.
The Revolution started with the storming of the Bastille fortress on 14th July 1789, an event that is celebrated every year all over France on Bastille Day.
Liberté, égalitié, fraternité meaning ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ (or brotherhood) is the national motto of France. It first appeared around the time of the Revolution. It was written into the constitution of France in 1958. Today it can be seen on coins, postage stamps and government logos often alongside ‘Marianne’ who symbolizes the ‘Triumph of the Republic’.
France is the largest country in the European Union (EU) with an area of 551,000 square km, it's almost a fifth of the EU’s total area.
About a quarter of France is covered by forests. Only Sweden and Finland have more forests.
France is also know as ‘the hexagon' because of its six-sided shape, France is sometimes referred to as l’hexagone.
France still retains 15 territories overseas . These includes Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte.
France (including the island of Corsica) is divided into 22 regions and sub-divided into 96 départements.
The country’s colonial past is one reason why there are more than five million people of Arab and African descent living in France.
About 85 percent (65.5 million people) of the French population live in urban areas.
The French capital, Paris, has 2.2 million inhabitants and metropolitan Paris has a total of 11.9 million people.
France has the second largest population in Europe after Germany, making up 13 percent of the EU.
French is the official language and the first language of 88 percent of the population, however, there are various indigenous regional dialects and languages, such as Alsacian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Occitan and Flemish. About one million French people living near the border with Italy speak Italian.
The 500-year-old Académie Française aims to preserve the French language. It seeks to preserve the French language by attempting to ban, somewhat unsuccessfully, foreign words such as blog, hashtag, parking, email, and weekend.
The oldest university in the world, The Sorbonne, is in Paris.
More than 80 percent of the population are Roman Catholic. Another 10 percent are Muslim, 2 percent are Protestant, 1 percent are Jewish, and 4 percent are not affiliated to any religion.
Perhaps surprisingly for a predominantly Catholic country, three-quarters of women of childbearing age use contraception.
A French woman was the world’s oldest human being. She lived 122 years, 164 days, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Jeanne Louise Calment was born on February 21, 1875 (the year before Alexander Graham Bell got his patent for the very first telephone and Custer’s Last Stand) and died on August 4, 1997.
France is rated sixth in the world for life expectancy at birth, an average of 81.5 years (86 years for women and 79 for men).
France has the second largest economy in the Eurozone with a GDP of EUR 1.9 trillion (USD 2.613 trillion) according to figures from the World Bank, France's economy is only second to Germany's. France is one of the largest exporters of luxury goods in the world, with the top four companies Cartier, Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton alone worth around EUR 30.8 billion. Its main exports are far less glamorous: aircraft, food, chemicals, industrial machinery, iron and steel, electronics, motor vehicles and pharmaceuticals.
In 2013 France sold more electric cars than any other European country. It sold 8,779 registered vehicles.
The French health care system has traditionally been one of the finest in the world. From the founding of the U.S, until the 1860s, health care was of very low quality. Because many American doctors went to France to study, when the return to America, gradually heath care improved.
In France today there is universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "close to best overall health care" in the world. In 2011, France spent 11.6% of GDPon health care, or US$4,086 per capita, a figure much higher than the average spent by countries in Europe but less than in the US. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.
The world’s first artificial heart transplant and face transplant both took place in France. The heart transplant occurred in December 2013 at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris. The bioprosthetic device, which mimics a real heart’s contractions, is powered by external lithium-ion battery, and is about three times the weight of a real organ.
French surgeons performed the first face transplant in 2005.
France has one of the highest average ages for women having their first child. And France has Europe's second highest birth rate.
French workers retire younger than in other OECD countries – in the last report in 2012, the average age was 59.7 years for men and 60 for women, compared to the OECD averages of 64.2 and 63.3. People can claim a state pension at 62, which is one of the lowest retirement ages in the world.
France legalized same-sex marriage in 2013 when French President Françoise Holland signed the bill into law on May 18, 2013, France became the ninth country in Europe and 14th in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Although polls at the time showed that between 55 and 50 percent of French people supported gay marriage, not everyone was happy about it..
Europe’s highest mountain is in the French Alps. It is Mont Blanc (White Mountain) at 4,810m.
The Louvre Museum in Paris was the most visited museum in the world in 2014 with about 9.3 million visitors.
French citizens actively participate in French politics with voter turnout at recent elections at 80 percent.
At 29,000 km, the French rail network is the second largest in Europe (after Germany) and the ninth biggest in the world. And, France was one of the first countries in the world to utilize high-speed technology when it introduced the TGV high-speed rail in 1981. Today, France has more than 1,550 km high-speed track.
The French invented the metric system, the decimal way of counting and weighing, in 1793. It is used in every country except the U.S.
The legal system in France is still largely influenced by Napoleon. French law is still based on the principles set down in Napoleon Bonaparte’s Code Civil back in the 1800s.
The world’s greatest cycle race, the Tour de France, has been around for more than 100 years. Tthe first event held on July 1, 1903. Every July, cyclists race some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) primarily around France in a series of stages over 23 days, with the fastest cyclist at each stage wearing the famous yellow jersey.
Throughout its history, France has produced some of the world’s most influential writers and thinkers. For instance, Descartes and Pascal in the 17th century, Voltaire in the 18th, Baudelaire and Flaubert in the 19th and Sartre and Camus in the 20th.
To date, France has won more Noble Prizes for Literature (15) than any other country.
French wines and champagne are popular around the world. They are also among the highest priced in the world.
There are over 1,000 different types of cheese made in France. The blue/green-veined Roquefort is the oldest variety. Its ripening process, which takes place in natural caves, dates back to the 17th century.
Traditional and modern sports are popular in France. The most popular sports in France are football (soccer), rugby, tennis and cycling while older people still enjoy the traditional game of pétanque or boules (a game played with heavy metal balls) in the town square. Le trotter Français is a type of horseracing where the rider sits in a two-wheeled buggy.
France is the most visited country in the world. In 2012, 83 million tourist visited France.
Paris was originally an Ancient Roman city called Lutetia.
The French government gives medals to parents who have "successfully raised several children with dignity".
France was the first country to issue automobile license plates.
There is only one stop (French: arret) sign in the city of Paris.
In France, it is legal to marry a dead person.
One in five people in France has experienced depression making France have the highest rate of depression in the world.
During World War II, the mosque in Paris help Jews escape the Nazis by giving them Muslim identification cards.
Potatoes were illegal in France from 1748 to 1772.
In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon.
In France, about 96% of high schools have condom vending machines.
Beauty pageants for children in France are illegal and punishable by a fine and up to two years in prison.
France has always had strong ties to the U.S. going back to 1776. France was the first ally of the new United States because of its 1778 treaty and military support in the American Revolutionary War. The France-American relationship has been generally peaceful and is one of the most important for both nations.
In 2002, 62% of French people viewed the United States favorably; this number dropped below 50% for each year between 2003 and 2008, due in part to differences between the two countries during the Iraq War. The number has remained consistently above 50% since the election of Barack Obama. As of 2013, 64% of French people viewed the U.S. favorably, increasing up to 75% in 2014.