| République Française
French Republic
|
|
|
Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" |
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"
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|
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Territory of the French Republic in the world
Includes the claimed Antarctic territories
|
Capital
(and largest city) |
Paris
48°52′N, 2°19.59′E |
| Official languages |
French |
| Demonym |
French |
| Government |
Semi-presidential unitary republic |
| - |
President |
Nicolas Sarkozy |
| - |
Prime Minister |
François Fillon |
| Formation |
| - |
|
-12 (), 481 (Clovis) and 843 (Treaty of Verdun) |
| - |
Current constitution |
1958 (5th Republic) |
| EU membership |
March 25, 1957 |
| Area |
| - |
Total[1] |
674,843 km² (40th)
260,558 sq mi |
| - |
Metropolitan France |
| |
- IGN[2] |
551,695 km² (47th)
213,010 sq mi |
| |
- Cadastre[3] |
543,965 km² (47th)
210,026 sq mi |
| Population |
| |
(January 1, 2007 estimate) |
| - |
Total[1] |
64,102,140[5] (20th) |
| - |
Metropolitan France |
61,538,322[6] (20th) |
| - |
Density[4] |
113/km² (89th)
293/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2006 estimate |
| - |
Total |
US $1.871 trillion (7th) |
| - |
Per capita |
US $30,100 (20th) |
| GDP (nominal) |
2006 estimate |
| - |
Total |
US $2.232 trillion (6th) |
| - |
Per capita |
US $35,404 (18th) |
| Gini? (2002) |
26.7 (low) |
| HDI (2004) |
 0.942 (high) (16th) |
| Currency |
Euro[7], CFP Franc[8]
(EUR, XPF) |
| Time zone |
CET[4] (UTC+1) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
CEST[4] (UTC+2) |
| Internet TLD |
.fr[9] |
| Calling code |
+33[10] |
France (French: IPA: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, IPA: [ʁepyˈblik fʁɑ̃ˈsɛz]), is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents.[11] Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine 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. Due to its overseas departments, France also shares land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is also linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel.
The French Republic is a democracy that is organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the 18th and 19th centuries, France built one of the largest colonial empires of the time, stretching across West Africa and Southeast Asia, prominently influencing the cultures and politics of the regions. France is a developed country with the sixth-largest economy in the world.[12] France is the most visited country in the world, receiving over 79 million foreign tourists annually (including business visitors, but excluding people staying less than 24 hours in France).[13] 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 the Francophonie, the G8, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council; it is also an acknowledged nuclear power.
The name France originates from the Franks (Francs), a Germanic tribe that occupied northern Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. More precisely, the region around Paris, called Île-de-France, was the original French royal demesne. The first King of the Franks, Clovis, is regarded as the forefather of the French kings.
Origin and history of the name
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- France is the home of the International System of Units (the metric system). The Imperial System is almost completely ignored in France. Some pre-metric units are still used, essentially the livre (a unit of weight equal to half a kilogram) and the quintal (a unit of weight equal to 100 kilograms).
- In mathematics, France uses the infix notation like most countries. For large numbers the long scale is used. Thus, the French use the word billion for what English speakers call a trillion. However, there exist a French word, milliard, for what the English speakers call a billion. Thus, despite the use of the long scale, one billion is called un milliard ("one milliard") in French, and not mille millions ("one thousand million"). It should also be noted that names of numbers above the milliard are rarely used. Thus, one trillion will most often be called mille milliards ("one thousand milliard") in French, and rarely un billion.
- In the French numeral notation, the comma (,) is the Decimal separator, whereas the dot (.) is used between each group of three digits especially for big numbers. A space can also be used to separate each group of three digits especially for small numbers. Thus three thousand five hundred and ten may be written as 3 510 whereas fifteen million five hundred thousand and thirty-two may be written as 15.500.032. In finances the symbol associated to the currency is put after the numbers and not before. For example €25,000.00 is written 25 000,00 € (always with an extra space between the figure and the currency symbol, and often a space between every block of 3 digits).
- Cars are driven on right.
- In computing, if a bit is still called a bit a byte is called an octet (from the Latin root octo, meaning "8"). SI prefixes are used.
- 24-hour clock time is used, with h being the separator between hours and minutes (for example 2pm30 is 14h30).
- The all-numeric form for dates is in the order day-month-year, using a slash as the separator (example: 31/12/1992 or 31/12/92).
Law
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- Armée de Terre (Army)
- Marine Nationale (Navy)
- Armée de l'Air (Air Force)
- Gendarmerie Nationale (A military force which acts as a National Rural Police and as a Military police for the entire French military)
Since the Algerian War, conscription was steadily reduced and was finally suspended in 2001 by Jacques Chirac. The total number of military personnel is approximately 359,000. France spends 2.6% of its GDP on defence, slightly more than the United Kingdom (2.4%), and is the highest in the European Union where defence spending is generally less than 1.5% of GDP. Together they account for 40% of EU defence spending. About 10% of France's defence budget goes towards its force de frappe, or nuclear weapons. A significant part of French military equipment is made in France. Examples include the Rafale fighter, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the Exocet missile, and the Leclerc tank. Some weaponry, like the E-2 Hawkeye or the E-3 Sentry was bought from the United States. Despite withdrawing from the Eurofighter project, France is actively investing in European joint projects such as the Eurocopter Tiger, multipurpose frigates, the UCAV demonstrator nEUROn and the Airbus A400M. France is a major arms seller as most of its arsenal's designs are available for the export market with the notable exception of nuclear powered devices. Some of the French designed equipments are specifically designed for exports like the Franco-Spanish Scorpène class submarines. Some French equipments have been largely modified to fit allied countries' requirements like the Formidable class frigates (based on the La Fayette class) or the Hashmat class submarines (based on the Agosta class submarines).
- Although it includes very competent anti-terrorist units such as the GIGN or the EPIGN the gendarmerie is a military police force which serves for the most part as a rural and general purpose police force. Since its creation the GIGN has taken part in roughly one thousand operations and freed over five-hundred hostages; the Air France Flight 8969's hijacking brought them to the world's attention.
- French intelligence can be divided into two major units: the DGSE (the external agency) and the DST (domestic agency). The latter being part of the police while the former is associated to the army. The DGSE is notorious for the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, but it is also known for revealing the most extensive technological spy network uncovered in Europe and the United States to date through the mole Vladimir Vetrov.
- The French "Force de frappe" relies on a complete independence. The current French nuclear force consists of four submarines equipped with M45 ballistic missiles. The current Triomphant class is currently under deployment to replace the former Redoutable class. The M51 will replace the M45 in the future and expand the Triomphants firing range. Aside of the submarines the French dissuasion force uses the Mirage 2000N; it is a variant of the Mirage 2000 and thus is designed to deliver nuclear strikes. Other nuclear devices like the 's Intercontinental ballistic missiles and the short range Hadès missiles have been disarmed. With 350 nuclear heads stockpiled France is the world's third largest nuclear power.[20]
- The Marine Nationale is regarded as one of the world's most powerful. The professional compendium flottes de combats, in its 2006 edition, ranked it world's 6th biggest navy after the American, Russian, Chinese, British and Japanese navies.[2]. It is equipped with the world's only nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier, with the exception of the American navy. Recently Mistral class ships joined the Marine Nationale, the Mistral itself having taken part to operations in Lebanon. For the 2004 centennial of the Entente Cordiale President Chirac announced the Future French aircraft carrier would be jointly designed with Great Britain. The French navy is equipied with the La Fayette class frigates, early examples of stealth ships, and several ships are expected to be retired in the next few years and replaced by more modern ships, examples of future surface ships are the Forbin and the Aquitaine class frigates. The attack submarines are also part of the Force Océanique Stratégique although they do not carry the nuclear dissuasion, the current class is the Rubis Class and will be replaced in the future by the expected Suffren Class.
- The Armée de l'Air is the oldest and first professional air force worldwide. It still today retains a significant capacity. It uses mainly two aircraft fighters: the older Mirage F1 and the more recent Mirage 2000. The later model exists in a ground attack version called the Mirage2000D. The highly modern Rafale is in deployment in both the French air force and navy.
Transportation
-
- Guadeloupe (since 1946)
- Martinique (since 1946)
- French Guiana (since 1946)
- Réunion (since 1946)
Economy
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- Académie française
- French art
- Cuisine of France
- Cinema of France
- Music of France
- Social structure of France
- Education in France
- Holidays in France
- List of French people
Architecture
-
- Description of the flag: three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red became the flag during the French Revolution and made popular by Marquis de Lafayette; known as the drapeau tricolore (Tricolour Flag). It is traditional to refer to the three colours in the order: blue, white, red. (bleu, blanc, rouge); blue and red are the colours of Paris, while white was the colour of the Bourbon monarchy. The white inserted between the blue and the red expresses the idea that the king was under control of the people.
- Although commonly associated with the French Revolution and suggested by Robespierre in December, 1790, France's motto, "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" was not adopted until the Revolutions of 1848 in France.[39]
- The national holiday of France since 1880 is the Fête Nationale (National Holiday), colloquially known as le 14 juillet, officially celebrating the Fête de la Fédération (14 July 1790) and not the storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789) as is often believed, even by a majority of French people, and is the reason why the holiday is referred to as Bastille Day in English. On the occasion of the Fête de la Fédération, celebrated exactly one year after the storming of the Bastille, all the representatives of the provinces of France gathered on the Champ de Mars in Paris in presence of the king Louis XVI and proclaimed the national unity of France. They vowed to remain faithful to "the Nation, the Law, the King".
- This day is considered by French Republicans as the real birth of France: France is no more a country made up of provinces conquered by kings, but a country of provinces and men who freely agree to form a common Nation. This concept of a Nation agreed upon is opposed to the German concept of a Nation based on ethnicity and race, and it was responsible for much of the conflicts between France and Germany in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Alsace was a German land that had been annexed by the conquest of the French kings, while France considered that although Alsace had indeed been a conquered province in the first place, it had legitimately and freely become a part of France by the oath of 14 July 1790. It is thus no surprise that the 14th of July was proclaimed the National Holiday of France in 1880, 9 years after Germany had reunited with Alsace-Lorraine.
- Despite being associated with the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July irked many French monarchists, to whom it recalled the bloody memory of the storming of the Bastille. French monarchists formerly wore a black armband each 14 July in defiance of the national holiday.
- The French city of Avignon replaced Rome as home to the Papacy between 1309-1377. The town remained under papal control until 1791, when it was incorporated into France.
- Popular tourist sites include: (according to a 2003 ranking [6] visitors per year) : Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Louvre Museum (5.7 million), Palace of Versailles (2.8 million), Orsay Museum (2.1 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Centre Pompidou (1.2 million), Mont-Saint-Michel (1 million), Château de Chambord (711,000),Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), Carcassonne (362,000). Other very popular [7] and well-known tourist sites include: Palace of the Popes, Avignon, Disneyland Resort Paris, the châteaux of the Loire Valley, the ski resorts of the French Alps or Pyrenees, Tahiti and the lagoons of French Polynesia, etc.
International rankings
Notes and references
- ^ a b Whole territory of the French Republic, including all the overseas departments and territories, but excluding the French territory of Terre Adélie in Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959.
- ^ French National Geographic Institute data.
- ^ French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds and glaciers larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers.
- ^ a b c Metropolitan France only.
- ^ (French) INSEE, Government of France. Bilan démographique 2006 : un excédent naturel record. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
- ^ (French) INSEE, Government of France. Tableau 2 - Répartition de la population totale par groupe d'âges, France métropolitaine. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
- ^ Whole of the French Republic except the overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean.
- ^ French overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean only.
- ^ In addition to .fr, several other Internet TLDs are used in French overseas départements and territories: .re, .mq, .gp, .tf, .nc, .pf, .wf, .pm, .gf and .yt. France also uses .eu, shared with other members of the European Union.
- ^ The overseas regions and collectivities form part of the French telephone numbering plan, but have their own country calling codes: Guadeloupe +590; Martinique +596; French Guiana +594, Réunion and Mayotte +262; Saint Pierre et Miquelon +508. The overseas territories are not part of the French telephone numbering plan; their country calling codes are: New Caledonia +687, French Polynesia +689; Wallis and Futuna +681
- ^ For more information, see .
- ^ Rank by nominal GDP: 6 (2006); Rank by GDP per capita: 17 (2005); Rank by GDP at purchasing power parity per capita: 21 (2005).
- ^ a b (French)Government of France, Directorate of Tourism. 79 millions d’arrivées de touristes internationaux en 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-31.
- ^ Elizabeth M. Hallam & Judith Everard - Capetian France 937-1328, chapter 1 "The origins of Western Francia" page 7: "What did the name Francia mean in the tenth and eleventh centuries? It still retained a wide general use; both Byzantine and western writers at the time of the crusades described the western forces as Franks. But it was also taking on more specific meanings. From 911 onwards the west Frankish king was known as the Rex Francorum -king of the Franks- and the name Francia could be used to describe his kingdom, as it was also used by the east Frankish, or German, kingdom... The Robertines, forerunners of the Capetians, were duces francorum, dukes of the Franks, and their 'duchy' covered in theory most of northern France. Then as royal power contracted further, leaving the early Capetian only a small bloc of lands around Paris and Orleans, the term Francia was used for this region."
- ^ Sovereignty claims in Antarctica are governed by the Antarctic Treaty System
- ^ a b CIA (2006). The World Factbook: Field Listing - Elevation extremes. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
- ^ According to a different calculation cited by the Pew Research Center, the EEZ of France would be 10,084,201 square kilometres (3,893,532 sq mi), still behind the United States (12,174,629 km² / 4,700,651 sq mi), and still ahead of Australia (8,980,568 km² / 3,467,416 sq mi) and Russia (7,566,673 km² / 2,921,508 sq mi).
- ^ Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2005). Discovering France: Geography. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
- ^ (French) French Senate (2006). Rôle et fonctionnement du Sénat. Retrieved on 2006-04-20.
- ^ Comparison of recognised and alleged nuclear powers.
- ^ L'automobile magazine, hors-série 2003/2004 page 294
- ^ http://www.ademe.fr/particuliers/Fiches/voiture/rub3.htm
- ^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005). Labour productivity 2003 (Microsoft Excel). Retrieved on 2006-04-20.
- ^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005). Differentials in GDP per capita and their decomposition, 2004 (Microsoft Excel). Retrieved on 2006-04-20.
- ^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005). OECD Employment Outlook 2005 - Statistical Annex (PDF format). Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
- ^ DGEMP / Observatoire de l'énergie (April 2007). Électricité en France : les principaux résultats en 2006.. Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
- ^ Inflow of third-country nationals by country of nationality
- ^ Immigration and the 2007 French Presidential Elections
- ^ (French)INSEE (2005-01-25). Enquêtes annuelles de recensement 2004 et 2005. Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
- ^ UNHCR (2006). UNHCR Global Report 2005: Western Europe (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-12-14.
- ^ Jeanjean, Henri. "Language Diversity in Europe: Can the EU Prevent the Genocide of Frnech Linguistic Minorities?
- ^ Catholic World News (2003). France is no longer Catholic, survey shows. Retrieved on 2007-01-11.
- ^ (Romanian) Franţa nu mai e o ţară catolică, Cotidianul, 2007-01-11
- ^ (French) La Vie, issue 3209, 2007-03-01
- ^ Eurobarometer on Social Values, Science and technology 2005 - page 11. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
- ^ http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1131.
- ^ the ranking, see spreadsheet details for a whole analysis
- ^ Claude Lébedel - Les Splendeurs du Baroque en France: Histoire et splendeurs du baroque en France page 9: "Si en allant plus loin, on prononce les mots "art baroque en France", on provoque alors le plus souvent une moue interrogative, parfois seulement étonnée, parfois franchement réprobatrice: Mais voyons, l'art baroque n'existe pas en France!"
- ^ French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The symbols of the Republic and Bastille Day. Retrieved on 2006-04-20.
External links
French government
Country profiles
Culture
 Geographic locale |
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France
