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Here is a basic overview of France
Beautiful by name, beautiful by nature, la
belle France is still turning heads.
Whether it's gastronomic greatness, artistic endeavour or cultural cachet
you're looking for, there's no doubt that France still sits right at the
top of the European heap. France is the country for which the word chic
was invented - seductive and aloof, old-fashioned and forward-looking, but
always characterised by a certain je ne sais quoi.
France is one of the largest countries in Europe, stretching from the
North Sea to the Mediterranean. The landscape is diverse, with mountains
in the east and south, including the Alpine peak of Mont Blanc (4 810 m)
which is western Europe's highest point. Lowland France consists of four
river basins, the Seine in the north, the Loire and the Garonne flowing
westwards and the Rhone which flows from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean
Sea.
The country that gave the world champagne, casseroles and Camembert is
justly famous for its cooking, and you'll find there are plenty of places
to indulge yourself. But while France is undoubtedly a place to eat and
drink to your heart's content, there's much more to this fascinating
country than cutting-edge cuisine.
France is the most visited country in the world. It has everything that
you could ever want to see on your holidays: a great city like Paris, good
beaches, more monuments than any other country, lovely nature, incredible
mountain scenery; need I go on? France is also a very pleasant place to
stay. It has good food, great wines and people enjoy their lives. And the
best thing is, maybe apart from Paris, living in France does not have to
be expensive. The North of France consists of the flatlands around the
town of Lille and the Channel. The area will remind visitors in many ways
of Belgium and the Netherlands. The Grand' Place in Lille for example is a
lot like that of Brussels.
Paris, the city of light and its surroundings are one of the most visited
areas. Paris is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities on the
planet.
West of France is turned towards the Atlantic Coast. In the north Normandy
& Brittany have rolling hills, sandy beaches and quiet little harbour
towns. Normandy & Brittany have a more rugged coast and many neolithic
sites. It has quite a distinct atmosphere from the rest of the country;
you can still sense the Celtic origin of the region and its inhabitants.
The eastern part of France consists of the Alsace, Lorraine, Franche Comté
and Burgundy regions. The landscape has rolling hills and many beautiful
cities, such as Metz, Strasbourg, Nancy and Dijon. This region produces
many famous wines, including magnificent pinot noirs and chardonnays
valued the world over, as well as the famous "Yellow wine" from the Jura
mountain vineyard.
The Center of France is in many ways the most quiet part of France. But
the great treasure of this region is the Loire valley , with many great
castles and beautiful towns. Chartres with its famous cathedral and Tours
rate among the most beautiful French cities.
The Alps are great for skiing in winter and hiking in summer. Albertville,
Grenoble and Chamonix have all hosted the Olympic games. But the Alps also
have nice towns to visit, such as Chambéry, Annecy or Grenoble .
The South with its lovely nature, good food, roman ruins and of course the
Riviera draws a lot of visitors every year. Towns like Orange, and Arles
but also big cities like Marseille and Toulon are must sees. The Provence
is dotted with pleasant small villages. In the South west of France the
Dordogne is one of the most quintessential French regions. The valley is
so pretty, the towns are so cute and the food is so good, that it is hard
to believe that the people who live here go somewhere else for their
holidays. The Languedoc has its own language and culture. In the south of
the Languedoc you find the Pyrenees, a great mountain range separating
France from Spain, where you can hike and ski. The towns of Toulouse and
Montpellier are nice and the medieval town of Carcassone is a top
destination.
France has an advanced industrial economy and an efficient farm sector.
Main activities include automobile manufacture, aerospace, information
technology, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and fashionware.
France has produced some of the continent's most influential writers and
thinkers from Descartes and Pascal in the 17th century, to Rousseau and
Voltaire in the 18th, Balzac, Baudelaire and Flaubert in the 19th and
Sartre and Camus in the 20th. In the last two centuries it has given the
art world the works of Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse and
Braque, to name but a few.
French cuisine is one of the finest in Europe; cooking and eating are part
of French culture and lifestyle.
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.
France is a unitary semi-presidential republic. Its main ideals are
expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
France was the world's foremost power from the latter half of the 17th
century until the early 19th century. 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 (nominal GDP) or eighth (PPP) largest economy in the world. It
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). 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.
Name of France
The name “France” comes from Latin Francia, which literally means “land of
the Franks” or “Frankland”. There are various theories as to the origin of
the name of the Franks. One is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic
word frankon which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of
the Franks was known as a francisca.
Another proposed etymology is that in an ancient Germanic language, Frank
means free as opposed to slave. This word still exists in French as franc,
it is also used as the translation of “Frank” and to name the local money,
until the use of the euro in the 2000s.
However, rather than the ethnic name of the Franks coming from the word
frank, it is also possible that the word is derived from the ethnic name
of the Franks, [citation needed] the connection being that only the Franks,
as the conquering class, had the status of freemen. In German, France is
still called Frankreich, which literally means “Realm of the Franks”. In
order to distinguish from the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne, Modern
France is called Frankreich, while the Frankish Realm is called
Frankenreich.
The word “Frank” had been loosely used from the fall of Rome to the Middle
Ages, yet from Hugh Capet's coronation as “King of the Franks” (“Rex
Francorum”) it became used to strictly refer to the Kingdom of Francia,
which would become France. The Capetian Kings were descended from the
Robertines, who had produced two Frankish kings, and previously held the
title of “Duke of the Franks” (“dux Francorum”). This Frankish duchy
encompassed most of modern northern France but because the royal power was
sapped by regional princes the term was then applied to the royal demesne
as shorthand. It was finally the name adopted for the entire Kingdom as
central power was affirmed over the entire kingdom.
Geography
While Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, France also has a
number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the
southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica. These
territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas
department to overseas collectivity.
Metropolitan France covers 547, 030 square kilometres (211, 209 sq mi),
having the largest area among European Union members and slightly larger
than Spain. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal
plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the
south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the
south-west. At 4, 807 metres (15, 770 ft) above sea-level, the highest point
in Western Europe, Mont Blanc, is situated in the Alps on the border
between France and Italy. Metropolitan France also has extensive river
systems such as the Loire, the Garonne, the Seine and the Rhône, which
divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean
sea at the Camargue, the lowest point in France (2 m / 6.5 ft below sea
level). Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast.
France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories
(excluding Adélie Land), is 674, 843 square kilometres (260, 558 sq mi),
0.45% of the total land area on Earth. However, France possesses the
second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, covering
11, 035, 000 square kilometres (4, 260, 000 sq mi), approximately 8% of the
total surface of all the EEZs of the world, just behind the United States
(11, 351, 000 km² / 4, 383, 000 sq mi) and ahead of Australia (8, 232, 000 km² /
3, 178, 000 sq mi).
Metropolitan France is situated between 41° and 51° North, on the western
edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. The
north and northwest have a temperate climate, while a combination of
maritime influences, latitude and altitude produce a varied climate in the
rest of Metropolitan France. In the south-east a Mediterranean climate
prevails. In the west, the climate is predominantly oceanic with a high
level of rainfall, mild winters and cool to warm summers. Inland the
climate becomes more continental with hot, stormy summers, colder winters
and less rain. The climate of the Alps and other mountainous regions is
mainly alpine, with the number of days with temperatures below freezing
over 150 per year and snow cover lasting for up to six months.
History
The president of the Republic has an important political role. He chairs
the meetings of the Council of Ministers (cabinet), and retains overall
responsibility in key areas of foreign affairs and defence. The day-to-day
running of the country is in the hands of the prime minister. The
president is elected by direct suffrage for a period of five years. The
parliament consists of a National Assembly, directly elected every five
years, and a Senate whose members are chosen by an electoral college.
The borders of modern France are approximately the same as those of
ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was conquered for
Rome by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, and the Gauls eventually
adopted Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved) and
Roman culture. Christianity first appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries
AD, and became so firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries
that St. Jerome wrote that Gaul was the only region “free from heresy”.
In the 4th century AD, Gaul’s eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun
by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of
“Francie” was derived. The modern name “France” derives from the name of
the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. The Franks
were the first tribe among the Germanic conquerors of Europe after the
fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity rather than
Arianism (their King Clovis did so in 498) ; thus France obtained the
title “Eldest daughter of the Church” (La fille ainée de l’Église) , and
the French would adopt this as justification for calling themselves “the
Most Christian Kingdom of France”.
Existence as a separate entity began with the Treaty of Verdun (843) ,
with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into East Francia,
Middle Francia and Western Francia. Western Francia approximated the area
occupied by modern France and was the precursor to modern France.
The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of
France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. His descendants,
the Direct Capetians, the House of Valois and the House of Bourbon,
progressively unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic
inheritance. The monarchy reached its height during the 17th century and
the reign of Louis XIV of France. At this time France possessed the
largest population in Europe (see Demographics of France) and had
tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French
became, and remained for some time, the common language of diplomacy in
international affairs. Much of the Enlightenment occurred in French
intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs were achieved by
French scientists in the 18th century. In addition, France obtained many
overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia.
The monarchy ruled France until the French Revolution, in 1789. Louis XVI
and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed, along with thousands of
other French citizens. After a series of short-lived governmental schemes,
Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself
First Consul, and later Emperor of what is now known as the First Empire
(1804–1814). In the course of several wars, his armies conquered most of
continental Europe, with members of the Bonaparte family being appointed
as monarchs of newly established kingdoms.
Following Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, the
French monarchy was re-established, but with new constitutional
limitations. In 1830, a civil uprising established the constitutional July
Monarchy, which lasted until 1848. The short-lived Second Republic ended
in 1852 when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed the Second Empire. Louis-Napoléon
was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and his
regime was replaced by the Third Republic.
France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of
the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its
global overseas colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind
the British Empire. At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French
colonial empire extended over 12, 347, 000 square kilometres (4, 767, 000 sq
mi) of land. Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under
French sovereignty reached 12, 898, 000 square kilometres (4, 980, 000 sq mi)
in the 1920s and 1930s, which is 8.6% of the world's land area.
Though ultimately a victor in World War I, France suffered enormous human
and material losses that weakened it for decades to come. The 1930s were
marked by a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front
government. At the start of World War II, France held a series of
unsuccessful rescue campaigns in Norway, Belgium and The Netherlands from
1939 to 1940. Upon the May-June 1940 Nazi German blitzkrieg and its
Fascist Italian support, France's political leadership disregarded
Churchill's proposal of a Franco-British Union and signed the Second
Armistice at Compiègne on 22 June 1940. The Germans established a puppet
regime under Marshal Philippe Pétain known as Vichy France, which pursued
a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany. The regime's opponents formed
the Free French Forces outside of France and the French Resistance inside.
France was liberated with the joint effort of the United States, the
United Kingdom, Canada, the Free French Forces and the French resistance
in 1944. Soon the Nouvelle Armée Française (“new French army”) was
established with the massive help of US-built material and equipment, and
pursued the fight alongside the Allies in various battles, including the
campaign of Italy.
The Fourth Republic was established after World War II and struggled to
maintain its economic and political status as a dominant nation state.
France attempted to hold on to its colonial empire, but soon ran into
trouble. The half-hearted 1946 attempt at regaining control of French
Indochina resulted in the First Indochina War, which ended in French
defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Only months later, France
faced a new, even harsher conflict in Algeria.
The debate over whether or not to keep control of Algeria, then home to
over one million European settlers, wracked the country and nearly led to
civil war. In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the
Fifth Republic, which contained a strengthened Presidency. In the latter
role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking
steps to end the war. The Algerian War and Franco-French civil war that
resulted in the capital Algiers, was concluded with peace negotiations in
1962 that led to Algerian independence.
In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany
have proved central to the political and economic integration of the
evolving European Union, including the introduction of the euro in January
1999. France has been at the forefront of the European Union member states
seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to create a more unified
and capable European Union political, defence, and security apparatus. The
French electorate voted against ratification of the European
Constitutional Treaty in May 2005, but the successor Treaty of Lisbon was
ratified by Parliament in February 2008.
Government
The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong
democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved
by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority
of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself
has two leaders: the President of the Republic, who is elected directly by
universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years) and is the
Head of State, and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime
Minister.
The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National
Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. The National Assembly
deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for
5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus
the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators
are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year
terms) , and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years
starting in September 2008. The Senate's legislative powers are limited;
in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National
Assembly has the final say, except for constitutional laws and lois
organiques (laws that are directly provided for by the constitution) in
some cases. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of
Parliament.
French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings:
one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other
right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République
(RPR) and now its successor the Union for a Popular Movement. The
executive branch is currently composed mostly of the UPM.
Conventions and notations
* 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 the number 1, 000, 000, 000, 000, which in countries using short
scale is called a trillion. However, there exists a French word, milliard,
for the number 1, 000, 000, 000, which in countries using the short scale is
called 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 currency
symbol is used as a decimal separator or put after the number. For example
€25 048, 05 is written either 25 048€ 05 or 25 048, 05 € (always with an
extra space between the figure and the currency symbol).
* Cars are driven on the right.
* In computing, a bit is called a bit yet 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 2.30 pm 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
France uses a civil legal system; that is, law arises primarily from
written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it
(though the amount of judge interpretation in certain areas makes it
equivalent to case law). Basic principles of the rule of law were laid in
the Napoleonic Code. In agreement with the principles of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen law should only prohibit actions
detrimental to society. As Guy Canivet, first president of the Court of
Cassation, wrote about the management of prisons:
Freedom is the rule, and its restriction is the exception; any restriction
of Freedom must be provided for by Law and must follow the principles of
necessity and proportionality.
That is, Law should lay out prohibitions only if they are needed, and if
the inconveniences caused by this restriction do not exceed the
inconveniences that the prohibition is supposed to remedy. In practice, of
course, this ideal is often lost when laws are made.
French law is divided into two principal areas: private law and public
law. Private law includes, in particular, civil law and criminal law.
Public law includes, in particular, administrative law and constitutional
law. However, in practical terms, French law comprises three principal
areas of law: civil law; criminal law and administrative law.
France does not recognise religious law, nor does it recognise religious
beliefs or morality as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions. As
a consequence, France has long had neither blasphemy laws nor sodomy laws
(the latter being abolished in 1791). However “offences against public
decency” (contraires aux bonnes mœurs) or breach of the peace (trouble à
l'ordre public) have been used to repress public expressions of
homosexuality or street prostitution.
Laws can only address the future and not the past (ex post facto laws are
prohibited) ; and to be applicable, laws must be officially published in
the Journal Officiel de la République Française.
Foreign relations
France is a member of the United Nations and serves as one of the
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto rights. It is
also a member of the WTO, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) ,
the Indian Ocean Commission (COI). It is an associate member of the
Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and a leading member of the
International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of fifty-one fully or partly
French-speaking countries. It hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO,
Interpol, Alliance Base and the International Bureau for Weights and
Measures. In 1953 France received a request from the United Nations to
pick a coat of arms that would represent it internationally. Thus the
French emblem was adopted and is currently used on passports.
French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the
European Union, of which it was a founding member. In the 1960s, France
sought to exclude the British from the organization, seeking to build its
own standing in continental Europe. Since the 1990s, France has developed
close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving
force of the EU, but consequently rivaling the U.K. and limiting the
influence of newly-inducted East European nations. France is a member of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but under President de Gaulle, it
excluded itself from the joint military command to avoid the supposed
domination of its foreign and security policies by U.S. political and
military influence. In the early 1990s, the country drew considerable
criticism from other nations for its underground nuclear tests in French
Polynesia. France vigorously opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, straining
bilateral relations with the U.S. and the U.K. France retains strong
political and economic influence in its former African colonies and has
supplied economic aid and troops for peace-keeping missions in the Ivory
Coast and Chad.
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 Plateau d'Albion'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.
* 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. 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 equipped 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 Terre employs 133, 500 people, it is very famous for the
Légion Etrangère (French Foreign Legion) though the French special forces
aren't the Legion but the Dragons Parachutistes and the Marines
Parachutistes. The French assault rifle is the FAMAS and future infantry
combat system is the Félin. France uses both tracked and wheeled vehicles
to a significant points, examples of wheeled vehicles would be the Caesar
or the AMX 10 RC. Although its main battle tank is the Leclerc many older
AMX 30 tanks are still operational. It uses the AMX 30 AuF1 for artillery.
Finally it is getting equipied with Eurocopter Tigers helicopters.
* 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 modern Rafale is in deployment in both the French air
force and navy.
Transportation
The railway network of France, which stretches 31, 840 kilometres (19, 784
mi) is the most extensive in Western Europe. It is operated by the SNCF,
and high-speed trains include the Thalys, the Eurostar and TGV, which
travels at 320 km/h (200 mph) in commercial use. The Eurostar, along with
the Eurotunnel Shuttle, connects with the United Kingdom through the
Channel Tunnel. Rail connections exist to all other neighbouring countries
in Europe, except Andorra. Intra-urban connections are also well developed
with both underground services and tramway services complementing bus
services.
There is approximately 893, 300 kilometres (555, 070 mi) of serviceable
roadway in France. The Paris region is enveloped with the most dense
network of roads and highways that connect it with virtually all parts of
the country. French roads also handle substantial international traffic,
connecting with cities in neighboring Belgium, Spain, Andorra, Monaco,
Switzerland, Germany and Italy. There is no annual registration fee or
road tax; however, motorway usage is through tolls except in the vicinity
of large communes. The new car market is dominated by domestic brands such
as Renault (27% of cars sold in France in 2003), Peugeot (20.1%) and
Citroën (13.5%). Over 70% of new cars sold in 2004 had diesel engines, far
more than contained petrol or LPG engines. France possesses the world's
tallest road bridge: the Millau Viaduct, and has built many important
bridges such as the Pont de Normandie.
There are approximately 478 airports in France, including landing fields.
The Charles de Gaulle International Airport located in the vicinity of
Paris is the largest and busiest airport in the country, handling the vast
majority of popular and commercial traffic of the country and connecting
Paris with virtually all major cities across the world. Air France is the
national carrier airline, although numerous private airline companies
provide domestic and international travel services. There are ten major
ports in France, the largest of which is in Marseille, which also is the
largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea. 14, 932 kilometres (9, 278 mi) of
waterways traverse France including the Canal du Midi which connects the
Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Garonne river.
Administrative divisions
France is divided into 26 administrative regions. 22 are in metropolitan
France (21 are on the continental part of metropolitan France; one is the
territorial collectivity of Corsica), and four are overseas regions. The
regions are further subdivided into 100 departments which are numbered
(mainly alphabetically). This number is used in postal codes and vehicle
number plates amongst others. Four of these departments are found in the
overseas regions and are simultaneously overseas regions and overseas
departments and are an integral part of France (and the European Union)
and thus enjoy a status similar to metropolitan departments. The 100
departments are subdivided into 341 arrondissements which are, in turn,
subdivided into 4, 032 cantons. These cantons are then divided into 36, 680
communes, which are municipalities with an elected municipal council.
There also exist 2, 588 intercommunal entities grouping 33, 414 of the
36, 680 communes (i.e. 91.1% of all the communes). Three communes, Paris,
Lyon and Marseille are also subdivided into 45 municipal arrondissements.
The regions, departments and communes are all known as territorial
collectivities, meaning they possess local assemblies as well as an
executive. Arrondissements and cantons are merely administrative
divisions. However, this was not always the case. Until 1940, the
arrondissements were also territorial collectivities with an elected
assembly, but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and definitely
abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946. Historically, the cantons were
also territorial collectivities with their elected assemblies.
In addition to the 26 regions and 100 departments, the French Republic
also has six overseas collectivities, one sui generis collectivity (New
Caledonia), and one overseas territory. Overseas collectivities and
territories form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the
European Union or its fiscal area. The Pacific territories continue to use
the Pacific franc whose value is linked to that of the euro. In contrast,
the four overseas regions used the French franc and now use the euro.
France also maintains control over a number of small non-permanently
inhabited islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean: Bassas da
India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova
Island, Tromelin Island.
Overseas regions
Overseas departments have the same political status as metropolitan
departments.
* Guadeloupe (since 1946)
* Martinique (since 1946)
* French Guiana (since 1946)
* Réunion (since 1946)
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case studies and testimonials summarizing facts have been done by
individuals working for this website. We cannot be held responsible for
any inaccuracies, as we have described that information is for educational
purposes and therefore maybe a few weeks old.
Resources:
Wikipedia | lonelyplanet.com | justfrance.org | europa.eu
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