France

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French Republic République française (French)
Flag Emblem[I]
Motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" ("Liberty, Equality, Fraternity")
Anthem: "La Marseillaise"
France on the globe centred on Europe Metropolitan France (European part of France) in Europe France and its neighbors Show France, its overseas territories and its exclusive economic zones Location of France (blue or dark green) – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green)
Capital and largest city	Paris 48°51′N 2°21′E / 48.850°N 2.350°E / 48.850; 2.350
Official language and national language	French[II]
Nationality (2021)[3]	92.2% French 7.8% other
Religion (2023) semi-presidential republic
• President	Emmanuel Macron
• Prime Minister	Élisabeth Borne
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	National Assembly
Establishment
• Kingdom of the West Franks – Treaty of Verdun	10 August 843
• Kingdom of France – Capetian rulers of France	3 July 987
• French Republic – French First Republic	22 September 1792
• Founded the EEC[III]	1 January 1958
• Current constitution – French Fifth Republic	4 October 1958
106th)
• Metropolitan France, estimate as of January 2023[update]	65,834,837[9] (23rd)
• Density	121/km2 (313.4/sq mi) (89th)
GDP (PPP)	2023 estimate
• Total	$3.873 trillion[10] (9th)
• Per capita	$58,828[10] (27th)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$2.923 trillion[10] (7th)
• Per capita	$44,408[10] (23th)
Gini (2020)	29.3[11] low
HDI (2021)	0.903[12] very high · 28th
Currency	Euro (€) (EUR)[VI] CFP franc (XPF)[VII]
Time zone	UTC+1 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (Central European Summer Time[IX])
	Note: Various other time zones are observed in overseas France.[VIII] Although France is in the UTC (Z) (Western European Time) zone, UTC+01:00 (Central European Time) was enforced as the standard time since 25 February 1940, upon German occupation in WW2, with a +0:50:39 offset (and +1:50:39 during DST) from Paris LMT (UTC+0:09:21).[13]
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+33[X]
ISO 3166 code	FR
Internet TLD	.fr[XI]
Source gives area of metropolitan France as 551,500 km2 (212,900 sq mi) and lists overseas regions separately, whose areas sum to 89,179 km2 (34,432 sq mi). Adding these give the total shown here for the entire French Republic. The CIA reports the total as 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi).

France (French:

The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars significantly shaped the course of European history. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured a tumultuous succession of governments until the founding of the French Third Republic during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allied powers of World War II but it surrendered and was occupied by the Axis in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.

France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of

Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or "realm of the Franks".^[20] Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish, while Frankreich in German, Frankrijk in Dutch and Frankrike in Swedish and Norwegian all mean "Land/realm of the Franks".

The name of the Franks is related to the English word frank ("free"): the latter stems from the Old French franc ("free, noble, sincere"), ultimately from Medieval Latin francus ("free, exempt from service; freeman, Frank"), a generalisation of the tribal name that emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of the reconstructed Frankish endonym *Frank.^[21][22] It has been suggested that the meaning "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation,^[23] or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves.^[22]

The etymology of *Frank is uncertain. It is traditionally derived from the Proto-Germanic word *frankōn, which translates as "javelin" or "lance" (the throwing axe of the Franks was known as the francisca),^[24] although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around.^[22]

In English, 'France' is pronounced /fræns/ FRANSS in American English and /frɑːns/ FRAHNSS or /fræns/ FRANSS in British English. The pronunciation with /ɑː/ is mostly confined to accents with the trap-bath split such as Received Pronunciation, though it can be also heard in some other dialects such as Cardiff English, in which /frɑːns/ is in free variation with /fræns/.^[25]

History

Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)

The oldest traces of

After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium, initially working gold, copper and bronze, as well as later iron.[28] France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptionally dense Carnac stones site (approximately 3,300 BC).

Antiquity (6th century BC–5th century AD)

In 600 BC, Ionian Greeks from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (present-day Marseille), on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This makes it France's oldest city.^[29] At the same time, some Gallic Celtic tribes penetrated parts of Eastern and Northern France, gradually spreading through the rest of the country between the 5th and 3rd century BC.^[30]

Around 125 BC, the south of Gaul was conquered by the Romans, who called this region Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), which over time evolved into the name Provence in French.^[34] Julius Caesar conquered the remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt carried out by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC.^[35]

Gaul was divided by Augustus into Roman provinces.^[36] Many cities were founded during the Gallo-Roman period, including Lugdunum (present-day Lyon), which is considered the capital of the Gauls.^[36]

From the 250s to the 280s AD, Roman Gaul suffered a serious crisis with its fortified borders being attacked on several occasions by barbarians.^[37] Nevertheless, the situation improved in the first half of the 4th century, which was a period of revival and prosperity for Roman Gaul.^[38] In 312, Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity. Subsequently, Christians, who had been persecuted until then, increased rapidly across the entire Roman Empire.^[39] But, from the beginning of the 5th century, the Barbarian Invasions resumed.^[40] Teutonic tribes invaded the region from present-day Germany, the Visigoths settling in the southwest, the Burgundians along the Rhine River Valley, and the Franks (from whom the French take their name) in the north.^[41]

Early Middle Ages (5th–10th century)

At the end of the Antiquity period, ancient Gaul was divided into several Germanic kingdoms and a remaining Gallo-Roman territory, known as the Kingdom of Syagrius. Simultaneously, Celtic Britons, fleeing the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, settled in the western part of Armorica. As a result, the Armorican peninsula was renamed Brittany, Celtic culture was revived and independent petty kingdoms arose in this region.

The first leader to make himself king of all the Franks was Clovis I, who began his reign in 481, routing the last forces of the Roman governors of the province in 486. Clovis claimed that he would be baptised a Christian in the event of his victory against the Visigoths, which was said to have guaranteed the battle. Clovis regained the southwest from the Visigoths, was baptised in 508 and made himself master of what is now western Germany.

Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity, rather than Arianism; thus France was given the title "Eldest daughter of the Church" (French: La fille aînée de l'Église) by the papacy,^[42] and French kings would be called "the Most Christian Kings of France" (Rex Christianissimus).

The Franks embraced the Christian Gallo-Roman culture and ancient Gaul was eventually renamed Francia ("Land of the Franks"). The Germanic Franks adopted Romanic languages, except in northern Gaul where Roman settlements were less dense and where Germanic languages emerged. Clovis made Paris his capital and established the Merovingian dynasty, but his kingdom would not survive his death. The Franks treated land purely as a private possession and divided it among their heirs, so four kingdoms emerged from that of Clovis: Paris, Orléans, Soissons, and Rheims. The last Merovingian kings lost power to their mayors of the palace (head of household). One mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, defeated an Umayyad invasion of Gaul at the Battle of Tours (732) and earned respect and power within the Frankish kingdoms. His son, Pepin the Short, seized the crown of Francia from the weakened Merovingians and founded the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin's son, Charlemagne, reunited the Frankish kingdoms and built a vast empire across Western and Central Europe.

Proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III and thus establishing in earnest the French Government's longtime historical association with the Catholic Church,^[43] Charlemagne tried to revive the Western Roman Empire and its cultural grandeur. Charlemagne's son, Louis I (Emperor 814–840), kept the empire united; however, this Carolingian Empire would not survive his death. In 843, under the Treaty of Verdun, the empire was divided between Louis' three sons, with East Francia going to Louis the German, Middle Francia to Lothair I, and West Francia to Charles the Bald. West Francia approximated the area occupied by and was the precursor to, modern France.^[44]

During the 9th and 10th centuries, continually threatened by Viking invasions, France became a very decentralised state: the nobility's titles and lands became hereditary, and the authority of the king became more religious than secular and thus was less effective and constantly challenged by powerful noblemen. Thus was established feudalism in France. Over time, some of the king's vassals would grow so powerful that they often posed a threat to the king. For example, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror added "King of England" to his titles, becoming both the vassal to (as Duke of Normandy) and the equal of (as king of England) the king of France, creating recurring tensions.

High and Late Middle Ages (10th–15th century)

The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks.^[45] His descendants—the Capetians, the House of Valois and the House of Bourbon—progressively unified the country through wars and dynastic inheritance into the Kingdom of France, which was fully declared in 1190 by Philip II of France (Philippe Auguste). Later kings would expand their directly possessed domaine royal to cover over half of modern continental France by the 15th century, including most of the north, centre and west of France. During this process, the royal authority became more and more assertive, centred on a hierarchically conceived society distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners.

The French nobility played a prominent role in most

From the 11th century, the House of Plantagenet, the rulers of the County of Anjou, succeeded in establishing its dominion over the surrounding provinces of Maine and Touraine, then progressively built an "empire" that spanned from England to the Pyrenees and covering half of modern France. Tensions between the kingdom of France and the Plantagenet empire would last a hundred years, until Philip II of France conquered, between 1202 and 1214, most of the continental possessions of the empire, leaving England and Aquitaine to the Plantagenets.

Charles IV the Fair died without an heir in 1328.^[48] Under Salic law the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line.^[48] Accordingly, the crown passed to Philip of Valois, rather than through the female line to Edward of Plantagenet, who would soon become Edward III of England. During the reign of Philip of Valois, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power.^[48] However Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England in 1337, and England and France entered the off-and-on Hundred Years' War.^[49] The exact boundaries changed greatly with time, but landholdings inside France by the English Kings remained extensive for decades. With charismatic leaders, such as Joan of Arc and La Hire, strong French counterattacks won back most English continental territories. Like the rest of Europe, France was struck by the Black Death due to which half of the 17 million population of France died.^[50]

Early modern period (15th century–1789)

The French Renaissance saw spectacular cultural development and the first standardisation of the French language, which would become the official language of France and the language of Europe's aristocracy. It also saw a long set of wars, known as the Italian Wars, between France and the House of Habsburg. French explorers, such as Jacques Cartier or Samuel de Champlain, claimed lands in the Americas for France, paving the way for the expansion of the French colonial empire. The rise of Protestantism in Europe led France to a civil war known as the French Wars of Religion, where, in the most notorious incident, thousands of Huguenots were murdered in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572.^[51] The Wars of Religion were ended by Henry IV's Edict of Nantes, which granted some freedom of religion to the Huguenots. Spanish troops, the terror of Western Europe,^[52] assisted the Catholic side during the Wars of Religion in 1589–1594, and invaded northern France in 1597; after some skirmishing in the 1620s and 1630s, Spain and France returned to all-out war between 1635 and 1659. The war cost France 300,000 casualties.^[53]

Under Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu promoted the centralisation of the state and reinforced royal power by disarming domestic power holders in the 1620s. He systematically destroyed castles of defiant lords and denounced the use of private violence (duelling, carrying weapons and maintaining private armies). By the end of the 1620s, Richelieu established "the royal monopoly of force" as the doctrine.^[54]

From the 16th to the 19th century, France was responsible for 11% of the

During Louis XIV's minority and the regency of Queen Anne and Cardinal Mazarin, a period of trouble known as the Fronde occurred in France. This rebellion was driven by the great feudal lords and sovereign courts as a reaction to the rise of royal absolute power in France.

The monarchy reached its peak during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715). By turning powerful feudal lords into courtiers at the Palace of Versailles, his command of the military went unchallenged. Remembered for numerous wars, the so-called Sun King made France the leading European power. France became the most populous country in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became the most-used language in diplomacy, science, literature and international affairs, and remained so until the 20th century.^[57] During his reign, France took colonial control of many overseas territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile and published the Code Noir providing the legal framework for slavery and expelling Jewish people from the French colonies.^[58]

Under the wars of Louis XV (r. 1715–1774), France lost New France and most of its Indian possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Its European territory kept growing, however, with notable acquisitions such as Lorraine (1766) and Corsica (1770). An unpopular king, Louis XV's weak rule, his ill-advised financial, political and military decisions – as well as the debauchery of his court– discredited the monarchy, which arguably paved the way for the French Revolution 15 years after his death.^[59]

Louis XVI (r. 1774–1793), actively supported the Americans with money, fleets and armies, helping them win independence from Great Britain. France gained revenge but spent so heavily that the government verged on bankruptcy—a factor that contributed to the French Revolution. Some of the Enlightenment occurred in French intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs and inventions, such as the discovery of oxygen (1778) and the first hot air balloon carrying passengers (1783), were achieved by French scientists. French explorers, such as Bougainville and Lapérouse, took part in the voyages of scientific exploration through maritime expeditions around the globe. The Enlightenment philosophy, in which reason is advocated as the primary source of legitimacy, undermined the power of and support for the monarchy and also was a factor in the French Revolution.

Revolutionary France (1789–1799)

Facing financial troubles, King Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General (gathering the three Estates of the realm) in May 1789 to propose solutions to his government. As it came to an impasse, the representatives of the Third Estate formed a National Assembly, signalling the outbreak of the French Revolution. Fearing that the king would suppress the newly created National Assembly, insurgents stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a date which would become France's National Day.

In early August 1789, the National Constituent Assembly abolished the privileges of the nobility such as personal serfdom and exclusive hunting rights. Through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (27 August 1789), France established fundamental rights for men. The Declaration affirms "the natural and imprescriptible rights of man" to "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression". Freedom of speech and press were declared, and arbitrary arrests were outlawed. It called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges and proclaimed freedom and equal rights for all men, as well as access to public office based on talent rather than birth. In November 1789, the Assembly decided to nationalise and sell all property of the Catholic Church which had been the largest landowner in the country. In July 1790, a Civil Constitution of the Clergy reorganised the French Catholic Church, cancelling the authority of the Church to levy taxes, et cetera. This fueled much discontent in parts of France, which would contribute to the civil war breaking out some years later. While King Louis XVI still enjoyed popularity among the population, his disastrous flight to Varennes (June 1791) seemed to justify rumours he had tied his hopes of political salvation to the prospects of foreign invasion. His credibility was so deeply undermined that the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an increasing possibility.

In the August 1791

On 10 August 1792, an angry crowd threatened the palace of King Louis XVI, who took refuge in the Legislative Assembly.^[60][61] A Prussian Army invaded France later in August 1792. In early September, Parisians, infuriated by the Prussian Army capturing Verdun and counter-revolutionary uprisings in the west of France, murdered between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners by raiding the Parisian prisons. The Assembly and the Paris City Council seemed unable to stop that bloodshed.^[60][62] The National Convention, chosen in the first elections under male universal suffrage,^[60] on 20 September 1792 succeeded the Legislative Assembly and on 21 September abolished the monarchy by proclaiming the French First Republic. Ex-King Louis XVI was convicted of treason and guillotined in January 1793. France had declared war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic in November 1792 and did the same on Spain in March 1793; in the spring of 1793, Austria and Prussia invaded France; in March, France created a "sister republic" in the "Republic of Mainz", and kept it under control.

Also in March 1793, the civil war of the Vendée against Paris started, evoked by both the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790 and the nationwide army conscription in early 1793; elsewhere in France rebellion was brewing too. A factionalist feud in the National Convention, smouldering ever since October 1791, came to a climax with the group of the 'Girondins' on 2 June 1793 being forced to resign and leave the convention. The counter-revolution, begun in March 1793 in the Vendée, by July had spread to Brittany, Normandy, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyon. Paris' Convention government between October and December 1793 with brutal measures managed to subdue most internal uprisings, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Some historians consider the civil war to have lasted until 1796 with a toll of possibly 450,000 lives.^[63] By the end of 1793, the allies had been driven from France. France in February 1794 abolished slavery in its American colonies but would reintroduce it later.

Political disagreements and enmity in the National Convention between October 1793 and July 1794 reached unprecedented levels, leading to dozens of Convention members being sentenced to death and guillotined. Meanwhile, France's external wars in 1794 were prospering, for example in Belgium. In 1795, the government seemed to return to indifference towards the desires and needs of the lower classes concerning freedom of (Catholic) religion and fair distribution of food. Until 1799, politicians, apart from inventing a new parliamentary system (the 'Directory'), busied themselves with dissuading the people from Catholicism and royalism.

Napoleon and 19th century (1799–1914)

Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799 becoming First Consul and later Emperor of the French Empire (1804–1814; 1815). As a continuation of the wars sparked by the European monarchies against the French Republic, changing sets of European Coalitions declared wars on Napoleon's Empire. His armies conquered most of continental Europe with swift victories such as the battles of Jena-Auerstadt or Austerlitz. Members of the Bonaparte family were appointed as monarchs in some of the newly established kingdoms.^[65]

These victories led to the worldwide expansion of French revolutionary ideals and reforms, such as the metric system, the Napoleonic Code and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. In June 1812, Napoleon attacked Russia, reaching Moscow. Thereafter his army disintegrated through supply problems, disease, Russian attacks, and finally winter. After the catastrophic Russian campaign, and the ensuing uprising of European monarchies against his rule, Napoleon was defeated and the Bourbon monarchy restored. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic Wars.^[65] After his brief return from exile, Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, the monarchy was re-established (1815–1830), with new constitutional limitations.

The discredited Bourbon dynasty was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830, which established the constitutional July Monarchy. In that year, French troops began the conquest of Algeria, establishing the first colonial presence in Africa since Napoleon's abortive invasion of Egypt in 1798. In 1848, general unrest led to the February Revolution and the end of the July Monarchy. The abolition of slavery and the introduction of male universal suffrage, which were briefly enacted during the French Revolution, was re-enacted in 1848. In 1852, the president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew, was proclaimed emperor of the Second Empire, as Napoleon III. He multiplied French interventions abroad, especially in Crimea, Mexico and Italy which resulted in the annexation of the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Napoleon III was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and his regime was replaced by the Third Republic. By 1875, the French conquest of Algeria was complete, and approximately 825,000 Algerians had been killed from famine, disease, and violence.^[66]

France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century, but in the 19th and 20th centuries, its global overseas colonial empire extended greatly and became the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire.^[15] Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under French sovereignty almost reached 13 million square kilometres in the 1920s and 1930s, 8.6% of the world's land. Known as the Belle Époque, the turn of the century was a period characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity and technological, scientific and cultural innovations. In 1905, state secularism was officially established.

Early to mid-20th century (1914–1946)

France was invaded by Germany and defended by Great Britain to start World War I in August 1914. A rich industrial area in the northeast was occupied. France and the Allies emerged victorious against the Central Powers at a tremendous human and material cost. World War I left 1.4 million French soldiers dead, 4% of its population.^[67]

Between 27 and 30% of soldiers conscripted from 1912 to 1915 were killed.^[68] The interbellum years were marked by intense international tensions and a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government (annual leave, eight-hour workdays, women in government).

In 1940, France was invaded and quickly defeated by Nazi Germany. France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone in the southeast and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern French metropolitan territory (two-fifths of pre-war metropolitan France) and the French empire, which included the two protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco, and French Algeria; the Vichy government, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled the unoccupied territory. Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London.^{[full citation needed]}

From 1942 to 1944, about 160,000 French citizens, including around 75,000 Jews,^[69] were deported to death camps and concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland.^[70] In September 1943, Corsica was the first French metropolitan territory to liberate itself from the Axis. On 6 June 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy and in August they invaded Provence. Over the following year, the Allies and the French Resistance emerged victorious over the Axis powers and French sovereignty was restored with the establishment of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). This interim government, established by de Gaulle, aimed to continue to wage war against Germany and to purge collaborators from office. It also made several important reforms (suffrage extended to women, the creation of a social security system).

Contemporary period (1946–present)

During the May 1958 crisis, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which included a strengthened Presidency.^[73] In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the Algerian War. The war was concluded with the Évian Accords in 1962 which led to Algerian independence. Algerian independence came at a high price: it resulted in between half a million and one million deaths and over 2 million internally displaced Algerians.^[74] Around one million Pied-Noirs and Harkis fled from Algeria to France upon independence.^[75] A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories.

In the context of the

In the post-Gaullist era, France remained one of the most developed economies in the world but faced several economic crises that resulted in high unemployment rates and increasing public debt. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, France has been at the forefront of the development of a supranational European Union, notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty (which created the European Union) in 1992, establishing the Eurozone in 1999 and signing the Lisbon Treaty in 2007.^[77] France has also gradually but fully reintegrated into NATO and has since participated in most NATO-sponsored wars.^[78]

Since the 19th century, France has received many

Location and borders

The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called

Metropolitan France covers 551,500 square kilometres (212,935 sq mi),^[86] the largest among European Union members.^[19] France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is 643,801 km² (248,573 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the southeast, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the southwest.

Due to its numerous

Metropolitan France has a wide variety of topographical sets and natural landscapes. Large parts of the current territory of France were raised during several tectonic episodes like the Hercynian uplift in the Paleozoic Era, during which the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the Morvan, the Vosges and Ardennes ranges and the island of Corsica were formed. These massifs delineate several sedimentary basins such as the Aquitaine basin in the southwest and the Paris basin in the north, the latter including several areas of particularly fertile ground such as the silt beds of Beauce and Brie. Various routes of natural passage, such as the Rhône Valley, allow easy communication. The Alpine, Pyrenean and Jura mountains are much younger and have less eroded forms. At 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft)^[87] above sea level, Mont Blanc, located in the Alps on the French and Italian border, is the highest point in Western Europe. Although 60% of municipalities are classified as having seismic risks, these risks remain moderate.

The coastlines offer contrasting landscapes: mountain ranges along the French Riviera, coastal cliffs such as the Côte d'Albâtre, and wide sandy plains in the Languedoc. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast. France has an extensive river system consisting of the four major rivers Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, the Rhône and their tributaries, whose combined catchment includes over 62% of the metropolitan territory. The Rhône divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue. The Garonne meets the Dordogne just after Bordeaux, forming the Gironde estuary, the largest estuary in Western Europe which after approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) empties into the Atlantic Ocean.^[88] Other water courses drain towards the Meuse and Rhine along the northeastern borders. France has 11 million square kilometres (4.2×10^⁶ sq mi) of marine waters within three oceans under its jurisdiction, of which 97% are overseas.

Environment

Forests account for 31 per cent of France's land area—the fourth-highest proportion in Europe—representing an increase of 7 per cent since 1990.[102]^[103][104] French forests are some of the most diverse in Europe, comprising more than 140 species of trees.^[105] France had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.52/10, ranking it 123rd globally out of 172 countries.^[106] There are nine national parks^[107] and 46 natural parks in France,^[108] with the government planning to convert 20% of its Exclusive economic zone into a Marine protected area by 2020.^[109] A regional nature park^[110] (French: parc naturel régional or PNR) is a public establishment in France between local authorities and the national government covering an inhabited rural area of outstanding beauty, to protect the scenery and heritage as well as setting up sustainable economic development in the area.^[111] A PNR sets goals and guidelines for managed human habitation, sustainable economic development and protection of the natural environment based on each park's unique landscape and heritage. The parks foster ecological research programmes and public education in the natural sciences.^[112] As of 2019^[update] there are 54 PNRs in France.^[113]

Administrative divisions

The French Republic is divided into 18

Hauts-de-
France

Normandy

Île-de-
France

Grand Est

Bourgogne-
Franche-
Comté

Centre-
Val de Loire

Pays de
la Loire

Brittany

Nouvelle-
Aquitaine

Auvergne-
Rhône-Alpes

Occitania

Provence-
Alpes-
Côte d'Azur

Corsica

French Guiana

Guadeloupe

Martinique

Mayotte

Réunion

Belgium

Luxembourg

Germany

Switzerland

Liechtenstein

Italy

Monaco

United Kingdom

Andorra

Brazil

Suriname

Spain

Channel

Bay of
Biscay

Ligurian
Sea

Mediterranean
Sea

Since 2016, France is divided into 18 administrative regions: 13 regions in

The 101 departments are subdivided into 335 arrondissements, which are, in turn, subdivided into 2,054 cantons.^[116] These cantons are then divided into 36,658 communes, which are municipalities with an elected municipal council.^[116] Three communes—Paris, Lyon and Marseille—are subdivided into 45 municipal arrondissements.

Overseas territories and collectivities

In addition to the 18 regions and 101 departments, the French Republic has five overseas collectivities (French Polynesia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Wallis and Futuna), one sui generis collectivity (New Caledonia), one overseas territory (French Southern and Antarctic Lands), and one island possession in the Pacific Ocean (Clipperton Island). Overseas collectivities and territories form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the European Union or its fiscal area (except for St. Bartelemy, which seceded from Guadeloupe in 2007). The Pacific Collectivities (COMs) of French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, and New Caledonia continue to use the CFP franc^[117] whose value is strictly linked to that of the euro. In contrast, the five overseas regions used the French franc and now use the euro.^[118]

Government and politics

Government

Current leaders

Emmanuel Macron
President

Élisabeth Borne
Prime Minister

France is a

The executive branch has two leaders. The President of the Republic, currently Emmanuel Macron, is the head of state, elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a five-year term.^[122] The Prime Minister, currently Élisabeth Borne, is the head of government, appointed by the President to lead the government. The President has the power to dissolve Parliament or circumvent it by submitting referendums directly to the people; the President also appoints judges and civil servants, negotiates and ratifies international agreements, as well as serves as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Prime Minister determines public policy and oversees the civil service, with an emphasis on domestic matters.^[123] In the 2022 presidential election, president Macron was re-elected.^[124] 2 months later, in the June 2022 legislative elections, Macron lost his parliamentary majority and had to form a minority government.^[125]

The legislature consists of the

The electorate is constitutionally empowered to vote on amendments passed by the Parliament and bills submitted by the president. Referendums have played a key role in shaping French politics and even foreign policy; voters have decided on such matters as Algeria's independence, the election of the president by popular vote, the formation of the EU, and the reduction of presidential term limits.[133]

Law

France uses a civil legal system, wherein law arises primarily from written statutes;^[86] judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it (though the amount of judicial interpretation in certain areas makes it equivalent to case law in a common law system). Basic principles of the rule of law were laid in the Napoleonic Code (which was, in turn, largely based on the royal law codified under Louis XIV). In agreement with the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the 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.

French law is divided into two principal areas:

France is a founding member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights.^[142] In 2015, it was described as "the best networked state in the world" due to its membership in more international institutions than any other country;^[143] these include the G7, World Trade Organization (WTO),^[144] the Pacific Community (SPC)^[145] and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI).^[146] It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS)^[147] and a leading member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) of 84 French-speaking countries.^[148]

As a significant hub for international relations, France has the

Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace

Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier of the Marine nationale

AMX Leclerc tank of the Armée de terre

French weapons exported totaled 27 billion euros in 2022, up from 11.7 billion euros the previous year 2021. Additionally, the UAE alone contributed more than 16 billion euros arms to the French total.[172]

Economy

Overview

Group of Seven leading industrialised countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Group of Twenty

largest economies.

France's economy is highly diversified;

primary sector, namely agriculture;^[177] however, France's agricultural sector is among the largest in value and leads the EU in terms of overall production.^[178]

In 2018, France was the fifth-largest trading nation in the world and the second-largest in Europe, with the value of exports representing over a fifth of GDP.

foreign direct investment, with European countries and the United States being leading sources.^[183] According to the Bank of France, the leading recipients of FDI were manufacturing, real estate, finance and insurance.^[184] The Paris region has the highest concentration of multinational firms in Europe.^[184]

Under the doctrine of

Bloomberg Innovation Index,^[186] and the 15th most competitive, according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report (up two places from 2018).^[187]

The Paris stock exchange (French: La Bourse de Paris) is one of the oldest in the world, created by

New York stock exchange to form NYSE Euronext, the world's largest stock exchange.^[189] Euronext Paris, the French branch of NYSE Euronext, is Europe's second-largest stock exchange market, behind the London Stock Exchange

.

Historically been one of the world's major agricultural centres and remains a "global agricultural powerhouse", France is the world's sixth-biggest exporter of agricultural products, generating a trade surplus of over €7.4 billion.

EU subsidies have made it Europe's leading agricultural producer and exporter.^[193]

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in France

World Heritage Sites

in 1979

With 89 million international tourist arrivals in 2018,

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), and Carcassonne (362,000).^[196]

France, especially Paris, has some of the world's largest and most renowned museums, including the

Centre Georges Pompidou (3 million), dedicated to contemporary art. Disneyland Paris is Europe's most popular theme park, with 15 million combined visitors to the resort's Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park in 2009.^[197]

With more than 10 million tourists a year, the

superyacht fleet.^[199]

^: 66

With 6 million tourists a year, the castles of the Loire Valley (French: châteaux) and the Loire Valley itself are the third leading tourist destination in France;^[200][201] this World Heritage Site is noteworthy for its architectural heritage, in its historic towns but in particular its castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry, Chenonceau and Montsoreau. The Château de Chantilly, Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, all three located near Paris, are also visitor attractions.

France has 37 sites inscribed in

way to St. James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées

that hosts several million visitors a year.

Energy

Further information: Energy in France

France is the world's tenth-largest producer of electricity.^[202] Électricité de France (EDF), which is majority-owned by the French government, is the country's main producer and distributor of electricity, and one of the world's largest electric utility companies, ranking third in revenue globally.^[203] In 2018, EDF produced around one-fifth of the European Union's electricity, primarily from nuclear power.^[204] As of 2021, France was the biggest energy exporter in Europe, mostly to the U.K. and Italy,^[205] and the largest net exporter of electricity in the world.^[205]

Since the 1973 oil crisis, France has pursued a strong policy of energy security,^[205] namely through heavy investment in nuclear energy. It is one of 32 countries with nuclear power plants, ranking second in the world by the number of operational nuclear reactors, at 56.^[206] Consequently, 70% of France's electricity is generated by nuclear power, the highest proportion in the world by a wide margin;^[207] only Slovakia and Ukraine derive a majority of electricity from nuclear power, at roughly 53% and 51%, respectively.^[208] France is considered a world leader in nuclear technology, with reactors and fuel products being major exports.^[205]

Due to its overwhelming reliance on nuclear power,

Eguzon, Étang de Soulcem, and Lac de Vouglans, are managed by EDF.^[210] France aims to further expand hydropower into 2040.^[209]

Transport

Main article: Transport in France

France's

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 most major cities having underground

or tramway services complementing bus services.

There are approximately 1,027,183 kilometres (638,262 mi) of serviceable roadway in France, ranking it the most extensive network of the European continent.

petrol-driven cars and lorries cause a large part of the country's air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.^[218][219]

There are 464 airports in France.^[86] Charles de Gaulle 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 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,^[220] which also is the largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea.^[221]12,261 kilometres (7,619 mi) of waterways traverse France including the Canal du Midi, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Garonne river.^[86]

Science and technology

Main articles: Science and technology in France and List of French inventions and discoveries

Since the Middle Ages, France has been a contributor to scientific and technological achievement. In the early 11th century, the French-born Pope Sylvester II reintroduced the abacus and armillary sphere and introduced Arabic numerals and clocks to much of Europe.^[223] The University of Paris, founded in the mid-12th century, is still one of the most important academic institutions in the Western world.^[224] In the 17th century, mathematician and philosopher René Descartes pioneered rationalism as a method for acquiring scientific knowledge, while Blaise Pascal became famous for his work on probability and fluid mechanics; both were key figures of the Scientific Revolution, which blossomed in Europe during this period. The French Academy of Sciences, founded in the mid-17th century by Louis XIV to encourage and protect French scientific research, was one of the earliest national scientific institutions in history.

The

Augustin Fresnel founding modern optics, Sadi Carnot laying the foundations of thermodynamics, and Louis Pasteur pioneering microbiology. Other eminent French scientists of the period have their names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower

.

Famous French scientists of the 20th century include the mathematician and physicist

Lyon in 1998 by an international team that included Jean-Michel Dubernard, who afterward performed the first successful double hand transplant.^[226] Telesurgery was first performed by French surgeons led by Jacques Marescaux on 7 September 2001 across the Atlantic Ocean.^[227] A face transplant was first done on 27 November 2005 by Bernard Devauchelle.^[228][229] France ranked 12th in the 2022 Global Innovation Index, compared to 12th in 2020 and 16th in 2019.^{[230][231][232][233]}

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of France

With an estimated January 2023 population of 68,042,591 people,

20th most populous country in the world, the third-most populous in Europe (after Russia and Germany), and the second most populous in the European Union

(after Germany).

France is an outlier among developed countries, particularly in Europe, for its relatively high rate of

natural population growth: By birth rates alone, it was responsible for almost all natural population growth in the European Union in 2006.^[234] Between 2006 and 2016, France saw the second-highest overall increase in population in the EU and was one of only four EU countries where natural births accounted for the most population growth.^[235] This was the highest rate since the end of the baby boom in 1973 and coincides with the rise of the total fertility rate

from a nadir of 1.7 in 1994 to 2.0 in 2010.

As of January 2021[update], the fertility rate declined slightly to 1.84 children per woman, below the

replacement rate of 2.1, and considerably below the high of 4.41 in 1800.^{[236][237][238][239]} France's fertility rate and crude birth rate nonetheless remain among the highest in the EU. However, like many developed nations, the French population is aging; the average age is 41.7 years, while about a fifth of French people are 65 or over.^[240] The life expectancy

at birth is 82.7 years, the 12th highest in the world.

From 2006 to 2011, population growth averaged 0.6 per cent per year;[241] since 2011, annual growth has been between 0.4 and 0.5 per cent annually.^[242] Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, 27 per cent of newborns in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and another 24 per cent had at least one parent born outside Europe (excluding French overseas territories).^[243]

Ethnic groups

Main article: French people

Historically,

Scandinavian in the northwest, Alemannic in the northeast, and Ligurian

in the southeast.

Large-scale immigration over the last century and a half have led to a more multicultural society; beginning with the French Revolution, and further codified in the

French Constitution of 1958, the government is prohibited from collecting data on ethnicity and ancestry; most demographic information is drawn from private sector organisations or academic institutions. In 2004, the Institut Montaigne estimated that within Metropolitan France, 51 million people were White (85% of the population), 6 million were Northwest African (10%), 2 million were Black (3.3%), and 1 million were Asian (1.7%).^[245][246]

A 2008 poll conducted jointly by

European ethnic groups, namely Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek.^{[249][253][254]} France has a significant Gitan (Romani) population, numbering between 20,000 and 400,000;^[255] many foreign Roma are expelled back to Bulgaria and Romania frequently.^[256]

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to France

It is currently estimated that 40% of the French population is descended at least partially from the different waves of immigration since the early 20th century;

pieds noirs returned to France following the independence of its Northwest African possessions, Algeria and Morocco.^[259][260]

They were joined by numerous former colonial subjects from North and West Africa, as well as numerous European immigrants from Spain and Portugal.

France remains a major destination for immigrants, accepting about 200,000 legal immigrants annually.

Eastern European migration,^{[citation needed}

] and immigration remains a contentious political issue.

In 2008, the

INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) estimated that the total number of foreign-born immigrants was around 5 million (8% of the population), while their French-born descendants numbered 6.5 million, or 11% of the population. Thus, nearly a fifth of the country's population were either first or second-generation immigrants, of which more than 5 million were of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi ancestry.^{[265][266][267]} In 2008, France granted citizenship to 137,000 persons, mostly from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey.^[268]

In 2014, the INSEE reported a significant increase in the number of immigrants coming from Spain, Portugal and Italy between 2009 and 2012. According to the French Institute, this increase resulted from the financial crisis that hit several European countries in that period.[269] Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 per cent between 2009 and 2012, with the population growing from 5,300 to 11,000.^[269] Of the total of 229,000 foreigners who were in France in 2012, nearly 8% were Portuguese, 5% British, 5% Spanish, 4% Italian, 4% German, 3% Romanian, and 3% Belgian.^[269]

Major cities

See also: Functional area (France) and Urban unit

France is a highly urbanised country, with its

INSEE considers that Nice is a metropolitan area separate from the Cannes-Antibes metropolitan area; these two combined would have a population of 1,008,296, as of the 2019 census). Rural flight

was a perennial political issue throughout most of the 20th century.

v t e Largest metropolitan areas in France 2019 census
	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.	Rank	Name	Region	Pop.
Paris Lyon	1	Paris	Île-de-France	13,114,718	11	Grenoble	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	717,469
	2	Lyon	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	2,280,845	12	Rouen	Normandy	705,627
	3	Marseille	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	1,873,270	13	Nice	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	615,126
	4	Lille	Hauts-de-France	1,510,079	14	Toulon	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	573,230
	5	Toulouse	Occitania (administrative region)	1,454,158	15	Tours	Centre-Val de Loire	519,778
	6	Bordeaux	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	1,363,711	16	Nancy	Grand Est	510,306
	7	Nantes	Pays de la Loire	1,011,020	17	Clermont-Ferrand	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	507,479
	8	Strasbourg	Grand Est	853,110	18	Saint-Étienne	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	498,849
	9	Montpellier	Occitania (administrative region)	801,595	19	Caen	Normandy	472,161
	10	Rennes	Brittany	755,668	20	Orléans	Centre-Val de Loire	451,373

Language

Main articles: French language, Languages of France, and Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Francophone

world:

  Native language

  Administrative language

  Secondary or cultural language

The official language of France is French,

Académie française has been France's official authority on the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal weight. There are also regional languages spoken in France, such as Occitan, Breton, Catalan, Flemish (Dutch dialect), Alsatian (German dialect), Basque, and Corsican (Italian dialect). Italian was the official language of Corsica until 9 May 1859.^[272]

The Government of France does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as the

overseas territories. It is estimated that between 300 million^[273] and 500 million^[274]

people worldwide can speak French, either as a mother tongue or as a second language.

According to the 2007 Adult Education survey, part of a project by the

INSEE and based on a sample of 15,350 persons, French was the native language of 87.2% of the total population, or roughly 55.81 million people, followed by Arabic (3.6%, 2.3 million), Portuguese (1.5%, 960,000), Spanish (1.2%, 770,000) and Italian (1.0%, 640,000). Native speakers of other languages made up the remaining 5.2% of the population.^[275]

Religion

Main article: Religion in France

France is a secular country in which

laïcité, a strict separation of church and state under which public life is kept completely secular. The exception to this is the region of Alsace and Moselle

where Lutheranism, Catholicism and Judaism enjoy official status and state funding.

According to a survey held in 2016 by

Jewish community in France is the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world after Israel and the United States, ranging between 480,000 and 600,000, about 0.8% of the population as of 2016.^[276]

laïcité.^[280]

To this day, the government is prohibited from recognising any specific right to a religious community (except for legacy statutes like those of military chaplains and the local law in Alsace-Moselle). It recognises religious organisations according to formal legal criteria that do not address religious doctrine. Conversely, religious organisations are expected to refrain from intervening in policymaking.^[281]

Certain groups, such as

Children of God, the Unification Church, or the Order of the Solar Temple are considered cults ("sectes" in French); therefore they do not have the same status as recognised religions in France.^[282] Secte is considered a pejorative term in France.^[283]

Health

Main article: Health in France

The

less than in the United States. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government-funded agencies.^[289]

Care is generally free for people affected by

chronic diseases (affections de longues durées) such as cancer, AIDS or cystic fibrosis. The life expectancy at birth is 78 years for men and 85 years for women, one of the highest in the European Union and the World.^[290][291] There are 3.22 physicians for every 1000 inhabitants in France,^[292] and average health care spending per capita was US$4,719 in 2008.^[293]

As of 2007[update], approximately 140,000 inhabitants (0.4%) of France are living with HIV/AIDS.^[86]

Education

Main article: Education in France

In 1802,

lycée, the second and final stage of secondary education that prepares students for higher education studies or a profession.^[295] Nevertheless, Jules Ferry is considered the father of the French modern school, leading reforms in the late 19th century that established free, secular and compulsory education (currently mandatory until the age of 16).^[296][297]

French education is centralised and divided into three stages: Primary, secondary, and higher education. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranked France's education as near the OECD average in 2018.^[298][299] France was one of the PISA-participating countries where school children perceived some of the lowest levels of support and feedback from their teachers.^[299] Schoolchildren in France reported greater concern about the disciplinary climate and behaviour in classrooms compared to other OECD countries.^[299]

Higher education is divided between

École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris that produce high-profile engineers, or the École nationale d'administration for careers in the Grands Corps of the state. The Grandes écoles have been criticised for alleged elitism, producing many if not most of France's high-ranking civil servants, CEOs and politicians.^[300]

Culture

Main article: Culture of France

Art

Main article: French art

The origins of French art were very much influenced by

Baroque era, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain

, lived in Italy.

French artists developed the

Academism

.

In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting grew, with the development of new styles of painting such as

Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions,^[302] as well as the fauvist artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.^[303][304]

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cubism was developed by Georges Braque and the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, living in Paris. Other foreign artists also settled and worked in or near Paris, such as Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Wassily Kandinsky.

There are many art museums in France, the most famous of which being the state-owned

Centre Georges Pompidou. These three state-owned museums are visited by close to 17 million people a year.^[308]

Architecture

Main article: French architecture

During the Middle Ages, many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers. Some French castles that survived are

Chinon, Château d'Angers, the massive Château de Vincennes and the so-called Cathar castles. During this era, France had been using Romanesque architecture

like most of Western Europe.

Notre-Dame de Reims.^[311]

The final victory in the Hundred Years' War marked an important stage in the evolution of French architecture. It was the time of the French Renaissance and several artists from Italy were invited to the French court; many residential palaces were built in the Loire Valley, from 1450 as a first reference the Château de Montsoreau.^[312] Such residential castles were the Château de Chambord, the Château de Chenonceau, or the Château d'Amboise.

Following the renaissance and the end of the Middle Ages,

Jules Hardouin Mansart, who designed the extensions to Versailles, was one of the most influential French architects of the baroque era; he is famous for his dome at Les Invalides.^[314] Some of the most impressive provincial baroque architecture is found in places that were not yet French such as Place Stanislas in Nancy. On the military architectural side, Vauban designed some of the most efficient fortresses in Europe and became an influential military architect; as a result, imitations of his works can be found all over Europe, the Americas, Russia and Turkey.^[315][316]

After the Revolution, the

Second Empire in English, the term being taken from the Second French Empire. At this time there was a strong Gothic resurgence across Europe and in France; the associated architect was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In the late 19th century, Gustave Eiffel designed many bridges, such as the Garabit viaduct, and remains one of the most influential bridge designers of his time, although he is best remembered for the Eiffel Tower

.

In the 20th century, French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier designed several buildings in France. More recently, French architects have combined both modern and old architectural styles. The Louvre Pyramid is an example of modern architecture added to an older building. The most difficult buildings to integrate within French cities are skyscrapers, as they are visible from afar. For instance, in Paris, since 1977, new buildings had to be under 37 metres (121 ft).^[318] France's largest financial district is La Défense, where a significant number of skyscrapers are located.^[319] Other massive buildings that are a challenge to integrate into their environment are large bridges; an example of the way this has been done is the Millau Viaduct. Some famous modern French architects include Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault, Christian de Portzamparc and Paul Andreu.

Literature and philosophy

Main articles: French literature and French philosophy

The earliest French literature dates from the

Heptameron.^[321] Another 16th-century author was Michel de Montaigne, whose most famous work, Essais, started a literary genre.^[322]

French literature and poetry flourished during the 18th and 19th centuries.

symbolist poetry was an important movement in French literature, with poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé.^[323]

The 19th century saw the writings of many renowned French authors. Victor Hugo is sometimes seen as "the greatest French writer of all time"

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), Émile Zola (Les Rougon-Macquart), Honoré de Balzac (La Comédie humaine), Guy de Maupassant, Théophile Gautier and Stendhal (The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma

), whose works are among the most well known in France and the world.

In the early 20th century France was a haven for literary freedom.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote The Little Prince, which has remained popular for decades and is one of the best selling books in history.^[328][329]

Medieval philosophy was dominated by Scholasticism until the emergence of Humanism in the Renaissance. Modern philosophy began in France in the 17th century with the philosophy of René Descartes, Blaise Pascal and Nicolas Malebranche. Descartes was the first Western philosopher since ancient times to attempt to build a philosophical system from the ground up rather than building on the work of predecessors.^[330][331] France in the 18th Century saw major philipshocial contributions from Voltaire who came to embody the Enlightenment and Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose work highly influenced the French Revolution.^[332][333] French philosophers made major contributions to the field in the 20th century including the existentialist works of Simone de Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre.^[334] Other influential contributions during this time include the moral and political works of Simone Weil, contributions to structuralism including from Claude Lévi-Strauss and the post-structuralist works by Michel Foucault.^[335][336]

Music

Main article: Music of France

France has a long and varied musical history. It experienced a golden age in the 17th century thanks to Louis XIV, who employed many talented musicians and composers in the royal court. The most renowned composers of this period include

Michel-Richard Delalande, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marin Marais, all of them composers at the court. After the death of the "Roi Soleil", French musical creation lost dynamism, but in the next century the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau reached some prestige, and today he is still one of the most renowned French composers. Rameau became the dominant composer of French opera and the leading French composer of the harpsichord.^{[337][full citation needed}

]

Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity. His mastery of orchestration is evident in the Rapsodie espagnole, Daphnis et Chloé, his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and his orchestral work Boléro (1928). More recently, in the middle of the 20th century, Maurice Ohana, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Boulez contributed to the evolution of contemporary classical music.^[343]

French music then followed the rapid emergence of pop and rock music in the middle of the 20th century. Although English-speaking creations achieved popularity in the country,

chanson française, has also remained very popular. Among the most important French artists of the century are Édith Piaf, Georges Brassens, Léo Ferré, Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg.^[344] Although there are very few rock bands in France compared to English-speaking countries,^[345] bands such as Noir Désir, Mano Negra, Niagara, Les Rita Mitsouko and more recently Superbus, Phoenix and Gojira,^[346] or Shaka Ponk

, have reached worldwide popularity.

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of France

France has historical and strong links with

Cannes Festival, one of the most important and famous film festivals in the world.^[354][355]

Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a gathering spot for artists from across Europe and the world. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina (Gaspar Noé, Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke) and Georgia (Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur or Francis Veber in the United States. Although the French film market is dominated by Hollywood, France is the only nation in the world where American films make up the smallest share of total film revenues, at 50%, compared with 77% in Germany and 69% in Japan.^[356] French films account for 35% of the total film revenues of France, which is the highest percentage of national film revenues in the developed world outside the United States, compared to 14% in Spain and 8% in the UK.^[356] In 2013 France was the second greatest exporter of films in the world, after the United States.^[357]

As part of its advocacy of cultural exception, a political concept of treating culture differently from other commercial products,^[358] France succeeded in convincing all EU members to refuse to include culture and audiovisuals in the list of liberalised sectors of the WTO in 1993.^[359] Moreover, this decision was confirmed in a vote by UNESCO in 2005: the principle of "cultural exception" won an overwhelming victory with 198 countries voting for it and only 2 countries, the United States and Israel, voting against it.^[360]

Fashion

Main article: French fashion

Fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the 17th century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses. The expression Haute couture is, in France, a legally protected name, guaranteeing certain quality standards.

The association of France with fashion and style (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of

Dior, and Givenchy. The French perfume industry is the world leader in its sector and is centred on the town of Grasse.^[362]

According to 2017 data compiled by

Kering SA, L'Oréal), more than any other country in the world.^[363]

Media

Main article: Telecommunications in France

In 2021, regional daily newspapers (like

Dauphiné Libéré, Le Télégramme, and Le Progrès) more than doubled the sales of national newspapers (like Le Monde, Le Figaro, L'Équipe (sports), Le Parisien, and Les Echos (finance). Free dailies, distributed in metropolitan centers, continue to increase their market share.^[365] The sector of weekly magazines includes more than 400 specialised weekly magazines published in the country.^[366]

The most influential news magazines are the left-wing

economic crisis, in addition to existing subsidies.^[370]

In 1974, after years of centralised monopoly on radio and television, the governmental agency

ORTF was split into several national institutions, but the three already-existing TV channels and four national radio stations^[371][372] remained under state control. It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory, ending the state monopoly on radio.^[372]

Cuisine

Main article: French cuisine

French wines

are usually made to accompany French cuisine.

French cuisine is renowned for being one of the finest in the world.

Lorraine region, beef bourguignon in Burgundy, provençal tapenade, etc. France is most famous for its wines,^[376] and cheeses, which are often named for the territory where they are produced (AOC).^[377][378]

A meal typically consists of three courses, entrée (starter), plat principal (main course), and fromage (cheese) or dessert, sometimes with a salad served before the cheese or dessert.

French cuisine is also regarded as a key element of the

Michelin guide, awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments.^[379][380] The acquisition or loss of a star can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant. By 2006, the Michelin Guide had awarded 620 stars to French restaurants.^[381]

In addition to its wine tradition, France is also a major producer of beer and rum. The three main French brewing regions are Alsace (60% of national production), Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Lorraine. French rum is made in distilleries located on islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.^[382][383]

Sports

Main article: Sport in France

France hosts "the world's biggest annual sporting event", the Tour de France.^[385] Other popular sports played in France include: football, judo, tennis,^[386] rugby union^[387] and pétanque. France has hosted events such as the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups,^[388] the 2007 Rugby World Cup,^[389] and will host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The country also hosted the 1960 European Nations' Cup, UEFA Euro 1984, UEFA Euro 2016 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The Stade de France in Saint-Denis is France's largest stadium and was the venue for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2007 Rugby World Cup finals. Since 1923, France is famous for its 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car endurance race.^[390] Several major tennis tournaments take place in France, including the Paris Masters and the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. French martial arts include Savate and Fencing.

France has a close association with the Modern Olympic Games; it was a French aristocrat, Baron

Summer Deaflympics in Paris.^[396]

Both the national football team and the national rugby union team are nicknamed "Les Bleus" in reference to the team's shirt colour as well as the national French tricolour flag. Football is the most popular sport in France, with over 1,800,000 registered players and over 18,000 registered clubs.^[397]

The French Open, also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments.^[398]

Rugby union is popular, particularly in Paris and the southwest of France.^[399] The national rugby union team has competed at every Rugby World Cup; it takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship.

See also

• Outline of France

Footnotes

1. ^ The current Constitution of France does not specify a national emblem.^[1] The lictor's fasces is very often used to represent the French Republic, although today it holds no official status.^[2]
2. ^ For information about regional languages, see Languages of France.
3. ^ European Union since 1993
4. National Geographic Institute
   data, which includes bodies of water
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Whole of the except the overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean
7. ^ French overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean only
8. ^ Time zones across the span from UTC−10 (French Polynesia) to UTC+12 (Wallis and Futuna)
9. ^ Daylight saving time is observed in metropolitan France and Saint Pierre and Miquelon only.
10. ^ 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 and 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.
11. ^ 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 .cat domain is used in Catalan-speaking territories.
12. ^ French Guiana is in South America; Guadeloupe and Martinique are in the Caribbean Sea; and Réunion and Mayotte are in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. All five are considered integral parts of the French Republic. France also comprises Saint Pierre and Miquelon in North America; Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin in the Caribbean; French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean; and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
13. Charles X
    , 29 May 1825.

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Further reading

Main article: Bibliography of France

External links

The Wikibook Wikijunior:Countries A-Z has a page on the topic of: France

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• France at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• France at UCB Libraries GovPubs
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  Curlie
• France at the EU
• Wikimedia Atlas of France
• Geographic data related to France at OpenStreetMap
• Key Development Forecasts for France from International Futures

Economy

• INSEE
• OECD France statistics

Government

• France.fr – official French tourism site (in English)
• Gouvernement.fr – official site of the government (in French)
• Official site of the French public service – links to various administrations and institutions
• Official site of the National Assembly

Culture

• Contemporary French Civilization. Archived 27 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Journal, University of Illinois.
• FranceGuide – official site of the French Government Tourist Office