Area  

550,000 sq. km

France is the largest country in

Western Europe (almost one fifth of the

European Union), with a vast maritime

zone.

Plains cover two thirds of the total area.

Principal mountains:

the Alps Pyrenees JuraArdennes Massif Central Vosges

The highest peak of the Alps, Mont Blanc, 4,808 metres, is the highest mountain in Western Europe

Coastline

(length:2900 miles)

Bordered by four seas

North Sea (Mer du Nord),

Channel (La Manche),

Atlantic Ocean

Mediterranean

Three types of climates:

Mediterranean in the south

Oceanic in the west

Continental in central and eastern

France

Farms and forests :->82% of the total area of France

7 national parks 156 nature reserves 516 designated areas for protected species  429 protected coastal areas

€47.7 billion is allocated to the protection of the environment (€755.00 per inhabitant)

France is party to many international treaties and conventions concerning the environment.

Population:

63.8 million inhabitants

(98.1 inhabitants per sq. km)  

->57 urban areas with over 100,000 inhabitants.

The five largest are:

1. Paris 9.6 million

2. Lille 1.7 million

3. Lyon 1.4 million

4. Marseille 1.3 million

5. Toulouse 1 million

The French Republic : Mainland France (22 regions ,96 departments )4 overseas departments (DOM) - Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane (French Guiana) and Réunion 7 overseas territories – French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Mayotte (will be a department in 2011), Saint Pierre and Miquelon,Saint-Barthélémy, Saint Martin…) and one territory with special status: New Caledonia

National Assembly _ Paris

Palais de l’Elysée (Official residence of the President of the Republic)

Palais du Luxembourg (Housing the Senate) in Paris

Paris Court House (Palais de Justice)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

La Bourse, Paris Stock Exchange

14 July, is a national holiday first celebrated in 1792. This date commemorates the capture of the royal prison, the Bastille, by revolutionaries in 1789It is intended to unite all French people in their loyalty to their country.Nowadays, July 14 is celebrated with a mixture of solemn military parades and easygoing dancing and fireworks.

National Anthem:La Marseillaise started life as a revolutionary battle song and a hymn to freedom. It gradually gained acceptance as a national anthem. Nowadays it is performed at most official events.

Les Bergers d’Arcadie – Nicolas Poussin (1629)

La Courtisane amoureuse - Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)

Diane sortant du bain _ Boucher (1742)

Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix (1830)

La Promenade, Pierre-Auguste Renoir(1906)

Pierre Soulages

Ysabel Mavit

Bernar Venet , French Conceptual Artist,born in 1941

Orsay Museum _ Paris

Claude Viallat exhibition

Louvre Museum _ Paris

Court House in Nantes, by architect Jean Nouvel

Viaduc de Millau

Arche de la Défense

Fondation Maeght

La fête de la musique _ June 21st

Les Nuits de Fourvière; the Roman musical and theatrical evenings of Lyon, taking place on the hill of Fourvière

Institut de France fom the Pont des Arts

Louvre

Champs Elysées

The Place de la Concorde, the Obelisque and in the background, the National Assembly

Bateaux-mouche on the Seine river

Paris Plage

Cathédrale Notre-Dame

Chartres Cathedrale, Beauce

Chateau of the Loire (Amboise)

Savoie

Tours

Besançon ( Franche-Comté)

Carcassonne

Bonifacio (Corsica)

Gardens of Fontainebleau

Bordeaux

Lyon

Avignon

Between Marseille and Cassis, French Riviera (Cote d’Azur)

Avignon

Haute-Savoie (Lake Geneva)

Port of Cannes

Corsica

Poitou-Charente

Alpes-Maritimes

Moselle

Avoriaz

Macon Wine Country in Saone-et-Loire

Savoie (Chapel close to Lake Roselend)

Château of Versailles

Gardens of Fontainebleau

Lyon

Château of La Rochefoucauld

Mont Saint-Michel

Toulouse (Saint-Sernin Cathedrale)

Joan of Arc Napoléon Bonaparte

Victor Hugo

Marquis de Lafayette

Louis Pasteur

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Yves Montand

Edith Piaf

Tony Parker Marion Cotillard