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France

Coordinates: 47°N 2°E / 47°N 2°E / 47; 2

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s] ), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik frɑ̃sɛz]),[14] is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.[XII] Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra, and Spain in continental Europe, as well as the Netherlands, Suriname, and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and contain close to 68 million people (as of July 2022).[5][8] France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

French Republic
République française (French)
Motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité"
("Liberty, Equality, Fraternity")
Anthem: "La Marseillaise"
Great Seal
Location of France (red 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)
Religion
(2016)[4]
Demonym(s)French
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic
• President
Emmanuel Macron
Élisabeth Borne
LegislatureParliament
Senate
National Assembly
Establishment
10 August 843
3 July 987
22 September 1792
• Founded the EEC[III]
1 January 1958
4 October 1958
Area
• Total
643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi)[5] (42nd)
• Water (%)
0.86 (2015)[6]
551,695 km2 (213,011 sq mi)[IV] (50th)
• Metropolitan France (Cadastre)
543,940.9 km2 (210,016.8 sq mi)[V][7] (50th)
Population
• July 2022 estimate
67,897,000[8] (20th)
• Density
105.4627/km2 (106th)
• Metropolitan France, estimate as of July 2022
65,707,000[9] (23rd)
• Density
121/km2 (313.4/sq mi) (89th)
GDP (PPP)2022 estimate
• Total
$3.667 trillion[10] (10th)
• Per capita
$56,036[10] (24th)
GDP (nominal)2022 estimate
• Total
$2.936 trillion[10] (7th)
• Per capita
$44,747[10] (28th)
Gini (2020) 29.3[11]
low
HDI (2021) 0.903[12]
very high · 28th
Currency
Time zoneUTC+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 formatdd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Driving sideright
Calling code+33[X]
ISO 3166 codeFR
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).

Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, the territory of Metropolitan France was settled by Celtic tribes known as Gauls during the Iron Age. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language. The Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but highly decentralised feudal kingdom. Philip II successfully strengthened royal power and defeated his rivals to double the size of the crown lands; by the end of his reign, France had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe. From the mid-14th to the mid-15th century, France was plunged into a series of dynastic conflicts involving England, collectively known as the Hundred Years' War, and a distinct French identity emerged as a result. The French Renaissance saw art and culture flourish, conflict with the House of Habsburg, and the establishment of a global colonial empire, which by the 20th century would become the second-largest in the world.[15] The second half of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots that severely weakened the country. France again emerged as Europe's dominant power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following the Thirty Years' War.[16] Inadequate economic policies, inequitable taxes and frequent wars (notably a defeat in the Seven Years' War and costly involvement in the American War of Independence) left the kingdom in a precarious economic situation by the end of the 18th century. This precipitated the French Revolution of 1789, which 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 much of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of European and world 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 optimism, cultural and scientific flourishing, as well as economic prosperity, known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at a great human and economic cost. It was among the Allied powers of World War II but was soon 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 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 art, science and philosophy. It hosts the fifth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018.[17] France is a developed country ranked 28th in the Human Development Index, with the world's seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and tenth-largest by PPP; in terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world.[18] France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, and life expectancy. It remains a great power in global affairs,[19] being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the Eurozone,[20] as well as a key member of the Group of Seven, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Francophonie.

Etymology and pronunciation

Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or "realm of the Franks".[21] Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish, while Frankreich in German, Frankrijk in Dutch and Frankrike in Swedish 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.[22][23] It has been suggested that the meaning "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation,[24] or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves.[23]

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),[25] although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around.[23]

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/.[26]

History

Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)

 
One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – approximately 17,000 BC.[27]

The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago.[28] Over the ensuing millennia, humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial periods. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life.[28] France has a large number of decorated caves from the Upper Paleolithic era, including one of the most famous and best-preserved, Lascaux[28] (approximately 18,000 BC). At the end of the last glacial period (10,000 BC), the climate became milder;[28] from approximately 7,000 BC, this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary.

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.[29] 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)

 
Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar during the Battle of Alesia. The Gallic defeat in the Gallic Wars secured the Roman conquest of the country.

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.[30] 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.[31] The concept of Gaul emerged during this period, corresponding to the territories of Celtic settlement ranging between the Rhine, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The borders of modern France roughly correspond to ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was then a prosperous country, of which the southernmost part was heavily subject to Greek and Roman cultural and economic influences.

 
The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best-preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

Around 390 BC, the Gallic chieftain Brennus and his troops made their way to Italy through the Alps, defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Allia, and besieged and ransomed Rome.[32] The Gallic invasion left Rome weakened, and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a formal peace treaty with Rome.[33] But the Romans and the Gauls would remain adversaries for the next centuries, and the Gauls would continue to be a threat in Italy.[34]

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.[35] Julius Caesar conquered the remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt carried out by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC.[36]

Gaul was divided by Augustus into Roman provinces.[37] Many cities were founded during the Gallo-Roman period, including Lugdunum (present-day Lyon), which is considered the capital of the Gauls.[37] These cities were built in traditional Roman style, with a forum, a theatre, a circus, an amphitheatre and thermal baths. The Gauls mixed with Roman settlers and eventually adopted Roman culture and Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved). Roman polytheism merged with Gallic paganism into the same syncretism.

From the 250s to the 280s AD, Roman Gaul suffered a serious crisis with its fortified borders being attacked on several occasions by barbarians.[38] Nevertheless, the situation improved in the first half of the 4th century, which was a period of revival and prosperity for Roman Gaul.[39] In 312, Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity. Subsequently, Christians, who had been persecuted until then, increased rapidly across the entire Roman Empire.[40] But, from the beginning of the 5th century, the Barbarian Invasions resumed.[41] 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.[42]

Early Middle Ages (5th–10th century)

 
Frankish expansion from 481 to 870

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,[43] and French kings would be called "the Most Christian Kings of France" (Rex Christianissimus).

 
With Clovis's conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

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,[44] 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.[45]

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)

 
Joan of Arc led the French Army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which paved the way for the final victory.

The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks.[46] 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 Crusades to restore Christian access to the Holy Land. French knights made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout the two-hundred-year span of the Crusades, in such a fashion that the Arabs uniformly referred to the crusaders as Franj caring little whether they came from France.[47] The French Crusaders also imported the French language into the Levant, making French the base of the lingua franca (lit. "Frankish language") of the Crusader states.[47] French knights also made up the majority in both the Hospital and the Temple orders. The latter, in particular, held numerous properties throughout France and by the 13th century were the principal bankers for the French crown, until Philip IV annihilated the order in 1307. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars in the southwestern area of modern-day France. In the end, the Cathars were exterminated and the autonomous County of Toulouse was annexed into the crown lands of France.[48]

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.[49] Under Salic law the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line.[49] 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.[49] 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.[50] 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.[51]

Early modern period (15th century–1789)

 
The Château de Chenonceau, nowadays part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built in the early 16th century.

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 First 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.[52] 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,[53] 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.[54]

Under Louis XIII, the energetic Cardinal Richelieu promoted the centralisation of the state and reinforced the 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.[55] 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.

 
Louis XIV, the "Sun King", was the absolute monarch of France and made France the leading European power.

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, military-integrated command unchallenged. Remembered for his numerous wars, he 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.[56] France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Louis XIV also revoked the Edict of Nantes, forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile.

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.[57]

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)

 
Ouverture des États généraux à Versailles, 5 mai 1789 by Auguste Couder
 
The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 was the most emblematic event of the French Revolution.

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, signaling 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 August 1791, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia in the Declaration of Pillnitz threatened revolutionary France to intervene by force of arms to restore the French absolute monarchy. In September 1791, the National Constituent Assembly forced King Louis XVI to accept the French Constitution of 1791, thus turning the French absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. In the newly established Legislative Assembly (October 1791), enmity developed and deepened between a group, later called the 'Girondins', who favoured war with Austria and Prussia, and a group later called 'Montagnards' or 'Jacobins', who opposed such a war. A majority in the Assembly in 1792 however saw a war with Austria and Prussia as a chance to boost the popularity of the revolutionary government and thought that France would win a war against those gathered monarchies. On 20 April 1792, therefore, they declared war on Austria.

On 10 August 1792, an angry crowd threatened the palace of King Louis XVI, who took refuge in the Legislative Assembly.[58][59] 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.[58][60] The National Convention, chosen in the first elections under male universal suffrage,[58] 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.[61] 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.[63]

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.[63] 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.[64]

 
The First (light blue) and Second (dark blue) French colonial empire

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.[65]

 
French Poilus posing with their war-torn flag in 1917, during World War I

Between 27 and 30% of soldiers conscripted from 1912 to 1915 were killed.[66] 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,[67] were deported to death camps and concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland.[68] 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)

 
Charles de Gaulle, a hero of World War I, leader of the Free French during World War II, and President of France.

The GPRF laid the groundwork for a new constitutional order that resulted in the Fourth Republic (1946–1958), which saw spectacular economic growth (les Trente Glorieuses). France was one of the founding members of NATO (1949). France attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954 at the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Only months later, France faced another anti-colonialist conflict in Algeria, then treated as an integral part of France and home to over one million European settlers. During the conflict, the French systematically used torture and repression, including extrajudicial killings to keep control of Algeria.[69] This conflict wracked the country and nearly led to a coup and civil war in France.[70]

During the May 1958 crisis, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which included a strengthened Presidency.[71] 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.[72] Around one million Pied-Noirs and Harkis fled from Algeria to France upon independence.[73] A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories.

In the context of the Cold War, De Gaulle pursued a policy of "national independence" towards the Western and Eastern blocs. To this end, he withdrew from NATO's military-integrated command (while remaining in the NATO alliance itself), launched a nuclear development programme and made France the fourth nuclear power. He restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations. In the wake of the series of worldwide protests of 1968, the revolt of May 1968 had an enormous social impact. In France, it was the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal (secularism, individualism, sexual revolution). Although the revolt was a political failure (as the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before) it announced a split between the French people and de Gaulle who resigned shortly after.[74]

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.[75] France has also gradually but fully reintegrated into NATO and has since participated in most NATO-sponsored wars.[76]

 
Republican marches were organised across France after the January 2015 attacks perpetrated by Islamist terrorists; they became the largest public rallies in French history.

Since the 19th century, France has received many immigrants. These have been mostly male foreign workers from European Catholic countries who generally returned home when not employed.[77] During the 1970s France faced an economic crisis and allowed new immigrants (mostly from the Maghreb)[77] to permanently settle in France with their families and acquire French citizenship. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Muslims (especially in the larger cities) living in subsidised public housing and suffering from very high unemployment rates.[78] Simultaneously France renounced the assimilation of immigrants, where they were expected to adhere to French traditional values and cultural norms. They were encouraged to retain their distinctive cultures and traditions and required merely to integrate.[79]

Since the 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings, France has been sporadically targeted by Islamist organisations, notably the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 which provoked the largest public rallies in French history, gathering 4.4 million people,[80] the November 2015 Paris attacks which resulted in 130 deaths, the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II[81] and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004,[82] as well as the 2016 Nice truck attack, which caused 87 deaths during Bastille Day celebrations. Opération Chammal, France's military efforts to contain ISIS, killed over 1,000 ISIS troops between 2014 and 2015.[83]

Geography

Location and borders

 
Chamonix valley with the Mont Blanc at background, the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe

The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France, to distinguish it from the country's various overseas polities. It is bordered by the North Sea in the north, the English Channel in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean sea in the southeast. Its land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast, Germany and Switzerland in the east, Italy and Monaco in the southeast, and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest. Except for the northeast, most of France's land borders are roughly delineated by natural boundaries and geographic features: to the south and southeast, the Pyrenees and the Alps and the Jura, respectively, and to the east, the Rhine river. Due to its shape, France is often referred to as l'Hexagone ("The Hexagon"). Metropolitan France includes various coastal islands, of which the largest is Corsica. Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N, and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. Its continental part covers about 1000 km from north to south and from east to west.

France has several overseas regions across the world, which are organised as follows:

France has land borders with Brazil and Suriname via French Guiana and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the French portion of Saint Martin.

Metropolitan France covers 551,500 square kilometres (212,935 sq mi),[84] the largest among European Union members.[20] 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 overseas departments and territories scattered across the planet, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,261,000 sq mi), just behind the EEZ of the United States, which covers 11,351,000 km2 (4,383,000 sq mi), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia, which covers 8,148,250 km2 (3,146,000 sq mi). Its EEZ covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world.

Geology, topography and hydrography

 
Geological formations near Roussillon, Vaucluse

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)[85] 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.

 
Reed bed on the Gironde estuary, the largest estuary in Western Europe

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.[86] 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

 
The Guiana Amazonian Park is the largest national park of France, aiming at protecting part of the Amazonian forest located in French Guiana

France was one of the first countries to create an environment ministry, in 1971.[87] Although it is one of the most industrialised countries in the world, France is ranked only 19th by carbon dioxide emissions, behind less populous nations such as Canada or Australia. This is due to the country's heavy investment in nuclear power following the 1973 oil crisis,[88] which now accounts for 75 percent of its electricity production[89] and results in less pollution.[90][91] According to the 2020 Environmental Performance Index conducted by Yale and Columbia, France was the fifth most environmentally conscious country in the world (behind the United Kingdom).[92][93]

Like all European Union state members, France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by 2020,[94] compared to the United States' plan to reduce emissions by 4% of 1990 levels.[95] As of 2009, French carbon dioxide emissions per capita were lower than that of China.[96] The country was set to impose a carbon tax in 2009 at 17 euros per tonne of carbon emitted,[97] which would have raised 4 billion euros of revenue annually.[98] However, the plan was abandoned due to fears of burdening French businesses.[99]

Forests account for 31 percent of France's land area—the fourth-highest proportion in Europe—representing an increase of 7 percent since 1990.[100][101][102] French forests are some of the most diverse in Europe, comprising more than 140 species of trees.[103] France had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.52/10, ranking it 123rd globally out of 172 countries.[104] There are nine national parks[105] and 46 natural parks in France,[106] with the government planning to convert 20% of its Exclusive economic zone into a Marine protected area by 2020.[107] A regional nature park[108] (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.[109] 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.[110] As of 2019 there are 54 PNRs in France.[111]

Administrative divisions

The French Republic is divided into 18 regions (located in Europe and overseas), five overseas collectivities, one overseas territory, one special collectivity – New Caledonia and one uninhabited island directly under the authority of the Minister of Overseas France – Clipperton.

Regions

Since 2016, France is mainly divided into 18 administrative regions: 13 regions in metropolitan France (including the territorial collectivity of Corsica),[112] and five located overseas.[84] The regions are further subdivided into 101 departments,[113] which are numbered mainly alphabetically. This number is used in postal codes and was formerly used on French vehicle number plates. Among the 101 departments of France, five (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion) are in overseas regions (ROMs) that are also simultaneously overseas departments (DOMs), enjoy the same status as metropolitan departments and are an integral part of the European Union.

The 101 departments are subdivided into 335 arrondissements, which are, in turn, subdivided into 2,054 cantons.[114] These cantons are then divided into 36,658 communes, which are municipalities with an elected municipal council.[114] Three communes—Paris, Lyon and Marseille—are 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 territorial collectivities with an elected assembly, but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946.

Overseas territories and collectivities

 
The lands making up the French Republic, shown at the same geographic scale

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[115] 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.[116]

Name Constitutional status Capital
  Clipperton Island State private property under the direct authority of the French government Uninhabited
  French Polynesia Designated as an overseas land (pays d'outre-mer or POM), the status is the same as an overseas collectivity. Papeete
  French Southern and Antarctic Lands Overseas territory (territoire d'outre-mer or TOM) Port-aux-Français
  New Caledonia Sui generis collectivity Nouméa
  Saint Barthélemy Overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer or COM) Gustavia
  Saint Martin Overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer or COM) Marigot
  Saint Pierre and Miquelon Overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer or COM). Still referred to as a collectivité territoriale. Saint-Pierre
  Wallis and Futuna Overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer or COM). Still referred to as a territoire. Mata-Utu

Government and politics

Government

France is a representative democracy organised as a unitary, semi-presidential republic.[117] As one of the earliest republics of the modern world, democratic traditions and values are deeply rooted in French culture, identity and politics.[118] The Constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958, establishing a framework consisting of executive, legislative and judicial branches.[119] It sought to address the instability of the Third and Fourth Republics by combining elements of both parliamentary and presidential systems, whilst greatly strengthening the authority of the executive relative to the legislature.[118]

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.[120] The Prime Minister, currently Élisabeth Borne, is the head of government, appointed by the President of the Republic to lead the Government of France. 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.[121] In the 2022 presidential election president Macron was re-elected.[122]

 
Palais Bourbon, the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament.

The legislature consists of the French Parliament, a bicameral body comprising a lower house, the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) and an upper house, the Senate.[123] Legislators in the National Assembly, known as députés, represent local constituencies and are directly elected for five-year terms.[124] The Assembly has the power to dismiss the government by majority vote. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for six-year terms, with half the seats submitted to election every three years.[125] The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say.[126] The parliament is responsible for determining the rules and principles concerning most areas of law, political amnesty, and fiscal policy; however, the government may draft specific details concerning most laws.

Until World War II, Radicals were a strong political force in France, embodied by the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party which was the most important party of the Third Republic. Since World War II, they were marginalised while French politics became characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred on the French Section of the Workers' International and its successor the Socialist Party (since 1969); and the other right-wing, centred on the Gaullist Party, whose name changed over time to the Rally of the French People (1947), the Union of Democrats for the Republic (1958), the Rally for the Republic (1976), the Union for a Popular Movement (2007) and The Republicans (since 2015). In the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, the radical centrist party La République En Marche! (LREM) became the dominant force, overtaking both Socialists and Republicans. LREM's main opponent in both the 2017 and 2022 elections has been the growing far-right party National Rally.

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.[127] Waning civic participation has been a matter of vigorous public debate, with a majority of the public reportedly supporting mandatory voting as a solution in 2019. However, at least as of 2017, voter turnout was 75 percent during recent elections, higher than the OECD average of 68 percent.[128]

Law

France uses a civil legal system, wherein law arises primarily from written statutes;[84] 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.

 
The basic principles that the French Republic must respect are found in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

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. Criminal laws can only address the future and not the past (criminal ex post facto laws are prohibited).[129] While administrative law is often a subcategory of civil law in many countries, it is completely separated in France and each body of law is headed by a specific supreme court: ordinary courts (which handle criminal and civil litigation) are headed by the Court of Cassation and administrative courts are headed by the Council of State. To be applicable, every law must be officially published in the Journal officiel de la République française.

France does not recognise religious law as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions; it has long abolished blasphemy laws and sodomy laws (the latter in 1791). However, "offences against public decency" (contraires aux bonnes mœurs) or disturbing public order (trouble à l'ordre public) have been used to repress public expressions of homosexuality or street prostitution. Since 1999, civil unions for homosexual couples are permitted, and since 2013, same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption are legal.[130] Laws prohibiting discriminatory speech in the press are as old as 1881. Some consider hate speech laws in France to be too broad or severe, undermining freedom of speech.[131] France has laws against racism and antisemitism,[132] while the 1990 Gayssot Act prohibits Holocaust denial.

Freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is the basis for laïcité (state secularism): the state does not formally recognise any religion, except in Alsace-Moselle. Nonetheless, it does recognise religious associations. The Parliament has listed many religious movements as dangerous cults since 1995 and has banned wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools since 2004. In 2010, it banned the wearing of face-covering Islamic veils in public; human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described the law as discriminatory towards Muslims.[133][134] However, it is supported by most of the population.[135]

Foreign relations

 
88 states and governments are part of La Francophonie,[136] which promotes values of democracy, multilingualism and cultural diversity.[137] France has been a key member of this global organisation since its inception in 1970.

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.[138] 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;[139] these include the G7, World Trade Organization (WTO),[140] the Pacific Community (SPC)[141] and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI).[142] It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS)[143] and a leading member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) of 84 French-speaking countries.[144]

As a significant hub for international relations, France has the third-largest assembly of diplomatic missions, second only to China and the United States, which are far more populous. It also hosts the headquarters of several international organisations, including the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and the OIF.[145]

Postwar French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership in the European Union, of which it was a founding member. Since the 1960s, France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU.[146] In the 1960s, France sought to exclude the British from the European unification process,[147] seeking to build its standing in continental Europe. However, since 1904, France has maintained an "Entente cordiale" with the United Kingdom, and there has been a strengthening of links between the countries, especially militarily.

 
The European Parliament in Strasbourg, near the border with (Germany). France is a founding member of all EU institutions.

France is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but under President de Gaulle excluded itself from the joint military command, in protest of the Special Relationship between the United States and Britain, and to preserve the independence of French foreign and security policies. Under Nicolas Sarkozy, France rejoined the NATO joint military command on 4 April 2009.[148][149][150]

France retains strong political and economic influence in its former African colonies (Françafrique)[151] and has supplied economic aid and troops for peacekeeping missions in Ivory Coast and Chad.[152] From 2012 to 2021, France and other African states intervened in support of the Malian government in the Northern Mali conflict.

In 2017, France was the world's fourth-largest donor of development aid in absolute terms, behind the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.[153] This represents 0.43% of its GNP, the 12th highest among the OECD.[154] Aid is provided by the governmental French Development Agency, which finances primarily humanitarian projects in sub-Saharan Africa,[155] with an emphasis on "developing infrastructure, access to health care and education, the implementation of appropriate economic policies and the consolidation of the rule of law and democracy".[155]

Military

The French Armed Forces (Forces armées françaises) are the military and paramilitary forces of France, under the President of the Republic as supreme commander. They consist of the French Army (Armée de Terre), the French Navy (Marine Nationale, formerly called Armée de Mer), the French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'Air et de l’Espace), and the Military Police called National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale), which also fulfils civil police duties in the rural areas of France. Together they are among the largest armed forces in the world and the largest in the EU. According to a 2018 study by Crédit Suisse, the French Armed Forces are ranked as the world's sixth-most powerful military, and the second most powerful in Europe after Russia.[156] France's annual military expenditure in 2018 was US$63.8 billion, or 2.3% of its GDP, making it the fifth biggest military spender in the world after the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and India.[157] There has been no national conscription since 1997.[158]

France has been a recognised nuclear state since 1960. France has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)[159] and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The French nuclear force (formerly known as "Force de Frappe") consists of four Triomphant class submarines equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In addition to the submarine fleet, it is estimated that France has about 60 ASMP medium-range air-to-ground missiles with nuclear warheads,[160] of which around 50 are deployed by the Air and Space Force using the Mirage 2000N long-range nuclear strike aircraft, while around 10 are deployed by the French Navy's Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) attack aircraft, which operate from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The new Rafale F3 aircraft will gradually replace all Mirage 2000N and SEM in the nuclear strike role with the improved ASMP-A missile with a nuclear warhead.[citation needed]

France has major military industries with one of the largest aerospace industries in the world.[161][162] Its industries have produced such equipment as the Rafale fighter, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the Exocet missile and the Leclerc tank among others. France is actively investing in European joint projects such as the Eurocopter Tiger, multipurpose frigates, the UCAV demonstrator nEUROn and the Airbus A400M.[citation needed] France is a major arms seller,[163][164] with most of its arsenal's designs available for the export market, except for the nuclear-powered devices.

One French intelligence unit, the Directorate-General for External Security (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure), is considered to be a component of the Armed Forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defense. The other, the Central Directorate for Interior Intelligence (Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur) is a division of the National Police Force (Direction générale de la Police Nationale).[citation needed] France's cybersecurity capabilities are regularly ranked as some of the most robust of any nation in the world.[165][166]

Government finance

The Government of France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s. As of 2016, French government debt levels reached 2.2 trillion euros, the equivalent of 96.4% of French GDP.[167] In late 2012, credit rating agencies warned that growing French Government debt levels risked France's AAA credit rating, raising the possibility of a future downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French authorities.[168] However, in July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government issued 10-year bonds which had negative interest rates, for the first time in its history.[169] In 2020, France possessed the fourth-largest gold reserves in the world.[1]

Economy

Overview

 
La Défense was in 2017 ranked by Ernst & Young as the leading central business district in continental Europe, and the fourth in the world.[170]
 
Composition of the French economy (GDP) in 2016 by expenditure type

France has a developed, high-income mixed economy, characterised by sizeable government involvement, economic diversity, a skilled labour force, and high innovation. For roughly two centuries, the French economy has consistently ranked among the ten largest globally; it is currently the world's ninth-largest by purchasing power parity, the seventh-largest by nominal GDP, and the second-largest in the European Union by both metrics.[171] France is considered an economic power, with membership in the 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; services represent two-thirds of both the workforce and GDP,[172] while the industrial sector accounts for a fifth of GDP and a similar proportion of employment. France is the third-biggest manufacturing country in Europe, behind Germany and Italy, and ranks eighth in the world by share of global manufacturing output, at 1.9 percent.[173] Less than 2 percent of GDP is generated by the primary sector, namely agriculture;[174] however, France's agricultural sector is among the largest in value and leads the EU in terms of overall production.[175]

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.[176] Its membership in the Eurozone and the broader European Single Market facilitates access to capital, goods, services, and skilled labour.[177] Despite protectionist policies over certain industries, particularly in agriculture, France has generally played a leading role in fostering free trade and commercial integration in Europe to enhance its economy.[178][179] In 2019, it ranked first in Europe and 13th in the world in foreign direct investment, with European countries and the United States being leading sources.[180] According to the Bank of France, the leading recipients of FDI were manufacturing, real estate, finance and insurance.[181] The Paris region has the highest concentration of multinational firms in Europe.[181]

Under the doctrine of Dirigisme, the government historically played a major role in the economy; policies such as indicative planning and nationalisation are credited for contributing to three decades of unprecedented postwar economic growth known as Trente Glorieuses. At its peak in 1982, the public sector accounted for one-fifth of industrial employment and over four-fifths of the credit market. Beginning in the late 20th century, France loosened regulations and state involvement in the economy, with most leading companies now being privately owned; state ownership now dominates only transportation, defence and broadcasting.[182] Policies aimed at promoting economic dynamism and privatisation have improved France's economic standing globally: it is among the world's 10 most innovative countries in the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index,[183] and the 15th most competitive, according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report (up two places from 2018).[184]

According to the IMF, France ranked 30th in GDP per capita, with roughly $45,000 per inhabitant. It placed 23rd on the Human Development Index, indicating very high human development. Public corruption is among the lowest in the world, with France consistently ranking among the 30 least corrupt countries since the Corruption Perceptions Index began in 2012; it placed 22nd in 2021, up one place from the previous year.[185][186] France is Europe's second-largest spender in research and development, at over 2 percent of GDP; globally, it ranks 12th.[187]

Financial services, banking, and insurance are important part of the economy. AXA is the world's second-largest insurance company by total nonbanking assets in 2020.[188][189] As of 2011, the three largest financial institutions cooperatively owned by their customers were French: Crédit Agricole, Groupe Caisse D'Epargne, and Groupe Caisse D'Epargne.[190] According to a 2020 report by S&P Global Market Intelligenc, France's leading banks, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole, are among the top world's 10 largest bank by assets, with Société Générale and Groupe BPCE ranking 17th and 19th globally, respectively.[191]

The Paris stock exchange (French: La Bourse de Paris) is one of the oldest in the world, created by Louis XV in 1724.[192] In 2000, it merged with counterparts in Amsterdam and Brussels to form Euronext,[193] which in 2007 merged with the New York stock exchange to form NYSE Euronext, the world's largest stock exchange.[193] Euronext Paris, the French branch of NYSE Euronext, is Europe's second-largest stock exchange market, behind the London Stock Exchange.

Agriculture

 
Champagne vineyards in Verzenay in the Montagne de Reims subregion

France has historically been one of the world's major agricultural centres and remains a "global agricultural powerhouse".[194][195] Nicknamed "the granary of the old continent",[196] over half its total land area is farmland, of which 45 percent is devoted to permanent field crops such as cereals. The country's diverse climate, extensive arable land, modern farming technology, and EU subsidies have made it Europe's leading agricultural producer and exporter;[197] it accounts for one-fifth of the EU's agricultural production, including and over one-third of its oilseeds, cereals, and wine.[198] As of 2017, France ranked first in Europe in beef and cereals; second in dairy and aquaculture; and third in poultry, fruits, vegetables, and manufactured chocolate products.[199] France has the EU's largest cattle herd, at 18-19 million.[200]

France is the world's sixth-biggest exporter of agricultural products, generating a trade surplus of over €7.4 billion.[199] Its primary agricultural exports are wheat, poultry, dairy, beef, pork, and internationally recognised brands, particularly beverages.[200][201] France is the fifth largest grower of wheat, after China, India, Russia, and the United States, all of which are significantly larger.[200] It is the world's top exporter of natural spring water, flax, malt, and potatoes.[199] In 2020, France exported over €61 billion in agricultural products, compared to €37 billion in 2000.[202][203]

France was an early centre of viviculture, dating back to at least the sixth century BCE. It is the world's second-largest producer of wine, with many varieties enjoying global renown, such as Champagne and Bordeaux;[199] domestic consumption is also high, particularly of Rosé. France produces rum primarily from overseas territories such as Martinique, Guadeloupe and La Réunion.

Relative to other developed countries, agriculture is an important sector of France's economy: 3.8% of the active population is employed in agriculture, whereas the total agri-food industry made up 4.2% of the French GDP in 2005.[198] France remains the largest recipient of EU agricultural subsidies, receiving an annual average of €8 billion from 2007 to 2019.[204][205]

Tourism

 
The Eiffel Tower is the world's most-visited paid monument, an icon of both Paris and France
 

With 89 million international tourist arrivals in 2018,[206] France is the world's top tourist destination, ahead of Spain (83 million) and the United States (80 million). However, it ranks third in tourism-derived income due to the shorter duration of visits.[207] The most popular tourist sites include (annual visitors): Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Château de Versailles (2.8 million), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (2 million), Pont du Gard (1.5 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Mont Saint-Michel (1 million), Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), and Carcassonne (362,000).[208]

France, especially Paris, has some of the world's largest and most renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world (5.7 million), the Musée d'Orsay (2.1 million), mostly devoted to Impressionism, the Musée de l'Orangerie (1.02 million), which is home to eight large Water Lily murals by Claude Monet, as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou (1.2 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.[209]

With more than 10 million tourists a year, the French Riviera (French: Côte d'Azur), in Southeast France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Paris region.[210] It benefits from 300 days of sunshine per year, 115 kilometres (71 mi) of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses, 14 ski resorts and 3,000 restaurants.[211]: 31  Each year the Côte d'Azur hosts 50% of the world's superyacht fleet.[211]: 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;[212][213] 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 UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest, beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). Small and picturesque French villages are promoted through the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (literally "The Most Beautiful Villages of France"). The "Remarkable Gardens" label is a list of the over 200 gardens classified by the Ministry of Culture. This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks. France attracts many religious pilgrims on their way to St. James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées that hosts several million visitors a year.

Energy

 
Belleville Nuclear Power Plant. France derives most of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest percentage in the world.

France is the world's tenth-largest producer of electricity.[214] 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.[215] In 2018, EDF produced around one-fifth of the European Union's electricity, primarily from nuclear power.[216] As of 2021, France was the biggest energy exporter in Europe, mostly to the U.K. and Italy,[217] and the largest net exporter of electricity in the world.[217]

Since the 1973 oil crisis, France has pursued a strong policy of energy security,[217] 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.[218] Consequently, 70% of France's electricity is generated by nuclear power, the highest proportion in the world by a wide margin;[219] only Slovakia and Ukraine derive a majority of electricity from nuclear power, at roughly 53% and 51%, respectively.[220] France is considered a world leader in nuclear technology, with reactors and fuel products being major exports.[217]

Due to its overwhelming reliance on nuclear power, renewable energies have seen relatively little growth compared to other Western countries. Nevertheless, between 2008 and 2019, France's production capacity from renewable energies rose consistently and nearly doubled.[221] Hydropower is by far the leading source, accounting for over half the country's renewable energy sources[222] and contributing 13% of its electricity,[221] the highest proportion in Europe after Norway and Turkey.[222] As with nuclear power, most hydroelectric plants, such as Eguzon, Étang de Soulcem, and Lac de Vouglans, are managed by EDF.[222] France aims to further expand hydropower into 2040.[221]

France made minimal but measurable investments in other renewable energy sources. Due to its geography and extensive agricultural land, it has the second-largest wind energy potential in Europe, and by 2017 had ranked eighth globally in installed wind capacity.[223] In terms of solar power, France ranked seventh in the world in 2015 for solar photovoltaic installation capacity.[224] As of 2019, solar power sources generated over 10,570 megawatts of electricity, compared to a little over 1,000 megawatts in 2010.[225]

Because France derives the vast majority of its power from nuclear and renewable sources, close to half its primary energy (48.5%) is derived from low-carbon sources, compared to 26.4% in Europe and 15.7% in the world as a whole.[226] France is also the smallest emitter of carbon dioxide among the G7.[227]

Transport

 
A TGV Duplex crossing the Cize–Bolozon viaduct. The train can reach a maximum speed of 360 kilometres per hour (220 mph).

France's railway network, which stretches 29,473 kilometres (18,314 mi) as of 2008,[229] is the second most extensive in Western Europe after Germany.[230] It is operated by the SNCF, and high-speed trains include the Thalys, the Eurostar and TGV, which travels at 320 km/h (199 mph).[231] 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 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.[232] The Paris region is enveloped with the densest network of roads and highways, which connect it with virtually all parts of the country. French roads also handle substantial international traffic, connecting with cities in neighbouring Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Andorra and Monaco. There is no annual registration fee or road tax; however, usage of the mostly privately owned motorways is through tolls except in the vicinity of large communes. The new car market is dominated by domestic brands such as Renault, Peugeot and Citroën.[233] France possesses the Millau Viaduct, the world's tallest bridge,[234] and has built many important bridges such as the Pont de Normandie. Diesel and gasoline-fuelled cars and lorries cause a large part of the country's air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.[235][236]

There are 464 airports in France.[84] 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,[237] which also is the largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea.[238]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.[84]

Science and technology

 
France is in 2020 the biggest national financial contributor to the European Space Agency,[239] which conceived the Ariane rocket family, launched from French Guiana (Ariane 5 pictured).

Since the Middle Ages, France has been a major 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.[240] The University of Paris, founded in the mid-12th century, is still one of the most important academic institutions in the Western world.[241] In the 17th century, mathematician 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; it was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe for the next two centuries.

The Age of Enlightenment was marked by the work of biologist Buffon, one of the first naturalists to recognise ecological succession, and chemist Lavoisier, who discovered the role of oxygen in combustion. Diderot and D'Alembert published the Encyclopédie, which aimed to give the public access to "useful knowledge" that could be applied to everyday life.[242] The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century saw spectacular scientific developments in France, with 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 Henri Poincaré; physicists Henri Becquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie, who remain famous for their work on radioactivity; physicist Paul Langevin; and virologist Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV AIDS. Hand transplantation was developed in Lyon in 1998 by an international team that included Jean-Michel Dubernard, who afterward performed the first successful double hand transplant.[243] Telesurgery was first performed by French surgeons led by Jacques Marescaux on 7 September 2001 across the Atlantic Ocean.[244] A face transplant was first done on 27 November 2005 by Dr Bernard Devauchelle.[245][246]

France was the fourth country to achieve nuclear capability[247] and has the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world;[248] it is also a leader in civilian nuclear technology.[249][250][251] France was the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to launch its space satellite and the first to establish a commercial launch service provider, Arianespace. The French national space programme, CNES, is the third oldest in the world, and the oldest, largest, and most active in Europe. France is a founding member of the European Space Agency (ESA), contributing over a quarter of its budget, the most of any member state.[252] ESA is headquartered in Paris, has its principal spaceport in French Guiana, and utilises the French-made Ariane 5 as its primary launch vehicle.[253][254][255] Airbus, a leading aerospace company and the world's largest airline manufacturer, was formed partly from the French company, Aérospatiale; its main commercial airline business is conducted through its French division, Airbus S.A.S.

France also hosts major international research facilities, including the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, the Institut Laue–Langevin, and Minatec, Europe's leading nanotechnology research centre. It is also a major member of CERN, which operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and is its third largest contributor. France pioneered and hosts ITER, an international effort to develop nuclear fusion energy, which is the world's biggest megaproject.

The TGV, developed by France's national railway company, the SNCF, is a high-speed train that holds a series of world speed records; in 2007, it became the fastest commercial wheeled train, achieving a speed of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph).[256] As of 2021, it is the third-fastest train in the world, surpassed only by maglev models that utilise magnetic levitation.[257] Western Europe is now serviced by a network of TGV lines.

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the state research agency, is the largest research institute in Europe and among the most prominent internationally; according to the 2020 Nature Index, it ranks fourth in the share of articles published in scientific journals worldwide,[258] with France as a whole having the sixth-highest share.[259]

As of 2022, France ranks fourth in the number of Nobel laureates, with 70 French people having been awarded a Nobel Prize.[260] Twelve French mathematicians have received a Fields Medal, considered the most prestigious award in the field, making up one-fifth of total recipients,[261] and second only to the United States.

France ranked 12th in the 2022 Global Innovation Index, compared to 12th in 2020 and 16th in 2019.[262][263][264][265]

Demographics

 
Population density in France by arrondissement

With an estimated July 2022 population of 67,897,000 people,[8] France is the 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.[266] 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.[267] 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, 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.[268][269][270][271] 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 is 65 or over.[272] The average life expectancy at birth is 82.7 years, the 12th highest in the world.

From 2006 to 2011, population growth averaged 0.6 percent per year;[273] since 2011, annual growth has been between 0.4 and 0.5 percent annually.[274] Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, 27 percent of newborns in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and another 24 percent had at least one parent born outside Europe (excluding French overseas territories).[275]

Ethnic groups

 
Map of the French diaspora around the world

Most French people are of Celtic-Gallic origin, with a significant admixture of Italic (Romans) and Germanic (Franks) groups reflecting centuries of respective migration and settlement.[276] Through the course of the Middle Ages, France incorporated various neighbouring ethnic and linguistic groups, as evidenced by Breton elements in the west, Aquitanian in the southwest, 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%).[277][278]

A 2008 poll conducted jointly by INED and the French National Institute of Statistics[279][280] estimated that the largest ancestry groups were Italian (5 million), followed by Northwest African (3-6 million),[281][282][283] Sub-Saharan African (2.5 million), Armenian (500,000), and Turkish (200,000).[284] There are also sizeable minorities of other European ethnic groups, namely Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek.[281][285][286] France has a significant Gitan (Romani) population, numbering between 20,000 and 400,000;[287] many foreign Roma are expelled back to Bulgaria and Romania frequently.[288]

Immigration

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;[289] between 1921 and 1935 alone, about 1.1 million net immigrants came to France.[290] The next largest wave came in the 1960s when around 1.6 million pieds noirs returned to France following the independence of its Northwest African possessions, Algeria and Morocco.[291][292] They were joined by numerous former colonial subjects from North and West Africa, as well as numerous European immigrants from Spain and Portugal.

 
The Calais Jungle was a refugee and illegal migrant encampment in the vicinity of Calais, France, that existed from January 2015 to October 2016.

France remains a major destination for immigrants, accepting about 200,000 legal immigrants annually.[293] In 2005, it was Western Europe's leading recipient of asylum seekers, with an estimated 50,000 applications (albeit a 15% decrease from 2004).[294] In 2010, France received about 48,100 asylum applications—placing it among the top five asylum recipients in the world[295] and in subsequent years it saw the number of applications increase, ultimately doubling to 100,412 in 2017.[296] The European Union allows free movement between the member states, although France established controls to curb 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.[297][298][299] In 2008, France granted citizenship to 137,000 persons, mostly from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey.[300]

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.[301] Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 percent between 2009 and 2012, with the population growing from 5,300 to 11,000.[301] 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.[301]

Number of immigrants[XIII] living in France by region of birth
UN SDG region 2019 census 2009 census Growth
Northern Africa and Western Asia 2,425,200 1,983,600 +22.3%
Europe 2,297,400 2,076,200 +10.7%
Sub-Saharan Africa 1,123,800 667,500 +68.4%
Eastern and South-Eastern Asia 311,400 293,100 +6.2%
Latin America and the Caribbean 307,650 233,900 +31.5%
Central and Southern Asia 205,600 120,100 +71.2%
Northern America 54,600 51,600 +5.8%
Australia, NZ, and Oceania 7,950 6,700 +18.7%
TOTAL 6,733,600 5,432,700 +23.9%
Sources: INSEE census figures,[302] UN SDG regions.[303]

Note: Figures for 2019 refer to Metropolitan France and the 5 overseas regions (Mayotte included). Figures for 2009 do not include Mayotte. The overseas collectivities in the Pacific Ocean are included neither in 2009 nor in 2019.

Major cities

France is a highly urbanised country, with its largest cities (in terms of metropolitan area population in 2019[304]) being Paris (13,114,718 inh.), Lyon (2,280,845), Marseille (1,873,270), Lille (1,510,079), Toulouse (1,454,158), Bordeaux (1,363,711), Nantes (1,011,020), Strasbourg (853,110), Montpellier (801,595), and Rennes (755,668). (Note: since its 2020 revision of metropolitan area borders, 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.

 
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

 
Map of the Francophone world:
  Native language
  Administrative language
  Secondary or non-official language
  Francophone minorities

According to Article 2 of the Constitution, the official language of France is French,[305] a Romance language derived from Latin. Since 1635, the 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.[306]

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 Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. The perceived threat from anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France. Besides French, there exist 77 vernacular minority languages of France, eight spoken in French metropolitan territory and 69 in the French overseas territories.

From the 17th to the mid-20th century, French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe.[307] The dominant position of the French language in international affairs was overtaken by English since the emergence of the United States as a major power.[56][308][309]

For most of the time in which French served as an international lingua franca, it was not the native language of most Frenchmen: a report in 1794 conducted by Henri Grégoire found that of the country's 25 million people, only three million spoke French natively; the rest spoke one of the country's many regional languages, such as Alsatian, Breton or Occitan.[310] Through the expansion of public education, in which French was the sole language of instruction, as well as other factors such as increased urbanisation and the rise of mass communication, French gradually came to be adopted by virtually the entire population, a process not completed until the 20th century.

As a result of France's extensive colonial ambitions between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, South-East Asia, as well as the Caribbean. French is the second most studied foreign language in the world after English,[311] and is a lingua franca in some regions, notably in Africa. The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed: it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies (The Levant, South and Southeast Asia), while creoles and pidgins based on French have emerged in the French departments in the West Indies and the South Pacific (French Polynesia). On the other hand, many former French colonies have adopted French as an official language, and the total number of French speakers is increasing, especially in Africa.

It is estimated that between 300 million[312] and 500 million[313] 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 European Union and carried out in France 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.[314]

Religion

 
Notre-Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral where the Kings of France were crowned until 1825.[XIV]

France is a secular country in which freedom of religion is a constitutional right. French religious policy is based on the concept of 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 Institut Montaigne and Institut français d'opinion publique (IFOP), 51.1% of the total population of France was Christian, 39.6% had no religion (atheism or agnosticism), 5.6% were Muslims, 2.5% were followers of other faiths, and the remaining 0.4% were undecided about their faith.[315] Estimates of the number of Muslims in France vary widely. In 2003, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the total number of people of Muslim background to be between 5 and 6 million (8–10%).[316][317] The current 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.[315]

Catholicism has been the predominant religion in France for more than a millennium, though it is not as actively practised today as it was. Among the 47,000 religious buildings in France, 94% are Roman Catholic.[318] During the French Revolution, activists conducted a brutal campaign of de-Christianisation, ending the Catholic Church as the state religion. In some cases, clergy and churches were attacked, with iconoclasm stripping the churches of statues and ornaments. After alternating between royal and secular republican governments during the 19th century, in 1905 France passed the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, which established the principle of laïcité.[319]

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.[320]

Certain groups, such as Scientology, 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.[321] Secte is considered a pejorative term in France.[322]

Health

 
The Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, a teaching hospital in Paris, is one of Europe's largest hospitals.[323]

The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world healthcare systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "close to best overall health care" in the world.[324] The French healthcare system was ranked first worldwide by the World Health Organization in 1997.[325][326] In 2011, France spent 11.6% of its GDP on health care, or US$4,086 per capita,[327] a figure much higher than the average spent by countries in Europe but less than in the United States. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government-funded agencies.[328]

Care is generally free for people affected by chronic diseases (affections de longues durées) such as cancer, AIDS or cystic fibrosis. Average 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.[329][330] There are 3.22 physicians for every 1000 inhabitants in France,[331] and average healthcare spending per capita was US$4,719 in 2008.[332] As of 2007, approximately 140,000 inhabitants (0.4%) of France are living with HIV/AIDS.[84]

Even if the French have the reputation of being one of the thinnest people in developed countries,[333][334][335][336][337][excessive citations] France—like other rich countries—faces an increasing and recent epidemic of obesity, due mostly to the replacement in French eating habits of traditional healthy French cuisine by junk food.[338][333][334][339][excessive citations] The French obesity rate is still far below that of the United States—currently equal to the American rate in the 1970s—and is still the lowest in Europe.[334][336][339] Authorities now regard obesity as one of the main public health issues and fight it fiercely.[340] Rates of childhood obesity are slowing in France while continuing to grow in other countries.[341]

Education

 
The École normale supérieure (ENS) in Paris, established in the end of the 18th century, produces more Nobel Prize laureates per capita than any other institution in the world.[342]

In 1802, Napoleon created the lycée, the second and final stage of secondary education that prepares students for higher education studies or a profession.[343] 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).[344][345]

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.[346][347] France was one of the PISA-participating countries where school children perceived some of the lowest levels of support and feedback from their teachers.[347] Schoolchildren in France reported greater concern about the disciplinary climate and behaviour in classrooms compared to other OECD countries.[347]

Primary and secondary education are predominantly public, and run by the Ministry of National Education. While training and remuneration of teachers and the curriculum are the responsibility of the state centrally, the management of primary and secondary schools is overseen by local authorities. Primary education comprises two phases, nursery school (école maternelle) and elementary school (école élémentaire). Nursery school aims to stimulate the minds of very young children and promote their socialisation and development of a basic grasp of language and numbers. Around the age of six, children transfer to elementary school, whose primary objectives are learning about writing, arithmetic and citizenship. Secondary education also consists of two phases. The first is delivered through colleges (collège) and leads to the national certificate (Diplôme national du brevet). The second is offered in high schools (lycée) and finishes in national exams leading to a baccalaureate (baccalauréat, available in professional, technical or general flavours) or certificate of professional competence (certificat d'aptitude professionelle).

Higher education is divided between public universities and the prestigious and selective Grandes écoles, such as Sciences Po Paris for Political studies, HEC Paris for Economics, Polytechnique, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales for Social studies and the 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.[348]

Culture

 
Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830) portrays the July Revolution using the stylistic views of Romanticism. Since Liberty is part of the motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", as the French put it, this painting has become the primary symbol of the French Republic.

France has been a centre of Western cultural development for centuries and a cultural superpower.[349][350] Many French artists have been among the most renowned of their time; France is still recognised in the world for its rich cultural tradition.[351]

The successive political regimes have always promoted artistic creation. The creation of the Ministry of Culture in 1959 helped preserve the cultural heritage of the country and make it available to the public. The Ministry of Culture has been very active since its creation, granting subsidies to artists, promoting French culture in the world, supporting festivals and cultural events, and protecting historical monuments. The French government also succeeded in maintaining a cultural exception to defend audiovisual products made in the country.[352]

France receives the highest number of tourists per year, largely thanks to the numerous cultural establishments and historical buildings implanted all over the territory. It counts 1,200 museums welcoming more than 50 million people annually.[353] The most important cultural sites are run by the government, for instance through the public agency Centre des monuments nationaux, which is responsible for approximately 85 national historical monuments. The 43,180 buildings protected as historical monuments include mainly residences (many castles) and religious buildings (cathedrals, basilicas, churches), but also statues, memorials and gardens. UNESCO inscribed 45 sites in France on the World Heritage List.[354]

Art

 
The Louvre Museum, widely recognised as one of the finest art museums in the world, was in 2019 both the largest and the most-visited museum.[355]

The origins of French art were very much influenced by Flemish art and by Italian art at the time of the Renaissance. Jean Fouquet, the most famous medieval French painter, is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance firsthand. The Renaissance painting School of Fontainebleau was directly inspired by Italian painters such as Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, who both worked in France. Two of the most famous French artists of the time of the Baroque era, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, lived in Italy. The 17th century was the period when French painting became prominent and individualised itself through classicism. Prime Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded 1648 the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture under Louis XIV to protect these artists; in 1666 he also created the still-active French Academy in Rome to have direct relations with Italian artists.

French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of the old baroque style, the works of the court-endorsed artists Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style such as Jacques-Louis David and the highly influential Académie des Beaux-Arts defined the style known as Academism. At this time France had become a centre of artistic creation, the first half of the 19th century being dominated by two successive movements, at first Romanticism with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, then Realism with Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, a style that eventually evolved into Naturalism.

In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting became even more important, with the development of new styles of painting such as Impressionism and Symbolism. The most famous impressionist painters of the period were Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir.[356] The second generation of impressionist-style painters, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions,[357] as well as the fauvist artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.[358][359]

 
Claude Monet, founder of the Impressionist movement

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. Many museums in France are entirely or partly devoted to sculptures and paintings works. A huge collection of old masterpieces created before or during the 18th century are displayed in the state-owned Musée du Louvre, such as the Mona Lisa, also known as "La Joconde". While the Louvre Palace has been for a long time a museum, the Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station Gare d'Orsay, in a major reorganisation of national art collections, to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century (mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements).[360][361] The Musée d'Orsay was voted in 2018 the best museum in the world.[362]

Modern works are presented in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which moved in 1976 to the Centre Georges Pompidou. These three state-owned museums welcome close to 17 million people a year.[363] Other national museums hosting paintings include the Grand Palais (1.3 million visitors in 2008), but there are also many museums owned by cities, the most visited being the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (0.8 million entries in 2008), which hosts contemporary works.[363] Outside Paris, all the large cities have a Museum of Fine Arts with a section dedicated to European and French painting. Some of the finest collections are in Lyon, Lille, Rouen, Dijon, Rennes and Grenoble.

Architecture

 
Saint Louis's Sainte-Chapelle represents the French impact on religious 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. Some of the greatest examples of Romanesque churches in France are the Saint Sernin Basilica in Toulouse, the largest Romanesque church in Europe,[364] and the remains of the Cluny Abbey.

Gothic architecture, originally named Opus Francigenum meaning "French work",[365] was born in Île-de-France and was the first French style of architecture to be copied in all of Europe.[366] Northern France is the home of some of the most important Gothic cathedrals and basilicas, the first of these being the Saint Denis Basilica (used as the royal necropolis); other important French Gothic cathedrals are Notre-Dame de Chartres and Notre-Dame d'Amiens. The kings were crowned in another important Gothic church: Notre-Dame de Reims.[367] Aside from churches, Gothic Architecture had been used for many religious palaces, the most important one being the Palais des Papes in Avignon.

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.[368] 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, Baroque architecture replaced the traditional Gothic style. However, in France, baroque architecture found greater success in the secular domain than in the religious one.[369] In the secular domain, the Palace of Versailles has many baroque features. 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.[370] 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.[371][372]

After the Revolution, the Republicans favoured Neoclassicism although it was introduced in France before the revolution with such buildings as the Parisian Pantheon or the Capitole de Toulouse. Built during the first French Empire, the Arc de Triomphe and Sainte Marie-Madeleine represent the best example of Empire-style architecture.[373]

Under Napoleon III, a new wave of urbanism and architecture was given birth; extravagant buildings such as the neo-baroque Palais Garnier were built. The urban planning of the time was very organised and rigorous; most notably, Haussmann's renovation of Paris. The architecture associated with this era is named 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 iconic 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).[374] France's largest financial district is La Défense, where a significant number of skyscrapers are located.[375] 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

The earliest French literature dates from the Middle Ages when what is now known as modern France did not have a single, uniform language. There were several languages and dialects, and writers used their spelling and grammar. Some authors of French medieval texts are unknown, such as Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot-Grail. Other authors are known, for example, Chrétien de Troyes and Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who wrote in Occitan. Much medieval French poetry and literature were inspired by the legends of the Matter of France, such as The Song of Roland and the various chansons de geste. The Roman de Renart, written in 1175 by Perrout de Saint Cloude, tells the story of the medieval character Reynard ('the Fox') and is another example of early French writing. An important 16th-century writer was François Rabelais, whose novel Gargantua and Pantagruel has remained famous and appreciated until now. Michel de Montaigne was another major figure of French literature during that century. His most famous work, Essais, created the literary genre of the essay.[376] French poetry during that century was embodied by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Both writers founded the La Pléiade literary movement. In 1678, Madame de La Fayette published anonymously La Princesse de Clèves, a novel that is considered to be one of the first psychological novels of all time.[377] Jean de La Fontaine is one of the most famous fabulists of that time, as he wrote hundreds of fables, some being far more famous than others, such as The Ant and the Grasshopper. Generations of French pupils had to learn his fables, which were seen as helping teach wisdom and common sense to the young people. Some of his verses have entered the popular language to become proverbs, such as "À l'œuvre, on connaît l'artisan."[A workman is known by his chips].[378]

 
French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française;[379] Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelist and poet; 19th-century poet, writer and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th-century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean Racine, whose incredible mastery of the alexandrine and the French language has been praised for centuries, created plays such as Phèdre or Britannicus. He is, along with Pierre Corneille (Le Cid) and Molière, considered one of the three great dramatists of France's golden age. Molière, who is deemed to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature,[380] wrote dozens of plays, including Le Misanthrope, L'Avare, Le Malade imaginaire, as well as Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. His plays have been so popular around the world that the French language is sometimes dubbed as "the language of Molière" (la langue de Molière),[381] just like English is considered "the language of Shakespeare".

French literature and poetry flourished even more in the 18th and 19th centuries. Denis Diderot's best-known works are Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau's Nephew. He is however best known for being the main redactor of the Encyclopédie, whose aim was, to sum up all the knowledge of his century (in fields such as arts, sciences, languages, and philosophy) and to present them to the people, to fight ignorance and obscurantism. During that same century, Charles Perrault was a prolific writer of famous children's fairy tales including Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard. At the start of the 19th century, symbolist poetry was an important movement in French literature, with poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé.[382]

The 19th century saw the writings of many renowned French authors. Victor Hugo is sometimes seen as "the greatest French writer of all time"[383] for excelling in all literary genres. The preface of his play Cromwell is considered to be the manifesto of the Romantic movement. Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles are considered "poetic masterpieces",[384] Hugo's verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Dante and Homer.[384] His novel Les Misérables is widely seen as one of the greatest novels ever written[385] and The Hunchback of Notre Dame has remained immensely popular. Other major authors of that century include Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte-Cristo), Jules Verne (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. The Prix Goncourt is a French literary prize first awarded in 1903.[386]

In the early 20th century France was a haven for literary freedom.[387] Works banned for obscenity in the US, the UK and other Anglophone nations were published in France decades before they were available in the respective authors' home countries.[387] The innate French regard for the mind meant that France was disinclined to punish literary figures for their writing, and prosecutions were rare.[387] Important writers of the 20th century include Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote Little Prince, which has remained popular for decades with children and adults around the world.[388] As of 2014, French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation.[389] The first Nobel Prize in Literature was for a French author, while France's latest Nobel prize in literature is for Patrick Modiano, who was awarded the prize in 2014.[389] Jean-Paul Sartre was also the first nominee in the committee's history to refuse the prize in 1964.[389]

Philosophy

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.[390][391] His Meditations on First Philosophy changed the primary object of philosophical thought and raised some of the most fundamental problems for foreigners such as Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Berkeley, and Kant.

French philosophers produced some of the most important political works of the Age of Enlightenment. In The Spirit of the Laws, Baron de Montesquieu theorised the principle of separation of powers, which has been implemented in all liberal democracies since it was first applied in the United States. Voltaire came to embody the Enlightenment with his defence of civil liberties, such as the right to a free trial and freedom of religion.

19th-century French thought was targeted at responding to the social malaise following the French Revolution. Rationalist philosophers such as Victor Cousin and Auguste Comte, who called for a new social doctrine, were opposed by reactionary thinkers such as Joseph de Maistre, Louis de Bonald and Félicité Robert de Lamennais, who blamed the rationalist rejection of traditional order. De Maistre, together with the Englishman Edmund Burke, was one of the founders of European conservatism. Comte was the founder of positivism, which Émile Durkheim reformulated as a basis for social research.

In the 20th century, partly as a reaction to the perceived excesses of positivism, French spiritualism thrived with thinkers such as Henri Bergson and it influenced American pragmatism and Whitehead's version of process philosophy. Meanwhile, French epistemology became a prominent school of thought with Jules Henri Poincaré, Gaston Bachelard, Jean Cavaillès and Jules Vuillemin. Influenced by German phenomenology and existentialism, the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre gained a strong influence after World War II, and late-20th-century-France became the cradle of postmodern philosophy with Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault.

Music

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 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin, 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.[393][full citation needed]

French composers played an important role in the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which is considered to be the Romantic music era. Romantic music emphasised a surrender to nature, a fascination with the past and the supernatural, the exploration of unusual, strange and surprising sounds, and a focus on national identity. This period was also a golden age for operas. French composers from the Romantic era included: Hector Berlioz (best known for his Symphonie fantastique), Georges Bizet (best known for Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas), Gabriel Fauré (best known for his Pavane, Requiem, and nocturnes), Charles Gounod (best known for his Ave Maria and his opera Faust), Jacques Offenbach (best known for his 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann), Édouard Lalo (best known for his Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra and his Cello Concerto in D minor), Jules Massenet (best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty, the most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892)) and Camille Saint-Saëns (he has many frequently-performed works, including The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah (Opera), Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No. 3).

 
Serge Gainsbourg, one of the world's most influential popular musicians
 
Daft Punk, pioneers of the French house movement

Later came precursors of modern classical music. Érik Satie was a key member of the early-20th-century Parisian avant-garde, best known for his Gymnopédies. Francis Poulenc's best-known works are his piano suite Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957) and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir and orchestra. Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy are the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.[394] Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of atonality. The two composers invented new musical forms[395][396][397][398] and new sounds. Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, 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.[399]

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, French pop music, known as 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.[400] Although there are very few rock bands in France compared to English-speaking countries,[401] bands such as Noir Désir, Mano Negra, Niagara, Les Rita Mitsouko and more recently Superbus, Phoenix and Gojira,[402] or Shaka Ponk, have reached worldwide popularity.

Other French artists with international careers have been popular in several countries, most notably female singers Dalida, Mireille Mathieu, Mylène Farmer,[402] Alizée and Nolwenn Leroy,[403] electronic music pioneers Jean-Michel Jarre, Laurent Garnier and Bob Sinclar, later Martin Solveig and David Guetta. In the 1990s and 2000s (decade), electronic duos Daft Punk, Justice and Air also reached worldwide popularity and contributed to the reputation of modern electronic music in the world.[402][404][405]

Among current musical events and institutions in France, many are dedicated to classical music and operas. The most prestigious institutions are the state-owned Paris National Opera (with its two sites Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille), the Opéra National de Lyon, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. As for music festivals, there are several events organised, the most popular being Eurockéennes (a word play which sounds in French as "European"), Solidays and Rock en Seine. The Fête de la Musique, imitated by many foreign cities, was first launched by the French Government in 1982.[406][407] Major music halls and venues in France include Le Zénith sites present in many cities and other places in Paris (Paris Olympia, Théâtre Mogador, Élysée Montmartre).

Cinema

France has historical and strong links with cinema, with two Frenchmen, Auguste and Louis Lumière (known as the Lumière Brothers) credited with creating cinema in 1895.[411] The world's first female filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, was also from France.[412] Several important cinematic movements, including the late 1950s and 1960s Nouvelle Vague, began in the country. It is noted for having a strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the Government of France. France remains a leader in filmmaking, as of 2015 producing more films than any other European country.[413][414] The nation also hosts the Cannes Festival, one of the most important and famous film festivals in the world.[415][416]

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.[417] 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.[417] France is 2013 the 2nd exporter of films in the world after the United States.[418]

France historically was the cultural centre of the world,[307] although its dominant position has been surpassed by the United States. Today, France takes steps in protecting and promoting its culture, becoming a leading advocate of cultural exception.[419] The nation succeeded in convincing all EU members to refuse to include culture and audiovisuals in the list of liberalised sectors of the WTO in 1993.[420] 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.[421]

Fashion

 
Chanel's headquarters on Place Vendôme, Paris

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 Louis XIV[422] when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. But France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (French: couture or haute couture) industry in the years 1860–1960 through the establishment of the great couturier houses such as Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy. The French perfume industry is the world leader in its sector and is centred on the town of Grasse.[423]

In the 1960s, the elitist "Haute couture" came under criticism from France's youth culture. In 1966, the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established Haute Couture norms by launching a prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing. With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH.

According to 2017 data compiled by Deloitte, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), a French brand, is the largest luxury company in the world by sales, selling more than twice the amount of its nearest competitor.[424] Moreover, France also possesses 3 of the top 10 luxury goods companies by sales (LVMH, Kering SA, L'Oréal), more than any other country in the world.[424]

Media

 
Le Figaro was founded in 1826 and it is still considered a newspaper of record.[425]

Best-selling daily national newspapers in France are Le Parisien Aujourd'hui en France (with 460,000 sold daily), Le Monde and Le Figaro, with around 300,000 copies sold daily, but also L'Équipe, dedicated to sports coverage.[426] In the past years, free dailies made a breakthrough, with Metro, 20 Minutes and Direct Plus distributed at more than 650,000 copies respectively.[427] However, the widest circulations are reached by the regional daily Ouest-France with more than 750,000 copies sold, and the 50 other regional papers have also high sales.[428][429] The sector of weekly magazines is stronger and diversified with more than 400 specialised weekly magazines published in the country.[430]

The most influential news magazines are the left-wing Le Nouvel Observateur, centrist L'Express and right-wing Le Point (more than 400,000 copies),[431] but the highest circulation for weeklies is reached by TV magazines and by women's magazines, among them Marie Claire and ELLE, which have foreign versions. Influential weeklies also include investigative and satirical papers Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, as well as Paris Match. Like in most industrialised nations, the print media have been affected by a severe crisis in the past decade. In 2008, the government launched a major initiative to help the sector reform and become financially independent,[432][433] but in 2009 it had to give 600,000 euros to help the print media cope with the economic crisis, in addition to existing subsidies.[434]

 
The Parisian headquarters of Agence France-Presse, one of the world's oldest and leading news agencies[435]

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[436][437] remained under state control. It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory, ending the state monopoly on radio.[437] French television was partly liberalised in the next two-decade with the creation of several commercial channels, mainly thanks to cable and satellite television. In 2005 the national service Télévision Numérique Terrestre introduced digital television all over the territory, allowing the creation of other channels.

The four existing national channels are owned by the state-owned consortium France Télévisions, funded by advertising revenue and TV licence fees. Public broadcasting group Radio France runs five national radio stations. Among these public media are Radio France Internationale, which broadcasts programmes in French all over the world, as well as Franco-German TV channel TV5 Monde. In 2006, the government created the global news channel France 24. Long-established TV channels TF1 (privatised in 1987), France 2 and France 3 have the highest shares, whilst radio stations RTL, Europe 1 and state-owned France Inter are some of the least listened to.

Society

 
Admittance of Germaine Tillion, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Pierre Brossolette and Jean Zay at the Pantheon, a mausoleum for distinguished French people, in 2015

According to a BBC poll in 2010, based on 29,977 responses in 28 countries, France is globally seen as a positive influence in the world's affairs: 49% have a positive view of the country's influence, whereas 19% have a negative view.[438][439] The Nation Brand Index of 2008 suggested that France has the second best international reputation, only behind Germany.[440] A global opinion poll for the BBC saw France ranked the fourth most positively viewed nation in the world (behind Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom) in 2014.[441]

According to a poll in 2011, the French were found to have the highest level of religious tolerance and to be the country where the highest proportion of the population defines its identity primarily in term of nationality and not religion.[442] As of 2011, 75% of French had a favourable view of the United States, making France one of the most pro-American countries in the world.[443] As of 2017, the favourable view of the United States had dropped to 46%.[444] In January 2010, the magazine International Living ranked France as "best country to live in", ahead of 193 other countries, for the fifth year running.[445]

The OECD Better Life Index states that "France performs well in many measures of well-being relative to most other countries in the Better Life Index".[446]

The French Revolution continues to permeate the country's collective memory. The tricolour flag of France,[447] the anthem "La Marseillaise", and the motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité, defined in Title 1 of the Constitution as national symbols, all emerged during the cultural ferment of the early revolution, along with Marianne, a common national personification. In addition, Bastille Day, the national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.[448]

 
Sculpture of Marianne, a common national personification of the French Republic

A common and traditional symbol of the French people is the Gallic rooster. Its origins date back to Antiquity since the Latin word Gallus meant both "rooster" and "inhabitant of Gaul". Then this figure gradually became the most widely shared representation of the French, used by French monarchs, then by the Revolution and under the successive republican regimes as representation of the national identity, used for some stamps and coins.[449]

France is one of the world leaders of gender equality in the workplace: as of 2017, it has 36.8% of its corporate board seats held by women, which makes it the leader of the G20 for that metric.[450] It was ranked in 2019 by the World Bank as one of the only six countries in the world where women have the same work rights as men.[451]

France is one of the most liberal countries in the world when it comes to LGBT rights: a 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that 86% of the French think that same-sex relationships should be accepted by society, one of the highest acceptance rates in the world (comparable to that of other Western European nations).[452] France legalised same-sex marriage and adoption in 2013.[453] The government has used its diplomatic clout to support LGBT rights throughout the world, notably in the United Nations.[454]

In 2020, France was ranked fifth in the Environmental Performance Index (behind the United Kingdom), out of 180 countries ranked by Yale University in that study.[455] Being the host country of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference, the French Government was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris Agreement, a success that has been credited to its "openness and experience in diplomacy".[456]

Cuisine

 
French wines are usually made to accompany French cuisine.

French cuisine is renowned for being one of the finest in the world.[457][458] According to the regions, traditional recipes are different, the North of the country prefers to use butter as the preferred fat for cooking, whereas olive oil is more commonly used in the South.[459] Moreover, each region of France has iconic traditional specialties: Cassoulet in the Southwest, Choucroute in Alsace, Quiche in the Lorraine region, Beef bourguignon in the Bourgogne, provençal Tapenade, etc. France's most renowned products are wines,[460] including Champagne, Bordeaux, Bourgogne, and Beaujolais as well as a large variety of different cheeses, such as Camembert, Roquefort and Brie. There are more than 400 different varieties.[461][462]

A meal often consists of three courses, hors d'œuvre or entrée (introductory course, sometimes soup), plat principal (main course), fromage (cheese course) or dessert, sometimes with a salad offered before the cheese or dessert. Hors d'œuvres could include terrine de saumon au basilic, lobster bisque, foie gras, French onion soup or a croque monsieur. The plat principal could include a pot au feu, soufflé or steak frites. The dessert could be mille-feuille pastry, a macaron, an éclair, crème brûlée, mousse au chocolat, crêpes, far Breton or café liégeois.

French cuisine is also regarded as a key element of the quality of life and the attractiveness of France.[445] A French publication, the Michelin guide, awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments.[463][464] 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, at that time more than any other country, although the guide also inspects more restaurants in France than in any other country (by 2010, Japan was awarded as many Michelin stars as France, despite having half the number of Michelin inspectors working there).[465][466]

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. France produces rum via distilleries located on islands such as Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean.

Sports

 
Starting in 1903, the Tour de France is the oldest and most prestigious of Grands Tours, and the world's most famous cycling race.[467]

France hosts "the world's biggest annual sporting event", the Tour de France.[468] Other popular sports played in France include: football, judo, tennis,[469] rugby union[470] and pétanque. France has hosted events such as the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups,[471] the 2007 Rugby World Cup,[472] 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.[473] 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 Pierre de Coubertin, who suggested the Games' revival, at the end of the 19th century.[474][475] After Athens was awarded the first Games, in reference to the Olympics' Greek origins, Paris hosted the second Games in 1900.[476] Paris was the first home of the International Olympic Committee, before it moved to Lausanne.[477] Since 1900, France has hosted the Olympics on 4 further occasions: the 1924 Summer Olympics, again in Paris[475] and three Winter Games (1924 in Chamonix, 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville).[475] Similar to the Olympics, France introduced Olympics for the deaf people (Deaflympics) in 1924 with the idea of a French deaf car mechanic, Eugène Rubens-Alcais who paved the way to organise the inaugural edition of the Summer Deaflympics in Paris.[478]

 
Zidane was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in a 2004 UEFA poll.[479]

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.[480] The football team is among the most successful in the world, with two FIFA World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018,[481] two FIFA World Cup second places in 2006 and 2022,[482] and two UEFA European Championships in 1984[483] and 2000.[484]

The top national football club competition is Ligue 1. France has produced some of the greatest players in the world, including three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, three-time Ballon d'Or recipient Michel Platini, record holder for most goals scored at a World Cup Just Fontaine, first football player to receive the Légion d'honneur Raymond Kopa, and the record goalscorer for the French national team Thierry Henry.[485]

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.[486]

Rugby union is popular, particularly in Paris and the southwest of France.[487] The national rugby union team has competed at every Rugby World Cup; it takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The current Constitution of France does not specify a national emblem.[1] This emblem is used by the President, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs,[2] and is on the cover of French passports. For other symbols, see National symbols of France.
  2. ^ For information about regional languages see Languages of France.
  3. ^ European Union since 1993
  4. ^ French 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. ^ INSEE definition: an immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. Changes in immigrant numbers result from: arrivals of new immigrants - (departures + deaths in France).
  14. ^ The last sacre was that of Charles X, 29 May 1825.

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france, other, uses, disambiguation, redirects, here, other, uses, lafrance, french, republic, redirects, here, previous, republics, french, republics, coordinates, french, fʁɑ, officially, french, republic, french, république, française, ʁepyblik, frɑ, sɛz, c. For other uses see France disambiguation La France redirects here For other uses see Lafrance French Republic redirects here For previous republics see French Republics Coordinates 47 N 2 E 47 N 2 E 47 2 France French fʁɑ s officially the French Republic French Republique francaise ʁepyblik frɑ sɛz 14 is a country primarily located in Western Europe It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Pacific and Indian Oceans XII Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea overseas territories include French Guiana in South America Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic the French West Indies and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean Due to its several coastal territories France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world France borders Belgium Luxembourg Germany Switzerland Monaco Italy Andorra and Spain in continental Europe as well as the Netherlands Suriname and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin Its eighteen integral regions five of which are overseas span a combined area of 643 801 km2 248 573 sq mi and contain close to 68 million people as of July 2022 update 5 8 France is a unitary semi presidential republic with its capital in Paris the country s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre other major urban areas include Marseille Lyon Toulouse Lille Bordeaux and Nice French RepublicRepublique francaise French Flag Emblem I Motto Liberte egalite fraternite Liberty Equality Fraternity Anthem La Marseillaise source source track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track track Great SealFrance on the globe centred on EuropeMetropolitan France European part of France in EuropeFrance and its overseas territories in the worldLocation of France red or dark green in Europe green amp dark grey in the European Union green Capitaland largest cityParis48 51 N 2 21 E 48 850 N 2 350 E 48 850 2 350Official languageand national languageFrench II Nationality 2021 92 3 French7 7 Others 3 Religion 2016 4 51 1 Christianity39 6 No religion5 6 Islam0 8 Judaism2 5 OthersDemonym s FrenchGovernmentUnitary semi presidential republic PresidentEmmanuel Macron Prime MinisterElisabeth BorneLegislatureParliament Upper houseSenate Lower houseNational AssemblyEstablishment Kingdom of the West Franks Treaty of Verdun10 August 843 Kingdom of France Capetian rulers of France3 July 987 French Republic French First Republic22 September 1792 Founded the EEC III 1 January 1958 Current constitution French Fifth Republic4 October 1958Area Total643 801 km2 248 573 sq mi 5 42nd Water 0 86 2015 6 Metropolitan France IGN 551 695 km2 213 011 sq mi IV 50th Metropolitan France Cadastre 543 940 9 km2 210 016 8 sq mi V 7 50th Population July 2022 estimate67 897 000 8 20th Density105 4627 km2 106th Metropolitan France estimate as of July 2022 update 65 707 000 9 23rd Density121 km2 313 4 sq mi 89th GDP PPP 2022 estimate Total 3 667 trillion 10 10th Per capita 56 036 10 24th GDP nominal 2022 estimate Total 2 936 trillion 10 7th Per capita 44 747 10 28th Gini 2020 29 3 11 lowHDI 2021 0 903 12 very high 28thCurrencyEuro EUR VI CFP franc XPF VII Time zoneUTC 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 formatdd mm yyyy AD Driving siderightCalling code 33 X ISO 3166 codeFRInternet 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 Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era the territory of Metropolitan France was settled by Celtic tribes known as Gauls during the Iron Age Rome annexed the area in 51 BC leading to a distinct Gallo Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language The Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987 In the High Middle Ages France was a powerful but highly decentralised feudal kingdom Philip II successfully strengthened royal power and defeated his rivals to double the size of the crown lands by the end of his reign France had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe From the mid 14th to the mid 15th century France was plunged into a series of dynastic conflicts involving England collectively known as the Hundred Years War and a distinct French identity emerged as a result The French Renaissance saw art and culture flourish conflict with the House of Habsburg and the establishment of a global colonial empire which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world 15 The second half of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots that severely weakened the country France again emerged as Europe s dominant power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following the Thirty Years War 16 Inadequate economic policies inequitable taxes and frequent wars notably a defeat in the Seven Years War and costly involvement in the American War of Independence left the kingdom in a precarious economic situation by the end of the 18th century This precipitated the French Revolution of 1789 which overthrew the Ancien Regime 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 much of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of European and world 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 optimism cultural and scientific flourishing as well as economic prosperity known as the Belle Epoque France was one of the major participants of World War I from which it emerged victorious at a great human and economic cost It was among the Allied powers of World War II but was soon 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 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 art science and philosophy It hosts the fifth largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world s leading tourist destination receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018 17 France is a developed country ranked 28th in the Human Development Index with the world s seventh largest economy by nominal GDP and tenth largest by PPP in terms of aggregate household wealth it ranks fourth in the world 18 France performs well in international rankings of education health care and life expectancy It remains a great power in global affairs 19 being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear weapon state France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the Eurozone 20 as well as a key member of the Group of Seven North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development OECD and Francophonie Contents 1 Etymology and pronunciation 2 History 2 1 Prehistory before the 6th century BC 2 2 Antiquity 6th century BC 5th century AD 2 3 Early Middle Ages 5th 10th century 2 4 High and Late Middle Ages 10th 15th century 2 5 Early modern period 15th century 1789 2 6 Revolutionary France 1789 1799 2 7 Napoleon and 19th century 1799 1914 2 8 Early to mid 20th century 1914 1946 2 9 Contemporary period 1946 present 3 Geography 3 1 Location and borders 3 2 Geology topography and hydrography 3 3 Environment 3 4 Administrative divisions 3 4 1 Regions 3 4 2 Overseas territories and collectivities 4 Government and politics 4 1 Government 4 2 Law 4 3 Foreign relations 4 4 Military 4 5 Government finance 5 Economy 5 1 Overview 5 2 Agriculture 5 3 Tourism 5 4 Energy 5 5 Transport 5 6 Science and technology 6 Demographics 6 1 Ethnic groups 6 2 Immigration 6 3 Major cities 6 4 Language 6 5 Religion 6 6 Health 6 7 Education 7 Culture 7 1 Art 7 2 Architecture 7 3 Literature 7 4 Philosophy 7 5 Music 7 6 Cinema 7 7 Fashion 7 8 Media 7 9 Society 7 10 Cuisine 7 11 Sports 8 See also 9 Footnotes 10 References 11 Further reading 11 1 Topics 12 External links 12 1 Economy 12 2 Government 12 3 CultureEtymology and pronunciationMain article Name of France Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire the name France comes from the Latin Francia or realm of the Franks 21 Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish while Frankreich in German Frankrijk in Dutch and Frankrike in Swedish 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 22 23 It has been suggested that the meaning free was adopted because after the conquest of Gaul only Franks were free of taxation 24 or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves 23 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 25 although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks not the other way around 23 In English France is pronounced f r ae n s FRANSS in American English and f r ɑː n s FRAHNSS or f r ae n s 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 f r ɑː n s is in free variation with f r ae n s 26 HistoryMain article History of France For a chronological guide see Timeline of French history Prehistory before the 6th century BC Main article Prehistory of France One of the Lascaux paintings a horse approximately 17 000 BC 27 The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1 8 million years ago 28 Over the ensuing millennia humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate marked by several glacial periods Early hominids led a nomadic hunter gatherer life 28 France has a large number of decorated caves from the Upper Paleolithic era including one of the most famous and best preserved Lascaux 28 approximately 18 000 BC At the end of the last glacial period 10 000 BC the climate became milder 28 from approximately 7 000 BC this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary 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 29 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 Main articles Gaul Celts and Roman Gaul Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar during the Battle of Alesia The Gallic defeat in the Gallic Wars secured the Roman conquest of the country 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 30 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 31 The concept of Gaul emerged during this period corresponding to the territories of Celtic settlement ranging between the Rhine the Atlantic Ocean the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean The borders of modern France roughly correspond to ancient Gaul which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls Gaul was then a prosperous country of which the southernmost part was heavily subject to Greek and Roman cultural and economic influences The Maison Carree was a temple of the Gallo Roman city of Nemausus present day Nimes and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire Around 390 BC the Gallic chieftain Brennus and his troops made their way to Italy through the Alps defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Allia and besieged and ransomed Rome 32 The Gallic invasion left Rome weakened and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a formal peace treaty with Rome 33 But the Romans and the Gauls would remain adversaries for the next centuries and the Gauls would continue to be a threat in Italy 34 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 35 Julius Caesar conquered the remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt carried out by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC 36 Gaul was divided by Augustus into Roman provinces 37 Many cities were founded during the Gallo Roman period including Lugdunum present day Lyon which is considered the capital of the Gauls 37 These cities were built in traditional Roman style with a forum a theatre a circus an amphitheatre and thermal baths The Gauls mixed with Roman settlers and eventually adopted Roman culture and Roman speech Latin from which the French language evolved Roman polytheism merged with Gallic paganism into the same syncretism From the 250s to the 280s AD Roman Gaul suffered a serious crisis with its fortified borders being attacked on several occasions by barbarians 38 Nevertheless the situation improved in the first half of the 4th century which was a period of revival and prosperity for Roman Gaul 39 In 312 Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity Subsequently Christians who had been persecuted until then increased rapidly across the entire Roman Empire 40 But from the beginning of the 5th century the Barbarian Invasions resumed 41 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 42 Early Middle Ages 5th 10th century Main articles Francia Merovingian dynasty and Carolingian dynasty See also List of French monarchs and France in the Middle Ages Frankish expansion from 481 to 870 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 ainee de l Eglise by the papacy 43 and French kings would be called the Most Christian Kings of France Rex Christianissimus With Clovis s conversion to Catholicism in 498 the Frankish monarchy elective and secular until then became hereditary and of divine right 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 Orleans 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 44 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 45 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 Main articles Kingdom of France Capetian dynasty House of Valois and House of Bourbon See also List of French monarchs and France in the Middle Ages Joan of Arc led the French Army to several important victories during the Hundred Years War 1337 1453 which paved the way for the final victory The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987 when Hugh Capet Duke of France and Count of Paris was crowned King of the Franks 46 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 Crusades to restore Christian access to the Holy Land French knights made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout the two hundred year span of the Crusades in such a fashion that the Arabs uniformly referred to the crusaders as Franj caring little whether they came from France 47 The French Crusaders also imported the French language into the Levant making French the base of the lingua franca lit Frankish language of the Crusader states 47 French knights also made up the majority in both the Hospital and the Temple orders The latter in particular held numerous properties throughout France and by the 13th century were the principal bankers for the French crown until Philip IV annihilated the order in 1307 The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars in the southwestern area of modern day France In the end the Cathars were exterminated and the autonomous County of Toulouse was annexed into the crown lands of France 48 Metropolitan France territorial evolution from 985 to 1947 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 49 Under Salic law the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line 49 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 49 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 50 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 51 Early modern period 15th century 1789 Main articles French Renaissance Early modern France and Ancien Regime The Chateau de Chenonceau nowadays part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site was built in the early 16th century 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 First 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 52 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 53 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 54 Under Louis XIII the energetic Cardinal Richelieu promoted the centralisation of the state and reinforced the 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 55 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 Louis XIV the Sun King was the absolute monarch of France and made France the leading European power 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 military integrated command unchallenged Remembered for his numerous wars he 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 56 France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas Africa and Asia Louis XIV also revoked the Edict of Nantes forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile 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 57 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 Laperouse 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 Main articles History of France Revolutionary France 1789 1799 and French Revolution Ouverture des Etats generaux a Versailles 5 mai 1789 by Auguste Couder The Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 was the most emblematic event of the French Revolution 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 signaling 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 August 1791 the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia in the Declaration of Pillnitz threatened revolutionary France to intervene by force of arms to restore the French absolute monarchy In September 1791 the National Constituent Assembly forced King Louis XVI to accept the French Constitution of 1791 thus turning the French absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy In the newly established Legislative Assembly October 1791 enmity developed and deepened between a group later called the Girondins who favoured war with Austria and Prussia and a group later called Montagnards or Jacobins who opposed such a war A majority in the Assembly in 1792 however saw a war with Austria and Prussia as a chance to boost the popularity of the revolutionary government and thought that France would win a war against those gathered monarchies On 20 April 1792 therefore they declared war on Austria Le Serment du Jeu de paume by Jacques Louis David 1791 On 10 August 1792 an angry crowd threatened the palace of King Louis XVI who took refuge in the Legislative Assembly 58 59 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 58 60 The National Convention chosen in the first elections under male universal suffrage 58 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 Vendee 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 Vendee 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 61 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 Main articles History of France Napoleonic France 1799 1815 History of France Long 19th century 1815 1914 First French Empire Second French Empire and French colonial empire See also France in the 19th century and France in the 20th century Napoleon Emperor of the French built a vast empire across Europe 62 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 63 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 63 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 Napoleon 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 64 The First light blue and Second dark blue French colonial empire 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 Epoque 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 Main article History of France 1900 to present 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 65 French Poilus posing with their war torn flag in 1917 during World War I Between 27 and 30 of soldiers conscripted from 1912 to 1915 were killed 66 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 67 were deported to death camps and concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland 68 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 Charles de Gaulle a hero of World War I leader of the Free French during World War II and President of France The GPRF laid the groundwork for a new constitutional order that resulted in the Fourth Republic 1946 1958 which saw spectacular economic growth les Trente Glorieuses France was one of the founding members of NATO 1949 France attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954 at the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu Only months later France faced another anti colonialist conflict in Algeria then treated as an integral part of France and home to over one million European settlers During the conflict the French systematically used torture and repression including extrajudicial killings to keep control of Algeria 69 This conflict wracked the country and nearly led to a coup and civil war in France 70 During the May 1958 crisis the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic which included a strengthened Presidency 71 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 Evian 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 72 Around one million Pied Noirs and Harkis fled from Algeria to France upon independence 73 A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories In the context of the Cold War De Gaulle pursued a policy of national independence towards the Western and Eastern blocs To this end he withdrew from NATO s military integrated command while remaining in the NATO alliance itself launched a nuclear development programme and made France the fourth nuclear power He restored cordial Franco German relations to create a European counterweight between the American and Soviet spheres of influence However he opposed any development of a supranational Europe favouring a Europe of sovereign nations In the wake of the series of worldwide protests of 1968 the revolt of May 1968 had an enormous social impact In France it was the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal religion patriotism respect for authority shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal secularism individualism sexual revolution Although the revolt was a political failure as the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before it announced a split between the French people and de Gaulle who resigned shortly after 74 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 75 France has also gradually but fully reintegrated into NATO and has since participated in most NATO sponsored wars 76 Republican marches were organised across France after the January 2015 attacks perpetrated by Islamist terrorists they became the largest public rallies in French history Since the 19th century France has received many immigrants These have been mostly male foreign workers from European Catholic countries who generally returned home when not employed 77 During the 1970s France faced an economic crisis and allowed new immigrants mostly from the Maghreb 77 to permanently settle in France with their families and acquire French citizenship It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Muslims especially in the larger cities living in subsidised public housing and suffering from very high unemployment rates 78 Simultaneously France renounced the assimilation of immigrants where they were expected to adhere to French traditional values and cultural norms They were encouraged to retain their distinctive cultures and traditions and required merely to integrate 79 Since the 1995 Paris Metro and RER bombings France has been sporadically targeted by Islamist organisations notably the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 which provoked the largest public rallies in French history gathering 4 4 million people 80 the November 2015 Paris attacks which resulted in 130 deaths the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II 81 and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 82 as well as the 2016 Nice truck attack which caused 87 deaths during Bastille Day celebrations Operation Chammal France s military efforts to contain ISIS killed over 1 000 ISIS troops between 2014 and 2015 83 GeographyMain article Geography of France Location and borders Satellite image of the Metropolitan France Chamonix valley with the Mont Blanc at background the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe Bora Bora in French Polynesia The vast majority of France s territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France to distinguish it from the country s various overseas polities It is bordered by the North Sea in the north the English Channel in the northwest the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean sea in the southeast Its land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast Germany and Switzerland in the east Italy and Monaco in the southeast and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest Except for the northeast most of France s land borders are roughly delineated by natural boundaries and geographic features to the south and southeast the Pyrenees and the Alps and the Jura respectively and to the east the Rhine river Due to its shape France is often referred to as l Hexagone The Hexagon Metropolitan France includes various coastal islands of which the largest is Corsica Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41 and 51 N and longitudes 6 W and 10 E on the western edge of Europe and thus lies within the northern temperate zone Its continental part covers about 1000 km from north to south and from east to west France has several overseas regions across the world which are organised as follows five have the same status as mainland France s regions and departments French Guiana in South America Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Martinique in the Caribbean Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa Reunion in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa nine have special legal status distinct from mainland France s regions and departments In the Atlantic Ocean Saint Pierre and Miquelon and in the Antilles Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy In the Pacific Ocean French Polynesia the special collectivity of New Caledonia Wallis and Futuna and Clipperton Island In the Indian Ocean the Kerguelen Islands Crozet Islands St Paul and Amsterdam islands and the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean In the Antarctic Adelie Land France has land borders with Brazil and Suriname via French Guiana and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the French portion of Saint Martin Metropolitan France covers 551 500 square kilometres 212 935 sq mi 84 the largest among European Union members 20 France s total land area with its overseas departments and territories excluding Adelie 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 overseas departments and territories scattered across the planet France possesses the second largest Exclusive economic zone EEZ in the world covering 11 035 000 km2 4 261 000 sq mi just behind the EEZ of the United States which covers 11 351 000 km2 4 383 000 sq mi but ahead of the EEZ of Australia which covers 8 148 250 km2 3 146 000 sq mi Its EEZ covers approximately 8 of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world Geology topography and hydrography Geological formations near Roussillon Vaucluse 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 Rhone 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 85 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 Reed bed on the Gironde estuary the largest estuary in Western Europe The coastlines offer contrasting landscapes mountain ranges along the French Riviera coastal cliffs such as the Cote d Albatre 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 Rhone and their tributaries whose combined catchment includes over 62 of the metropolitan territory The Rhone 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 86 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 See also List of national parks of France Regional natural parks of France and Climate change in France The Guiana Amazonian Park is the largest national park of France aiming at protecting part of the Amazonian forest located in French Guiana France was one of the first countries to create an environment ministry in 1971 87 Although it is one of the most industrialised countries in the world France is ranked only 19th by carbon dioxide emissions behind less populous nations such as Canada or Australia This is due to the country s heavy investment in nuclear power following the 1973 oil crisis 88 which now accounts for 75 percent of its electricity production 89 and results in less pollution 90 91 According to the 2020 Environmental Performance Index conducted by Yale and Columbia France was the fifth most environmentally conscious country in the world behind the United Kingdom 92 93 Like all European Union state members France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20 of 1990 levels by 2020 94 compared to the United States plan to reduce emissions by 4 of 1990 levels 95 As of 2009 update French carbon dioxide emissions per capita were lower than that of China 96 The country was set to impose a carbon tax in 2009 at 17 euros per tonne of carbon emitted 97 which would have raised 4 billion euros of revenue annually 98 However the plan was abandoned due to fears of burdening French businesses 99 Forests account for 31 percent of France s land area the fourth highest proportion in Europe representing an increase of 7 percent since 1990 100 101 102 French forests are some of the most diverse in Europe comprising more than 140 species of trees 103 France had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4 52 10 ranking it 123rd globally out of 172 countries 104 There are nine national parks 105 and 46 natural parks in France 106 with the government planning to convert 20 of its Exclusive economic zone into a Marine protected area by 2020 107 A regional nature park 108 French parc naturel regional 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 109 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 110 As of 2019 update there are 54 PNRs in France 111 Administrative divisions Main article Administrative divisions of France The French Republic is divided into 18 regions located in Europe and overseas five overseas collectivities one overseas territory one special collectivity New Caledonia and one uninhabited island directly under the authority of the Minister of Overseas France Clipperton Regions Hauts de France Normandy Ile de France Grand Est Bourgogne Franche Comte Centre Val de Loire Pays de la Loire Brittany Nouvelle Aquitaine Auvergne Rhone Alpes Occitania Provence Alpes Cote d Azur Corsica French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Mayotte ReunionBelgium Luxembourg Germany Switzerland Italy United Kingdom Andorra Brazil Suriname SpainChannel Bay ofBiscay LigurianSea MediterraneanSea Further information Departments of France Since 2016 France is mainly divided into 18 administrative regions 13 regions in metropolitan France including the territorial collectivity of Corsica 112 and five located overseas 84 The regions are further subdivided into 101 departments 113 which are numbered mainly alphabetically This number is used in postal codes and was formerly used on French vehicle number plates Among the 101 departments of France five French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Mayotte and Reunion are in overseas regions ROMs that are also simultaneously overseas departments DOMs enjoy the same status as metropolitan departments and are an integral part of the European Union The 101 departments are subdivided into 335 arrondissements which are in turn subdivided into 2 054 cantons 114 These cantons are then divided into 36 658 communes which are municipalities with an elected municipal council 114 Three communes Paris Lyon and Marseille are 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 territorial collectivities with an elected assembly but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946 Overseas territories and collectivities The lands making up the French Republic shown at the same geographic scale In addition to the 18 regions and 101 departments the French Republic has five overseas collectivities French Polynesia Saint Barthelemy 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 115 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 116 Name Constitutional status Capital Clipperton Island State private property under the direct authority of the French government Uninhabited French Polynesia Designated as an overseas land pays d outre mer or POM the status is the same as an overseas collectivity Papeete French Southern and Antarctic Lands Overseas territory territoire d outre mer or TOM Port aux Francais New Caledonia Sui generis collectivity Noumea Saint Barthelemy Overseas collectivity collectivite d outre mer or COM Gustavia Saint Martin Overseas collectivity collectivite d outre mer or COM Marigot Saint Pierre and Miquelon Overseas collectivity collectivite d outre mer or COM Still referred to as a collectivite territoriale Saint Pierre Wallis and Futuna Overseas collectivity collectivite d outre mer or COM Still referred to as a territoire Mata UtuGovernment and politicsMain article Politics of France Government Emmanuel MacronPresident Elisabeth BornePrime MinisterFrance is a representative democracy organised as a unitary semi presidential republic 117 As one of the earliest republics of the modern world democratic traditions and values are deeply rooted in French culture identity and politics 118 The Constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958 establishing a framework consisting of executive legislative and judicial branches 119 It sought to address the instability of the Third and Fourth Republics by combining elements of both parliamentary and presidential systems whilst greatly strengthening the authority of the executive relative to the legislature 118 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 120 The Prime Minister currently Elisabeth Borne is the head of government appointed by the President of the Republic to lead the Government of France 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 121 In the 2022 presidential election president Macron was re elected 122 Palais Bourbon the meeting place of the National Assembly the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament The legislature consists of the French Parliament a bicameral body comprising a lower house the National Assembly Assemblee nationale and an upper house the Senate 123 Legislators in the National Assembly known as deputes represent local constituencies and are directly elected for five year terms 124 The Assembly has the power to dismiss the government by majority vote Senators are chosen by an electoral college for six year terms with half the seats submitted to election every three years 125 The Senate s legislative powers are limited in the event of disagreement between the two chambers the National Assembly has the final say 126 The parliament is responsible for determining the rules and principles concerning most areas of law political amnesty and fiscal policy however the government may draft specific details concerning most laws Until World War II Radicals were a strong political force in France embodied by the Republican Radical and Radical Socialist Party which was the most important party of the Third Republic Since World War II they were marginalised while French politics became characterised by two politically opposed groupings one left wing centred on the French Section of the Workers International and its successor the Socialist Party since 1969 and the other right wing centred on the Gaullist Party whose name changed over time to the Rally of the French People 1947 the Union of Democrats for the Republic 1958 the Rally for the Republic 1976 the Union for a Popular Movement 2007 and The Republicans since 2015 In the 2017 presidential and legislative elections the radical centrist party La Republique En Marche LREM became the dominant force overtaking both Socialists and Republicans LREM s main opponent in both the 2017 and 2022 elections has been the growing far right party National Rally 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 127 Waning civic participation has been a matter of vigorous public debate with a majority of the public reportedly supporting mandatory voting as a solution in 2019 However at least as of 2017 voter turnout was 75 percent during recent elections higher than the OECD average of 68 percent 128 Law Main article Law of France France uses a civil legal system wherein law arises primarily from written statutes 84 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 The basic principles that the French Republic must respect are found in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 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 Criminal laws can only address the future and not the past criminal ex post facto laws are prohibited 129 While administrative law is often a subcategory of civil law in many countries it is completely separated in France and each body of law is headed by a specific supreme court ordinary courts which handle criminal and civil litigation are headed by the Court of Cassation and administrative courts are headed by the Council of State To be applicable every law must be officially published in the Journal officiel de la Republique francaise France does not recognise religious law as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions it has long abolished blasphemy laws and sodomy laws the latter in 1791 However offences against public decency contraires aux bonnes mœurs or disturbing public order trouble a l ordre public have been used to repress public expressions of homosexuality or street prostitution Since 1999 civil unions for homosexual couples are permitted and since 2013 same sex marriage and LGBT adoption are legal 130 Laws prohibiting discriminatory speech in the press are as old as 1881 Some consider hate speech laws in France to be too broad or severe undermining freedom of speech 131 France has laws against racism and antisemitism 132 while the 1990 Gayssot Act prohibits Holocaust denial Freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is the basis for laicite state secularism the state does not formally recognise any religion except in Alsace Moselle Nonetheless it does recognise religious associations The Parliament has listed many religious movements as dangerous cults since 1995 and has banned wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools since 2004 In 2010 it banned the wearing of face covering Islamic veils in public human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described the law as discriminatory towards Muslims 133 134 However it is supported by most of the population 135 Foreign relations Main article Foreign relations of France 88 states and governments are part of La Francophonie 136 which promotes values of democracy multilingualism and cultural diversity 137 France has been a key member of this global organisation since its inception in 1970 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 138 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 139 these include the G7 World Trade Organization WTO 140 the Pacific Community SPC 141 and the Indian Ocean Commission COI 142 It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States ACS 143 and a leading member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie OIF of 84 French speaking countries 144 As a significant hub for international relations France has the third largest assembly of diplomatic missions second only to China and the United States which are far more populous It also hosts the headquarters of several international organisations including the OECD UNESCO Interpol the International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the OIF 145 Postwar French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership in the European Union of which it was a founding member Since the 1960s France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU 146 In the 1960s France sought to exclude the British from the European unification process 147 seeking to build its standing in continental Europe However since 1904 France has maintained an Entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and there has been a strengthening of links between the countries especially militarily The European Parliament in Strasbourg near the border with Germany France is a founding member of all EU institutions France is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO but under President de Gaulle excluded itself from the joint military command in protest of the Special Relationship between the United States and Britain and to preserve the independence of French foreign and security policies Under Nicolas Sarkozy France rejoined the NATO joint military command on 4 April 2009 148 149 150 France retains strong political and economic influence in its former African colonies Francafrique 151 and has supplied economic aid and troops for peacekeeping missions in Ivory Coast and Chad 152 From 2012 to 2021 France and other African states intervened in support of the Malian government in the Northern Mali conflict In 2017 France was the world s fourth largest donor of development aid in absolute terms behind the United States Germany and the United Kingdom 153 This represents 0 43 of its GNP the 12th highest among the OECD 154 Aid is provided by the governmental French Development Agency which finances primarily humanitarian projects in sub Saharan Africa 155 with an emphasis on developing infrastructure access to health care and education the implementation of appropriate economic policies and the consolidation of the rule of law and democracy 155 Military Main article French Armed Forces Dassault Rafale of the Armee de l Air et de l Espace Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier of the Marine nationale AMX Leclerc tank of the Armee de terre The French Armed Forces Forces armees francaises are the military and paramilitary forces of France under the President of the Republic as supreme commander They consist of the French Army Armee de Terre the French Navy Marine Nationale formerly called Armee de Mer the French Air and Space Force Armee de l Air et de l Espace and the Military Police called National Gendarmerie Gendarmerie nationale which also fulfils civil police duties in the rural areas of France Together they are among the largest armed forces in the world and the largest in the EU According to a 2018 study by Credit Suisse the French Armed Forces are ranked as the world s sixth most powerful military and the second most powerful in Europe after Russia 156 France s annual military expenditure in 2018 was US 63 8 billion or 2 3 of its GDP making it the fifth biggest military spender in the world after the United States China Saudi Arabia and India 157 There has been no national conscription since 1997 158 France has been a recognised nuclear state since 1960 France has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty CTBT 159 and acceded to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty The French nuclear force formerly known as Force de Frappe consists of four Triomphant class submarines equipped with submarine launched ballistic missiles In addition to the submarine fleet it is estimated that France has about 60 ASMP medium range air to ground missiles with nuclear warheads 160 of which around 50 are deployed by the Air and Space Force using the Mirage 2000N long range nuclear strike aircraft while around 10 are deployed by the French Navy s Super Etendard Modernise SEM attack aircraft which operate from the nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle The new Rafale F3 aircraft will gradually replace all Mirage 2000N and SEM in the nuclear strike role with the improved ASMP A missile with a nuclear warhead citation needed France has major military industries with one of the largest aerospace industries in the world 161 162 Its industries have produced such equipment as the Rafale fighter the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier the Exocet missile and the Leclerc tank among others France is actively investing in European joint projects such as the Eurocopter Tiger multipurpose frigates the UCAV demonstrator nEUROn and the Airbus A400M citation needed France is a major arms seller 163 164 with most of its arsenal s designs available for the export market except for the nuclear powered devices One French intelligence unit the Directorate General for External Security Direction generale de la securite exterieure is considered to be a component of the Armed Forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defense The other the Central Directorate for Interior Intelligence Direction centrale du renseignement interieur is a division of the National Police Force Direction generale de la Police Nationale citation needed France s cybersecurity capabilities are regularly ranked as some of the most robust of any nation in the world 165 166 Government finance See also Taxation in France The Government of France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s As of 2016 update French government debt levels reached 2 2 trillion euros the equivalent of 96 4 of French GDP 167 In late 2012 credit rating agencies warned that growing French Government debt levels risked France s AAA credit rating raising the possibility of a future downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French authorities 168 However in July 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic the French government issued 10 year bonds which had negative interest rates for the first time in its history 169 In 2020 France possessed the fourth largest gold reserves in the world 1 EconomyMain article Economy of France Overview La Defense was in 2017 ranked by Ernst amp Young as the leading central business district in continental Europe and the fourth in the world 170 Composition of the French economy GDP in 2016 by expenditure type France has a developed high income mixed economy characterised by sizeable government involvement economic diversity a skilled labour force and high innovation For roughly two centuries the French economy has consistently ranked among the ten largest globally it is currently the world s ninth largest by purchasing power parity the seventh largest by nominal GDP and the second largest in the European Union by both metrics 171 France is considered an economic power with membership in the 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 services represent two thirds of both the workforce and GDP 172 while the industrial sector accounts for a fifth of GDP and a similar proportion of employment France is the third biggest manufacturing country in Europe behind Germany and Italy and ranks eighth in the world by share of global manufacturing output at 1 9 percent 173 Less than 2 percent of GDP is generated by the primary sector namely agriculture 174 however France s agricultural sector is among the largest in value and leads the EU in terms of overall production 175 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 176 Its membership in the Eurozone and the broader European Single Market facilitates access to capital goods services and skilled labour 177 Despite protectionist policies over certain industries particularly in agriculture France has generally played a leading role in fostering free trade and commercial integration in Europe to enhance its economy 178 179 In 2019 it ranked first in Europe and 13th in the world in foreign direct investment with European countries and the United States being leading sources 180 According to the Bank of France the leading recipients of FDI were manufacturing real estate finance and insurance 181 The Paris region has the highest concentration of multinational firms in Europe 181 Under the doctrine of Dirigisme the government historically played a major role in the economy policies such as indicative planning and nationalisation are credited for contributing to three decades of unprecedented postwar economic growth known as Trente Glorieuses At its peak in 1982 the public sector accounted for one fifth of industrial employment and over four fifths of the credit market Beginning in the late 20th century France loosened regulations and state involvement in the economy with most leading companies now being privately owned state ownership now dominates only transportation defence and broadcasting 182 Policies aimed at promoting economic dynamism and privatisation have improved France s economic standing globally it is among the world s 10 most innovative countries in the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index 183 and the 15th most competitive according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report up two places from 2018 184 According to the IMF France ranked 30th in GDP per capita with roughly 45 000 per inhabitant It placed 23rd on the Human Development Index indicating very high human development Public corruption is among the lowest in the world with France consistently ranking among the 30 least corrupt countries since the Corruption Perceptions Index began in 2012 it placed 22nd in 2021 up one place from the previous year 185 186 France is Europe s second largest spender in research and development at over 2 percent of GDP globally it ranks 12th 187 Financial services banking and insurance are important part of the economy AXA is the world s second largest insurance company by total nonbanking assets in 2020 188 189 As of 2011 the three largest financial institutions cooperatively owned by their customers were French Credit Agricole Groupe Caisse D Epargne and Groupe Caisse D Epargne 190 According to a 2020 report by S amp P Global Market Intelligenc France s leading banks BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole are among the top world s 10 largest bank by assets with Societe Generale and Groupe BPCE ranking 17th and 19th globally respectively 191 The Paris stock exchange French La Bourse de Paris is one of the oldest in the world created by Louis XV in 1724 192 In 2000 it merged with counterparts in Amsterdam and Brussels to form Euronext 193 which in 2007 merged with the New York stock exchange to form NYSE Euronext the world s largest stock exchange 193 Euronext Paris the French branch of NYSE Euronext is Europe s second largest stock exchange market behind the London Stock Exchange Agriculture Champagne vineyards in Verzenay in the Montagne de Reims subregionFrance has historically been one of the world s major agricultural centres and remains a global agricultural powerhouse 194 195 Nicknamed the granary of the old continent 196 over half its total land area is farmland of which 45 percent is devoted to permanent field crops such as cereals The country s diverse climate extensive arable land modern farming technology and EU subsidies have made it Europe s leading agricultural producer and exporter 197 it accounts for one fifth of the EU s agricultural production including and over one third of its oilseeds cereals and wine 198 As of 2017 France ranked first in Europe in beef and cereals second in dairy and aquaculture and third in poultry fruits vegetables and manufactured chocolate products 199 France has the EU s largest cattle herd at 18 19 million 200 France is the world s sixth biggest exporter of agricultural products generating a trade surplus of over 7 4 billion 199 Its primary agricultural exports are wheat poultry dairy beef pork and internationally recognised brands particularly beverages 200 201 France is the fifth largest grower of wheat after China India Russia and the United States all of which are significantly larger 200 It is the world s top exporter of natural spring water flax malt and potatoes 199 In 2020 France exported over 61 billion in agricultural products compared to 37 billion in 2000 202 203 France was an early centre of viviculture dating back to at least the sixth century BCE It is the world s second largest producer of wine with many varieties enjoying global renown such as Champagne and Bordeaux 199 domestic consumption is also high particularly of Rose France produces rum primarily from overseas territories such as Martinique Guadeloupe and La Reunion Relative to other developed countries agriculture is an important sector of France s economy 3 8 of the active population is employed in agriculture whereas the total agri food industry made up 4 2 of the French GDP in 2005 198 France remains the largest recipient of EU agricultural subsidies receiving an annual average of 8 billion from 2007 to 2019 204 205 Tourism Main article Tourism in France The Eiffel Tower is the world s most visited paid monument an icon of both Paris and France Nice on the French Riviera Mont Saint Michel and its bay were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979 With 89 million international tourist arrivals in 2018 206 France is the world s top tourist destination ahead of Spain 83 million and the United States 80 million However it ranks third in tourism derived income due to the shorter duration of visits 207 The most popular tourist sites include annual visitors Eiffel Tower 6 2 million Chateau de Versailles 2 8 million Museum national d Histoire naturelle 2 million Pont du Gard 1 5 million Arc de Triomphe 1 2 million Mont Saint Michel 1 million Sainte Chapelle 683 000 Chateau du Haut Kœnigsbourg 549 000 Puy de Dome 500 000 Musee Picasso 441 000 and Carcassonne 362 000 208 France especially Paris has some of the world s largest and most renowned museums including the Louvre which is the most visited art museum in the world 5 7 million the Musee d Orsay 2 1 million mostly devoted to Impressionism the Musee de l Orangerie 1 02 million which is home to eight large Water Lily murals by Claude Monet as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou 1 2 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 209 With more than 10 million tourists a year the French Riviera French Cote d Azur in Southeast France is the second leading tourist destination in the country after the Paris region 210 It benefits from 300 days of sunshine per year 115 kilometres 71 mi of coastline and beaches 18 golf courses 14 ski resorts and 3 000 restaurants 211 31 Each year the Cote d Azur hosts 50 of the world s superyacht fleet 211 66 With 6 million tourists a year the castles of the Loire Valley French chateaux and the Loire Valley itself are the third leading tourist destination in France 212 213 this World Heritage Site is noteworthy for its architectural heritage in its historic towns but in particular its castles such as the Chateaux d Amboise de Chambord d Usse de Villandry Chenonceau and Montsoreau The Chateau de Chantilly Versailles and Vaux le Vicomte all three located near Paris are also visitor attractions France has 37 sites inscribed in UNESCO s World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest beaches and seaside resorts ski resorts as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity green tourism Small and picturesque French villages are promoted through the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France literally The Most Beautiful Villages of France The Remarkable Gardens label is a list of the over 200 gardens classified by the Ministry of Culture This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks France attracts many religious pilgrims on their way to St James or to Lourdes a town in the Hautes Pyrenees that hosts several million visitors a year Energy Further information Energy in France Belleville Nuclear Power Plant France derives most of its electricity from nuclear power the highest percentage in the world France is the world s tenth largest producer of electricity 214 Electricite 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 215 In 2018 EDF produced around one fifth of the European Union s electricity primarily from nuclear power 216 As of 2021 France was the biggest energy exporter in Europe mostly to the U K and Italy 217 and the largest net exporter of electricity in the world 217 Since the 1973 oil crisis France has pursued a strong policy of energy security 217 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 56 218 Consequently 70 of France s electricity is generated by nuclear power the highest proportion in the world by a wide margin 219 only Slovakia and Ukraine derive a majority of electricity from nuclear power at roughly 53 and 51 respectively 220 France is considered a world leader in nuclear technology with reactors and fuel products being major exports 217 Due to its overwhelming reliance on nuclear power renewable energies have seen relatively little growth compared to other Western countries Nevertheless between 2008 and 2019 France s production capacity from renewable energies rose consistently and nearly doubled 221 Hydropower is by far the leading source accounting for over half the country s renewable energy sources 222 and contributing 13 of its electricity 221 the highest proportion in Europe after Norway and Turkey 222 As with nuclear power most hydroelectric plants such as Eguzon Etang de Soulcem and Lac de Vouglans are managed by EDF 222 France aims to further expand hydropower into 2040 221 France made minimal but measurable investments in other renewable energy sources Due to its geography and extensive agricultural land it has the second largest wind energy potential in Europe and by 2017 had ranked eighth globally in installed wind capacity 223 In terms of solar power France ranked seventh in the world in 2015 for solar photovoltaic installation capacity 224 As of 2019 solar power sources generated over 10 570 megawatts of electricity compared to a little over 1 000 megawatts in 2010 225 Because France derives the vast majority of its power from nuclear and renewable sources close to half its primary energy 48 5 is derived from low carbon sources compared to 26 4 in Europe and 15 7 in the world as a whole 226 France is also the smallest emitter of carbon dioxide among the G7 227 Transport Main article Transport in France Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world 228 A TGV Duplex crossing the Cize Bolozon viaduct The train can reach a maximum speed of 360 kilometres per hour 220 mph France s railway network which stretches 29 473 kilometres 18 314 mi as of 2008 229 is the second most extensive in Western Europe after Germany 230 It is operated by the SNCF and high speed trains include the Thalys the Eurostar and TGV which travels at 320 km h 199 mph 231 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 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 232 The Paris region is enveloped with the densest network of roads and highways which connect it with virtually all parts of the country French roads also handle substantial international traffic connecting with cities in neighbouring Belgium Luxembourg Germany Switzerland Italy Spain Andorra and Monaco There is no annual registration fee or road tax however usage of the mostly privately owned motorways is through tolls except in the vicinity of large communes The new car market is dominated by domestic brands such as Renault Peugeot and Citroen 233 France possesses the Millau Viaduct the world s tallest bridge 234 and has built many important bridges such as the Pont de Normandie Diesel and gasoline fuelled cars and lorries cause a large part of the country s air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions 235 236 There are 464 airports in France 84 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 237 which also is the largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea 238 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 84 Science and technology Main articles Science and technology in France and List of French inventions and discoveries France is in 2020 the biggest national financial contributor to the European Space Agency 239 which conceived the Ariane rocket family launched from French Guiana Ariane 5 pictured Since the Middle Ages France has been a major 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 240 The University of Paris founded in the mid 12th century is still one of the most important academic institutions in the Western world 241 In the 17th century mathematician Rene 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 it was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe for the next two centuries The Age of Enlightenment was marked by the work of biologist Buffon one of the first naturalists to recognise ecological succession and chemist Lavoisier who discovered the role of oxygen in combustion Diderot and D Alembert published the Encyclopedie which aimed to give the public access to useful knowledge that could be applied to everyday life 242 The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century saw spectacular scientific developments in France with 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 Henri Poincare physicists Henri Becquerel Pierre and Marie Curie who remain famous for their work on radioactivity physicist Paul Langevin and virologist Luc Montagnier co discoverer of HIV AIDS Hand transplantation was developed in Lyon in 1998 by an international team that included Jean Michel Dubernard who afterward performed the first successful double hand transplant 243 Telesurgery was first performed by French surgeons led by Jacques Marescaux on 7 September 2001 across the Atlantic Ocean 244 A face transplant was first done on 27 November 2005 by Dr Bernard Devauchelle 245 246 France was the fourth country to achieve nuclear capability 247 and has the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world 248 it is also a leader in civilian nuclear technology 249 250 251 France was the third nation after the Soviet Union and the United States to launch its space satellite and the first to establish a commercial launch service provider Arianespace The French national space programme CNES is the third oldest in the world and the oldest largest and most active in Europe France is a founding member of the European Space Agency ESA contributing over a quarter of its budget the most of any member state 252 ESA is headquartered in Paris has its principal spaceport in French Guiana and utilises the French made Ariane 5 as its primary launch vehicle 253 254 255 Airbus a leading aerospace company and the world s largest airline manufacturer was formed partly from the French company Aerospatiale its main commercial airline business is conducted through its French division Airbus S A S The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in GrenobleFrance also hosts major international research facilities including the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility the Institut Laue Langevin and Minatec Europe s leading nanotechnology research centre It is also a major member of CERN which operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world and is its third largest contributor France pioneered and hosts ITER an international effort to develop nuclear fusion energy which is the world s biggest megaproject The TGV developed by France s national railway company the SNCF is a high speed train that holds a series of world speed records in 2007 it became the fastest commercial wheeled train achieving a speed of 574 8 km h 357 2 mph 256 As of 2021 it is the third fastest train in the world surpassed only by maglev models that utilise magnetic levitation 257 Western Europe is now serviced by a network of TGV lines The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS the state research agency is the largest research institute in Europe and among the most prominent internationally according to the 2020 Nature Index it ranks fourth in the share of articles published in scientific journals worldwide 258 with France as a whole having the sixth highest share 259 As of 2022 France ranks fourth in the number of Nobel laureates with 70 French people having been awarded a Nobel Prize 260 Twelve French mathematicians have received a Fields Medal considered the most prestigious award in the field making up one fifth of total recipients 261 and second only to the United States France ranked 12th in the 2022 Global Innovation Index compared to 12th in 2020 and 16th in 2019 262 263 264 265 DemographicsMain article Demographics of France Population density in France by arrondissement With an estimated July 2022 population of 67 897 000 people 8 France is the 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 266 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 267 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 268 269 270 271 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 is 65 or over 272 The average life expectancy at birth is 82 7 years the 12th highest in the world From 2006 to 2011 population growth averaged 0 6 percent per year 273 since 2011 annual growth has been between 0 4 and 0 5 percent annually 274 Immigrants are major contributors to this trend in 2010 27 percent of newborns in metropolitan France had at least one foreign born parent and another 24 percent had at least one parent born outside Europe excluding French overseas territories 275 Ethnic groups Main article French people Map of the French diaspora around the world Most French people are of Celtic Gallic origin with a significant admixture of Italic Romans and Germanic Franks groups reflecting centuries of respective migration and settlement 276 Through the course of the Middle Ages France incorporated various neighbouring ethnic and linguistic groups as evidenced by Breton elements in the west Aquitanian in the southwest 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 7 277 278 A 2008 poll conducted jointly by INED and the French National Institute of Statistics 279 280 estimated that the largest ancestry groups were Italian 5 million followed by Northwest African 3 6 million 281 282 283 Sub Saharan African 2 5 million Armenian 500 000 and Turkish 200 000 284 There are also sizeable minorities of other European ethnic groups namely Spanish Portuguese Polish and Greek 281 285 286 France has a significant Gitan Romani population numbering between 20 000 and 400 000 287 many foreign Roma are expelled back to Bulgaria and Romania frequently 288 Immigration 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 289 between 1921 and 1935 alone about 1 1 million net immigrants came to France 290 The next largest wave came in the 1960s when around 1 6 million pieds noirs returned to France following the independence of its Northwest African possessions Algeria and Morocco 291 292 They were joined by numerous former colonial subjects from North and West Africa as well as numerous European immigrants from Spain and Portugal The Calais Jungle was a refugee and illegal migrant encampment in the vicinity of Calais France that existed from January 2015 to October 2016 France remains a major destination for immigrants accepting about 200 000 legal immigrants annually 293 In 2005 it was Western Europe s leading recipient of asylum seekers with an estimated 50 000 applications albeit a 15 decrease from 2004 294 In 2010 France received about 48 100 asylum applications placing it among the top five asylum recipients in the world 295 and in subsequent years it saw the number of applications increase ultimately doubling to 100 412 in 2017 296 The European Union allows free movement between the member states although France established controls to curb 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 297 298 299 In 2008 France granted citizenship to 137 000 persons mostly from Morocco Algeria and Turkey 300 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 301 Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 percent between 2009 and 2012 with the population growing from 5 300 to 11 000 301 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 301 Number of immigrants XIII living in France by region of birth UN SDG region 2019 census 2009 census GrowthNorthern Africa and Western Asia 2 425 200 1 983 600 22 3 Europe 2 297 400 2 076 200 10 7 Sub Saharan Africa 1 123 800 667 500 68 4 Eastern and South Eastern Asia 311 400 293 100 6 2 Latin America and the Caribbean 307 650 233 900 31 5 Central and Southern Asia 205 600 120 100 71 2 Northern America 54 600 51 600 5 8 Australia NZ and Oceania 7 950 6 700 18 7 TOTAL 6 733 600 5 432 700 23 9 Sources INSEE census figures 302 UN SDG regions 303 Note Figures for 2019 refer to Metropolitan France and the 5 overseas regions Mayotte included Figures for 2009 do not include Mayotte The overseas collectivities in the Pacific Ocean are included neither in 2009 nor in 2019 Major cities See also Functional area France and Urban unit France is a highly urbanised country with its largest cities in terms of metropolitan area population in 2019 304 being Paris 13 114 718 inh Lyon 2 280 845 Marseille 1 873 270 Lille 1 510 079 Toulouse 1 454 158 Bordeaux 1 363 711 Nantes 1 011 020 Strasbourg 853 110 Montpellier 801 595 and Rennes 755 668 Note since its 2020 revision of metropolitan area borders 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 vte Largest metropolitan areas in France 2019 censusRank Name Region Pop Rank Name Region Pop Paris Lyon 1 Paris Ile de France 13 114 718 11 Grenoble Auvergne Rhone Alpes 717 4692 Lyon Auvergne Rhone Alpes 2 280 845 12 Rouen Normandy 705 6273 Marseille Provence Alpes Cote d Azur 1 873 270 13 Nice Provence Alpes Cote d Azur 615 1264 Lille Hauts de France 1 510 079 14 Toulon Provence Alpes Cote d Azur 573 2305 Toulouse Occitania administrative region 1 454 158 15 Tours Centre Val de Loire 519 7786 Bordeaux Nouvelle Aquitaine 1 363 711 16 Nancy Grand Est 510 3067 Nantes Pays de la Loire 1 011 020 17 Clermont Ferrand Auvergne Rhone Alpes 507 4798 Strasbourg Grand Est 853 110 18 Saint Etienne Auvergne Rhone Alpes 498 8499 Montpellier Occitania administrative region 801 595 19 Caen Normandy 472 16110 Rennes Brittany 755 668 20 Orleans Centre Val de Loire 451 373 Language Main articles French language Languages of France and Organisation internationale de la Francophonie Map of the Francophone world Native language Administrative language Secondary or non official language Francophone minorities According to Article 2 of the Constitution the official language of France is French 305 a Romance language derived from Latin Since 1635 the Academie francaise 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 306 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 Organisation internationale de la Francophonie The perceived threat from anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France Besides French there exist 77 vernacular minority languages of France eight spoken in French metropolitan territory and 69 in the French overseas territories From the 17th to the mid 20th century French served as the pre eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe 307 The dominant position of the French language in international affairs was overtaken by English since the emergence of the United States as a major power 56 308 309 For most of the time in which French served as an international lingua franca it was not the native language of most Frenchmen a report in 1794 conducted by Henri Gregoire found that of the country s 25 million people only three million spoke French natively the rest spoke one of the country s many regional languages such as Alsatian Breton or Occitan 310 Through the expansion of public education in which French was the sole language of instruction as well as other factors such as increased urbanisation and the rise of mass communication French gradually came to be adopted by virtually the entire population a process not completed until the 20th century As a result of France s extensive colonial ambitions between the 17th and 20th centuries French was introduced to the Americas Africa Polynesia South East Asia as well as the Caribbean French is the second most studied foreign language in the world after English 311 and is a lingua franca in some regions notably in Africa The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies The Levant South and Southeast Asia while creoles and pidgins based on French have emerged in the French departments in the West Indies and the South Pacific French Polynesia On the other hand many former French colonies have adopted French as an official language and the total number of French speakers is increasing especially in Africa It is estimated that between 300 million 312 and 500 million 313 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 European Union and carried out in France 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 314 Religion Main article Religion in France Notre Dame de Reims is the Roman Catholic cathedral where the Kings of France were crowned until 1825 XIV France is a secular country in which freedom of religion is a constitutional right French religious policy is based on the concept of laicite 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 Institut Montaigne and Institut francais d opinion publique IFOP 51 1 of the total population of France was Christian 39 6 had no religion atheism or agnosticism 5 6 were Muslims 2 5 were followers of other faiths and the remaining 0 4 were undecided about their faith 315 Estimates of the number of Muslims in France vary widely In 2003 the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the total number of people of Muslim background to be between 5 and 6 million 8 10 316 317 The current 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 315 Catholicism has been the predominant religion in France for more than a millennium though it is not as actively practised today as it was Among the 47 000 religious buildings in France 94 are Roman Catholic 318 During the French Revolution activists conducted a brutal campaign of de Christianisation ending the Catholic Church as the state religion In some cases clergy and churches were attacked with iconoclasm stripping the churches of statues and ornaments After alternating between royal and secular republican governments during the 19th century in 1905 France passed the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State which established the principle of laicite 319 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 320 Certain groups such as Scientology 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 321 Secte is considered a pejorative term in France 322 Health Main article Health in France The Pitie Salpetriere Hospital a teaching hospital in Paris is one of Europe s largest hospitals 323 The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance In its 2000 assessment of world healthcare systems the World Health Organization found that France provided the close to best overall health care in the world 324 The French healthcare system was ranked first worldwide by the World Health Organization in 1997 325 326 In 2011 France spent 11 6 of its GDP on health care or US 4 086 per capita 327 a figure much higher than the average spent by countries in Europe but less than in the United States Approximately 77 of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies 328 Care is generally free for people affected by chronic diseases affections de longues durees such as cancer AIDS or cystic fibrosis Average 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 329 330 There are 3 22 physicians for every 1000 inhabitants in France 331 and average healthcare spending per capita was US 4 719 in 2008 332 As of 2007 update approximately 140 000 inhabitants 0 4 of France are living with HIV AIDS 84 Even if the French have the reputation of being one of the thinnest people in developed countries 333 334 335 336 337 excessive citations France like other rich countries faces an increasing and recent epidemic of obesity due mostly to the replacement in French eating habits of traditional healthy French cuisine by junk food 338 333 334 339 excessive citations The French obesity rate is still far below that of the United States currently equal to the American rate in the 1970s and is still the lowest in Europe 334 336 339 Authorities now regard obesity as one of the main public health issues and fight it fiercely 340 Rates of childhood obesity are slowing in France while continuing to grow in other countries 341 Education Main article Education in France The Ecole normale superieure ENS in Paris established in the end of the 18th century produces more Nobel Prize laureates per capita than any other institution in the world 342 In 1802 Napoleon created the lycee the second and final stage of secondary education that prepares students for higher education studies or a profession 343 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 16 344 345 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 346 347 France was one of the PISA participating countries where school children perceived some of the lowest levels of support and feedback from their teachers 347 Schoolchildren in France reported greater concern about the disciplinary climate and behaviour in classrooms compared to other OECD countries 347 Primary and secondary education are predominantly public and run by the Ministry of National Education While training and remuneration of teachers and the curriculum are the responsibility of the state centrally the management of primary and secondary schools is overseen by local authorities Primary education comprises two phases nursery school ecole maternelle and elementary school ecole elementaire Nursery school aims to stimulate the minds of very young children and promote their socialisation and development of a basic grasp of language and numbers Around the age of six children transfer to elementary school whose primary objectives are learning about writing arithmetic and citizenship Secondary education also consists of two phases The first is delivered through colleges college and leads to the national certificate Diplome national du brevet The second is offered in high schools lycee and finishes in national exams leading to a baccalaureate baccalaureat available in professional technical or general flavours or certificate of professional competence certificat d aptitude professionelle Higher education is divided between public universities and the prestigious and selective Grandes ecoles such as Sciences Po Paris for Political studies HEC Paris for Economics Polytechnique the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales for Social studies and the Ecole nationale superieure des mines de Paris that produce high profile engineers or the Ecole nationale d administration for careers in the Grands Corps of the state The Grandes ecoles have been criticised for alleged elitism producing many if not most of France s high ranking civil servants CEOs and politicians 348 CultureMain article Culture of France Eugene Delacroix s Liberty Leading the People 1830 portrays the July Revolution using the stylistic views of Romanticism Since Liberty is part of the motto Liberte egalite fraternite as the French put it this painting has become the primary symbol of the French Republic France has been a centre of Western cultural development for centuries and a cultural superpower 349 350 Many French artists have been among the most renowned of their time France is still recognised in the world for its rich cultural tradition 351 The successive political regimes have always promoted artistic creation The creation of the Ministry of Culture in 1959 helped preserve the cultural heritage of the country and make it available to the public The Ministry of Culture has been very active since its creation granting subsidies to artists promoting French culture in the world supporting festivals and cultural events and protecting historical monuments The French government also succeeded in maintaining a cultural exception to defend audiovisual products made in the country 352 France receives the highest number of tourists per year largely thanks to the numerous cultural establishments and historical buildings implanted all over the territory It counts 1 200 museums welcoming more than 50 million people annually 353 The most important cultural sites are run by the government for instance through the public agency Centre des monuments nationaux which is responsible for approximately 85 national historical monuments The 43 180 buildings protected as historical monuments include mainly residences many castles and religious buildings cathedrals basilicas churches but also statues memorials and gardens UNESCO inscribed 45 sites in France on the World Heritage List 354 Art Main article French art The Louvre Museum widely recognised as one of the finest art museums in the world was in 2019 both the largest and the most visited museum 355 The origins of French art were very much influenced by Flemish art and by Italian art at the time of the Renaissance Jean Fouquet the most famous medieval French painter is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance firsthand The Renaissance painting School of Fontainebleau was directly inspired by Italian painters such as Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino who both worked in France Two of the most famous French artists of the time of the Baroque era Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain lived in Italy The 17th century was the period when French painting became prominent and individualised itself through classicism Prime Minister Jean Baptiste Colbert founded 1648 the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture under Louis XIV to protect these artists in 1666 he also created the still active French Academy in Rome to have direct relations with Italian artists French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century as a more intimate imitation of the old baroque style the works of the court endorsed artists Antoine Watteau Francois Boucher and Jean Honore Fragonard being the most representative in the country The French Revolution brought great changes as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style such as Jacques Louis David and the highly influential Academie des Beaux Arts defined the style known as Academism At this time France had become a centre of artistic creation the first half of the 19th century being dominated by two successive movements at first Romanticism with Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix then Realism with Camille Corot Gustave Courbet and Jean Francois Millet a style that eventually evolved into Naturalism In the second part of the 19th century France s influence over painting became even more important with the development of new styles of painting such as Impressionism and Symbolism The most famous impressionist painters of the period were Camille Pissarro Edouard Manet Edgar Degas Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir 356 The second generation of impressionist style painters Paul Cezanne Paul Gauguin Toulouse Lautrec and Georges Seurat were also at the avant garde of artistic evolutions 357 as well as the fauvist artists Henri Matisse Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck 358 359 Claude Monet founder of the Impressionist movement 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 Many museums in France are entirely or partly devoted to sculptures and paintings works A huge collection of old masterpieces created before or during the 18th century are displayed in the state owned Musee du Louvre such as the Mona Lisa also known as La Joconde While the Louvre Palace has been for a long time a museum the Musee d Orsay was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station Gare d Orsay in a major reorganisation of national art collections to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements 360 361 The Musee d Orsay was voted in 2018 the best museum in the world 362 Modern works are presented in the Musee National d Art Moderne which moved in 1976 to the Centre Georges Pompidou These three state owned museums welcome close to 17 million people a year 363 Other national museums hosting paintings include the Grand Palais 1 3 million visitors in 2008 but there are also many museums owned by cities the most visited being the Musee d Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 0 8 million entries in 2008 which hosts contemporary works 363 Outside Paris all the large cities have a Museum of Fine Arts with a section dedicated to European and French painting Some of the finest collections are in Lyon Lille Rouen Dijon Rennes and Grenoble Architecture Main article French architecture Saint Louis s Sainte Chapelle represents the French impact on religious architecture During the Middle Ages many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers Some French castles that survived are Chinon Chateau d Angers the massive Chateau de Vincennes and the so called Cathar castles During this era France had been using Romanesque architecture like most of Western Europe Some of the greatest examples of Romanesque churches in France are the Saint Sernin Basilica in Toulouse the largest Romanesque church in Europe 364 and the remains of the Cluny Abbey Gothic architecture originally named Opus Francigenum meaning French work 365 was born in Ile de France and was the first French style of architecture to be copied in all of Europe 366 Northern France is the home of some of the most important Gothic cathedrals and basilicas the first of these being the Saint Denis Basilica used as the royal necropolis other important French Gothic cathedrals are Notre Dame de Chartres and Notre Dame d Amiens The kings were crowned in another important Gothic church Notre Dame de Reims 367 Aside from churches Gothic Architecture had been used for many religious palaces the most important one being the Palais des Papes in Avignon 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 Chateau de Montsoreau 368 Such residential castles were the Chateau de Chambord the Chateau de Chenonceau or the Chateau d Amboise Following the renaissance and the end of the Middle Ages Baroque architecture replaced the traditional Gothic style However in France baroque architecture found greater success in the secular domain than in the religious one 369 In the secular domain the Palace of Versailles has many baroque features 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 370 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 371 372 After the Revolution the Republicans favoured Neoclassicism although it was introduced in France before the revolution with such buildings as the Parisian Pantheon or the Capitole de Toulouse Built during the first French Empire the Arc de Triomphe and Sainte Marie Madeleine represent the best example of Empire style architecture 373 Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux an example of French baroque architecture Under Napoleon III a new wave of urbanism and architecture was given birth extravagant buildings such as the neo baroque Palais Garnier were built The urban planning of the time was very organised and rigorous most notably Haussmann s renovation of Paris The architecture associated with this era is named 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 Eugene 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 iconic 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 374 France s largest financial district is La Defense where a significant number of skyscrapers are located 375 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 Main article French literature The earliest French literature dates from the Middle Ages when what is now known as modern France did not have a single uniform language There were several languages and dialects and writers used their spelling and grammar Some authors of French medieval texts are unknown such as Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot Grail Other authors are known for example Chretien de Troyes and Duke William IX of Aquitaine who wrote in Occitan Much medieval French poetry and literature were inspired by the legends of the Matter of France such as The Song of Roland and the various chansons de geste The Roman de Renart written in 1175 by Perrout de Saint Cloude tells the story of the medieval character Reynard the Fox and is another example of early French writing An important 16th century writer was Francois Rabelais whose novel Gargantua and Pantagruel has remained famous and appreciated until now Michel de Montaigne was another major figure of French literature during that century His most famous work Essais created the literary genre of the essay 376 French poetry during that century was embodied by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay Both writers founded the La Pleiade literary movement In 1678 Madame de La Fayette published anonymously La Princesse de Cleves a novel that is considered to be one of the first psychological novels of all time 377 Jean de La Fontaine is one of the most famous fabulists of that time as he wrote hundreds of fables some being far more famous than others such as The Ant and the Grasshopper Generations of French pupils had to learn his fables which were seen as helping teach wisdom and common sense to the young people Some of his verses have entered the popular language to become proverbs such as A l œuvre on connait l artisan A workman is known by his chips 378 French literary figures Clockwise from top left Moliere is the most played author in the Comedie Francaise 379 Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelist and poet 19th century poet writer and translator Charles Baudelaire 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean Paul Sartre Jean Racine whose incredible mastery of the alexandrine and the French language has been praised for centuries created plays such as Phedre or Britannicus He is along with Pierre Corneille Le Cid and Moliere considered one of the three great dramatists of France s golden age Moliere who is deemed to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature 380 wrote dozens of plays including Le Misanthrope L Avare Le Malade imaginaire as well as Le Bourgeois gentilhomme His plays have been so popular around the world that the French language is sometimes dubbed as the language of Moliere la langue de Moliere 381 just like English is considered the language of Shakespeare French literature and poetry flourished even more in the 18th and 19th centuries Denis Diderot s best known works are Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau s Nephew He is however best known for being the main redactor of the Encyclopedie whose aim was to sum up all the knowledge of his century in fields such as arts sciences languages and philosophy and to present them to the people to fight ignorance and obscurantism During that same century Charles Perrault was a prolific writer of famous children s fairy tales including Puss in Boots Cinderella Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard At the start of the 19th century symbolist poetry was an important movement in French literature with poets such as Charles Baudelaire Paul Verlaine and Stephane Mallarme 382 The 19th century saw the writings of many renowned French authors Victor Hugo is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time 383 for excelling in all literary genres The preface of his play Cromwell is considered to be the manifesto of the Romantic movement Les Contemplations and La Legende des siecles are considered poetic masterpieces 384 Hugo s verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare Dante and Homer 384 His novel Les Miserables is widely seen as one of the greatest novels ever written 385 and The Hunchback of Notre Dame has remained immensely popular Other major authors of that century include Alexandre Dumas The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Emile Zola Les Rougon Macquart Honore de Balzac La Comedie humaine Guy de Maupassant Theophile 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 The Prix Goncourt is a French literary prize first awarded in 1903 386 In the early 20th century France was a haven for literary freedom 387 Works banned for obscenity in the US the UK and other Anglophone nations were published in France decades before they were available in the respective authors home countries 387 The innate French regard for the mind meant that France was disinclined to punish literary figures for their writing and prosecutions were rare 387 Important writers of the 20th century include Marcel Proust Louis Ferdinand Celine Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre Antoine de Saint Exupery wrote Little Prince which has remained popular for decades with children and adults around the world 388 As of 2014 update French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation 389 The first Nobel Prize in Literature was for a French author while France s latest Nobel prize in literature is for Patrick Modiano who was awarded the prize in 2014 389 Jean Paul Sartre was also the first nominee in the committee s history to refuse the prize in 1964 389 Philosophy Main article French philosophy 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 Rene 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 390 391 His Meditations on First Philosophy changed the primary object of philosophical thought and raised some of the most fundamental problems for foreigners such as Spinoza Leibniz Hume Berkeley and Kant Rene Descartes founder of modern Western philosophy 392 French philosophers produced some of the most important political works of the Age of Enlightenment In The Spirit of the Laws Baron de Montesquieu theorised the principle of separation of powers which has been implemented in all liberal democracies since it was first applied in the United States Voltaire came to embody the Enlightenment with his defence of civil liberties such as the right to a free trial and freedom of religion 19th century French thought was targeted at responding to the social malaise following the French Revolution Rationalist philosophers such as Victor Cousin and Auguste Comte who called for a new social doctrine were opposed by reactionary thinkers such as Joseph de Maistre Louis de Bonald and Felicite Robert de Lamennais who blamed the rationalist rejection of traditional order De Maistre together with the Englishman Edmund Burke was one of the founders of European conservatism Comte was the founder of positivism which Emile Durkheim reformulated as a basis for social research In the 20th century partly as a reaction to the perceived excesses of positivism French spiritualism thrived with thinkers such as Henri Bergson and it influenced American pragmatism and Whitehead s version of process philosophy Meanwhile French epistemology became a prominent school of thought with Jules Henri Poincare Gaston Bachelard Jean Cavailles and Jules Vuillemin Influenced by German phenomenology and existentialism the philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre gained a strong influence after World War II and late 20th century France became the cradle of postmodern philosophy with Jean Francois Lyotard Jean Baudrillard Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault Music Main article Music of France Claude Debussy 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 Marc Antoine Charpentier Francois Couperin 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 393 full citation needed French composers played an important role in the music of the 19th and early 20th centuries which is considered to be the Romantic music era Romantic music emphasised a surrender to nature a fascination with the past and the supernatural the exploration of unusual strange and surprising sounds and a focus on national identity This period was also a golden age for operas French composers from the Romantic era included Hector Berlioz best known for his Symphonie fantastique Georges Bizet best known for Carmen which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas Gabriel Faure best known for his Pavane Requiem and nocturnes Charles Gounod best known for his Ave Maria and his opera Faust Jacques Offenbach best known for his 100 operettas of the 1850s 1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann Edouard Lalo best known for his Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra and his Cello Concerto in D minor Jules Massenet best known for his operas of which he wrote more than thirty the most frequently staged are Manon 1884 and Werther 1892 and Camille Saint Saens he has many frequently performed works including The Carnival of the Animals Danse macabre Samson and Delilah Opera Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No 3 Serge Gainsbourg one of the world s most influential popular musicians Daft Punk pioneers of the French house movement Later came precursors of modern classical music Erik Satie was a key member of the early 20th century Parisian avant garde best known for his Gymnopedies Francis Poulenc s best known works are his piano suite Trois mouvements perpetuels 1919 the ballet Les biches 1923 the Concert champetre 1928 for harpsichord and orchestra the opera Dialogues des Carmelites 1957 and the Gloria 1959 for soprano choir and orchestra Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy are the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and his use of non traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed 394 Debussy s music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of atonality The two composers invented new musical forms 395 396 397 398 and new sounds Ravel s piano compositions such as Jeux d eau Miroirs Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit demand considerable virtuosity His mastery of orchestration is evident in the Rapsodie espagnole Daphnis et Chloe his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky s Pictures at an Exhibition and his orchestral work Bolero 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 399 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 French pop music known as chanson francaise has also remained very popular Among the most important French artists of the century are Edith Piaf Georges Brassens Leo Ferre Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg 400 Although there are very few rock bands in France compared to English speaking countries 401 bands such as Noir Desir Mano Negra Niagara Les Rita Mitsouko and more recently Superbus Phoenix and Gojira 402 or Shaka Ponk have reached worldwide popularity Other French artists with international careers have been popular in several countries most notably female singers Dalida Mireille Mathieu Mylene Farmer 402 Alizee and Nolwenn Leroy 403 electronic music pioneers Jean Michel Jarre Laurent Garnier and Bob Sinclar later Martin Solveig and David Guetta In the 1990s and 2000s decade electronic duos Daft Punk Justice and Air also reached worldwide popularity and contributed to the reputation of modern electronic music in the world 402 404 405 Among current musical events and institutions in France many are dedicated to classical music and operas The most prestigious institutions are the state owned Paris National Opera with its two sites Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille the Opera National de Lyon the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux As for music festivals there are several events organised the most popular being Eurockeennes a word play which sounds in French as European Solidays and Rock en Seine The Fete de la Musique imitated by many foreign cities was first launched by the French Government in 1982 406 407 Major music halls and venues in France include Le Zenith sites present in many cities and other places in Paris Paris Olympia Theatre Mogador Elysee Montmartre Cinema Main article Cinema of France A Palme d Or from the Cannes Film Festival one of the Big Three film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival 408 409 410 France has historical and strong links with cinema with two Frenchmen Auguste and Louis Lumiere known as the Lumiere Brothers credited with creating cinema in 1895 411 The world s first female filmmaker Alice Guy Blache was also from France 412 Several important cinematic movements including the late 1950s and 1960s Nouvelle Vague began in the country It is noted for having a strong film industry due in part to protections afforded by the Government of France France remains a leader in filmmaking as of 2015 update producing more films than any other European country 413 414 The nation also hosts the Cannes Festival one of the most important and famous film festivals in the world 415 416 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 Kieslowski Andrzej Zulawski Argentina Gaspar Noe Edgardo Cozarinsky Russia Alexandre Alexeieff Anatole Litvak Austria Michael Haneke and Georgia Gela 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 417 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 417 France is 2013 the 2nd exporter of films in the world after the United States 418 France historically was the cultural centre of the world 307 although its dominant position has been surpassed by the United States Today France takes steps in protecting and promoting its culture becoming a leading advocate of cultural exception 419 The nation succeeded in convincing all EU members to refuse to include culture and audiovisuals in the list of liberalised sectors of the WTO in 1993 420 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 421 Fashion Main article French fashion Chanel s headquarters on Place Vendome Paris 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 Louis XIV 422 when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became arguably the arbiter of taste and style in Europe But France renewed its dominance of the high fashion French couture or haute couture industry in the years 1860 1960 through the establishment of the great couturier houses such as Chanel Dior and Givenchy The French perfume industry is the world leader in its sector and is centred on the town of Grasse 423 In the 1960s the elitist Haute couture came under criticism from France s youth culture In 1966 the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established Haute Couture norms by launching a pret a porter ready to wear line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel Thierry Mugler Claude Montana Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 1980s The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH According to 2017 data compiled by Deloitte Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey LVMH a French brand is the largest luxury company in the world by sales selling more than twice the amount of its nearest competitor 424 Moreover France also possesses 3 of the top 10 luxury goods companies by sales LVMH Kering SA L Oreal more than any other country in the world 424 Media Main article Telecommunications in France Le Figaro was founded in 1826 and it is still considered a newspaper of record 425 Best selling daily national newspapers in France are Le Parisien Aujourd hui en France with 460 000 sold daily Le Monde and Le Figaro with around 300 000 copies sold daily but also L Equipe dedicated to sports coverage 426 In the past years free dailies made a breakthrough with Metro 20 Minutes and Direct Plus distributed at more than 650 000 copies respectively 427 However the widest circulations are reached by the regional daily Ouest France with more than 750 000 copies sold and the 50 other regional papers have also high sales 428 429 The sector of weekly magazines is stronger and diversified with more than 400 specialised weekly magazines published in the country 430 The most influential news magazines are the left wing Le Nouvel Observateur centrist L Express and right wing Le Point more than 400 000 copies 431 but the highest circulation for weeklies is reached by TV magazines and by women s magazines among them Marie Claire and ELLE which have foreign versions Influential weeklies also include investigative and satirical papers Le Canard Enchaine and Charlie Hebdo as well as Paris Match Like in most industrialised nations the print media have been affected by a severe crisis in the past decade In 2008 the government launched a major initiative to help the sector reform and become financially independent 432 433 but in 2009 it had to give 600 000 euros to help the print media cope with the economic crisis in addition to existing subsidies 434 The Parisian headquarters of Agence France Presse one of the world s oldest and leading news agencies 435 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 436 437 remained under state control It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory ending the state monopoly on radio 437 French television was partly liberalised in the next two decade with the creation of several commercial channels mainly thanks to cable and satellite television In 2005 the national service Television Numerique Terrestre introduced digital television all over the territory allowing the creation of other channels The four existing national channels are owned by the state owned consortium France Televisions funded by advertising revenue and TV licence fees Public broadcasting group Radio France runs five national radio stations Among these public media are Radio France Internationale which broadcasts programmes in French all over the world as well as Franco German TV channel TV5 Monde In 2006 the government created the global news channel France 24 Long established TV channels TF1 privatised in 1987 France 2 and France 3 have the highest shares whilst radio stations RTL Europe 1 and state owned France Inter are some of the least listened to Society See also Human rights in France and LGBT rights in France Admittance of Germaine Tillion Genevieve de Gaulle Anthonioz Pierre Brossolette and Jean Zay at the Pantheon a mausoleum for distinguished French people in 2015 According to a BBC poll in 2010 based on 29 977 responses in 28 countries France is globally seen as a positive influence in the world s affairs 49 have a positive view of the country s influence whereas 19 have a negative view 438 439 The Nation Brand Index of 2008 suggested that France has the second best international reputation only behind Germany 440 A global opinion poll for the BBC saw France ranked the fourth most positively viewed nation in the world behind Germany Canada and the United Kingdom in 2014 441 According to a poll in 2011 the French were found to have the highest level of religious tolerance and to be the country where the highest proportion of the population defines its identity primarily in term of nationality and not religion 442 As of 2011 update 75 of French had a favourable view of the United States making France one of the most pro American countries in the world 443 As of 2017 update the favourable view of the United States had dropped to 46 444 In January 2010 the magazine International Living ranked France as best country to live in ahead of 193 other countries for the fifth year running 445 The OECD Better Life Index states that France performs well in many measures of well being relative to most other countries in the Better Life Index 446 The French Revolution continues to permeate the country s collective memory The tricolour flag of France 447 the anthem La Marseillaise and the motto Liberte egalite fraternite defined in Title 1 of the Constitution as national symbols all emerged during the cultural ferment of the early revolution along with Marianne a common national personification In addition Bastille Day the national holiday commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 448 Sculpture of Marianne a common national personification of the French Republic A common and traditional symbol of the French people is the Gallic rooster Its origins date back to Antiquity since the Latin word Gallus meant both rooster and inhabitant of Gaul Then this figure gradually became the most widely shared representation of the French used by French monarchs then by the Revolution and under the successive republican regimes as representation of the national identity used for some stamps and coins 449 France is one of the world leaders of gender equality in the workplace as of 2017 it has 36 8 of its corporate board seats held by women which makes it the leader of the G20 for that metric 450 It was ranked in 2019 by the World Bank as one of the only six countries in the world where women have the same work rights as men 451 France is one of the most liberal countries in the world when it comes to LGBT rights a 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that 86 of the French think that same sex relationships should be accepted by society one of the highest acceptance rates in the world comparable to that of other Western European nations 452 France legalised same sex marriage and adoption in 2013 453 The government has used its diplomatic clout to support LGBT rights throughout the world notably in the United Nations 454 In 2020 France was ranked fifth in the Environmental Performance Index behind the United Kingdom out of 180 countries ranked by Yale University in that study 455 Being the host country of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference the French Government was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris Agreement a success that has been credited to its openness and experience in diplomacy 456 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 457 458 According to the regions traditional recipes are different the North of the country prefers to use butter as the preferred fat for cooking whereas olive oil is more commonly used in the South 459 Moreover each region of France has iconic traditional specialties Cassoulet in the Southwest Choucroute in Alsace Quiche in the Lorraine region Beef bourguignon in the Bourgogne provencal Tapenade etc France s most renowned products are wines 460 including Champagne Bordeaux Bourgogne and Beaujolais as well as a large variety of different cheeses such as Camembert Roquefort and Brie There are more than 400 different varieties 461 462 A meal often consists of three courses hors d œuvre or entree introductory course sometimes soup plat principal main course fromage cheese course or dessert sometimes with a salad offered before the cheese or dessert Hors d œuvres could include terrine de saumon au basilic lobster bisque foie gras French onion soup or a croque monsieur The plat principal could include a pot au feu souffle or steak frites The dessert could be mille feuille pastry a macaron an eclair creme brulee mousse au chocolat crepes far Breton or cafe liegeois French cuisine is also regarded as a key element of the quality of life and the attractiveness of France 445 A French publication the Michelin guide awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments 463 464 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 at that time more than any other country although the guide also inspects more restaurants in France than in any other country by 2010 Japan was awarded as many Michelin stars as France despite having half the number of Michelin inspectors working there 465 466 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 France produces rum via distilleries located on islands such as Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean Sports Main article Sport in France Starting in 1903 the Tour de France is the oldest and most prestigious of Grands Tours and the world s most famous cycling race 467 France hosts the world s biggest annual sporting event the Tour de France 468 Other popular sports played in France include football judo tennis 469 rugby union 470 and petanque France has hosted events such as the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups 471 the 2007 Rugby World Cup 472 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 473 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 Pierre de Coubertin who suggested the Games revival at the end of the 19th century 474 475 After Athens was awarded the first Games in reference to the Olympics Greek origins Paris hosted the second Games in 1900 476 Paris was the first home of the International Olympic Committee before it moved to Lausanne 477 Since 1900 France has hosted the Olympics on 4 further occasions the 1924 Summer Olympics again in Paris 475 and three Winter Games 1924 in Chamonix 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville 475 Similar to the Olympics France introduced Olympics for the deaf people Deaflympics in 1924 with the idea of a French deaf car mechanic Eugene Rubens Alcais who paved the way to organise the inaugural edition of the Summer Deaflympics in Paris 478 Zidane was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in a 2004 UEFA poll 479 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 480 The football team is among the most successful in the world with two FIFA World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018 481 two FIFA World Cup second places in 2006 and 2022 482 and two UEFA European Championships in 1984 483 and 2000 484 The top national football club competition is Ligue 1 France has produced some of the greatest players in the world including three time FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane three time Ballon d Or recipient Michel Platini record holder for most goals scored at a World Cup Just Fontaine first football player to receive the Legion d honneur Raymond Kopa and the record goalscorer for the French national team Thierry Henry 485 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 486 Rugby union is popular particularly in Paris and the southwest of France 487 The national rugby union team has competed at every Rugby World Cup it takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship See also Europe portal France portalOutline of FranceFootnotes The current Constitution of France does not specify a national emblem 1 This emblem is used by the President Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs 2 and is on the cover of French passports For other symbols see National symbols of France For information about regional languages see Languages of France European Union since 1993 French National Geographic Institute data which includes bodies of water 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 Whole of the except the overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean French overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean only Time zones across the span from UTC 10 French Polynesia to UTC 12 Wallis and Futuna Daylight saving time is observed in metropolitan France and Saint Pierre and Miquelon only 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 Reunion 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 In addition to fr several other Internet TLDs are used in French overseas departements 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 French Guiana is in South America Guadeloupe and Martinique are in the Caribbean Sea and Reunion 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 Barthelemy 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 INSEE definition an immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth Note that an immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics On the other hand persons born in France with foreign citizenship the children of immigrants are not listed as immigrants Changes in immigrant numbers result from arrivals of new immigrants departures deaths in France The last sacre was that of Charles X 29 May 1825 References Article II of the Constitution of France 1958 The lictor s fasces elysee fr 20 November 2012 Share of the population in France 2021 by nationality status statista com 5 August 2022 El Karoui Hakim 19 September 2016 A French Islam is possible PDF Institut Montaigne Retrieved 5 September 2022 a b Field Listing Area The World Factbook CIA Archived from the original on 31 January 2014 Retrieved 1 November 2015 This article incorporates text from this source which is in the public domain Surface water and surface water change Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development OECD Retrieved 11 October 2020 France Metropolitaine INSEE 2011 Archived from the original on 28 August 2015 a b c Demography Population at the beginning of the month France Insee 28 July 2022 Retrieved 14 August 2022 Demography Population at the beginning of the month Metropolitan France insee fr 28 July 2022 Retrieved 14 August 2022 a b c d World Economic Outlook Database October 2021 imf org International Monetary Fund Retrieved 25 February 2022 Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income EU SILC survey ec europa eu Eurostat Retrieved 21 June 2022 Human Development Report 2021 2022 PDF United Nations Development Programme 8 September 2022 Retrieved 8 September 2022 Time Zone amp Clock Changes in Paris Ile de France France timeanddate com Retrieved 9 October 2021 France UNGEGN World Geographical Names New York NY United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names Retrieved 27 November 2020 a b Hargreaves Alan G ed 2005 Memory Empire and Postcolonialism Legacies of French Colonialism Lexington Books p 1 ISBN 978 0 7391 0821 5 R R Palmer Joel Colton 1978 A History of the Modern World 5th ed p 161 France posts new tourist record despite Yellow Vest unrest France 24 17 May 2019 Global Wealth Report PDF Credit Suisse October 2010 Archived PDF from the original on 9 November 2014 Retrieved 27 October 2014 In euro and USD terms the total wealth of French households is very sizeable Although it has just 1 of the world s adults France ranks fourth among nations in aggregate household wealth behind China and just ahead of Germany Europe as a whole accounts for 35 of the individuals in the global top 1 but France itself contributes a quarter of the European contingent Jack S Levy War in the Modern Great Power System 1495 1975 2014 p 29 a b Europa Official Site France EU Retrieved 28 October 2014 History of France Discoverfrance net Archived from the original on 24 August 2011 Retrieved 17 July 2011 Examples frank American Heritage Dictionary frank Webster s Third New International Dictionary And so on a b c Origin and meaning of Frank Online Etymology Dictionary Michel Rouche 1987 The Early Middle Ages in the West In Paul Veyne ed A History of Private Life From Pagan Rome to Byzantium Belknap Press p 425 ISBN 978 0 674 39974 7 OCLC 59830199 Tarassuk Leonid Blair Claude 1982 The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons the most comprehensive reference work ever published on arms and armor from prehistoric times to the present with over 1 250 illustrations Simon amp Schuster p 186 ISBN 978 0 671 42257 8 Retrieved 5 July 2011 Wells John C 2008 Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd ed Longman ISBN 978 1 4058 8118 0 Collins Beverley Mees Inger M 1990 The Phonetics of Cardiff English In Coupland Nikolas Thomas Alan Richard eds English in Wales Diversity Conflict and Change Multilingual Matters Ltd p 96 ISBN 978 1 85359 032 0 The World s Oldest Animal Paintings Are on This Cave Wall Scientific American 14 January 2021 a b c d Jean Carpentier dir Francois Lebrun dir Alain Tranoy Elisabeth Carpentier et Jean Marie Mayeur preface de Jacques Le Goff Histoire de France Points Seuil coll Histoire Paris 2000 1re ed 1987 p 17 ISBN 978 2 02 010879 9 Carpentier et al 2000 pp 20 24 The Cambridge ancient history Cambridge University Press 2000 p 754 ISBN 978 0 521 08691 2 Retrieved 23 January 2011 Claude Orrieux 1999 A history of ancient Greece John Wiley amp Sons p 62 ISBN 978 0 631 20309 4 Retrieved 23 January 2011 Carpentier et al 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