- US Says French Statement Demonstrates Iraqi Lies (January 21, 2003)
...WASHINGTON — The Bush administration said Tuesday that recent comments by France represent an important acknowledgement by Paris that Iraq still has weapon... - French Warplanes Join E. Afghanistan Campaign (March 3, 2002)
...an for the US Central Command said Sunday that Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Norway were among the coalition countries participating in th... - Four Of Seven French Nationals Held At Guantanamo Transferred To France (July 27, 2004)
...anamo Bay were handed over to French authorities Tuesday and flown back to France, where they were immediately taken into custody. Their transfer had bee... - 'Unite Against Threats' - Queen (April 5, 2004)
...The Queen has warned Britain and France that they cannot afford to be divided while facing threats to their securi... - Paris: al Qaeda to Blame for Karachi Bombing (May 9, 2002)
...en Kelche said. French President Jacques Chirac, meanwhile, reaffirmed "France's determination to do everything possible to fight international terrorism... - A Warning on Iraq, From a Friend (February 14, 2003)
... the Atlantic, I sometimes wonder whether the impending war is not between France and the United States. I would like to strongly reaffirm what, in the hear... - New French Genocide Accusations Against Rwandan President (March 9, 2004)
...on of President Habyarimana, while it is official knowledge in Rwanda that France protected the genocidal government of 1994. Rwandan President Habyarima... - Report from Paris (February 16, 2003)
...administration, French President Jacques Chirac continues to maintain that France will veto a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a war i... - Anti-French Rioting Rages on in Ivory Coast (January 28, 2003)
...wn Abidjan, a vital port for West Africa. The peace accord, brokered by France, envisions rebel groups sharing power with the government, an approach tha... - Al-Qa'ida's Al-Zawahiri Attacks French Ban on Headscarf (February 24, 2004)
...fanaticism that should be dealt with by tank shells and aircraft missiles. France, the country of freedom, is defending the freedom of nudity and depravity... - Frustrated, US Shifts its Course at UN (October 25, 2002)
...ATIONS – After a month of failing to reach a compromise with veto-wielding France and Russia, the US is now courting Mexico, Ireland, and the other members... - Ivory Coast Rebels Clash with French (December 28, 2002)
...ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — French troops clashed with rebels yesterday in western Ivory Coast, their second... - Blair's Popularity Plummets (February 18, 2003)
... emergency summit in Brussels last night when Jacques Chirac insisted that France would veto a second UN resolution to explicitly authorise military action.... - US Presses for Tough Iraq Text Amid Doubts (October 25, 2002)
...considering alternative, less forceful, proposals introduced by Russia and France in surprise moves earlier on Friday. Correspondents at the UN in New Y... - EuroFighters (December 1, 2004)
...ree-market vision of Europe that is far removed from the model espoused by France's left. In practice, Mr Fabius knows full well that if the no vote carr... - Constitution of France
- President of France
- List of Prime Ministers of France
- List of Foreign Ministers of France
- Académie française
- French literature
- Famous French People
- Cuisine of France
- Cinema of France
- Music of France
- Aix-en-Provence, Ajaccio, Albi, Amiens, Angers, Angouleme, Bastia, Belfort, Besançon, Bordeaux, Brest, Caen, Calais, Cannes, Carcassonne, Charleville-Mézières, Clermont-Ferrand, Colmar, Dijon, Dunkerque, Evreux, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Le Havre, Le Mans, Lille, Limoges, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Nîmes, Orléans, Paris, Perpignan, Poitiers, Quimper, Reims, Rennes, Roubaix, Rouen, Saint-Étienne, Saint-Nazaire, Strasbourg, Tarbes, Toulon, Toulouse, Tourcoing, Tours and Valence.
- Communications in France
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- Foreign relations of France
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- French colonial empire
- Marianne
- Human Development Index, 2003: 17th (out of 175)
- world-wide press freedom index Rank 11 out of 139 countries
- Official site of the Office of the French President - The Elysée Palace
- Official site of the Office of the French Prime Minister - Main governmental site
- Assemblée Nationale - The French National Assembly
- Sénat - The French Senate
- Official site of the French civil service - Contains many links to various administrations and institutions
- French aviation pioneers: first flight, first powered flight, first powered heavier-than-air flight
France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The French Republic, or France, is a country located in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. It is a founding member of the European Union.
| ||||
| National motto: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (French, Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood) | ||||
 | ||||
| Official language | French | |||
| Capital | Paris | |||
| Largest City | Paris | |||
| President | Jacques Chirac | |||
| Prime Minister | Jean-Pierre Raffarin | |||
| Area - Total - % water | Ranked 47th 547,030 km2 ¹ 0.26% | |||
| Population
- Total (2003) - Density | Ranked 20th
60,180,529 ¹ 110/km² | |||
| Currency | Euro(&euro)², French euro coins | |||
| Time zone | UTC +1 (CET) | |||
| National anthem | La Marseillaise | |||
| Internet TLD | .FR¹ | |||
| Calling Code | 33¹ | |||
| (1) Data for European (metropolitan) France (2) Prior to 1999: French franc | ||||
| Table of contents |
History
Main article: History of FranceThe borders of modern France closely match those of the ancient territory of Gaul, inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. Gaul was conquered by the Romans in the first century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted Romance speech and culture. Christianity also took root in the second and third centuries AD. Gaul's eastern frontiers along the Rhine were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fourth century AD, principally the Franks, from which the modern name "France" is derived. Normandy, an area in the north of present day France, was not settled by these tribes, but despite this later joined the rest of France.
Though the French monarchy is often dated to the 5th century, France's continuous existence as a separate entity begins with the 9th-century division of Charlemagne's Frankish empire into an eastern and a western part. The eastern part can be regarded the beginnings of what is now Germany, the western part that of France.
Charlemagne's descendants ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. His descendants, starting with the Capetian dynasty, ruled France until 1792, when the French Revolution established a Republic, in a period of increasingly radical change that began in 1789.
Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France suffered extensive losses in its empire, wealth, manpower, and rank as a dominant nation-state. Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy (known as the Fifth Republic) that has not succumbed to the instabilities experienced in earlier more parliamentary regimes.
In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of the Euro in January 1999.
Today, France is at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defense and security apparatus.
It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Politics
Main article: Politics of FranceThe constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by public referendum on September 28, 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to Parliament. Under the constitution, the president is elected directly for a 5-year (originally 7-year) term. Presidential arbitration assures regular functioning of the public powers and the continuity of the state. The president names the prime minister, presides over the cabinet, commands the armed forces, and concludes treaties.
The National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) is the principal legislative body. Its deputies are directly elected to 5-year terms, and all seats are voted on in each election. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 9-year terms, and one-third of the Senate is renewed every 3 years. The Senate's legislative powers are limited; the National Assembly has the last word in the event of a disagreement between the two houses. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.
See also:
Administrative divisions
Main articles: Administrative divisions of France, List of regions in FranceFrance has 26 regions (French: région), which are further subdivided into 100 départements. The departments are numbered (mainly alphabetically) and this number is used in e.g. postal codes and vehicle number plates.
The departments are further subdivided into 342 arrondissements.
The overseas departments are former colonies outside France that now enjoy a status similar to European or metropolitan France. They are considered to be a part of France (and the EU) rather than dependent territories, and each of them is a region at the same time.
The overseas territories and countries form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the Republic's European territory or the EU fiscal area. They continue to use the French Pacific Franc as their currency, which was unaffected by the French franc's replacement by the Euro in 2002.
The territorial collectivities have an intermediate status between overseas department and overseas territory.
France also maintains control over a number of other small islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, including Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin Island. See Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Geography
Main article: Geography of FranceFrance possesses a large variety of landscapes, ranging from coastal plains in the north and west, where France borders the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, to the mountain ranges in the south (the Pyrenees) and the southeast (the Alps), of which the latter contains the highest point of Europe, the Mont Blanc at 4810 m.
In between are found other elevated regions such as the Massif Central or the Vosges mountains and extensive river basins such as those of the Loire River, the Rhone River, the Garonne and Seine.
Economy
Main article: Economy of FranceFrance's economy combines extensive private enterprise with substantial, but declining, government intervention. Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Western Europe.
The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Telecom, in Air France, and in the insurance, banking, and defense industries.
France joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro on January 1, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002.
See also: List of French companies
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of FranceThe official language is French, with several local languages (Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch (Flemish), German (Alsatian), Occitan), but the French government and school system discouraged the use of any of them until recently. The regional languages are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national.
Religion
Following from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right. A 1905 law instituted the separation of Church and State and prohibited the government from recognizing, salarying or subsidizing any religion. In the preceding situation, established 1801-1808 of the Concordat, the State used to support the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Calvinist Church and the Jewish religion and provided for public religious educations in those religions (for historical reasons, this situation is still current in Alsace-Moselle).
The French government does not keep statistics as to religion.
The 2003 CIA World Factbook lists the religion of France as: Roman Catholic 83-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim (North African workers) 5-10%, unaffiliated 4%.
However, in a 2003 poll 41% said that the existence of God was "excluded" or "unlikely". 33% declared that "atheist" described them rather or very well, and 51% for "Christian". When interrogated about their religion, 62% answered Roman Catholic, 6% Muslim, 2% Protestant, 1% Jewish, 2% "other religions" (except for Orthodox or Buddhist, which were negligible), 26% "no religion" and 1% declined to answer. The discrepancy between the number of "atheists" and the number of "without religion" may be attributed to people who nominally belong to a religion, perhaps out of social pressure or custom, but do not actually believe in it.
See also: Islam in France
Culture
Main article: Culture of France
| Date | English Name | Local Name | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | Jour de l'An | |
| January 6 | Epiphany | Fête des Rois | |
| February 2 | Candlemas | La Chandeleur | |
| - | Easter | Pâques | Sunday, date varies |
| - | Easter Monday | Lundi de Pâques | Monday after Easter |
| May 1 | Labour Day | Fête du Travail | |
| May 8 | V-E Day | Victoire 1945 | End of WWII |
| - | Ascension Day | Ascension | Thursday, 40 days after Easter |
| - | Pentecost | Pentecôte | Seventh Sunday after Easter |
| July 14 | Bastille Day | Fête Nationale | National Day |
| August 15 | Assumption | Assomption | |
| November 1 | All Saints Day | Toussaint | |
| November 11 | Veterans Day Armistice Day Remembrance Day | Armistice 1918 | End of WWI |
| December 25 | Christmas Day | Noël |
Miscellaneous topics
Description of the flag: three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red; known as the drapeau tricolore (Tricolor Flag); the design and colors are similar to a number of other flags, including those of Belgium, Chad, Ireland, Côte d'Ivoire, and Luxembourg; the official flag for all French dependent areasThe foundation of France may be dated to 486 (unified by Clovis I).
The national holiday is the Fête Nationale (National Day), celebrating the Taking of the Bastille, July 14 (1789), often referred to as Bastille Day in English.
The capital and most populous city, Paris, is home to the Eiffel Tower, a tower of girdered steel constructed in 1889.
The Palace of Versailles is the number one tourist destination in France followed by the great châteaux of the Loire Valley.
Principal cities include:
See also List of towns in France.
See also
International rankings
External links
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