La France, or French Republic for official purposes, is a member of the European Union whose metropolitan territory, called metropolitan France, located in Western Europe is the largest country of the European Union. The France is made up of territories at various places of the earth.

Its capital, Paris is the most visited in the world, in a region with 45 million tourists annually. The country, including the territories overseas, has an area of 675 417 km2 and a population of 65.1 million inhabitants on 1 January 2009.

French is the official language of the Republic. However, seventy-five other languages, distinct language and official language issues including immigration, are used on national territory. The France is thus the first country in the world of French by the number of speakers, and is the second of the total population, after the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The main religion in France is Catholicism with 51 to 64% of the baptized, but 32% of the population consider themselves agnostics and even atheists claim to a percentage.

The French economy is still capitalist with a sizeable government intervention after the Second World War, intended to revive its economy. However, since the mid-1980s successive reforms have resulted in privatization of some public enterprises by phasing out the state. In 2008, France is ranked the eighth largest economy according to the calculation of gross domestic product in parity purchasing power and by the fifth criterion traditional money, behind the United States, Japan, China and Germany. La France is a founding member of the Council of Europe, the European Union, the eurozone and the Schengen area. It is one of the five permanent members of UN Security and is part of the Group of Eight (G8), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Francophonie and the Latin Union .

Militarily, France has one of the major forces in Europe while being a nuclear power. She is a member of the Organization of the Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), after withdrawing in 1966 from the integrated military organization (command), to partially return since 2002 and completely since 2009. The France is also the first space power in Europe.

During the seventeenth century France and its heritage has been shaped by the arts and philosophy. Birthplace of the Enlightenment, has influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution was the impetus and example of democracy in the world, based on the values of liberty, equality, fraternity, and since 1905, secularism. Because exploration and colonization of the Renaissance, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, France has released its culture and language of many nations, Canada, Africa, but also in some parts of the Middle East, Asia and Pacific.
The most visited country in the world (in number of foreign visitors) is France, it is the same for Paris, the first tourist city in terms of attendance and finally the Eiffel Tower is the monument paying the most visited in the world. The most visited monument in France is Notre-Dame de Paris. However, the receipts from international tourism is higher in the United States (from $ 81.799 billion in 2005) in France (from $ 44.018 billion in 2005). Indeed, one hand stays in France are generally of short duration: tourists often travel to neighboring countries in Europe are also very attractive, and secondly it is not the same tourists ( family tourism instead of business travel), so that costs are smaller in France. In 2000, nearly 75.5 million of them, an absolute record, would have visited France. The external balance of French tourism is very large surplus: in 2000, tourism generated 32.78 billion euros in revenue, while the French tourists who travel abroad have only spent 17.53 billion of euros. It emerges therefore a surplus of about 15.24 billion euros. And represents about 1.35 million jobs. The great variety of landscapes, the length of the coast, high mountains, the center of ancient cities, not to mention the prestige of French culture (food, lifestyle, etc..), And the rich heritage (literature, painting , iconic historical figures) probably explain the enthusiasm of visitors.

LITERATURE

The eighteenth century is called the Enlightenment. In this metaphor the century trying to spend, through the spirit of the Renaissance and the Cartesianism of the previous century, the triumph of Reason on the Darkness (obscurantism and prejudice). Lights are a European phenomenon, but the French philosophers crystallize the best ideas of the century and give relief to new values, beyond the French Revolution, the hallmark of Europe and the world. The major philosophers of the Enlightenment Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot and Montesquieu.

The French literature of the nineteenth century
If the nineteenth century is important for the number of masterpieces of French literature has generated this literary period, close to us, is still difficult to grasp. For many historians of literature, nineteenth-century French literary remains that of Romanticism, first with Chateaubriand, then with Victor Hugo, the realism with Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola with naturalism.

Romanticism and its proliferation can partially find their cause in some respects. Some focus on the momentum of freedom has led the French Revolution burst of freedom followed by disorder, confusion caused by the instability, political uncertainty emanating from the first half of the century . In this context, we see the writer with his ideals, expressing opposition to the political and social order. For others, instead of the French Revolution and the ensuing political turmoil or not does not explain fully the efflorescence of French Romanticism, citing as evidence before the birth of English Romanticism and German in countries that were not the least shaken by revolution. They insist instead on the influence of the exercise study and reading of literature in English and German by French men of letters.

Realism is a more vague label, stuck after the writers from the definitions Champfleury, Stendhal and Balzac ranging between romanticism and realism. Gustave Lanson, whose History of French Literature (1894) has long been an authority, have devoted very important pages where Balzac ildéfinit from realism of his work and from romanticism "Thus, by his helplessness and her power Balzac was operating in the novel separation of romanticism and realism. He remains in his work something huge, a glut and excessive that betray the original romantic. "

Naturalism, however, makes a real step Emile Zola explained at length
.
The French literature of the twentieth century
The French literature of the twentieth century has been deeply marked by the historical crises, political, moral and artistic. The current literature that has characterized this century Surrealism, which is essentially a renewal of poetry (André Breton, Robert Desnos ...), but existentialism (Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre), which also represents a new philosophy (Existentialism is a Humanism Jean-Paul Sartre). The primary source for artists of this century is related to political conflicts of the time. War is thus present both in poetry and in fiction. For this century, Marcel Proust appears as the last great French author. The only comparison is to look to Celine, the significant role he played in the challenge to narration and far too civilized life. In a syntactic approach closer to the reality of the street, creating a Newspeak slang mixed with fantasy, it was also shown as one of the greatest French writers of this century and scored unombre of writers, the father of San Antonio through the Anglo-Saxon writers (Burroughs, Miller ,...).

In France, the nouveau roman, theorized by Alain Robbe-Grillet in For a new novel, concerns initially that few writers but then inspired a generation of writers grouped around today Editions de Minuit, including Jean Echenoz , Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Tanguy Viel, Christian Oster, Lawrence Mauvignier or Christian Gailly. After that, no further movement in the strict sense only able to emerge. The Oulipo, workshop of potential literature, which belonged Queneau and Perec (and authors like today Roubaud, Fournel, toys and Tellier) does not actually conceived as a movement, but as a working group. The same goes for New Fiction gathering of novelists such as Hubert Haddad, Frédérick Tristan or Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud. Today we thought he could bring a number of writers around the concept of auto-fiction created by Serge Dubrovsky. However, it is sometimes difficult to gather under one label a range of writers sensitivities, artistic approaches and sometimes conflicting worlds. This definition is also an argument put forward by critics of literature too self-absorbed, germanopratine and, from a strictly commercial view, seems to find little resonance abroad.

PAINTING

French painting is considered one of the most important by its influence, its history and productions.

The first manifestations of French painting is given in the art and prehistoric to Roman times with some murals. In the Middle Ages can also means those murals that highlight, the Renaissance is followed Italianate models. This is the seventeenth century, Nicolas Poussin as best representative and Lorrain, the French Baroque painting reached a significant dimension. The eighteenth century brought the Rococo and the nineteenth century is precisely that of the great French painting. In the twentieth century is given to important events without reaching the glory and fame of previous years.

SCULPTURE

French sculpture of the nineteenth century is marked by a very large production induced by official commissions related to urban transformation and secularization of public life: cities and governments, especially with Napoleon III and the Third Republic, compete in this domain. The rise of a wealthy middle class also participates in the popularity of the sculpture with the private tombs and the taste for small pieces of bronze which many animal sculptors are a specialty.

The many public commissions plus the weight of the Academy and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts reinforcing the most dominant and academic neoclassicism that individual expression of artists. The personalities are rather limited in number: one can retain Francois Rude for the first time, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Antoine-Louis Barye in the middle of the century and later Auguste Bartholdi and Jules Dalou before Auguste Rodin sculpture outperforms European from the 1880s.

The important sculptor of the nineteenth century is rich and varied with a good deal of academic but also with remarkable creators. Museums (Louvre - Orsay Museum - Petit Palais - Musée Rodin) reflect the wealth but do not overlook the urban developments that are springing up of various works, especially squares, gardens and bridges of Paris and of course cemeteries. Not to mention that the towns have often also a rich heritage in this area.

KITCHEN

French cuisine refers to a style of cooking derived from the French tradition. It has evolved over the following centuries and the social and political changes the country. The Middle Ages saw the development of sumptuous banquet that brought French cuisine to a higher level, with food and decorated by highly seasoned leaders such as William Tirel. With the French Revolution, however, habits have changed with less systematic use of spices and with the growing use of herbs and refined techniques, beginning with François Pierre La Varenne and other dignitaries from Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie-Antoine as Lent.

The French cuisine was codified in the twentieth century by Auguste Escoffier to become the benchmark for modern large kitchen. The work of Escoffier left side, however, much of the regional character that can be found in the French provinces. The development of culinary tourism, especially with the help of the Michelin Guide, has contributed to a return to basics people to the countryside during the twentieth century and beyond. The Gascon kitchen also greatly influenced the cuisine in the south-west France.

In France the same yet different styles of cooking are charged and there are multiple regional traditions, so it is difficult to speak of French cuisine as a unified whole. There are many regional dishes that have evolved to the point of being (re) known nationally. Many regional dishes, originally, have also proliferated throughout the country with some variations from one region to another. Cheese and wine are an exception in French cuisine with many regional products, which bear a label or appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC).

In late 2006, a group of foodies and chefs, including Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Pierre Troisgros, Marc Veyrat and Michel Guerard campaigned for French cuisine from the world heritage of UNESCO. President Nicolas Sarkozy pressed the request February 23, 2008.

http://www.tourisme.fr/

Paris is the most populous city and capital of France, capital of the Île-de-France and single-joint department of the country. It is situated on a loop of the Seine in central Paris Basin, between the confluence of the Marne and Seine upstream, and Oise and Seine downstream. Its inhabitants are called Parisians.

The position of Paris at a crossroads of trade routes, land and river in the heart of a rich agricultural region has been one of the main cities of France during the tenth century, with royal palaces, wealthy abbeys and a cathedral in During the twelfth century, Paris became one of the first outbreaks in Europe for education and the arts. The royal power setting in the city, its economic and political importance is growing. Thus, the early fourteenth century, Paris is the largest city of the whole Christian world.

In the seventeenth century, it is the capital of the first European power politics in the eighteenth cultural center of Europe in the nineteenth and the capital of the arts and pleasures. In 2008, all accommodation combined, the number of tourists in Paris intra-muros is estimated at 28 million, according to the Office of Tourism and Congress of the French capital.

Paris is the economic and commercial capital of France, its leading financial and stock market. The density of its railway, highway and airport structure, hub of French and European air, make it a focal point for international transport. This comes from a long evolution, in particular conceptions of centralizing monarchies and republics, giving a significant role in the capital in the country and tend to be concentrated in the extreme institutions. Since the 1960s, successive governments have developed policies of devolution and decentralization in order to rebalance the country.

Home to many monuments, Paris is also an important city in world history, with an important political and economic challenge. Symbol of French culture, the city attracts nearly three million visitors per year. Paris also has a prominent place in the world of fashion and luxury.

In 2006, the population of Paris intra-muros was 2 181 371 inhabitants according to the census of INSEE. However, during the twentieth century, the town of Paris has greatly expanded beyond the limits of the town. Its urban area, which includes the city and the suburban ring, comprised 11 769 433 inhabitants in 2006. It is one of the most European cities populated. Paris, with a GDP of 164 539 million euros in 2005, is a major European economic player. It is the heart of the Ile-de-France, first European economic region.

Marseille is a city in south-eastern France, capital of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur and prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhone.

Located southeast of France (by expressways, 775 km from Paris, 316 km from Lyon, 204 km from Nice, 400 km from Genoa, 521 km from Milan and 506 km from Barcelona), it is bordered by the Mediterranean to the west, surrounded by massive Estaque and massive de l'Etoile to the north, east Garlaban and massive Marseilleveyre south rising to over 700 meters.

Its inhabitants are called the Marseillaise and Marseilles.

Founded around 600 BC by Greek sailors from Asia Minor Phocaea under the name of Massilia, the "Marseilles" advantage of its maritime location: Marseille port is the first French and Mediterranean (to Genoa) and the fourth largest European port . Internationally, Marseille is the second consular representation of France with more than seventy consulates. The business district Euroméditerranée or obtaining the status of European Capital of Culture for 2013 are important factors in strengthening the role of Marseille in the Mediterranean.

In 2006, the population of Marseilles was 839 043 inhabitants according to the INSEE census, making it the second most populated town in France. The same goes for its urban unit is the second in France with 1 418 482 inhabitants. Its urban area, focusing on common Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, included 1 601 095 inhabitants in 2006, which is the third largest urban area in France, after Paris and Lyon. Since 2000, Marseille is the head of the Metropolitan Marseille Provence Métropole comprising 1 023 972 inhabitants.

Lyon is a city in France located in the southeast quarter, at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone. The head of the department of Rhone and Rhone-Alpes. Its inhabitants are called Lyonnais.

Lyon is experiencing geographical crossroads, north of the natural corridor of the Rhone Valley (which stretches from Lyon to Marseille). Located between the Massif Central in the west and the Alps to the east, the city of Lyon is strategically located in the North-South movement in Europe. Lyon is 470 km from Paris, 320 km from Marseilles, 160 km from Geneva, 280 km from Turin, 630 km from Barcelona. The former capital of Gaul in the Roman Empire, Lyons is the seat of an archbishop whose holder has the title of Primate of the Gauls. Lyon became a city of fairs since the Middle Ages, then place a first class financial renaissance in the late nineteenth century. Its economic prosperity was increased successively by the monopoly of the silk, then by the emergence of industries including textiles and chemicals.

Lyon is historically an industrial city and home to many petrochemical industries along the Rhone, in the hallway of chemistry. After retirement and the closure of textile industries, Lyon has gradually refocused on sectors of high technology, such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology alongside Grenoble. Lyon is also the second largest city in France student, with four universities (Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon 2, Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and the Catholic University of Lyon) and many engineering schools and large schools. Finally, the city has retained an important architectural heritage ranging from Roman times to the twentieth century through the Renaissance and, as such, is world heritage of UNESCO.

For its population, Lyon is the 3rd joint of France, with 472 305 inhabitants. Lyon is in the 3rd unit and the 2nd urban area urban France. It is integrated in the urban area of 2nd France, the Rhone and the Alps, which amounts to 4 808 976 inhabitants. According to critic of the two world wars, Albert Thibaudet, "If Paris is the capital of France, Lyon is the capital of the province. Prefecture of the Rhone-Alpes, Lyon has an attraction of national and European, and enjoy the last two decades an influx of population.

Toulouse is a city in south-western France. It is the capital of the Haute-Garonne and the Midi-Pyrenees.

With 437 715 inhabitants in January 2006, it is the fourth most populated town in France, according to Lyon and Nice. The urban unit of Toulouse were in 1999, 761 090 inhabitants. In 2008, the urban groups, 891 000, and the urban area, the fifth of France, 1 150 000.

City's distinctive architecture, Toulouse is nicknamed the "pink city" because of the color of the traditional building material in local brick clay. Another nickname: the "City of Violets". There is a Brotherhood of the violet at Toulouse, where production of this flower was very important. The Violet is one of the awards by the Academy of Floral Games of Toulouse.

In the past it was called the "City Mondine (the Ciutat Mondina in Occitan), in reference to the dynasty of the counts of the city that are often named Raymond.

Birthplace of the firm Airbus, Toulouse is today a European technology park which brings together many leading industries in aeronautics, IT and space, as well as numerous research institutes. It is also a university town, the fourth of France with 94 000 students, with its prestigious cultural facilities such as convention center, the library José Cabanis, the Zenith, the museum of modern and contemporary art of the Stockyards, City Area or the National Theater of Toulouse (TNT).

The pink city is experiencing very strong population growth, the highest in France] and even higher among European cities over 850 000 inhabitants, and is regarded as a major European cities as intermediaries Lyon, Marseille, Florence , Hamburg and Zurich. If population growth continues at current pace, the town will soon enter the circle of French cities of over one million inhabitants, and then could dethrone Nice and Lille. In 2005 and 2008 a study of second-class French town (recently behind Nantes) for its quality of life according to a list of criteria.

The town motto is "Per Tolosa totjorn May" ( "For Toulouse, always more").

Nice is a city in south-east of France, prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes and second city of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur behind Marseille. Located at the southeastern tip of France, about thirty miles from the Italian border, it is established on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, along the Baie des Anges and the mouth of Paillon.

With 347 060 inhabitants in 2006, is the fifth town of France in terms of population (after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse). Its metropolitan area is also the fifth of France and includes 888 784 inhabitants (2004). It was finally located in the heart of an urban area of 973 231 inhabitants (2008) and an urban space, the "urban Nice-Côte d'Azur" which has a population of 1 197 182 inhabitants (1999) .

The city is the center of an urban community, Nice Côte d'Azur, the seventh of France, who brings twenty-four towns and over 500 000 inhabitants. The Scot Nice (Figure territorial coherence), established in 2003, comprises twenty-nine municipalities. Its population is estimated at 517 500 inhabitants by 2005.

Located between sea and mountains, the economic capital of Cote d'Azur, Nice has important natural assets. Tourism, trade and government (public or private) play an important role in the economy of the city. It has the second largest hotel capacity in the country and every year 4 million tourists. It also has the third busiest airport in France and two convention center dedicated to business tourism. The city also has a university and several business districts. Nice is finally with some major cultural facilities. It has so many museums, a national theater, opera house, with a regional library, a repository of national and regional concert halls.

Capital history of the county of Nice, it belonged to Provence before joining the House of Savoy in 1388 and later the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Nice does finally became French in 1860. Its inhabitants are called Nice (es).

Bordeaux is a city in south-western France, capital of the Aquitaine region and prefecture of the Gironde department.

Its inhabitants are called Bordelais.

At the head of the Urban Community of Bordeaux, the municipality has 232 260 inhabitants (2006 census) and the urban area close to one million inhabitants.

As such, Bordeaux is one of the cities of France equilibrium.

The city is known worldwide for its vineyards, particularly since the eighteenth century, which was for her a veritable golden age. Capital of the former Guyenne (northern Aquitaine present), Bordeaux is in Gascony and is located on the edge of the Landes de Gascogne.

Part of the city, the Port of the Moon is classified since June 2007 the World Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO for his outstanding urban ensemble represents.

Lille is a French commune in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Northern Department and the capital of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. With its 226 000 inhabitants, Lille is the main city, alongside Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve d'Ascq, Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine, intercommunity which includes 85 municipalities and 1.1 million inhabitants (2006 census) . More broadly, it belongs to a large conurbation formed with the Belgian cities of Mouscron, Kortrijk, Tournai and Menin who gave birth in January 2008 the first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, Eurometropole Lille Kortrijk Tournai, and with nearly two million.

Its name in Old French (The Isle), as in West Flemish (Rysel), come from its original location on an island in the swamps of the valley Deûle where it was founded. Lille and its environs belong to the historic region of Flanders Romanesque former territory of the County of Flanders, but not part of the language area of West Flanders. Since its appearance in history in the eleventh century it has always been a city of romance language. Garrison town, Lille had a turbulent history of the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Known for being the most besieged city of France, she has belonged successively to the County of Flanders, the kingdom of France, in the Burgundian state, the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Netherlands before being finally taken by France after the War of Spanish Succession. It will still besieged in 1792 during the Franco-Austrian and very hard hit by the two world wars of the twentieth century during which she is employed.

Merchant city since its origins, manufacturing since the sixteenth century, the industrial revolution will make a great industrial city, mainly around the textile and mechanical industries. Their decline from 1960, opens a long period of crisis and it was not until the 1990s that the conversion to the tertiary sector and the rehabilitation of areas affected will give a new face in town. The construction of the new business district Euralille from 1988, the TGV in 1993 and the Eurostar in 1994, the development of a university that welcomes the beginning of the twenty-first century, almost 100 000 students, Ranking City Art and History in 2004 and the events of Lille 2004 European Capital of Culture, are the main symbols of this revival.

Cannes is a French commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur. Its inhabitants are called Cannes.

Resort of the Côte d'Azur, Cannes is world famous for its Film Festival and the promenade de la Croisette. Third city of the department by its people after Nice and Antibes, it could thus develop in the margins of the tourist season and festival.

Saint-Tropez is a French commune located a hundred and four miles east of Marseille in the department of Var and the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, the capital of the canton of Saint-Tropez.

From the citadel of the fifteenth century fishing village in the early twentieth century, the first liberated town in the landing in Provence became the 1950s resort internationally known thanks to the enthusiasm of artists from the Nouvelle Vague and then Yeyes Finally, a resort of the Jet Set as European and American tourists looking for authentic Provençal or celebrities.

Its inhabitants are called Tropezians. The city is colloquially called "St-Trop '.

The Principality of Monaco (in Monaco: principatu Munegu of), Monaco or in short form, is a country in Western Europe and a municipality of the same name occupy the same land that the state itself (this making it a city-state). Ensconced in the French territory between the towns of Cap d'Ail, Beausoleil and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Monaco is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, along the Cote d'Azur, about twenty miles east of Nice.

Independent since 1297, this constitutional monarchy is headed since 2005 by the Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco to the Grimaldi dynasty, which is the parent of Rainier III, one of the oldest reigning dynasties in the world.

The state now occupies an area of 2 km2 [4] making it the second smallest independent state in the world (the first being the Vatican). At the last census of 2008, Monaco had 32 796 inhabitants [3]. With 16 398 inhabitants per km2, the country's most densely populated in the world.

Almost entirely urbanized, the Principality of Monaco enjoys a particularly mild Mediterranean climate and has many luxury hotel facilities. An international event (Grand Prix Formula 1), takes place in most of these attractions throughout the year (Casino de Monte-Carlo, Oceanographic Museum, Palace of Monaco), making it a destination for tourists.