France
hideFrance (pronounced /ˈfræns/ ( listen) or /ˈfrɑːns/; French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as L’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Metropolitan France is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. France's overseas departments and collectivities also share land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel.
France is the largest country in the European Union by area and the second largest in Europe behind Ukraine (first if one includes its extra-European territories like Guadeloupe). France has been a major power for many centuries with strong economic, cultural, military and political influence. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonized much of North America; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Pacific islands. France is a developed country and possesses the fifth largest economy by nominal GDP and eighth largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, NATO, OECD, WTO and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, possesses the third largest number of nuclear weapons in the world and the largest number of nuclear power plants in the European Union.
For more information about France, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with france
Does work kill in the country of 35-hour week?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 06, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (4) |
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Short work weeks, enviably long lunches and vacations their American or Japanese counterparts can only dream of: French labour conditions are well-known to be among the most generous in the world.
Vodafone to sell iPhone in Britain
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Sep 28, 2009 |
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Vodafone on Tuesday became the latest mobile phone operator to announce it will begin selling iPhones in Britain following the expiry of O2's exclusive deal with Apple.
Rivals to form UK's top mobile operator
Sep 08, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA said Tuesday they intend to combine their British mobile phone units - shaking up the country's intensely competitive market and forming the country's biggest mobile operator.
Google, on tricycle, captures gardens of Versailles
Aug 10, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Google's tricycle-mounted cameras on Monday shot footage of the 17th century gardens of France's Chateau de Versailles destined for its Street View service by year's end.
Odd tricyle mapping Paris streets for Google
Aug 07, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (5) |
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(AP) -- Parisians and tourists, relax. That goofy looking tricycle equipped with loads of high-tech equipment roaming the streets is NOT some mad scientist's invention on the rampage.
Debate starting on new French Internet piracy bill
Jul 21, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Lawmakers in France's lower house of parliament are to start debate Tuesday on a new version of a bill aimed at cracking down on online piracy by cutting the Internet connections of those who illegally download movies ...
Experts mull over lessons from Brazil plane crash
Jun 05, 2009 |
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(AP) -- The mysterious disappearance of an Air France jet this week while flying over the Atlantic in fierce thunderstorms is stirring a debate about whether new technologies and procedures are needed to prevent similar ...
Armstrong announces birth of son on Twitter
Jun 05, 2009 |
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This was one special tweet for Lance Armstrong.
Common GPS could help better track airline flights
Jun 04, 2009 |
3 / 5 (2) |
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(AP) -- Get lost in the woods and a cell phone in your pocket can help camping buddies find you. Drive into a ditch and GPS in your car lets emergency crews pinpoint the crash site. But when a transcontinental ...
Equatorial region known for massive storms
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 03, 2009 |
3 / 5 (2) |
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(AP) -- It's the birthplace of some of the world's strongest storms, a nearly continuous band of colliding weather systems near the equator where the Air France jet vanished in the night.
Lightning bolts a risk for modern jets
Jun 02, 2009 |
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Passenger jets are hit by lightning every 1,000 hours -- on average twice a year -- and experts say the risk from the bolts of electricity is growing.
Signal failure indicates 'rapid' Air France catastrophe: official
Jun 01, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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No signal has been heard from distress beacons on a missing Air France plane, indicating it suffered a "very rapid" catastrophe, a top French space agency official told AFP on Monday.
Taciturn Armstrong sparks Twitter media boycott
May 22, 2009 |
1.5 / 5 (2) |
1
Lance Armstrong's refusal to speak directly to the press at the Tour of Italy has sparked a boycott by some sections of the Italian and anglophone media of the American's online messages.
Some French women, too thin, don't see it that way: study
Apr 23, 2009 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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France has by far the highest proportion of clinically underweight women in Europe, but only half of them think they are too thin, according to a new study.
Digging up evidence of 400-year-old global trade and wealth
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Apr 09, 2009 |
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French and Chinese blue glass, Dutch layered glass, Baltic amber: roughly 70,000 beads manufactured all over the world have been excavated at one of the Spanish empire's remotest outposts, the Santa Catalina ...
