Area: 551,500 km² (of which land: 549,970 km², water area 1,530 km²). These values refer to metropolitan France, excluding French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion and Mayotte.
Population: 65.3 million (2011 estimate, CIA)
Population density: 118 residents per km²
Population growth: 0.5% per year (2011, CIA)
Capital city: Paris (2.18 million residents in the Unité urbaine, 2006)
Highest point: Mont Blanc, 4,807 m (highest point in Europe)
Lowest point: Delta of the Rhone River, -2 m
Form of government: France has been a republic since 1875. The constitution dates from 1958, the last constitutional amendment was made in 2000. ThatfrenchBicameral parliament consists of the National Assembly with 577 members and the Senate with 321 members. The French President is directly elected every 7 years. On April 18, 1951, France was one of the founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community, which formed the core of what would later become the European Union (EU).
Administrative division: 26 regions: Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Center, Champagne-Ardenne, Corse, Franche-Comte, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Haute-Normandie, Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Martinique, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais,Pays de la Loire, Picardy, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, Reunion and Rhone-Alpes
Head of State: President François Hollande, since May 15, 2012
Head of Government: Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, since May 15, 2012
Language: the official language is French. In addition, numerous regional dialects are spoken (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish), but these are used by fewer and fewer French.
R eligion: Roman Catholic 83% – 88%, Protestantisch 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5% – 10%, no commitment 4%
Local time: CET. Between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October there is summer time in France (CET + 1 hour).
The time difference to Central Europe in both winter and summer 0 h.
International phone code: +33
Internet identifier:.fr
Mains voltage: 230 V, 50 Hz
The Republic of France is located in Western Europe and borders the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the English Channel in the northwest, Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast and Germany, Switzerland and Italy in the east. In the south, the Mediterranean and Spain form the border with France. Visit computerdo for France Location.
To the French Motherland belongs to the Mediterranean island of Corsica; the departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are among the overseas territories of France.
Also known as l’Hexagone (hexagon) because of its shape France covers an area of about 547,000 square kilometers and, with the exception of its main mountains, is a plain with rolling hills, which is characterized by three large basin landscapes. The Paris Basin is the geographical, economic and historical core landscape of France, which, in addition to the capital Paris, also includes the Ile de France, Champagne, Lorraine, Burgundy, Picardy and eastern Normandy. In the south-west of the country lies the fertile Aquitaine Basin, also known as the Garonne Basin, and the Rhône-Saône Basin extends from Dijon to the Mediterranean.
The heartland is controlled by V Ogesen, Ardennes, Massif Central and Armorika. At 1,424 meters, the Grand Ballon is the largest mountain in the Vosges, while the Ardennes form part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The former volcanic area of the Massif Central consists of numerous plateaus and the mountain cones characteristic of this mountain range. The Armorican massif in the northwest has the highest elevation with the 391 meter high Mont St-Michel. The Alps border France against Switzerland and Italy, the Pyrenees against Spain. Montblanc, the highest mountain in Europe at 4,792 meters, is also located in the French Western Alps.
Almost all of France’s major rivers have their source in the Massif Central. So too Loire, which with a total of 1,020 kilometers is the longest and most important river. The Seine follows it to the north. The Garonne comes from the Pyrenees, the Saône from the Vosges and the Rhône rises in the Alps. The impressive estuary landscape of the Rhône in the Camargue is also worth mentioning. Together with numerous canals, the rivers once formed an excellent and economically important transport network. These predominantly idyllic river and water landscapes are only used for tourism today.
The size of the country as well as the different geographical and climatic conditions left a varied and diverse vegetation develop. Although the originally dense and extensive forests no longer exist in their former dimensions after centuries of deforestation, 25% of the total area of France is still covered by forest. Only the forest areas of the Ile de France, famous as noble hunting grounds, escaped human overexploitation. While mixed forests predominantly thrive in northern France, the forest turns into conifers at higher altitudes and into oak and pine forests towards the Mediterranean. Characteristic of the rather dry areas in the south of the country are the maquis (macchia) consisting of trees, bushes and fragrant herbs and the thorny scrub of the garrigue, which usually grows on rocky limestone soil.
The climate in France is balanced and mild on average, depending on its location between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic or North Sea. The weather consists of a mix of sun, clouds and rainy areas. Extreme summer temperatures prevail on the Mediterranean Sea and cold winters with good snow conditions can be found in the Massif Central and the Pyrenees as well as in the Alps.
