Explore France in Europe - France Tourism Info

Description and Basic Information

France with its capital Paris is located in Europe (Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English Channel). It covers some 547,031 square kilometres (slightly less than the size of Texas) with 64,094,000 citizens. French, Breton, Corsican, Catalan and Basque are the official languages spoken in France (consider regional differences). Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Andorra, Monaco and Spain are bordering countries.

Pictures from Paris (Capital)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About France

The landscape features mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west and the remainder being mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south, Alps in east. The average density of population is about 117 per km². The climate in can be described as generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and hot summers along the Mediterranean with occasional strong, cold, dry, north-to-northwesterly wind known as mistral. Potential threats by nature are flooding or avalanches, midwinter windstorms, drought or forest fires in south near the Mediterranean.

To reach someone in France dial +33 prior to a number. There are 36,441,000 installed telephones. And there are 60,950,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900, 1800 MHz and 3G. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".fr". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 230V - 50Hz.

The country consists of 22 regions/states which are listed below.

Regions/States of France

France Tourism Information

Unesco World Heritage Properties

France has 30 more world heritage locations. To see all of them, visit the France Unesco Heritage location overview.

Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe

Known as the 'Romanesque Sistine Chapel', the Abbey-Church of Saint-Savin contains many beautiful 11th- and 12th-century murals which are still in a remarkable state of preservation.

Amiens Cathedral

Amiens Cathedral, in the heart of Picardy, is one of the largest 'classic' Gothic churches of the 13th century. It is notable for the coherence of its plan, the beauty of its three-tier interior...

Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments

Arles is a good example of the adaptation of an ancient city to medieval European civilization. It has some impressive Roman monuments, of which the earliest – the arena, the Roman theatre...

Belfries of Belgium and France

Twenty-three belfries in the north of France and the belfry of Gembloux in Belgium were inscribed as a group, an extension to the 32 Belgian belfries inscribed in 1999 as Belfries of Flanders and...

Bordeaux, Port of the Moon

The Port of the Moon, port city of Bordeaux in south-west France, is inscribed as an inhabited historic city, an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble, created in the age of the...

Demographic Information

Age Distribution in France

Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Natural Population Growth

Population, Migration and Growth: The population in France is growing at an rate of 0.53% (or by 340,034 citizens). Each year 95,210 people enter this country (or 1.50 per thousand citizens) - making it an immigration country. This leads to an absolute natural increase rate of the population of 0.38%. Or an total increase of 244,825 citizens.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.