Etymology and pronunciation

Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin , or "realm of the Franks". Modern France is still named today in Italian and Spanish, while in German, in Dutch and in Swedish all mean "Land/realm of the Franks".

The name of the Franks is related to the English word frank ("free"): the latter stems from the Old French franc ("free, noble, sincere"), ultimately from Medieval Latin francus ("free, exempt from service; freeman, Frank"), a generalization of the tribal name that emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of the reconstructed Frankish endonym *Frank. It has been suggested that the meaning "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation, or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves.

The etymology of *Frank is uncertain. It is traditionally derived from the Proto-Germanic word , which translates as "javelin" or "lance" (the throwing axe of the Franks was known as the francisca), although these weapons may have been named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around.

In English, 'France' is pronounced in American English and or in British English. The pronunciation with is mostly confined to accents with the trap-bath split such as Received Pronunciation, though it can be also heard in some other dialects such as Cardiff English, in which is in free variation with .

History

Prehistory (before the 6th century BC)

The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial periods. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux (approximately 18,000 BC). At the end of the last glacial period (10,000 BC), the climate became milder; from approximately 7,000 BC, this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary.

After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium, initially working gold, copper and bronze, as well as later iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptionally dense Carnac stones site (approximately 3,300 BC).

Antiquity (6th century BC–5th century AD)

In 600 BC, Ionian Greeks from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (present-day Marseille), on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This makes it France's oldest city. At the same time, some Gallic Celtic tribes penetrated parts of Eastern and Northern France, gradually spreading through the rest of the country between the 5th and 3rd century BC. The concept of Gaul emerged during this period, corresponding to the territories of Celtic settlement ranging between the Rhine, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The borders of modern France roughly correspond to ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was then a prosperous country, of which the southernmost part was heavily subject to Greek and Roman cultural and economic influences.

Around 390 BC, the Gallic chieftain Brennus and his troops made their way to Italy through the Alps, defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Allia, and besieged and ransomed Rome. The Gallic invasion left Rome weakened, and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a formal peace treaty with Rome. But the Romans and the Gauls would remain adversaries for the next centuries, and the Gauls would continue to be a threat in Italy.

Around 125 BC, the south of Gaul was conquered by the Romans, who called this region Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), which over time evolved into the name Provence in French. Julius Caesar conquered the remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt carried out by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC. According to Plutarch and the writings of scholar Brendan Woods, the Gallic Wars resulted in 800 conquered cities, 300 subdued tribes, one million men sold into slavery, and another three million dead in battle.

Gaul was divided by Augustus into Roman provinces. Many cities were founded during the Gallo-Roman period, including Lugdunum (present-day Lyon), which is considered the capital of the Gauls. These cities were built in traditional Roman style, with a forum, a theatre, a circus, an amphitheatre and thermal baths. The Gauls mixed with Roman settlers and eventually adopted Roman culture and Roman speech (Latin, from which the French language evolved). The Roman polytheism merged with the Gallic paganism into the same syncretism.

From the 250s to the 280s AD, Roman Gaul suffered a serious crisis with its fortified borders being attacked on several occasions by barbarians. Nevertheless, the situation improved in the first half of the 4th century, which was a period of revival and prosperity for Roman Gaul. In 312, Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity. Subsequently, Christians, who had been persecuted until then, increased rapidly across the entire Roman Empire. But, from the beginning of the 5th century, the Barbarian Invasions resumed. Teutonic tribes invaded the region from present-day Germany, the Visigoths settling in the southwest, the Burgundians along the Rhine River Valley, and the Franks (from whom the French take their name) in the north.

Early Middle Ages (5th–10th century)

At the end of the Antiquity period, ancient Gaul was divided into several Germanic kingdoms and a remaining Gallo-Roman territory, known as the Kingdom of Syagrius. Simultaneously, Celtic Britons, fleeing the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, settled the western part of Armorica. As a result, the Armorican peninsula was renamed Brittany, Celtic culture was revived and independent petty kingdoms arose in this region.

The first leader to make himself king of all the Franks was Clovis I, who began his reign in 481, routing the last forces of the Roman governors of the province in 486. Clovis claimed that he would be baptized a Christian in the event of his victory against the Visigoths, which was said to have guaranteed the battle. Clovis regained the southwest from the Visigoths, was baptized in 508, and made himself master of what is now western Germany.

Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity, rather than Arianism; thus France was given the title "Eldest daughter of the Church" (La fille aînée de l'Église|links=no) by the papacy, and French kings would be called "the Most Christian Kings of France" ().

The Franks embraced the Christian Gallo-Roman culture and ancient Gaul was eventually renamed Francia ("Land of the Franks"). The Germanic Franks adopted Romanic languages, except in northern Gaul where Roman settlements were less dense and where Germanic languages emerged. Clovis made Paris his capital and established the Merovingian dynasty, but his kingdom would not survive his death. The Franks treated land purely as a private possession and divided it among their heirs, so four kingdoms emerged from Clovis's: Paris, Orléans, Soissons, and Rheims. The last Merovingian kings lost power to their mayors of the palace (head of household). One mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, defeated an Islamic invasion of Gaul at the Battle of Tours (732) and earned respect and power within the Frankish kingdoms. His son, Pepin the Short, seized the crown of Francia from the weakened Merovingians and founded the Carolingian dynasty. Pepin's son, Charlemagne, reunited the Frankish kingdoms and built a vast empire across Western and Central Europe.

Proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III and thus establishing in earnest the French Government's longtime historical association with the Catholic Church, Charlemagne tried to revive the Western Roman Empire and its cultural grandeur. Charlemagne's son, Louis I (Emperor 814–840), kept the empire united; however, this Carolingian Empire would not survive his death. In 843, under the Treaty of Verdun, the empire was divided between Louis' three sons, with East Francia going to Louis the German, Middle Francia to Lothair I, and West Francia to Charles the Bald. West Francia approximated the area occupied by, and was the precursor to, modern France.

During the 9th and 10th centuries, continually threatened by Viking invasions, France became a very decentralized state: the nobility's titles and lands became hereditary, and the authority of the king became more religious than secular and thus was less effective and constantly challenged by powerful noblemen. Thus was established feudalism in France. Over time, some of the king's vassals would grow so powerful that they often posed a threat to the king. For example, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror added "King of England" to his titles, becoming both the vassal to (as Duke of Normandy) and the equal of (as king of England) the king of France, creating recurring tensions.

High and Late Middle Ages (10th–15th century)

The Carolingian dynasty ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of the Franks. His descendantsthe Capetians, the House of Valois and the House of Bourbonprogressively unified the country through wars and dynastic inheritance into the Kingdom of France, which was fully declared in 1190 by Philip II of France (Philippe Auguste). Later kings would expand their directly possessed domaine royal to cover over half of modern continental France by the 15th century, including most of the north, centre and west of France. During this process, the royal authority became more and more assertive, centered on a hierarchically conceived society distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners.

The French nobility played a prominent role in most Crusades to restore Christian access to the Holy Land. French knights made up the bulk of the steady flow of reinforcements throughout the two-hundred-year span of the Crusades, in such a fashion that the Arabs uniformly referred to the crusaders as Franj caring little whether they really came from France. The French Crusaders also imported the French language into the Levant, making French the base of the lingua franca (litt. "Frankish language") of the Crusader states. French knights also made up the majority in both the Hospital and the Temple orders. The latter, in particular, held numerous properties throughout France and by the 13th century were the principal bankers for the French crown, until Philip IV annihilated the order in 1307. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars in the southwestern area of modern-day France. In the end, the Cathars were exterminated and the autonomous County of Toulouse was annexed into the crown lands of France.

From the 11th century, the House of Plantagenet, the rulers of the County of Anjou, succeeded in establishing its dominion over the surrounding provinces of Maine and Touraine, then progressively built an "empire" that spanned from England to the Pyrenees and covering half of modern France. Tensions between the kingdom of France and the Plantagenet empire would last a hundred years, until Philip II of France conquered, between 1202 and 1214 most of the continental possessions of the empire, leaving England and Aquitaine to the Plantagenets. Following the Battle of Bouvines, the Angevin court retreated to England, but persistent Capetian–Plantagenet rivalry would pave the way for another conflict, the Hundred Years' War.

Charles IV the Fair died without an heir in 1328. Under the rules of the Salic law the crown of France could not pass to a woman nor could the line of kingship pass through the female line. Accordingly, the crown passed to Philip of Valois, a cousin of Charles, rather than through the female line to Charles' nephew, Edward of Plantagenet, who would soon become Edward III of England. During the reign of Philip of Valois, the French monarchy reached the height of its medieval power. Philip's seat on the throne was contested by Edward III of England in 1337, on the eve of the first wave of the Black Death, and England and France went to war in what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. The exact boundaries changed greatly with time, but French landholdings of the English Kings remained extensive for decades. With charismatic leaders, such as Joan of Arc and La Hire, strong French counterattacks won back most English continental territories. Like the rest of Europe, France was struck by the Black Death; half of the 17 million population of France died.

Early modern period (15th century–1789)

:Main articles: French Renaissance (c. 1400–c. 1650), Early modern France (1500–1789), French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) and Ancien Régime (c. 1400–1792)

The French Renaissance saw a spectacular cultural development and the first standardisation of the French language, which would become the official language of France and the language of Europe's aristocracy. It also saw a long set of wars, known as the Italian Wars, between France and the House of Habsburg. French explorers, such as Jacques Cartier or Samuel de Champlain, claimed lands in the Americas for France, paving the way for the expansion of the First French colonial empire. The rise of Protestantism in Europe led France to a civil war known as the French Wars of Religion, where, in the most notorious incident, thousands of Huguenots were murdered in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. The Wars of Religion were ended by Henry IV's Edict of Nantes, which granted some freedom of religion to the Huguenots. Spanish troops, the terror of Western Europe, assisted the Catholic side during the Wars of Religion in 1589–1594, and invaded northern France in 1597; after some skirmishing in the 1620s and 1630s, Spain and France returned to all-out war between 1635 and 1659. The war cost France 300,000 casualties.

Under Louis XIII, the energetic Cardinal Richelieu promoted the centralisation of the state and reinforced the royal power by disarming domestic power holders in the 1620s. He systematically destroyed castles of defiant lords and denounced the use of private violence (dueling, carrying weapons and maintaining private armies). By the end of the 1620s, Richelieu established "the royal monopoly of force" as the doctrine. During Louis XIV's minority and the regency of Queen Anne and Cardinal Mazarin, a period of trouble known as the Fronde occurred in France. This rebellion was driven by the great feudal lords and sovereign courts as a reaction to the rise of royal absolute power in France.

The monarchy reached its peak during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. By turning powerful feudal lords into courtiers at the Palace of Versailles, Louis XIV's personal power became unchallenged. Remembered for his numerous wars, he made France the leading European power. France became the most populous country in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. French became the most-used language in diplomacy, science, literature and international affairs, and remained so until the 20th century. France obtained many overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Louis XIV also revoked the Edict of Nantes, forcing thousands of Huguenots into exile.

Under Louis XV, Louis XIV's great-grandson, France lost New France and most of its Indian possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Its European territory kept growing, however, with notable acquisitions such as Lorraine (1766) and Corsica (1770). An unpopular king, Louis XV's weak rule, his ill-advised financial, political and military decisions as well as the debauchery of his court discredited the monarchy, which arguably paved the way for the French Revolution 15 years after his death.

Louis XVI, Louis XV's grandson, actively supported the Americans, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain (realised in the 1783 Treaty of Paris). The financial crisis aggravated by France's involvement in the American Revolutionary War was one of many contributing factors to the French Revolution. Much of the Enlightenment occurred in French intellectual circles, and major scientific breakthroughs and inventions, such as the discovery of oxygen (1778) and the first hot air balloon carrying passengers (1783), were achieved by French scientists. French explorers, such as Bougainville and Lapérouse, took part in the voyages of scientific exploration through maritime expeditions around the globe. The Enlightenment philosophy, in which reason is advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority, undermined the power of and support for the monarchy and helped pave the way for the French Revolution.

Revolutionary France (1789–1799)

Facing financial troubles, King Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General (gathering the three Estates of the realm) in May 1789 to propose solutions to his government. As it came to an impasse, the representatives of the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, signalling the outbreak of the French Revolution. Fearing that the king would suppress the newly created National Assembly, insurgents stormed the Bastille on 14 July 1789, a date which would become France's National Day.

In early August 1789, the National Constituent Assembly abolished the privileges of the nobility such as personal serfdom and exclusive hunting rights. Through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (27 August 1789) France established fundamental rights for men. The Declaration affirms "the natural and imprescriptible rights of man" to "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression". Freedom of speech and press were declared, and arbitrary arrests outlawed. It called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges and proclaimed freedom and equal rights for all men, as well as access to public office based on talent rather than birth. In November 1789, the Assembly decided to nationalise and sell all property of the Roman Catholic Church which had been the largest landowner in the country. In July 1790, a Civil Constitution of the Clergy reorganized the French Catholic Church, cancelling the authority of the Church to levy taxes, et cetera. This fueled much discontent in parts of France, which would contribute to the civil war breaking out some years later. While King Louis XVI still enjoyed popularity among the population, his disastrous flight to Varennes (June 1791) seemed to justify rumors he had tied his hopes of political salvation to the prospects of foreign invasion. His credibility was so deeply undermined that the abolition of the monarchy and establishment of a republic became an increasing possibility.

In August 1791, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia in the Declaration of Pillnitz threatened revolutionary France to intervene by force of arms to restore the French absolute monarchy. In September 1791, the National Constituent Assembly forced King Louis XVI to accept the French Constitution of 1791, thus turning the French absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. In the newly established Legislative Assembly (October 1791), enmity developed and deepened between a group, later called the 'Girondins', who favored war with Austria and Prussia, and a group later called 'Montagnards' or 'Jacobins', who opposed such a war. A majority in the Assembly in 1792 however saw a war with Austria and Prussia as a chance to boost the popularity of the revolutionary government, and thought that France would win a war against those gathered monarchies. On 20 April 1792, therefore, they declared war on Austria.

On 10 August 1792, an angry crowd threatened the palace of King Louis XVI, who took refuge in the Legislative Assembly. A Prussian Army invaded France later in August 1792. In early September, Parisians, infuriated by the Prussian Army capturing Verdun and counter-revolutionary uprisings in the west of France, murdered between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners by raiding the Parisian prisons. The Assembly and the Paris City Council seemed unable to stop that bloodshed. The National Convention, chosen in the first elections under male universal suffrage, on 20 September 1792 succeeded the Legislative Assembly and on 21 September abolished the monarchy by proclaiming the French First Republic.

Ex-King Louis XVI was convicted of treason and guillotined in January 1793.

France had declared war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic in November 1792 and did the same on Spain in March 1793; in the spring of 1793, Austria and Prussia invaded France; in March, France created a "sister republic" in the "Republic of Mainz".

Also in March 1793, the civil war of the Vendée against Paris started, evoked by both the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1790 and the nationwide army conscription early 1793; elsewhere in France rebellion was brewing too. A factionalist feud in the National Convention, smoldering ever since October 1791, came to a climax with the group of the 'Girondins' on 2 June 1793 being forced to resign and leave the convention. The counter-revolution, begun in March 1793 in the Vendée, by July had spread to Brittany, Normandy, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyon. Paris' Convention government between October and December 1793 with brutal measures managed to subdue most internal uprisings, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Some historians consider the civil war to have lasted until 1796 with a toll of possibly 450,000 lives. By the end of 1793 the allies had been driven from France. France in February 1794 abolished slavery in its American colonies, but would reintroduce it later.

Political disagreements and enmity in the National Convention between October 1793 and July 1794 reached unprecedented levels, leading to dozens of Convention members being sentenced to death and guillotined. Meanwhile, France's external wars in 1794 were going prosperous, for example in Belgium. In 1795, the government seemed to return to indifference towards the desires and needs of the lower classes concerning freedom of (Catholic) religion and fair distribution of food. Until 1799, politicians, apart from inventing a new parliamentary system (the 'Directory'), busied themselves with dissuading the people from Catholicism and from royalism.

Napoleon and 19th century (1799–1914)

Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799 becoming First Consul and later Emperor of the French Empire (1804–1814; 1815). As a continuation of the wars sparked by the European monarchies against the French Republic, changing sets of European Coalitions declared wars on Napoleon's Empire. His armies conquered most of continental Europe with swift victories such as the battles of Jena-Auerstadt or Austerlitz. Members of the Bonaparte family were appointed as monarchs in some of the newly established kingdoms.

These victories led to the worldwide expansion of French revolutionary ideals and reforms, such as the metric system, the Napoleonic Code and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. In June 1812, Napoleon attacked Russia, reaching Moscow. Thereafter his army disintegrated through supply problems, disease, Russian attacks, and finally winter. After the catastrophic Russian campaign, and the ensuing uprising of European monarchies against his rule, Napoleon was defeated and the Bourbon monarchy restored. About a million Frenchmen died during the Napoleonic Wars. After his brief return from exile, Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, the monarchy was re-established (1815–1830), with new constitutional limitations.

The discredited Bourbon dynasty was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830, which established the constitutional July Monarchy. In that year, French troops conquered Algeria, establishing the first colonial presence in Africa since Napoleon's abortive invasion of Egypt in 1798. In 1848 general unrest led to the February Revolution and the end of the July Monarchy. The abolition of slavery and introduction of male universal suffrage, which were briefly enacted during the French Revolution, were re-enacted in 1848. In 1852, the president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew, was proclaimed emperor of the Second Empire, as Napoleon III. He multiplied French interventions abroad, especially in Crimea, in Mexico and Italy which resulted in the annexation of the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Napoleon III was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and his regime was replaced by the Third Republic. By 1875, the French conquest of Algeria was complete and approximately 825,000 Algerians were killed as a result.

France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century, but in the 19th and 20th centuries, its global overseas colonial empire extended greatly and became the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under French sovereignty almost reached 13 million square kilometers in the 1920s and 1930s, 8.6% of the world's land. Known as the Belle Époque, the turn of the century was a period characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity and technological, scientific and cultural innovations. In 1905, state secularism was officially established.

Contemporary period (1914–present)

France was a member of the Triple Entente when World War I broke out. A small part of Northern France was occupied, but France and its allies emerged victorious against the Central Powers at a tremendous human and material cost. World War I left 1.4 million French soldiers dead, 4% of its population. Between 27 and 30% of soldiers conscripted from 1912 to 1915 were killed. The interbellum years were marked by intense international tensions and a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government (annual leave, eight-hour workdays, women in government).

In 1940, France was invaded by Nazi Germany and Italy. Metropolitan France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone in the southeast and Vichy France, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, in the south, while Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London. From 1942 to 1944, about 160,000 French citizens, including around 75,000 Jews, were deported to death camps and concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. In September 1943, Corsica was the first French metropolitan territory to liberate itself from the Axis. On 6 June 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy and in August they invaded Provence. Over the following year the Allies and the French Resistance emerged victorious over the Axis powers and French sovereignty was restored with the establishment of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF). This interim government, established by de Gaulle, aimed to continue to wage war against Germany and to purge collaborators from office. It also made several important reforms (suffrage extended to women, creation of a social security system).

The GPRF laid the groundwork for a new constitutional order that resulted in the Fourth Republic, which saw spectacular economic growth (les Trente Glorieuses). France was one of the founding members of NATO (1949). France attempted to regain control of French Indochina but was defeated by the Viet Minh in 1954 at the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Only months later, France faced another anti-colonialist conflict in Algeria. The systematic torture and repression, as well as the extrajudicial killings that were perpetrated to keep control of Algeria, then considered as an integral part of France and home to over one million European settlers, wracked the country and nearly led to a coup and civil war.

In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, which included a strengthened Presidency. In the latter role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the Algerian War. The war was concluded with the Évian Accords in 1962 that led to Algerian independence. The Algerian independence came at a high price: namely, the large toll on the Algerian population. It resulted in half million to a million deaths and over 2 million internally displaced Algerians. A vestige of the colonial empire are the French overseas departments and territories.

In the context of the Cold War, De Gaulle pursued a policy of "national independence" towards the Western and Eastern blocs. To this end, he withdrew from NATO's military integrated command (while remaining in the NATO alliance itself), launched a nuclear development programme and made France the fourth nuclear power. He restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations. In the wake of the series of worldwide protests of 1968, the revolt of May 1968 had an enormous social impact. In France, it is considered to be the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal (secularism, individualism, sexual revolution). Although the revolt was a political failure (as the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before) it announced a split between the French people and de Gaulle who resigned shortly after.

In the post-Gaullist era, France remained one of the most developed economies in the world, but faced several economic crises that resulted in high unemployment rates and increasing public debt. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries France has been at the forefront of the development of a supranational European Union, notably by signing the Maastricht Treaty (which created the European Union) in 1992, establishing the Eurozone in 1999 and signing the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. France has also gradually but fully reintegrated into NATO and has since participated in most NATO sponsored wars.

Since the 19th century France has received many immigrants. These have been mostly male foreign workers from European Catholic countries who generally returned home when not employed. During the 1970s France faced economic crisis and allowed new immigrants (mostly from the Maghreb) to permanently settle in France with their families and to acquire French citizenship. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Muslims (especially in the larger cities) living in subsidised public housing and suffering from very high unemployment rates. Simultaneously France renounced the assimilation of immigrants, where they were expected to adhere to French traditional values and cultural norms. They were encouraged to retain their distinctive cultures and traditions and required merely to integrate.

Since the 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings, France has been sporadically targeted by Islamist organisations, notably the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 which provoked the largest public rallies in French history, gathering 4.4 million people, the November 2015 Paris attacks which resulted in 130 deaths, the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II and the deadliest in the European Union since the Madrid train bombings in 2004, as well as the 2016 Nice truck attack, which caused 87 deaths during Bastille Day celebrations. Opération Chammal, France's military efforts to contain ISIS, killed over 1,000 ISIS troops between 2014 and 2015.

Geography

Location and borders

The vast majority of France's territory and population is situated in Western Europe and is called Metropolitan France, to distinguish it from the country's various overseas polities. It is bordered by the North Sea in the north, the English Channel in the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Mediterranean sea in the southeast. Its land borders consist of Belgium and Luxembourg in the northeast, Germany and Switzerland in the east, Italy and Monaco in the southeast, and Andorra and Spain in the south and southwest. With the exception of the northeast, most of France's land borders are roughly delineated by natural boundaries and geographic features: to the south and southeast, the Pyrenees and the Alps and the Jura, respectively, and to the east, the Rhine river. Due to its shape, France is often referred to as ("The Hexagon"). Metropolitan France includes various coastal islands, of which the largest is Corsica. Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N, and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone. Its continental part covers about 1000 km from north to south and from east to west.

France has several overseas regions across the world, which are organized as follows:

• In South America: French Guiana.

• In the Atlantic Ocean: Saint Pierre and Miquelon and, in the Antilles: Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy.

• In the Pacific Ocean: French Polynesia, the special collectivity of New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and Clipperton Island.

• In the Indian Ocean: Réunion island, Mayotte, Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands, St. Paul and Amsterdam islands, and the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean

• In the Antarctic: Adélie Land.

France has land borders with Brazil and Suriname via French Guiana and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the French portion of Saint Martin.

Metropolitan France covers , the largest among European Union members. France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is , 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the southeast, the Massif Central in the south central and Pyrenees in the southwest.

Due to its numerous overseas departments and territories scattered across the planet, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 mi2), just behind the EEZ of the United States, which covers 11,351,000 km2 (4,383,000 mi2), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia, which covers 8,148,250 km2 (4,111,312 mi2). Its EEZ covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world.

Geology, topography and hydrography

Metropolitan France has a wide variety of topographical sets and natural landscapes. Large parts of the current territory of France were raised during several tectonic episodes like the Hercynian uplift in the Paleozoic Era, during which the Armorican Massif, the Massif Central, the Morvan, the Vosges and Ardennes ranges and the island of Corsica were formed. These massifs delineate several sedimentary basins such as the Aquitaine basin in the southwest and the Paris basin in the north, the latter including several areas of particularly fertile ground such as the silt beds of Beauce and Brie. Various routes of natural passage, such as the Rhône Valley, allow easy communications. The Alpine, Pyrenean and Jura mountains are much younger and have less eroded forms. At above sea level, Mont Blanc, located in the Alps on the French and Italian border, is the highest point in Western Europe. Although 60% of municipalities are classified as having seismic risks, these risks remain moderate.

The coastlines offer contrasting landscapes: mountain ranges along the French Riviera, coastal cliffs such as the Côte d'Albâtre, and wide sandy plains in the Languedoc. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast. France has an extensive river system consisting of the four major rivers Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, the Rhône and their tributaries, whose combined catchment includes over 62% of the metropolitan territory. The Rhône divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue. The Garonne meets the Dordogne just after Bordeaux, forming the Gironde estuary, the largest estuary in Western Europe which after approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Other water courses drain towards the Meuse and Rhine along the north-eastern borders. France has of marine waters within three oceans under its jurisdiction, of which 97% are overseas.

Climate

The French metropolitan territory is relatively large, so the climate is not uniform, giving rise to the following climate nuances:

• The hot-summer mediterranean climate (Csa) is found along the Gulf of Lion. Summers are hot and dry, while winters are mild and wet. Cities affected by this climate: Arles, Avignon, Fréjus, Hyères, Marseille, Menton, Montpellier, Nice, Perpignan, Toulon.

• The warm-summer mediterranean climate (Csb) is found in the northern part of Brittany. Summers are warm and dry, while winters are cool and wet. Cities affected by this climate: Belle Île, Saint-Brieuc.

• The humid subtropical climate (Cfa) is found in the Garonne and Rhône's inland plains. Summers are hot and wet, while winters are cool and damp. Cities affected by this climate: Albi, Carcassonne, Lyon, Orange, Toulouse, Valence.

• The oceanic climate (Cfb) is found around the coasts of the Bay of Biscay, and a little bit inland. Summers are pleasantly warm and wet, while winters are cool and damp. Cities affected by this climate: Amiens, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Dunkirk, Lille, Nantes, Orléans, Paris, Reims, Tours.

• The degraded oceanic climate (degraded-Cfb) is found in the interior plains and in the intra-alpine valleys, far from the ocean (or sea). Summers are hot and wet, while winters are cold and gloomy. Cities affected by this climate: Annecy, Besançon, Bourges, Chambéry, Clermont-Ferrand, Colmar, Dijon, Grenoble, Langres, Metz, Mulhouse, Nancy, Strasbourg.

• The subalpine oceanic climate (Cfc) is found at the foot of all the mountainous regions of France. Summers are short, cool and wet, while winters are moderately cold and damp. No major cities are affected by this climate.

• The warm-summer mediterranean continental climate (Dsb) is found in all the mountainous regions of Southern France between 700 and 1,400 metres a.s.l. Summers are pleasantly warm and dry, while winters are very cold and snowy. City affected by this climate: Barcelonnette.

• The cool-summer mediterranean continental climate (Dsc) is found in all the mountainous regions of Southern France between 1,400 and 2,100 metres a.s.l. Summers are cool, short and dry, while winters are very cold and snowy. Place affected by this climate: Isola 2000.

• The warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) is found in all the mountainous regions of the Northern half of France between 500 and 1,000 metres a.s.l. Summers are pleasantly warm and wet, while winters are very cold and snowy. Cities affected by this climate: Chamonix, Mouthe. In January 1985, in Mouthe, the temperature has dropped under −41 °C.

• The subalpine climate (Dfc) is found in all the mountainous regions of the northern half of France between 1,000 and 2,000 metres a.s.l. Summers are cool, short and wet, while winters are very cold and snowy. Places affected by this climate: Cauterets Courchevel, Alpe d'Huez, Les 2 Alpes, Peyragudes, Val-Thorens.

• The alpine tundra climate (ET) is found in all the mountainous regions of France, generally above 2,000 or 2,500 metres a.s.l. Summers are chilly and wet, while winters are extremely cold, long and snowy. Mountains affected by this climate: Aiguilles-Rouges, Aravis, the top of Crêt de la neige (rare, altitude 1,718 m) and the top of Grand-Ballon (rare, altitude 1,423 m).

• The ice cap climate (EF) is found in all the mountainous regions of France that have a glacier. Summers are cold and wet, while winters are extremely cold, long and snowy. Mountains affected by this climate: Aiguille du midi, Barre des Écrins, Belledonne, Grand-Casse, Mont Blanc (4,810 m), Pic du Midi de Bigorre.

• In the overseas regions, there are three broad types of climate:

　• A tropical climate (Am) in most overseas regions including eastern French Guiana: high constant temperature throughout the year with a dry and a wet season.

　• An equatorial climate (Af) in western French Guiana: high constant temperature with even precipitation throughout the year.

　• A subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc), characterised by mild, wet summers and cool, but generally not cold, damp winters. Cities or places affected by this climate: Port-aux-Français, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

　• An ice cap climate (EF): extremely cold year-round in Adélie Land.

Climate change in France includes above average heating.

Environment

France was one of the first countries to create an environment ministry, in 1971. Although it is one of the most industrialised countries in the world, France is ranked only 19th by carbon dioxide emissions, behind less populous nations such as Canada or Australia. This is due to the country's heavy investment in nuclear power following the 1973 oil crisis, which now accounts for 75 percent of its electricity production and results in less pollution. According to the 2018 Environmental Performance Index conducted by Yale and Columbia, France was the second-most environmentally-conscious country in the world (after Switzerland), compared to tenth place in 2016 and 27th in 2014.

Like all European Union state members, France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by the year 2020, compared to the United States plan to reduce emissions by 4% of 1990 levels. , French carbon dioxide emissions per capita were lower than that of China's. The country was set to impose a carbon tax in 2009 at 17 euros per tonne of carbon emitted, which would have raised 4 billion euros of revenue annually. However, the plan was abandoned due to fears of burdening French businesses.

Forests account for 31 percent of France's land area—the fourth-highest proportion in Europe—representing an increase of 7 percent since 1990. French forests are some of the most diverse in Europe, comprising more than 140 species of trees. France had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 4.52/10, ranking it 123rd globally out of 172 countries. There are nine national parks and 46 natural parks in France, with the government planning to convert 20% of its Exclusive economic zone into a Marine protected area by 2020. A regional nature park (parc naturel régional|links=no or PNR) is a public establishment in France between local authorities and the national government covering an inhabited rural area of outstanding beauty, to protect the scenery and heritage as well as setting up sustainable economic development in the area. A PNR sets goals and guidelines for managed human habitation, sustainable economic development and protection of the natural environment based on each park's unique landscape and heritage. The parks foster ecological research programs and public education in the natural sciences. there are 54 PNRs in France.

Administrative divisions

The French Republic is divided into 18 regions (located in Europe and overseas), five overseas collectivities, one overseas territory, one special collectivity – New Caledonia and one uninhabited island directly under the authority of the Minister of Overseas France – Clipperton.

Regions

Since 2016 France is mainly divided into 18 administrative regions: 13 regions in metropolitan France (including the territorial collectivity of Corsica), and five located overseas. The regions are further subdivided into 101 departments, which are numbered mainly alphabetically. This number is used in postal codes and was formerly used on vehicle number plates. Among the 101 departments of France, five (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion) are in overseas regions (ROMs) that are also simultaneously overseas departments (DOMs), enjoy exactly the same status as metropolitan departments and are an integral part of the European Union.

The 101 departments are subdivided into 335 arrondissements, which are, in turn, subdivided into 2,054 cantons. These cantons are then divided into 36,658 communes, which are municipalities with an elected municipal council. Three communes—Paris, Lyon and Marseille—are subdivided into 45 municipal arrondissements.

The regions, departments and communes are all known as territorial collectivities, meaning they possess local assemblies as well as an executive. Arrondissements and cantons are merely administrative divisions. However, this was not always the case. Until 1940, the arrondissements were territorial collectivities with an elected assembly, but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and definitely abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946.

Overseas territories and collectivities

In addition to the 18 regions and 101 departments, the French Republic has five overseas collectivities (French Polynesia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Wallis and Futuna), one sui generis collectivity (New Caledonia), one overseas territory (French Southern and Antarctic Lands), and one island possession in the Pacific Ocean (Clipperton Island).

Overseas collectivities and territories form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the European Union or its fiscal area (with the exception of St. Bartelemy, which seceded from Guadeloupe in 2007). The Pacific Collectivities (COMs) of French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, and New Caledonia continue to use the CFP franc whose value is strictly linked to that of the euro. In contrast, the five overseas regions used the French franc and now use the euro.

Politics

Government

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic with strong democratic traditions. The Constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to Parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders. The president of the Republic, currently Emmanuel Macron, is the head of state, elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years). The prime minister, currently Jean Castex, is the head of government, appointed by the president of the Republic to lead the Government of France.

The French Parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the government; thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms); one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years.

The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say. The Government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.

Until World War II, Radicals were a strong political force in France, embodied by the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party which was the most important party of the Third Republic. Since World War II, they were marginalized while French politics became characterized by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred on the French Section of the Workers' International and its successor the Socialist Party (since 1969); and the other right-wing, centred on the Gaullist Party, whose name changed over time to the Rally of the French People (1947), the Union of Democrats for the Republic (1958), the Rally for the Republic (1976), the Union for a Popular Movement (2007) and The Republicans (since 2015). In the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, radical centrist party En Marche! became the dominant force, overtaking both Socialists and Republicans.

As of 2017, voter turnout was 75 percent during recent elections, higher than the OECD average of 68 percent.

Law

France uses a civil legal system, wherein law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it (though the amount of judicial interpretation in certain areas makes it equivalent to case law in a common law system). Basic principles of the rule of law were laid in the Napoleonic Code (which was, in turn, largely based on the royal law codified under Louis XIV). In agreement with the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, law should only prohibit actions detrimental to society. As Guy Canivet, first president of the Court of Cassation, wrote about the management of prisons: Freedom is the rule, and its restriction is the exception; any restriction of Freedom must be provided for by Law and must follow the principles of necessity and proportionality. That is, Law should lay out prohibitions only if they are needed, and if the inconveniences caused by this restriction do not exceed the inconveniences that the prohibition is supposed to remedy.

French law is divided into two principal areas: private law and public law. Private law includes, in particular, civil law and criminal law. Public law includes, in particular, administrative law and constitutional law. However, in practical terms, French law comprises three principal areas of law: civil law, criminal law, and administrative law. Criminal laws can only address the future and not the past (criminal ex post facto laws are prohibited). While administrative law is often a subcategory of civil law in many countries, it is completely separated in France and each body of law is headed by a specific supreme court: ordinary courts (which handle criminal and civil litigation) are headed by the Court of Cassation and administrative courts are headed by the Council of State.

To be applicable, every law must be officially published in the Journal officiel de la République française.

France does not recognise religious law as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions; it has long abolished blasphemy laws and sodomy laws (the latter in 1791). However, "offences against public decency" (contraires aux bonnes mœurs) or disturbing public order (trouble à l'ordre public) have been used to repress public expressions of homosexuality or street prostitution. Since 1999, civil unions for homosexual couples are permitted, and since 2013, same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption are legal. Laws prohibiting discriminatory speech in the press are as old as 1881. Some consider hate speech laws in France to be too broad or severe, undermining freedom of speech.

France has laws against racism and antisemitism, while the 1990 Gayssot Act prohibits Holocaust denial.

Freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State is the basis for laïcité (state secularism): the state does not formally recognize any religion, except in Alsace-Moselle. Nonetheless, it does recognize religious associations. The Parliament has listed many religious movements as dangerous cults since 1995, and has banned wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools since 2004. In 2010, it banned the wearing of face-covering Islamic veils in public; human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described the law as discriminatory towards Muslims. However, it is supported by most of the population.

Foreign relations

France is a founding member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights. In 2015, France was described as being "the best networked state in the world", because it is a country that "is member of more multi-lateral organisations than any other country".

France is a member of the G8, World Trade Organization (WTO), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI). It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of 84 fully or partly French-speaking countries.

As a significant hub for international relations, France hosts the second largest assembly of diplomatic missions in the world and the headquarters of international organisations including the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and la Francophonie.

Postwar French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the European Union, of which it was a founding member. Since the 1960s, France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU. In the 1960s, France sought to exclude the British from the European unification process, seeking to build its own standing in continental Europe. However, since 1904, France has maintained an "Entente cordiale" with the United Kingdom, and there has been a strengthening of links between the countries, especially militarily.

France is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), but under President de Gaulle, it excluded itself from the joint military command to protest the Special Relationship between the United States and Britain and to preserve the independence of French foreign and security policies. However, as a result of Nicolas Sarkozy's pro-American politics (much criticised in France by the leftists and by a part of the right), France re-joined the NATO joint military command on 4 April 2009.

In the early 1990s, the country drew considerable criticism from other nations for its underground nuclear tests in French Polynesia. France vigorously opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, straining bilateral relations with the United States and the United Kingdom.

France retains strong political and economic influence in its former African colonies (Françafrique) and has supplied economic aid and troops for peacekeeping missions in Ivory Coast and Chad. Recently, after the unilateral declaration of independence of Northern Mali by the Tuareg MNLA and the subsequent regional Northern Mali conflict with several Islamist groups including Ansar Dine and MOJWA, France and other African states intervened to help the Malian Army to retake control.

In 2017, France was the fourth-largest donor (in absolute terms) of development aid in the world, behind the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. This represents 0.43% of its GNP, the 12th highest among the OECD. The organisation managing the French help is the French Development Agency, which finances primarily humanitarian projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The main goals of this support are "developing infrastructure, access to health care and education, the implementation of appropriate economic policies and the consolidation of the rule of law and democracy".

Military

The French Armed Forces (Forces armées françaises) are the military and paramilitary forces of France, under the President of the Republic as supreme commander. They consist of the French Army (Armée de Terre), French Navy (Marine Nationale, formerly called Armée de Mer), the French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'Air et de l』Espace), and the Military Police called National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale), which also fulfils civil police duties in the rural areas of France. Together they are among the largest armed forces in the world and the largest in the EU. According to a 2018 study by Crédit Suisse, the French Armed Forces are ranked as the world's sixth-most powerful military, and the most powerful in Europe, only behind Russia.

While the Gendarmerie is an integral part of the French armed forces (gendarmes are career soldiers), and therefore under the purview of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, it is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior as far as its civil police duties are concerned.

When acting as general purpose police force, the Gendarmerie encompasses the counter terrorist units of the Parachute Intervention Squadron of the National Gendarmerie (Escadron Parachutiste d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), the Search Sections of the National Gendarmerie (Sections de Recherche de la Gendarmerie Nationale), responsible for criminal enquiries, and the Mobile Brigades of the National Gendarmerie (Brigades mobiles de la Gendarmerie Nationale, or in short Gendarmerie mobile) which have the task to maintain public order.

The following special units are also part of the Gendarmerie: the Republican Guard (Garde républicaine) which protects public buildings hosting major French institutions, the Maritime Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie maritime) serving as Coast Guard, the Provost Service (Prévôté), acting as the Military Police branch of the Gendarmerie.

As far as the French intelligence units are concerned, the Directorate-General for External Security (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure) is considered to be a component of the Armed Forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defense. The other, the Central Directorate for Interior Intelligence (Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur) is a division of the National Police Force (Direction générale de la Police Nationale), and therefore reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. There has been no national conscription since 1997.

France has a special military corps, the French Foreign Legion, founded in 1830, which consists of foreign nationals from over 140 countries who are willing to serve in the French Armed Forces and become French citizens after the end of their service period. The only other countries having similar units are Spain (the Spanish Foreign Legion, called Tercio, was founded in 1920) and Luxembourg (foreigners can serve in the National Army provided they speak Luxembourgish).

France is a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN, and a recognised nuclear state since 1960. France has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. France's annual military expenditure in 2018 was US$63.8 billion, or 2.3% of its GDP, making it the fifth biggest military spender in the world after the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and India.

French nuclear deterrence, (formerly known as "Force de Frappe"), relies on complete independence. The current French nuclear force consists of four Triomphant class submarines equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In addition to the submarine fleet, it is estimated that France has about 60 ASMP medium-range air-to-ground missiles with nuclear warheads, of which around 50 are deployed by the Air and Space Force using the Mirage 2000N long-range nuclear strike aircraft, while around 10 are deployed by the French Navy's Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) attack aircraft, which operate from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The new Rafale F3 aircraft will gradually replace all Mirage 2000N and SEM in the nuclear strike role with the improved ASMP-A missile with a nuclear warhead.

France has major military industries with one of the largest aerospace industries in the world. Its industries have produced such equipment as the Rafale fighter, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the Exocet missile and the Leclerc tank among others. Despite withdrawing from the Eurofighter project, France is actively investing in European joint projects such as the Eurocopter Tiger, multipurpose frigates, the UCAV demonstrator nEUROn and the Airbus A400M. France is a major arms seller, with most of its arsenal's designs available for the export market with the notable exception of nuclear-powered devices.

France has consistently developed its cybersecurity capabilities, which are regularly ranked as some of the most robust of any nation of the world.

The Bastille Day military parade held in Paris each 14 July for France's national day, called Bastille Day in English-speaking countries (referred to in France as Fête nationale), is the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe.

Other smaller parades are organised across the country.

Government finance

The Government of France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s. , French government debt levels reached 2.2 trillion euros, the equivalent of 96.4% of French GDP. In late 2012, credit rating agencies warned that growing French Government debt levels risked France's AAA credit rating, raising the possibility of a future downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French authorities.

However, in July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government issued 10-years bonds which had negative interest rates, for the first time in its history. France also possesses in 2020 the fourth-largest gold reserves in the world.

Economy

A member of the Group of Seven (formerly Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries, , it is ranked as the world's tenth largest and the EU's second largest economy by purchasing power parity. France joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro in 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc (₣) in 2002.

France has a diversified economy, that is dominated by the service sector (which represented in 2017 78.8% of its GDP), whilst the industrial sector accounted for 19.5% of its GDP and the primary sector accounted for the remaining 1.7%. The fifth largest trading nation in the world (and second in Europe after Germany). It is the third largest manufacturing country in Europe behind Germany and Italy. France is also the most visited destination in the world, as well the European Union's leading agricultural power.

France was in 2019 the largest Foreign Direct Investment recipient in Europe, Europe's second largest spender in Research and development, ranked among the 10 most innovative countries in the world by the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index, as well as the 15th most competitive nation globally, according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report (up 2 notches compared to 2018).

According to the IMF, in 2020, France was the world's 20th country by GDP per capita with $39,257 per inhabitant. In 2019, France was listed on the United Nations's Human Development Index with a value of 0.901 (indicating very high human development) and 23rd on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2019.

In 2018, France was the 5th largest trading nation in the world, as well as the second-largest trading nation in Europe (after Germany).

Financial services, banking and the insurance sector are an important part of the economy. Three largest financial institutions cooperatively owned by their customers are located in France. The Paris stock exchange (links=no|La Bourse de Paris) is an old institution, created by Louis XV in 1724. In 2000, the stock exchanges of Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels merged into Euronext. In 2007, Euronext merged with the New York stock exchange to form NYSE Euronext, the world's largest stock exchange. Euronext Paris, the French branch of the NYSE Euronext group is Europe's 2nd largest stock exchange market, behind the London Stock Exchange.

French companies have maintained key positions in the insurance and banking industries: AXA was in 2019 the world's third largest insurance company by total non banking assets. The leading French banks are BNP Paribas and the Crédit Agricole, both ranking among the top 10 largest banks by assets according to a 2020 S&P Global Market Intelligence report. According to the same source, Société Générale and Groupe BPCE were in 2020 the world's 17th and 19th largest banks, respectively.

France is a member of the Eurozone (around 330 million consumers) which is part of the European Single Market (more than 500 million consumers). Several domestic commercial policies are determined by agreements among European Union (EU) members and by EU legislation. France introduced the common European currency, the Euro in 2002.

Agriculture

France has historically been a large producer of agricultural products. Extensive tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe (representing 20% of the EU's agricultural production) and the world's third biggest exporter of agricultural products.

Wheat, poultry, dairy, beef, and pork, as well as internationally recognized processed foods are the primary French agricultural exports. Rosé wines are primarily consumed within the country, but Champagne and Bordeaux wines are major exports, being known worldwide. EU agriculture subsidies to France have decreased in recent years but still amounted to $8 billion in 2007. That same year, France sold 33.4 billion euros of transformed agricultural products. France produces rum via sugar cane-based distilleries almost all of which are located in overseas territories such as Martinique, Guadeloupe and La Réunion. Agriculture is an important sector of France's economy: 3.8% of the active population is employed in agriculture, whereas the total agri-food industry made up 4.2% of French GDP in 2005.

Tourism

With 89 million international tourist arrivals in 2018, France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain (83 million) and the United States (80 million). It is third in income from tourism due to shorter duration of visits. The most popular tourist sites include (annual visitors): Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Château de Versailles (2.8 million), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (2 million), Pont du Gard (1.5 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Mont Saint-Michel (1 million), Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), and Carcassonne (362,000).

Paris region

France, especially Paris, has some of the world's largest and most renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world (5.7 million), the Musée d'Orsay (2.1 million), mostly devoted to Impressionism, the Musée de l'Orangerie (1.02 million), which is home to eight large Water Lily murals by Claude Monet, as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou (1.2 million), dedicated to contemporary art. Disneyland Paris is Europe's most popular theme park, with 15 million combined visitors to the resort's Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park in 2009.

French Riviera

With more than 10 millions tourists a year, the French Riviera (French: Côte d'Azur), in Southeast France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Paris region. It benefits from 300 days of sunshine per year, of coastline and beaches, 18 golf courses, 14 ski resorts and 3,000 restaurants. Each year the Côte d'Azur hosts 50% of the world's superyacht fleet.

Châteaux

With 6 millions tourists a year, the castles of the Loire Valley (French: châteaux) and the Loire Valley itself are the third leading tourist destination in France; this World Heritage site is noteworthy for its architectural heritage, in its historic towns but in particular its castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry, Chenonceau and Montsoreau. The Château de Chantilly, Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, all three located near Paris, are also visitor attractions.

Other protected areas

France has 37 sites inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest, beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). Small and picturesque French villages are promoted through the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (literally "The Most Beautiful Villages of France"). The "Remarkable Gardens" label is a list of the over 200 gardens classified by the Ministry of Culture. This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks. France attracts many religious pilgrims on their way to St. James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées that hosts several million visitors a year.

Energy

Électricité de France (EDF), the main electricity generation and distribution company in France, is also one of the world's largest producers of electricity. In 2018, it produced around 20% of the European Union's electricity, primarily from nuclear power. France is the smallest emitter of carbon dioxide among the G8, due to its heavy investment in nuclear power. , 72% of the electricity produced by France is generated by 58 nuclear power plants. In this context, renewable energies are having difficulty taking off. France also uses hydroelectric dams to produce electricity, such as the Eguzon dam, Étang de Soulcem and Lac de Vouglans.

Transport

The railway network of France, which stretches is the second most extensive in Western Europe after that of Germany. It is operated by the SNCF, and high-speed trains include the Thalys, the Eurostar and TGV, which travels at in commercial use. The Eurostar, along with the Eurotunnel Shuttle, connects with the United Kingdom through the Channel Tunnel. Rail connections exist to all other neighboring countries in Europe, except Andorra. Intra-urban connections are also well developed with both underground services (Paris, Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Rennes) and tramway services (Nantes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Montpellier...) complementing bus services.

There are approximately of serviceable roadway in France, ranking it the most extensive network of the European continent. The Paris region is enveloped with the most dense network of roads and highways that connect it with virtually all parts of the country. French roads also handle substantial international traffic, connecting with cities in neighboring Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Andorra and Monaco. There is no annual registration fee or road tax; however, usage of the mostly privately owned motorways is through tolls except in the vicinity of large communes. The new car market is dominated by domestic brands such as Renault, Peugeot and Citroën. France possesses the Millau Viaduct, the world's tallest bridge, and has built many important bridges such as the Pont de Normandie. Diesel and gasoline fuelled cars and lorries cause a large part of the country's air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

There are 464 airports in France. Charles de Gaulle Airport, located in the vicinity of Paris, is the largest and busiest airport in the country, handling the vast majority of popular and commercial traffic and connecting Paris with virtually all major cities across the world. Air France is the national carrier airline, although numerous private airline companies provide domestic and international travel services. There are ten major ports in France, the largest of which is in Marseille, which also is the largest bordering the Mediterranean Sea. of waterways traverse France including the Canal du Midi, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Garonne river.

Science and technology

Since the Middle Ages, France has been a major contributor to scientific and technological achievement. Around the beginning of the 11th century, Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d'Aurillac, reintroduced the abacus and armillary sphere, and introduced Arabic numerals and clocks to Northern and Western Europe. The University of Paris, founded in the mid-12th century, is still one of the most important universities in the Western world. In the 17th century, mathematician René Descartes defined a method for the acquisition of scientific knowledge, while Blaise Pascal became famous for his work on probability and fluid mechanics. They were both key figures of the Scientific Revolution, which blossomed in Europe during this period. The Academy of Sciences was founded by Louis XIV to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is one of the earliest academies of sciences.

The Age of Enlightenment was marked by the work of biologist Buffon and chemist Lavoisier, who discovered the role of oxygen in combustion, while Diderot and D'Alembert published the Encyclopédie, which aimed to give access to "useful knowledge" to the people, a knowledge that they can apply to their everyday life. With the Industrial Revolution, the 19th century saw spectacular scientific developments in France with scientists such as Augustin Fresnel, founder of modern optics, Sadi Carnot who laid the foundations of thermodynamics, and Louis Pasteur, a pioneer of microbiology. Other eminent French scientists of the 19th century have their names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

Famous French scientists of the 20th century include the mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré, physicists Henri Becquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie, who remained famous for their work on radioactivity, the physicist Paul Langevin and virologist Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV AIDS. Hand transplantation was developed on 23 September 1998 in Lyon by a team assembled from different countries around the world including Jean-Michel Dubernard who, shortly thereafter, performed the first successful double hand transplant. Telesurgery was developed by Jacques Marescaux and his team on 7 September 2001 across the Atlantic Ocean (New-York-Strasbourg, Lindbergh Operation). A face transplant was first done on 27 November 2005 by Dr. Bernard Devauchelle.

France was the fourth country to achieve nuclear capability and has the third largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world. It is also a leader in civilian nuclear technology. France was the third nation, after the former USSR and the United States, to launch its own space satellite and remains the biggest contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA). The European Airbus, formed from the French group Aérospatiale along with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA), designs and develops civil and military aircraft as well as communications systems, missiles, space rockets, helicopters, satellites, and related systems. France also hosts major international research instruments such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility or the Institut Laue–Langevin and remains a major member of CERN. It also owns Minatec, Europe's leading nanotechnology research center.

The SNCF, the French national railroad company, has developed the TGV, a high speed train which holds a series of world speed records. The TGV has been the fastest wheeled train in commercial use since reaching a speed of on 3 April 2007. Western Europe is now serviced by a network of TGV lines.

The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) has been ranked by the Nature Index 2020 as the fourth institution with highest share of articles published in scientific journals in the world. France itself was the 6th nation globally with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals according to the Nature Index 2020, which is valid for the calendar year 2019.

, 69 French people have been awarded a Nobel Prize and 12 have received the Fields Medal.

Demographics

With an estimated May 2021 population of 67.413 million people, France is the 20th most populous country in the world, the third-most populous in Europe (after Russia and Germany), and the second most populous in the European Union (after Germany).

France is an outlier among developed countries in general, and European countries in particular, in having a relatively high rate of natural population growth: by birth rates alone, it was responsible for almost all natural population growth in the European Union in 2006. Between 2006 and 2016, France saw the second highest overall increase in population in the EU, and was one of only four EU countries where natural births accounted for most population growth. This was the highest rate since the end of the baby boom in 1973, and coincides with the rise of the total fertility rate from a nadir of 1.7 in 1994 to 2.0 in 2010.

the fertility rate declined slightly to 1.84 children per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, and considerably below the high of 4.41 in 1800. France's fertility rate and crude birth rate nonetheless remain among the highest in the EU. However, like many developed nations, France's population is aging; the average age is 41.7 years, while about a fifth of French people are 65 or over. Average life expectancy at birth is 82.7 years, the 12th highest in the world.

From 2006 to 2011 population growth averaged 0.6 percent per year; since 2011, annual growth has been between 0.4 and 0.5 percent annually. Immigrants are major contributors to this trend; in 2010, 27 percent of newborns in metropolitan France had at least one foreign-born parent and 24 percent had at least one parent born outside of Europe (excluding French overseas territories).

Ethnic groups

Most French people are of Celtic (Gauls) origin, with an admixture of Italic (Romans) and Germanic (Franks) groups. Different regions reflect this diverse heritage, with notable Breton elements in western France, Aquitanian in the southwest, Scandinavian in the northwest, Alemannic in the northeast and Ligurian in the southeast.

Large-scale immigration over the last century and a half has led to a more multicultural society. In 2004, the Institut Montaigne estimated that within Metropolitan France, 51 million people were White (85% of the population), 6 million were Northwest African (10%), 2 million were Black (3.3%), and 1 million were Asian (1.7%).

Since the French Revolution, and as codified in the 1958 French Constitution, it is illegal for the French state to collect data on ethnicity and ancestry. In 2008, the TeO ("Trajectories and origins") poll conducted jointly by INED and the French National Institute of Statistics estimated that 5 million people were of Italian ancestry (the largest immigrant community), followed by 3 million to 6 million of Northwest African ancestry, 2.5 million of Sub-Saharan African origin, 500,000 ethnic Armenian, and 200,000 people of Turkish ancestry. There are also sizable minorities of other European ethnic groups, namely Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Greek. France has a significant Gitan (Romani) population, numbering between 20,000 and 400,000. Many foreign Roma are expelled back to Bulgaria and Romania frequently.

It is currently estimated that 40% of the French population is descended at least partially from the different waves of immigration the country has received since the early 20th century; between 1921 and 1935 alone, about 1.1 million net immigrants came to France. The next largest wave came in the 1960s, when around 1.6 million pieds noirs returned to France following the independence of its Northwest African possessions, Algeria and Morocco. They were joined by numerous former colonial subjects from North and West Africa, as well as numerous European immigrants from Spain and Portugal.

France remains a major destination for immigrants, accepting about 200,000 legal immigrants annually. In 2005, it was Western Europe's leading recipient of asylum seekers, with an estimated 50,000 applications (albeit 15% decrease from 2004). In 2010, France received about 48,100 asylum applications—placing it among the top five asylum recipients in the world and in subsequent years it saw the number of applications increase, ultimately doubling to 100,412 in 2017. The European Union allows free movement between the member states, although France established controls to curb Eastern European migration, and immigration remains a contentious political issue.

In 2008, the INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) estimated that the total number of foreign-born immigrants was around 5 million (8% of the population), while their French-born descendants numbered 6.5 million, or 11% of the population. Thus, nearly a fifth of the country's population were either first or second-generation immigrants, of which more than 5 million were of European origin and 4 million of Maghrebi ancestry. In 2008, France granted citizenship to 137,000 persons, mostly from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey.

In 2014, the INSEE published a study which reported doubling of the number of Spanish immigrants, Portuguese and Italians in France between 2009 and 2012. According to the French Institute, this increase resulting from the financial crisis that hit several European countries in that period, has pushed up the number of Europeans installed in France. Statistics on Spanish immigrants in France show a growth of 107 percent between 2009 and 2012, i.e. in this period went from 5300 to 11,000 people. Of the total of 229,000 foreigners who were in France in 2012, nearly 8% were Portuguese, 5% British, 5% Spanish, 4% Italians, 4% Germans, 3% Romanians, and 3% Belgians.

Major cities

France is a highly urbanized country, with its largest cities (in terms of metropolitan area population in 2016) being Paris (12,568,755 inh.), Lyon (2,310,850), Marseille (1,756,296), Toulouse (1,345,343), Bordeaux (1,232,550), Lille (1,187,824), Nice (1,006,402), Nantes (961,521), Strasbourg (785,839) and Rennes (727,357). (Note: There are significant differences between the metropolitan population figures just cited and those in the following table, which indicates the population of the communes). Rural flight was a perennial political issue throughout most of the 20th century.

Language

According to Article 2 of the Constitution, the official language of France is French, a Romance language derived from Latin. Since 1635, the Académie française has been France's official authority on the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal weight. There are also regional languages spoken in France, such as Occitan, Breton, Catalan, Flemish (Dutch dialect), Alsatian (German dialect), Basque, and Corsican. Italian was the official language of Corsica until 9 May 1859.

The Government of France does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. The perceived threat from anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France. Besides French, there exist 77 vernacular minority languages of France, eight spoken in French metropolitan territory and 69 in the French overseas territories.

From the 17th to the mid-20th century, French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. The dominant position of French language in international affairs was overtaken by English, since the emergence of the United States as a major power.

For most of the time in which French served as an international lingua franca, it was not the native language of most Frenchmen: a report in 1794 conducted by Henri Grégoire found that of the country's 25 million people, only three million spoke French natively; the rest spoke one of the country's many regional languages, such as Alsatian, Breton or Occitan. Through the expansion of public education, in which French was the sole language of instruction, as well as other factors such as increased urbanisation and the rise of mass communication, French gradually came to be adopted by virtually the entire population, a process not completed until the 20th century.

As a result of France's extensive colonial ambitions between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, South-East Asia, as well as the Caribbean. French is the second most studied foreign language in the world after English, and is a lingua franca in some regions, notably in Africa. The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed: it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies (The Levant, South and Southeast Asia), while creoles and pidgins based on French have emerged in the French departments in the West Indies and the South Pacific (French Polynesia). On the other hand, many former French colonies have adopted French as an official language, and the total number of French speakers is increasing, especially in Africa.

It is estimated that between 300 million and 500 million people worldwide can speak French, either as a mother tongue or a second language.

According to the 2007 Adult Education survey, part of a project by the European Union and carried in France by the INSEE and based on a sample of 15,350 persons, French was the native language of 87.2% of the total population, or roughly 55.81 million people, followed by Arabic (3.6%, 2.3 million), Portuguese (1.5%, 960,000), Spanish (1.2%, 770,000) and Italian (1.0%, 640,000). Native speakers of other languages made up the remaining 5.2% of the population.

Religion

France is a secular country in which freedom of religion is a constitutional right. French religious policy is based on the concept of laïcité, a strict separation of church and state under which public life is kept completely secular.

According to a survey held in 2016 by Institut Montaigne and Institut français d'opinion publique (IFOP), 51.1% of the total population of France was Christian, 39.6% had no religion (atheism or agnosticism), 5.6% were Muslims, 2.5% were followers of other faiths, and the remaining 0.4% were undecided about their faith. Estimates of the number of Muslims in France vary widely. In 2003, the French Ministry of the Interior estimated the total number of people of Muslim background to be between 5 and 6 million (8–10%). The current Jewish community in France is the largest in Europe and the third-largest in the world after Israel and the United States, ranging between 480,000 and 600,000, about 0.8% of the population as of 2016.

Catholicism has been the predominant religion in France for more than a millennium, though it is not as actively practised today as it was. Among the 47,000 religious buildings in France, 94% are Roman Catholic. During the French Revolution, activists conducted a brutal campaign of de-Christianisation, ending the Catholic Church as the state religion. In some cases clergy and churches were attacked, with iconoclasm stripping the churches of statues and ornaments. After alternating between royal and secular republican governments during the 19th century, in 1905 France passed the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, which established the principle of laïcité.

To this day, the government is prohibited from recognizing any specific right to a religious community (except for legacy statutes like those of military chaplains and the local law in Alsace-Moselle). It recognizes religious organisations according to formal legal criteria that do not address religious doctrine. Conversely, religious organisations are expected to refrain from intervening in policy-making. Certain groups, such as Scientology, Children of God, the Unification Church, and the Order of the Solar Temple are considered cults ("sectes" in French), and therefore do not have the same status as recognized religions in France. Secte is considered a pejorative term in France.

Health

The French health care system is one of universal health care largely financed by government national health insurance. In its 2000 assessment of world health care systems, the World Health Organization found that France provided the "close to best overall health care" in the world. The French healthcare system was ranked first worldwide by the World Health Organization in 1997. In 2011, France spent 11.6% of GDP on health care, or US$4,086 per capita, a figure much higher than the average spent by countries in Europe but less than in the United States. Approximately 77% of health expenditures are covered by government funded agencies.

Care is generally free for people affected by chronic diseases (affections de longues durées) such as cancer, AIDS or cystic fibrosis. Average life expectancy at birth is 78 years for men and 85 years for women, one of the highest of the European Union and the World. There are 3.22 physicians for every 1000 inhabitants in France, and average health care spending per capita was US$4,719 in 2008.

, approximately 140,000 inhabitants (0.4%) of France are living with HIV/AIDS.

Even if the French have the reputation of being one of the thinnest people in developed countries,

France—like other rich countries—faces an increasing and recent epidemic of obesity, due mostly to the replacement in French eating habits of traditional healthy French cuisine by junk food. The French obesity rate is still far below that of the United States—currently equal to American rate in the 1970s—and is still the lowest of Europe. Authorities now regard obesity as one of the main public health issues and fight it fiercely. Rates of childhood obesity are slowing in France, while continuing to grow in other countries.

Education

In 1802, Napoleon created the lycée, the second and final stage of secondary education that prepares students for higher education studies or a profession. Nevertheless, Jules Ferry is considered the father of the French modern school, leading reforms in the late 19th century that established free, secular, and compulsory education (currently mandatory until the age of 16).

French education is centralized and divided into three stages: Primary, secondary, and higher education. The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranked France's education as below OECD average in 2018. Primary and secondary education are predominantly public, run by the Ministry of National Education. While training and remuneration of teachers and the curriculum are the responsibility of the state centrally, the management of primary and secondary schools is overseen by local authorities. Primary education comprises two phases, nursery school (école maternelle) and elementary school (école élémentaire). Nursery school aims to stimulate the minds of very young children and promote their socialization and development of a basic grasp of language and number. Around the age of six, children transfer to elementary school, whose primary objectives are learning about writing, arithmetic and citizenship. Secondary education also consists of two phases. The first is delivered through colleges (collège) and leads to the national certificate (Diplôme national du brevet). The second is offered in high schools (lycée) and finishes in national exams leading to a baccalaureate (baccalauréat, available in professional, technical or general flavors) or certificate of professional competence (certificat d'aptitude professionelle).

Higher education is divided between public universities and the prestigious and selective Grandes écoles, such as Sciences Po Paris for Political studies, HEC Paris for Economics, Polytechnique, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales for Social studies and the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris that produce high-profile engineers, or the École nationale d'administration for careers in the Grands Corps of the state. The Grandes écoles have been criticized for alleged elitism, producing many if not most of France's high-ranking civil servants, CEOs, and politicians.

Culture

France has been a centre of Western cultural development for centuries. Many French artists have been among the most renowned of their time; France is still recognised in the world for its rich cultural tradition.

The successive political regimes have always promoted artistic creation. The creation of the Ministry of Culture in 1959 helped preserve the cultural heritage of the country and make it available to the public. The Ministry of Culture has been very active since its creation, granting subsidies to artists, promoting French culture in the world, supporting festivals and cultural events, protecting historical monuments. The French government also succeeded in maintaining a cultural exception to defend audiovisual products made in the country.

France receives the highest number of tourists per year, largely thanks to the numerous cultural establishments and historical buildings implanted all over the territory. It counts 1,200 museums welcoming more than 50 million people annually. The most important cultural sites are run by the government, for instance through the public agency Centre des monuments nationaux, which is responsible for approximately 85 national historical monuments. The 43,180 buildings protected as historical monuments include mainly residences (many castles) and religious buildings (cathedrals, basilicas, churches), but also statues, memorials and gardens. The UNESCO inscribed 45 sites in France on the World Heritage List.

Art

The origins of French art were very much influenced by Flemish art and by Italian art at the time of the Renaissance. Jean Fouquet, the most famous medieval French painter, is said to have been the first to travel to Italy and experience the Early Renaissance at first hand. The Renaissance painting School of Fontainebleau was directly inspired by Italian painters such as Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino, who both worked in France. Two of the most famous French artists of the time of Baroque era, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, lived in Italy.

The 17th century was the period when French painting became prominent and individualised itself through classicism. Prime Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded in 1648 the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture under Louis XIV to protect these artists; in 1666 he also created the still-active French Academy in Rome to have direct relations with Italian artists.

French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of old baroque style, the works of the court-endorsed artists Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style such as Jacques-Louis David and the highly influential Académie des Beaux-Arts defined the style known as Academism. At this time France had become a centre of artistic creation, the first half of the 19th century being dominated by two successive movements, at first Romanticism with Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, then Realism with Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, a style that eventually evolved into Naturalism.

In the second part of the 19th century, France's influence over painting became even more important, with the development of new styles of painting such as Impressionism and Symbolism. The most famous impressionist painters of the period were Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. The second generation of impressionist-style painters, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Georges Seurat, were also at the avant-garde of artistic evolutions, as well as the fauvist artists Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cubism was developed by Georges Braque and the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, living in Paris. Other foreign artists also settled and worked in or near Paris, such as Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Wassily Kandinsky.

Many museums in France are entirely or partly devoted to sculptures and painting works. A huge collection of old masterpieces created before or during the 18th century are displayed in the state-owned Musée du Louvre, such as the Mona Lisa, also known as "La Joconde". While the Louvre Palace has been for a long time a museum, the Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated in 1986 in the old railway station Gare d'Orsay, in a major reorganisation of national art collections, to gather French paintings from the second part of the 19th century (mainly Impressionism and Fauvism movements). The musée d'Orsay was voted in 2018 the best museum in the world.

Modern works are presented in the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which moved in 1976 to the Centre Georges Pompidou. These three state-owned museums welcome close to 17 million people a year. Other national museums hosting paintings include the Grand Palais (1.3 million visitors in 2008), but there are also many museums owned by cities, the most visited being the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (0.8 million entries in 2008), which hosts contemporary works. Outside Paris, all the large cities have a Museum of Fine Arts with a section dedicated to European and French painting. Some of the finest collections are in Lyon, Lille, Rouen, Dijon, Rennes and Grenoble.

Architecture

During the Middle Ages, many fortified castles were built by feudal nobles to mark their powers. Some French castles that survived are Chinon, Château d'Angers, the massive Château de Vincennes and the so-called Cathar castles. During this era, France had been using Romanesque architecture like most of Western Europe. Some of the greatest examples of Romanesque churches in France are the Saint Sernin Basilica in Toulouse, the largest romanesque church in Europe, and the remains of the Cluniac Abbey.

The Gothic architecture, originally named Opus Francigenum meaning "French work", was born in Île-de-France and was the first French style of architecture to be copied in all Europe. Northern France is the home of some of the most important Gothic cathedrals and basilicas, the first of these being the Saint Denis Basilica (used as the royal necropolis); other important French Gothic cathedrals are Notre-Dame de Chartres and Notre-Dame d'Amiens. The kings were crowned in another important Gothic church: Notre-Dame de Reims. Aside from churches, Gothic Architecture had been used for many religious palaces, the most important one being the Palais des Papes in Avignon.

The final victory in the Hundred Years' War marked an important stage in the evolution of French architecture. It was the time of the French Renaissance and several artists from Italy were invited to the French court; many residential palaces were built in the Loire Valley, from 1450 with as a first reference the Château de Montsoreau. Such residential castles were the Château de Chambord, the Château de Chenonceau, or the Château d'Amboise.

Following the renaissance and the end of the Middle Ages, Baroque architecture replaced the traditional Gothic style. However, in France, baroque architecture found a greater success in the secular domain than in a religious one. In the secular domain, the Palace of Versailles has many baroque features. Jules Hardouin Mansart, who designed the extensions to Versailles, was one of the most influential French architect of the baroque era; he is famous for his dome at Les Invalides. Some of the most impressive provincial baroque architecture is found in places that were not yet French such as the Place Stanislas in Nancy. On the military architectural side, Vauban designed some of the most efficient fortresses in Europe and became an influential military architect; as a result, imitations of his works can be found all over Europe, the Americas, Russia and Turkey.

After the Revolution, the Republicans favoured Neoclassicism although it was introduced in France prior to the revolution with such buildings as the Parisian Pantheon or the Capitole de Toulouse. Built during the first French Empire, the Arc de Triomphe and Sainte Marie-Madeleine represent the best example of Empire style architecture.

Under Napoleon III, a new wave of urbanism and architecture was given birth; extravagant buildings such as the neo-baroque Palais Garnier were built. The urban planning of the time was very organised and rigorous; for example, Haussmann's renovation of Paris. The architecture associated to this era is named Second Empire in English, the term being taken from the Second French Empire. At this time there was a strong Gothic resurgence across Europe and in France; the associated architect was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In the late 19th century, Gustave Eiffel designed many bridges, such as Garabit viaduct, and remains one of the most influential bridge designers of his time, although he is best remembered for the iconic Eiffel Tower.

In the 20th century, French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier designed several buildings in France. More recently, French architects have combined both modern and old architectural styles. The Louvre Pyramid is an example of modern architecture added to an older building. The most difficult buildings to integrate within French cities are skyscrapers, as they are visible from afar. For instance, in Paris, since 1977, new buildings had to be under . France's largest financial district is La Defense, where a significant number of skyscrapers are located. Other massive buildings that are a challenge to integrate into their environment are large bridges; an example of the way this has been done is the Millau Viaduct. Some famous modern French architects include Jean Nouvel, Dominique Perrault, Christian de Portzamparc or Paul Andreu.

Literature

The earliest French literature dates from the Middle Ages, when what is now known as modern France did not have a single, uniform language. There were several languages and dialects, and writers used their own spelling and grammar. Some authors of French medieval texts are unknown, such as Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot-Grail. Other authors are known, for example Chrétien de Troyes and Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who wrote in Occitan.

Much medieval French poetry and literature were inspired by the legends of the Matter of France, such as The Song of Roland and the various chansons de geste. The Roman de Renart, written in 1175 by Perrout de Saint Cloude, tells the story of the medieval character Reynard ('the Fox') and is another example of early French writing. An important 16th-century writer was François Rabelais, whose novel Gargantua and Pantagruel has remained famous and appreciated until now. Michel de Montaigne was the other major figure of the French literature during that century. His most famous work, Essais, created the literary genre of the essay. French poetry during that century was embodied by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Both writers founded the La Pléiade literary movement.

During the 17th century, Madame de La Fayette published anonymously La Princesse de Clèves, a novel that is considered to be one of the first psychological novels of all time. Jean de La Fontaine is one of the most famous fabulists of that time, as he wrote hundreds of fables, some being far more famous than others, such as The Ant and the Grasshopper. Generations of French pupils had to learn his fables, that were seen as helping teaching wisdom and common sense to the young people. Some of his verses have entered the popular language to become proverbs, such as "À l'œuvre, on connaît l'artisan."workman is known by his chips.

Jean Racine, whose incredible mastery of the alexandrine and of the French language has been praised for centuries, created plays such as Phèdre or Britannicus. He is, along with Pierre Corneille (Le Cid) and Molière, considered as one of the three great dramatists of France's golden age. Molière, who is deemed to be one of the greatest masters of comedy of the Western literature, wrote dozens of plays, including Le Misanthrope, L'Avare, Le Malade imaginaire, as well as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. His plays have been so popular around the world that French language is sometimes dubbed as "the language of Molière" (la langue de Molière), just like English is considered as "the language of Shakespeare".

French literature and poetry flourished even more in the 18th and 19th centuries. Denis Diderot's best-known works are Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau's Nephew. He is however best known for being the main redactor of the Encyclopédie, whose aim was to sum up all the knowledge of his century (in fields such as arts, sciences, languages, and philosophy) and to present them to the people, to fight ignorance and obscurantism. During that same century, Charles Perrault was a prolific writer of famous children's fairy tales including Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard. At the start of the 19th century, symbolist poetry was an important movement in French literature, with poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé.

The 19th century saw the writings of many renowned French authors. Victor Hugo is sometimes seen as "the greatest French writer of all time" for excelling in all literary genres. The preface of his play Cromwell is considered to be the manifesto of the Romantic movement. Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles are considered as "poetic masterpieces", Hugo's verse having been compared to that of Shakespeare, Dante and Homer. His novel Les Misérables is widely seen as one of the greatest novel ever written and The Hunchback of Notre Dame has remained immensely popular.

Other major authors of that century include Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte-Cristo), Jules Verne (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), Émile Zola (Les Rougon-Macquart), Honoré de Balzac (La Comédie humaine), Guy de Maupassant, Théophile Gautier and Stendhal (The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma), whose works are among the most well known in France and the world. The Prix Goncourt is a French literary prize first awarded in 1903. Important writers of the 20th century include Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote Little Prince, which has remained popular for decades with children and adults around the world. , French authors had more Literature Nobel Prizes than those of any other nation. The first Nobel Prize in Literature was a French author, while France's latest Nobel prize in literature is Patrick Modiano, who was awarded the prize in 2014. Jean-Paul Sartre was also the first nominee in the committee's history to refuse the prize in 1964.

Philosophy

Medieval philosophy was dominated by Scholasticism until the emergence of Humanism in the Renaissance. Modern philosophy began in France in the 17th century with the philosophy of René Descartes, Blaise Pascal and Nicolas Malebranche. Descartes was the first Western philosopher since ancient times to attempt to build a philosophical system from the ground up rather than building on the work of predecessors." His Meditations on First Philosophy changed the primary object of philosophical thought and raised some of the most fundamental problems for foreigners such as Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Berkeley, and Kant.

French philosophers produced some of the most important political works of the Age of Enlightenment. In The Spirit of the Laws, Baron de Montesquieu theorised the principle of separation of powers, which has been implemented in all liberal democracies since it was first applied in the United States. Voltaire came to embody the Enlightenment with his defence of civil liberties, such as the right to a free trial and freedom of religion.

19th-century French thought was targeted at responding to the social malaise following the French Revolution. Rationalist philosophers such as Victor Cousin and Auguste Comte, who called for a new social doctrine, were opposed by reactionary thinkers such as Joseph de Maistre, Louis de Bonald and Félicité Robert de Lamennais, who blamed the rationalist rejection of traditional order. De Maistre is considered, together with the Englishman Edmund Burke, one of the founders of European conservatism, while Comte is regarded as the founder of positivism, which Émile Durkheim reformulated as a basis for social research.

In the 20th century, partly as a reaction to the perceived excesses of positivism, French spiritualism thrived with thinkers such as Henri Bergson and it influenced American pragmatism and Whitehead's version of process philosophy. Meanwhile, French epistemology became a prominent school of thought with Jules Henri Poincaré, Gaston Bachelard, Jean Cavaillès and Jules Vuillemin. Influenced by German phenomenology and existentialism, the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre gained a strong influence after World War II, and late-20th-century-France became the cradle of postmodern philosophy with Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault.

Music

France has a long and varied musical history. It experienced a golden age in the 17th century thanks to Louis XIV, who employed a number of talented musicians and composers in the royal court. The most renowned composers of this period include Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin, Michel-Richard Delalande, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marin Marais, all of them composers at the court. After the death of the "Roi Soleil", French musical creation lost dynamism, but in the next century the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau reached some prestige, and today he is still one of the most renowned French composers. Rameau became the dominant composer of French opera and the leading French composer for the harpsichord.

French composers played an important role during the music of the 19th and early 20th century, which is considered to be the Romantic music era. Romantic music emphasised a surrender to nature, a fascination with the past and the supernatural, the exploration of unusual, strange and surprising sounds, and a focus on national identity. This period was also a golden age for operas. French composers from the Romantic era included: Hector Berlioz (best known for his Symphonie fantastique), Georges Bizet (best known for Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas), Gabriel Fauré (best known for his Pavane, Requiem, and nocturnes), Charles Gounod (best known for his Ave Maria and his opera Faust), Jacques Offenbach (best known for his 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann), Édouard Lalo (best known for his Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra and his Cello Concerto in D minor), Jules Massenet (best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty, the most frequently staged are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892)) and Camille Saint-Saëns (he has many frequently-performed works, including The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah (Opera), Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his Symphony No. 3).

Later came precursors of modern classical music. Érik Satie was a key member of the early-20th-century Parisian avant-garde, best known for his Gymnopédies. Francis Poulenc's best known works are his piano suite Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957) and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir and orchestra. Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy are the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of atonality. The two composers invented new musical forms and new sounds. Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity. His mastery of orchestration is evident in the Rapsodie espagnole, Daphnis et Chloé, his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and his orchestral work Boléro (1928). More recently, the middle of the 20th century, Maurice Ohana, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Boulez contributed to the evolutions of contemporary classical music.

French music then followed the rapid emergence of pop and rock music at the middle of the 20th century. Although English-speaking creations achieved popularity in the country, French pop music, known as chanson française, has also remained very popular. Among the most important French artists of the century are Édith Piaf, Georges Brassens, Léo Ferré, Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg. Although there are very few rock bands in France compared to English-speaking countries, bands such as Noir Désir, Mano Negra, Niagara, Les Rita Mitsouko and more recently Superbus, Phoenix and Gojira, or Shaka Ponk, have reached worldwide popularity.

Other French artists with international careers have been popular in several countries, most notably female singers Dalida, Mireille Mathieu, Mylène Farmer, Alizée and Nolwenn Leroy, electronic music pioneers Jean-Michel Jarre, Laurent Garnier and Bob Sinclar, later Martin Solveig and David Guetta. In the 1990s and 2000s (decade), electronic duos Daft Punk, Justice and Air also reached worldwide popularity and contributed to the reputation of modern electronic music in the world.

Among current musical events and institutions in France, many are dedicated to classical music and operas. The most prestigious institutions are the state-owned Paris National Opera (with its two sites Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille), the Opéra National de Lyon, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. As for music festivals, there are several events organised, the most popular being Eurockéennes (a word play which sounds in French as "European"), Solidays and Rock en Seine. The Fête de la Musique, imitated by many foreign cities, was first launched by the French Government in 1982. Major music halls and venues in France include Le Zénith sites present in many cities and other places in Paris (Paris Olympia, Théâtre Mogador, Élysée Montmartre).

Cinema

France has historical and strong links with cinema, with two Frenchmen, Auguste and Louis Lumière (known as the Lumière Brothers) credited with creating cinema in 1895. The world's first female filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, was also from France. Several important cinematic movements, including the late 1950s and 1960s Nouvelle Vague, began in the country. It is noted for having a strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the Government of France. France remains a leader in filmmaking, producing more films than any other European country. The nation also hosts the Cannes Festival, one of the most important and famous film festivals in the world.

Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a gathering spot for artists from across Europe and the world. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina (Gaspar Noé, Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke) and Georgia (Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur or Francis Veber in the United States.

Although the French film market is dominated by Hollywood, France is the only nation in the world where American films make up the smallest share of total film revenues, at 50%, compared with 77% in Germany and 69% in Japan. French films account for 35% of the total film revenues of France, which is the highest percentage of national film revenues in the developed world outside the United States, compared to 14% in Spain and 8% in the UK. France is in 2013 the 2nd exporter of films in the world after the United States.

Until recently, France had for centuries been the cultural center of the world, although its dominant position has been surpassed by the United States. Subsequently, France takes steps in protecting and promoting its culture, becoming a leading advocate of the cultural exception. The nation succeeded in convincing all EU members to refuse to include culture and audiovisuals in the list of liberalised sectors of the WTO in 1993. Moreover, this decision was confirmed in a voting in the UNESCO in 2005: the principle of "cultural exception" won an overwhelming victory with 198 countries voting for it and only 2 countries, the United States and Israel, voting against.

Fashion

Fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the 17th century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses. The expression Haute couture is, in France, a legally protected name, guaranteeing certain quality standards.

The association of France with fashion and style (link=no|la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. But France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (link=no|couture ) industry in the years 1860–1960 through the establishing of the great couturier houses such as Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy. The French perfume industry is world leader in its sector and is centered on the town of Grasse.

In the 1960s, the elitist "Haute couture" came under criticism from France's youth culture. In 1966, the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established Haute Couture norms by launching a prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing. With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH.

According to 2017 data compiled by Deloitte, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), a French brand, is the largest luxury company in the world by sales, selling more than twice the amount of its nearest competitor. Moreover, France also possesses 3 of the top 10 luxury goods companies by sales (LVMH, Kering SA, L'Oréal), more than any other country in the world.

Media

Best-selling daily national newspapers in France are Le Parisien Aujourd'hui en France (with 460,000 sold daily), Le Monde and Le Figaro, with around 300,000 copies sold daily, but also L'Équipe, dedicated to sports coverage. In the past years, free dailies made a breakthrough, with Metro, 20 Minutes and Direct Plus distributed at more than 650,000 copies respectively. However, the widest circulations are reached by regional daily Ouest France with more than 750,000 copies sold, and the 50 other regional papers have also high sales. The sector of weekly magazines is stronger and diversified with more than 400 specialized weekly magazines published in the country.

The most influential news magazines are the left-wing Le Nouvel Observateur, centrist L'Express and right-wing Le Point (more than 400.000 copies), but the highest circulation for weeklies is reached by TV magazines and by women's magazines, among them Marie Claire and ELLE, which have foreign versions. Influential weeklies also include investigative and satirical papers Le Canard Enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo, as well as Paris Match. Like in most industrialized nations, the print media have been affected by a severe crisis in the past decade. In 2008, the government launched a major initiative to help the sector reform and become financially independent, but in 2009 it had to give 600,000 euros to help the print media cope with the economic crisis, in addition to existing subsidies.

In 1974, after years of centralised monopoly on radio and television, the governmental agency ORTF was split into several national institutions, but the three already-existing TV channels and four national radio stations remained under state-control. It was only in 1981 that the government allowed free broadcasting in the territory, ending state monopoly on radio. French television was partly liberalized in the next two-decade with the creation of several commercial channels, mainly thanks to cable and satellite television. In 2005 the national service Télévision Numérique Terrestre introduced digital television all over the territory, allowing the creation of other channels.

The four existing national channels are owned by state-owned consortium France Télévisions, funded by advertising revenue and TV licence fees. Public broadcasting group Radio France run five national radio stations. Among these public media are Radio France Internationale, which broadcasts programs in French all over the world, and Franco-German TV channel TV5 Monde. In 2006, the government created global news channel France 24. Long-established TV channels TF1 (privatized in 1987), France 2 and France 3 have the highest shares, while radio stations RTL, Europe 1 and state-owned France Inter are the least listened to.

Society

According to a BBC poll in 2010, based on 29,977 responses in 28 countries, France is globally seen as a positive influence in the world's affairs: 49% have a positive view of the country's influence, whereas 19% have a negative view. The Nation Brand Index of 2008 suggested that France has the second best international reputation, only behind Germany. A global opinion poll for the BBC saw France ranked the fourth most positively viewed nation in the world (behind Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom) in 2014.

According to a poll in 2011, the French were found to have the highest level of religious tolerance and to be the country where the highest proportion of the population defines its identity primarily in term of nationality and not religion. , 75% of French had a favourable view of the United States, making France one of the most pro-American countries in the world. , the favourable view of the United States had dropped to 46%. In January 2010, the magazine International Living ranked France as "best country to live in", ahead of 193 other countries, for the fifth year running.

The OECD Better Life Index states that "France performs well in many measures of well-being relative to most other countries in the Better Life Index."

The French Revolution continues to permeate the country's collective memory. The tricolour flag of France, the anthem "La Marseillaise", and the motto Liberté, égalité, fraternité, defined in Title 1 of the Constitution as national symbols, all emerged during the cultural ferment of the early revolution, along with Marianne, a common national personification. In addition, Bastille Day, the national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.

A common and traditional symbol of the French people is the Gallic rooster. Its origins date back to Antiquity, since the Latin word Gallus meant both "rooster" and "inhabitant of Gaul". Then this figure gradually became the most widely shared representation of the French, used by French monarchs, then by the Revolution and under the successive republican regimes as representation of the national identity, used for some stamps and coins.

France is one of the world leaders of gender equality in the workplace: as of 2017, it has 36.8% of its corporate board seats held by women, which makes it the leader of the G20 for that metric; and was ranked in 2019 by the World Bank as one of the only 6 countries in the world where women have the same work rights as men.

France is one of the most liberal countries in the world when it comes to LGBT rights: a 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that 86% of the French think that same-sex relationships should be accepted by society, one of the highest acceptance rates in the world (comparable to that of other Western European nations). France legalized same-sex marriage and adoption in 2013. The government has used its diplomatic clout to support LGBT rights throughout the world, notably in the United Nations.

In 2020, France was ranked 5th in the Environmental Performance Index (behind the United Kingdom), out of 180 countries ranked by Yale University in that study. Being the host country of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference, the French government was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris agreement, a success that has been credited to its "openness and experience in diplomacy".

Cuisine

French cuisine is renowned for being one of the finest in the world. According to the regions, traditional recipes are different, the North of the country prefers to use butter as the preferred fat for cooking, whereas olive oil is more commonly used in the South. Moreover, each region of France has iconic traditional specialties: Cassoulet in the Southwest, Choucroute in Alsace, Quiche in the Lorraine region, Beef bourguignon in the Bourgogne, provençal Tapenade, etc. France's most renowned products are wines, including Champagne, Bordeaux, Bourgogne, and Beaujolais as well as a large variety of different cheeses, such as Camembert, Roquefort and Brie. There are more than 400 different varieties.

A meal often consists of three courses, hors d'œuvre or entrée (introductory course, sometimes soup), plat principal (main course), fromage (cheese course) or dessert, sometimes with a salad offered before the cheese or dessert. Hors d'œuvres could include terrine de saumon au basilic, lobster bisque, foie gras, French onion soup or a croque monsieur. The plat principal could include a pot au feu or steak frites. The dessert could be mille-feuille pastry, a macaron, an éclair, crème brûlée, mousse au chocolat, crêpes, or Café liégeois.

French cuisine is also regarded as a key element of the quality of life and the attractiveness of France. A French publication, the Michelin guide, awards Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a star can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant. By 2006, the Michelin Guide had awarded 620 stars to French restaurants, at that time more than any other country, although the guide also inspects more restaurants in France than in any other country (by 2010, Japan was awarded as many Michelin stars as France, despite having half the number of Michelin inspectors working there).

In addition to its wine tradition, France is also a major producer of beer and rum. The three main French brewing regions are Alsace (60% of national production), Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Lorraine. France produces rum via distilleries located on islands such as Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean.

Sports

France hosts "the world's biggest annual sporting event", the Tour de France, and other popular sports played in France include: football, judo, tennis, rugby union and pétanque. France has hosted events such as the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and will host the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The country also hosted the 1960 European Nations' Cup, UEFA Euro 1984, UEFA Euro 2016 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The Stade de France in Saint-Denis is France's largest stadium and was the venue for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2007 Rugby World Cup finals. Since 1903, France is famous for its 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car endurance race. Several major tennis tournaments take place in France, including the Paris Masters and the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. French martial arts include Savate and Fencing.

France has a close association with the Modern Olympic Games; it was a French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who suggested the Games' revival, at the end of the 19th century. After Athens was awarded the first Games, in reference to the Olympics' Greek origins, Paris hosted the second Games in 1900. Paris was the first home of the International Olympic Committee, before it moved to Lausanne. Since 1900, France has hosted the Olympics on 4 further occasions: the 1924 Summer Olympics, again in Paris and three Winter Games (1924 in Chamonix, 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville).

Similar to the Olympics, France introduced Olympics for the deaf people (Deaflympics) in 1924 with the idea of a French deaf car mechanic, Eugène Rubens-Alcais who paved the way to organise the inaugural edition of the Summer Deaflympics in Paris.

Both the national football team and the national rugby union team are nicknamed "Les Bleus" in reference to the team's shirt colour as well as the national French tricolour flag. Football is the most popular sport in France, with over 1,800,000 registered players, and over 18,000 registered clubs. The football team is among the most successful in the world, with two FIFA World Cup victories in 1998 and 2018, one FIFA World Cup second place in 2006, and two UEFA European Championships in 1984 and 2000.

The top national football club competition is Ligue 1. France has produced some of the greatest players in the world, including three time FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, three time Ballon d'Or recipient Michel Platini, record holder for most goals scored at a World Cup Just Fontaine, first football player to receive the Légion d'honneur Raymond Kopa, and the record goalscorer for the French national team Thierry Henry.

The French Open, also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments.

Rugby union is popular, particularly in Paris and the southwest of France. The national rugby union team has competed at every Rugby World Cup, and takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship.

国名

中文的「法国」是「法兰西国家」之简称，「法兰西」一词最早源于拉丁文中的「Francia」，意指「法兰克人之国」，现今意大利语和西班牙语中仍称法国为Francia，而法国国名的英语France、德语Frankreich和荷兰语Frankrijk也拥有与Francia相同的词根。

有关「法兰克」一词的由来，则有不同的理论：有指此衍生于原始日耳曼语中意指「自由」的「frank」一词，因为罗马征服高卢后，只有法兰克人不用纳税；也有说法指其来源于意为「长矛」或「标枪」的「」一词，因为该民族所用之投掷斧名称为「」。另外，根据捷克历史学家所载，「法兰西」亦建基于「」一称。此乃公元前61年、卡姆布里族（）其中一任君王之名字，而此君王的主权一直延伸至莱茵河以西、远至斯特拉斯堡及比利时之地。

在汉字文化圈中，法国的常用汉字表记有法兰西和佛兰西两种形式。汉语和越南语中使用「法兰西」（Pháp Lan Tây／法兰西）的表记，简称法国（Pháp quốc），而日语和朝鲜语中则沿用「佛兰西」的表记（日语：；朝鲜语：），简称佛国（仏国；불국／佛国）。第二次世界大战后的日语与韩语（大韩民国标准语）中，佛兰西的汉字表记形式不再广泛使用，而改用音译的形式，日语以片假名写为，韩语（大韩民国标准语）为。在希伯来语中法国的名称为（Tzarfat）。毛利语称法国为Wīwī，源自法语的「Oui, oui」（是，是）。

历史

远古时代

法国在距今180万年前已有人类居住，彼时的人类曾经历冰河期间多变的恶劣气候，从事著类似游牧民族的狩猎采集生活。法国境内有大量刻有原始壁画的洞窟，最早可追溯至旧石器时代晚期，其中多尔多涅省的拉斯科洞窟壁画（约于前18,000年所作）最为著名。

末次冰期末期（前10,000年左右），法国气候转向温和。约前7,000年该地域进入新石器时代，同时此地的人类渐趋向定居生活。前4,000年至前3,000年，该地人口激增，农业技术迅猛发展，开始采集金矿、铜矿和青铜矿，尔后亦能采集铁矿。法国境内亦有大量新石器时代的巨石文化遗址，包括石块异常密集的卡纳克巨石林（约前3,300年）。

古典时代

前600年，来自伊奥尼亚的一支希腊人在地中海岸建立了马萨利亚殖民地，是法国最古老的城市。一些凯尔特人部落同期迁入该地，并通过在前5世纪至前3世纪经的迁徙繁衍，分布地域几近覆盖法国全境。这些居住于今日之法国的凯尔特人即为高卢人，他们居住的地区被称为高卢，东至莱茵河，西抵大西洋，南达比利牛斯山和地中海，与今日法国边境相仿。高卢地区经济繁荣，南部地区受到了希腊和罗马文化的深刻影响。

前390年左右，高卢酋长布伦努斯率军穿越阿尔卑斯山前往今意大利，在中击败罗马军队，侵入罗马。高卢人得以一度支配罗马地区，罗马国家实力大大削弱。前345年，高卢与罗马议和。前125年，罗马征服高卢南部，建立诺斯特拉行省。尤利乌斯·凯撒征服高卢全境，且于前52年平息了酋长维钦托利的叛乱，此后奥古斯都将高卢分区建省。许多法国城市皆于此时期建立，高卢行省首府卢格杜努姆（今里昂）成为罗马帝国西部的重要城市之一。这一时期建立起的城市具有浓厚的罗马风格，建有广场、剧场、圆形广场、圆形竞技场和早期水疗系统。高卢人逐渐罗马化，汲取罗马文化习俗、并开始使用罗马语言。宗教方面，当时的罗马与凯尔特的多神论亦出现综摄现象。

250年至280年，高卢边境地区屡遭蛮族侵袭。4世纪上半叶，这种状况有所改善，高卢地区迎来复兴和发展。312年，罗马皇帝君士坦丁大帝皈依基督教，基督教开始在罗马帝国全境迅速传播。5世纪起，蛮族对罗马掀起大规模入侵，罗马帝国陷入崩溃，欧洲民族大迁徙于此时开始。汪达尔、苏维汇和奄蔡等日耳曼部族穿越莱茵河，进入高卢、西班牙和其它曾属于罗马帝国的地区定居。

中古前期

古典时代晚期，高卢被数个日耳曼国家瓜分，罗马领地西亚格里乌斯王国成为仅存的高卢人属地。同时，为逃离不列颠盎格鲁-撒克逊人的定居潮，一支凯尔特布立吞人迁至今法国西北部的布列塔尼半岛。凯尔特布立吞人的定居给当地带来凯尔特文化的烙印，随后布列塔尼开始形成小国林立的局面。信仰异教的法兰克人原居于高卢北部，他们于5世纪末在克洛维一世的率领下征服高卢的北部和中部地区，498年克洛维一世摒弃阿里乌教派、皈依罗马天主教，成为首位皈依基督的日耳曼征服者。因此法国被教宗称为「教会的长女」（），国王也被冠以「最为基督」（）之衔。

法兰克人接受了高卢罗马文化，改说罗曼语族语言。克洛维定巴黎为首都，建立墨洛温王朝。克洛维死后，王朝陷入分裂，克洛维的四个儿子按照法兰克人的习惯，将法兰克国家一分为四，分别是巴黎、奥尔良、苏瓦松和兰斯。随后的时期，法兰克王权旁落，国家大权被原主理政事的宫相把持，称为「」。其中一位宫相查理·马特功勋卓著，他因为在图尔战役中挫败倭马亚王朝穆斯林的入侵，而赢得法兰克人的尊重。查理·马特之子矮子丕平篡夺了墨洛温王朝的王位，自立为王，开启加洛林王朝。矮子丕平之子查理大帝统一了法兰克诸国，建立跨越西欧与中欧的庞大帝国，史称「查理曼帝国」。800年，查理大帝于罗马由教宗良三世加冕，自立神圣罗马帝国皇帝，法国政府与天主教会历史悠久的联系也自此开始。查理大帝试图恢复西罗马帝国，继承其文化上的宏大功业。查理大帝死后，其子虔诚者路易保持了短时间内的安定统一，但在路易死后，加洛林帝国也陷入分裂。庞大的帝国被路易的三个儿子一分为三，东法兰克归日耳曼人路易，中法兰克归洛泰尔一世，西法兰克归秃头查理。其中，西法兰克被看作是现代法国的前身。

在9至10世纪，法国开始出现封建雏形。彼时维京人开始入侵，同时贵族头衔和土地开始世袭享有、王权与神权的联系趋向紧密，王权削弱，遭到贵族挑战。1066年黑斯廷斯战役，诺曼底公爵威廉征服英格兰，自立为「英格兰国王」，原在法国身为公爵的他拥有了与法国国王平等的头衔，一度造成危机和紧张局势。

中古后期

987年，加洛林王朝绝嗣其对法国的统治走到尽头。这年法兰西公爵、巴黎伯爵于格·卡佩继承法兰克王座，开启卡佩王朝。1190年，腓力二世自立为「法兰西国王」，首次使用「法兰西」作为国名，为后世沿用。

法国在十字军东征运动中扮演了重要的角色，近两百年间，东征的法兰西骑士源源不断，是十字军的主力之一——无论对垒的十字军是否属于法国所派，阿拉伯人皆称之为「法兰克人」。法国十字军亦将古法语传播到中东的黎凡特地区，法语成为在当地建立的十字军国家的通用语。此外，法兰西骑士亦是医院骑士团和圣殿骑士团的主力军。圣殿骑士团在法兰西拥有大量财产，13世纪一度掌控法兰西国王御库。1307年腓力四世为解决财务问题，编织「异端」罪名主使铲除了圣殿骑士团。1209年，教宗为铲除法兰西南部的卡特里派，出动阿尔比十字军征讨之，并将其基本消灭。卡特里派的信徒图卢兹公国被并入法兰西。此后法兰西国王皆著力于扩张领土，与今日的法国相比，法兰西王国已经控制了北部和中部的大部分地区。根植于等级森严的贵族、神官、平民的分级制度，法兰西王权越发稳定。

1328年查理四世离世、膝下无嗣。根据萨利克继承法，女性及女性系后裔无权继承王位，所以查理四世之妹，法兰西的伊莎贝拉的子嗣、英格兰国王爱德华三世无权继承王位，而合法的继承人则是瓦卢瓦伯爵的后裔腓力。腓力即位成为腓力六世，开启瓦卢瓦王朝。为争夺法兰西王位，爱德华三世于1337年发动旷日持久的英法百年战争。战争开始的数十年内英军攻势凌厉，占领广阔的法兰西领土。然而在随后的数十年内，圣女贞德和拉海尔等出色的军事领袖率领法军扭转战局，最终法国获得胜利，保住了瓦卢瓦王朝的王位。英法交战正值黑死病肆虐之时，横扫欧洲的黑死病大大削弱了法兰西的国力，其近半数人口死于这种致命的瘟疫。

近世历史

15世纪法国兴起文艺复兴，创造了瞩目的文化成就。法语藉由《维莱科特雷法令》取代拉丁语成为法兰西的官方语言，随后又风靡于欧洲上层社会。文艺复兴时期，法兰西与他国的战争并未停歇，1494年至1559年法兰西围绕意大利地区同神圣罗马帝国发生多次武装冲突，史称意大利战争。宗教改革同样影响法国。在法兰西，雨格诺派是新教势力的代表，雨格诺派与天主教会的争斗引发宗教战争，这期间发生臭名昭著的圣巴托洛缪大屠杀，数千名雨格诺派信徒丧命。1589年纳瓦拉国王恩里克继承法国王位，称亨利四世，开启波旁王朝的统治。1598年亨利四世颁布《南特敕令》，肯定雨格诺派的合法性，宗教分裂的乱局一度终结。地理大发现后，新大陆亦出现法国探险家的身影，例如雅克·卡蒂埃和萨米埃尔·德尚普兰。根植于法国探险家的探索与皮毛贸易活动，法国殖民者在北美洲开拓广大的殖民地，是为新法兰西。

路易十三统治时期，在宰相黎塞留主导下，法国国力日益强盛，在欧洲的影响力也空前加强。路易十三的继承者路易十四年幼时，法国由安妮女王和马扎然摄政。此时段发生反对君主专制的投石党乱，而当时法国正与西班牙交战，法国一度面临内忧外患。投石党乱平息后，法兰西贵族势力不再对王权构成威胁，这为随后路易十四时期君主专制的空前加强打下基础。法兰西王国的国力于路易十四统治期间达至巅峰，路易十四把大贵族集中在凡尔赛宫居住，将整个法国的官僚机构集中于他的周围，人治不可挑战。经过数次争霸战争，法国在路易十四统治期间成为欧洲第一人口大国，国力上，也是欧洲的头号强国，在欧洲政治、经济和文化上的地位举足轻重。法语成为欧洲上层社会首崇的语言，在外交、科学和文学上皆为最为通用之语言，直至20世纪才渐为英语取代。法国在美洲、非洲和亚洲都拥有殖民地，称为法兰西第一殖民帝国。宗教方面，路易十四撕毁《南特敕令》，囚禁上千名雨格诺派信徒，维护天主教支配地位。

路易十四的曾孙路易十五继承了太阳王的王位，沿用其君主专制。法国的霸主地位在路易十四统治后期开始动摇，法国在七年战争（1754－1763）中战败，失去在美洲和印度的广大殖民地。不过，法国在欧洲的领地不减反增，洛林和科西嘉岛分别在1766年和1770年成为法国的一部分。相比于祖父路易十四，路易十五的治国才能逊色很多——法国王权开始遭到威胁，他死后15年，法国即爆发反对君主制的大革命。路易十六是路易十五之孙，他以大量资金支持美国独立，酿成财政危机，为大革命埋下祸根。路易十六统治时期，启蒙思潮兴起，法国科学家也创造有科学成就——1778年安托万·拉瓦锡发现氧气；1783年孟格菲兄弟发明载人热气球。法国探险家路易·安托万·布干维尔和拉彼鲁兹伯爵参与全球航行与地理勘探。启蒙思潮宣扬理性主义，主张将理性主义作为统治合法性和权威性的来源和判断标准，这动摇了法国君主专制的思想根基。

近代历史

为寻求解决财政问题，法王路易十六于1789年5月召开三级会议，但会议很快陷入僵局。第三等级平民的代表对于自身权利不满，自行组织国民议会，公开反对王权权威。数日内局势紧张，巴黎陷入暴动，7月14日，愤怒的示威者攻占了法国王权的象徵巴士底狱。7月14日被视作法国大革命爆发的标志，这一天随后被定为法国国庆日。8月26日《人权宣言》颁布，这是法国大革命的纲领性文件，据此法国确立基本的人权。宣言强调「自由、财产、安全和反抗压迫是天赋不可剥夺的人权」，肯定言论自由以及司法公正。它呼吁废止王室与贵族的特权，主张人人生而自由平等的权利。1791年6月20日路易十六出逃，打破了民众对于君主立宪的幻想，尽管路易十六随后同意签署新宪法实行君主立宪，多数民众自此开始倾向废除君主制、建立共和。而废除君主或是削弱王权的尝试遭到欧洲其他国家的反对，奥地利和普鲁士国王发表过《皮尔尼茨宣言》警告革命者不要进一步侵犯路易十六的权力。1792年4月20日法国对奥地利宣战，法国大革命战争爆发。战争期间法国国内暴乱接连不断，8月10日民众攻占杜伊勒里宫，拘禁国王、王后，九月屠杀随后发生。9月22日法兰西第一共和国成立。1793年路易十六被判叛国，被送上断头台。

新生的共和国面临内忧外患——欧洲列强不断施加压力，国内反革命暴乱不断。9月，罗伯斯庇尔建立专政统治，称为雅各宾专政。1793年至1794年，有16,00至40,00人被处决；法国西部，「蓝党」（Bleus，革命支持者）与「白党」（Blancs，君主制支持者）的冲突不断。

在随后的战争中，外国的干涉（第一次反法同盟）和国内的反革命暴动都被挫败，共和国得以存活。法军甚至攻入国外，在邻国建立一系列共和国家，是为「」。热月政变终结了罗伯斯庇尔的专政，但热月党人的统治并不持久。1799年英国组成第二次反法同盟进攻法兰西共和国，军人势力逐渐控制法国政局。热月党人的督政府于1799年被军人拿破仑·波拿巴等人发动的雾月政变推翻。拿破仑随后成为了新建立的执政府「第一执政」，揽得大权，1802年击败第二次反法同盟。1804年拿破仑称帝，建立法兰西第一帝国，1805年他又自立为意大利国王。拿破仑的军事和政治行动改变了欧洲局面，也引发前后共持续12年的拿破仑战争。拿破仑是出色的军事家，他带领的法军曾一路高歌猛进，攻占欧洲广阔的领土。拿破仑的经典战例包括耶拿会战和奥斯特里茨战役。拿破仑的征服改写欧洲的政治地图，他的家族成员成为一些新建王国的君主。拿破仑的征服也在全世界传播法国的理念和改革，包括米制、拿破仑法典和人权的观念。法军的攻势止于俄国，拿破仑对俄国的进攻遭到失败。随后的第六次反法同盟击败拿破仑的帝国，1814年，波旁王朝复辟。1815年拿破仑的短暂复辟也随著滑铁卢战役的败退而宣告结束。

复辟的波旁王朝被1830年的七月革命推翻，七月王朝建立。1848年，欧洲掀起革命浪潮，七月王朝未能幸免，被二月革命推翻，随后第二共和国建立。第二共和国政府重启第一共和时期的改革，再次废除奴隶制，并推行普选。1852年总统路易-拿破仑·波拿巴（拿破仑之侄）称帝成为「拿破仑三世」，建立法兰西第二帝国。拿破仑三世希望提升国际地位，参与和干涉多场战争，如克里米亚战争、法墨战争、第二次意大利独立战争。在意大利，法国吞并原属撒丁王国的萨伏依和尼斯，得到领土利益。1870年普法战争法国战败，御驾亲征的拿破仑三世黯然下台。新建的共和政府挫败巴黎的无产阶级公社起事，建立较为稳定的共和政权，史称第三共和。此时期欧洲步入新帝国主义时期，法国也参与欧洲列强在全球范围内对于殖民地和势力范围的争夺。19世纪至20世纪，法国夺得幅员辽阔的殖民地（尤其在非洲），建立领土遍布全球的殖民帝国，仅次于大英帝国。在20世纪20年代至30年代，法国的领土面积达到1,300万平方公里，占世界总陆地面积的8.6%。在19世纪与20世纪之交，法国国内和国际局势趋于稳定，经济获得长足发展，科学技术和文化事业也日臻成熟，乐观主义成为社会的一种现象。这段时期被称为「美好年代」（Belle Époque）。1905年法国通过法案完成政教分离。

现代历史

在第一次世界大战中，法国是协约国的一员，与德国和奥匈帝国作战。在战争中，法国北部的一小部分领土被德军占领，但是最终法国以惨痛的代价赢得胜利。124万名法军士兵丧命，占法国总人口的4%，其中在1912年至1915年间徵召的士兵有27%－30%的死亡率。战间期法国左翼政治联盟人民阵线曾赢得立法选举，得以在全国推行多项改革，包括年假、八小时工作制和妇女参政等。

1940年第二次世界大战期间，法军没能阻挡住纳粹德国的凌厉攻势，1940年6月22日本土宣告沦陷，第三共和国灭亡。1940年7月10日，国会决定将权力移交给老元帅菲利普·贝当，法国本土被德国划分为北方的军事管辖区和南方的自由地区，其中自由地区由贝当政府统治，政府设在维希，故名「维希政权」，正式国名为法兰西国（l'État français），受德国控制，实施了一连串压制言论自由的举措；除了政治层面以外，亦加强国家对经济、宗教与社会等各层面的管控。法国的国家格言更从「自由、平等、博爱」被置换成了「劳动、家庭、祖国」（Travail, Famille, Patrie）。夏尔·戴高乐领导自由法国运动继续抵抗，并在伦敦设立有流亡政府。自1942年至1944年，大约160,000名法国公民（其中有约75,000名犹太人）被送往在德国和波兰的灭绝营和集中营。1944年6月6日，盟军在诺曼底登陆，8月攻入普罗旺斯。翌年法国解放，戴高乐成立法兰西共和国临时政府接管法国本土，继续与德国交战，并著手清算通敌者。临时政府亦推行了一些改革，包括给予女性选举权和建立社会保障系统等。战后临时政府实施新宪法，建立法兰西第四共和国，同时法国是1949年建立的北大西洋公约组织的创始成员。在印度支那半岛，法军试图恢复殖民统治，但在奠边府战役中惨败，败给越南独立同盟会。在阿尔及利亚，法国亦陷入反殖民战争泥潭。法国国内政局受阿尔及利亚危机影响，冲突不断，关于是否继续控制这个有超过100万欧洲人定居的北非殖民地的争议，使内战险些上演。

1958年，法国政局动荡，内阁更换频繁，加上阿尔及利亚独立战争拖累国力受损。当年5月，部分军官在阿尔及尔发起，5月25日在法国南部也发生反政府暴乱，迫使时任总统勒内·科蒂任命当时已下野的戴高乐担任总理。10月5日，戴高乐宣告建立法兰西第五共和国。11月进行国民议会选举，以戴高乐为首的保卫新共和联盟取胜。欠缺稳定性的第四共和国宪法被新宪法取代，扩大了总统的权力，首任总统即是二战期间的英雄戴高乐。戴高乐政府试图终止反殖民战争，以保证国家的统一。1962年法国签署《》结束战争，阿尔及利亚获得独立。馀下的法国殖民地，被称为海外省和海外领地。法国在战后的1945年至1975年经济出现快速增长、建立高度发达的社会福利体系，称为黄金三十年。在美苏冷战的国际背景下，戴高乐实行「民族独立」的政策，他主导法国退出北约的军事一体化组织，著手执行，使法国最终拥有世界第三大核武贮备量。为团结欧洲国家以与美苏抗衡，他与西德签署《爱丽舍条约》，恢复双方的合作关系，推动法德和解。1968年法国爆发五月风暴学生运动，社会反响巨大。这次运动被看作是法国由保守道德思想（如宗教、权威尊重和爱国主义）转向自由道德思想（世俗主义、个人主义、性革命）的分水岭。尽管乱局被政府平息，但此次运动表现出的政府与部分民众的隔阂，使得政府失去部分民心。1969年，戴高乐失败，宣布辞去总统职务。

在后戴高乐时代，法国虽仍是世界上最为发达的经济体之一，但面临著多项经济问题，有著高失业率和高公共债务。在20世纪与21世纪之交，法国站在欧洲一体化发展的最前沿。1992年法国签署《马斯特里赫特条约》，1999年参与建立欧元区，2007年又签署《里斯本条约》。法国的注意力也重新转向北约，参与大部分与北约成员国相关的军事行动。

自19世纪起，便有大量移民定居法国。最初他们大多数是来自欧洲天主教国家的男性外籍工人，失业时多数亦会选择回国。20世纪70年代，法国面临经济危机、开始放宽移民政策，给予移民永久定居权，遂迎来新移民（大多数来自非洲马格里布地区）。放开移民亦导致社会问题，数十万穆斯林享受公共住房补贴的同时，拥有著高失业率，这个现象在大城市最为明显。法国放弃同化政策，不再强制要求移民遵守法国传统价值观以及文化规范。政府允许移民保留他们自己的文化习俗，仅需融入社会。

21世纪初恐怖主义兴起，法国亦遭到波及，面临恐怖袭击威胁。2015年1月的查理周刊总部枪击案引发法国历史上最大规模的爱国游行，有超过440万人参加，即2015年共和游行。2015年11月巴黎再遭恐怖袭击，造成137人死亡。这次袭击事件是二战以来法国领土上伤亡人数最多的事件，也是马德里三一一连环爆炸案以来欧盟国家伤亡最为惨重的袭击事件。2016年法国国庆日，尼斯遭到恐怖袭击，85人死亡、202人受伤。法国自2015年11月13日遭受恐怖攻击以来，因为断续发生的恐怖攻击而数次延长紧急状态，最新的一次延长预计延长至2017年11月1日。

地理

领土地形

法国的欧洲部分称为法国本土，位于欧洲大陆西端41°至51°N、6°W至10°E之间，南北东西均横跨约1000公里，领土形状呈六边形，属于温带。法国本土北达北海，西北及英吉利海峡，西抵大西洋，南至地中海，与东北部的比利时和卢森堡、东部的德国与瑞士、东南的意大利和摩纳哥以及西南的西班牙和安道尔接壤。法国南部和东部的国境线分布的山峰山脉有比利牛斯山脉、阿尔卑斯山脉和侏罗山，河流有莱茵河。在地中海上，辖有科西嘉岛和众多海岸群岛。

法国在世界范围内拥有众多海外省和海外领地，这些领土之间的行政区划等级和管辖形式有所不同，它们分别位于：

• 南美洲：法属圭亚那

• 大西洋：圣皮埃尔和密克隆以及安的列斯群岛的瓜德罗普、马提尼克、圣马丁以及圣巴泰勒米

• 太平洋：法属波利尼西亚、新喀里多尼亚、瓦利斯和富图纳以及克利珀顿岛

• 印度洋：留尼旺、法属印度洋诸岛、克罗泽群岛、凯尔盖朗群岛、圣保罗岛以及阿姆斯特丹岛

• 南极洲：阿黛利地（争议）

其中，法属圭亚那与巴西和苏里南接壤，法属圣马丁与荷属圣马丁接壤。

法国的欧洲领土面积为，为欧盟成员国中最大。法国国土（包括海外领地，不包括阿黛利地）的总面积为，占世界陆地总面积的0.45%。凭藉分布于全球范围的海外领地，法国拥有的专属经济区，次于美国、领先后一名的澳大利亚而位居世界第二，其专属经济区占世界总经济区面积的8%。

法国国土地形种类多样，在西北部有沿海平原，在东南和西南部分别有阿尔卑斯山脉和比利牛斯山脉，中南部则是中央高原。位于法国和意大利边境的勃朗峰海拔，是欧洲海拔最高的山峰。法国的大部分地区形成于不同的断块活动分期，其中、中央高原、、佛日山脉、阿登山脉和科西嘉岛形成于古生代的。阿尔卑斯山脉、比利牛斯山脉和侏罗山则显得年轻一些，侵蚀形式更少。法国60%的城市具有地震风险，但近年来地震带保持稳定。几大地块将法国分为数个沉积盆地，包括西南部的阿基坦盆地和北部肥沃的巴黎盆地。法国的沿海沿河地区风景各异，如蓝色海岸的山地、止于断崖的高原，索洛涅地区的森林湿地以及隆格多克的宽阔平原。

法国境内河流众多，纵横交错。法国的河流系统主要由四大河流组成，即卢瓦尔河、塞纳河、加龙河和罗讷河，流域覆盖62%的土地。莱茵河与默兹河有时也被纳入法国的河流系统，但它们在法国并不如在欧洲重要。其中，罗讷河于卡马格注入地中海，将中央高原与阿尔卑斯山脉隔开。巴黎的塞纳河左岸涵盖塞纳河畔一个整体的扇形区域，在巴黎市区内如果乘船由塞纳河顺流而下，船首左侧所展现的，即是塞纳河左岸风光。塞纳河左岸是巴黎建市初期的见证人，它的腹地集中巴黎创立初期的历史遗迹。

File:Pointe du van.jpg|布列塔尼

File:Most beautiful villages of the world montsoreau 2.jpg|卢瓦尔河谷的蒙索罗

File:Kerguelen CookGlacier.JPG|凯尔盖朗群岛冰川

File:Lac des Perches.JPG|阿尔萨斯孚日山脉

File:Usson JPG01.jpg|法国中央高原上的于松镇

File:Weinberg Cote de Nuits.jpg|勃艮第尼伊丘产区的葡萄园

File:Lavender field.jpg|border|普罗旺斯的薰衣草园

File:Aiguille du Dru 3.jpg|border|阿尔卑斯山的高山气候地貌

File:Piana Dardo dans les Calanche.jpg|border|科西嘉岛的半乾旱气候地貌

File:Bora Bora - Mt Otemanu.jpg|border|法属波利尼西亚的热带气候地貌

气候生态

根据柯本气候分类法，法国本土大部分的平原地区（科西嘉岛除外）属于海洋性气候，冬温夏凉，常年有雨，南部的平原或丘陵地区属于地中海式气候，夏干冬雨。月平均气温：1月西部及南部约4－7°C，东部及北部约1－3°C；7月北部及西部约16－18°C，南部及东部约21－24°C。年降水量600－800毫米，山区达1500毫米以上。气候类型细节如下：

• 法国大部分沿海地区属于海洋性气候，其中西部北起佛兰德、南至巴斯克的沿海地带最为显著；偏南面地区因纬度原因更加温暖；西北面较南部凉爽，平均风力强度较大。

• 偏内陆地区仍属于海洋性气候，但与沿海地区有所区别，称为「半海洋性气候」。例如在巴黎与山中盆地地区的季节天气变化较强，秋冬季降雨较少。此气候区是强海洋性气候区与大陆性气候区的过渡地带。

　• 中部和北部平原地区的海洋性气候与巴黎盆地地区的海洋性气候变体相似，因此有时被称为「巴黎气候」（parisien）。

　• 北部和东部地区偏大陆性气候，夏季炎热多雨，冬季寒冷乾燥。

• 法国南部的地中海沿岸地区（如罗讷河下游谷地）属于地中海式气候。

• 阿尔卑斯山脉、比利牛斯山脉、孚日山脉、侏罗山和中央高原地区属于高山气候。

• 法国大部分海外领地属于热带气候，全年高温多雨，法属圭亚那属于热带性更为显著的热带雨林气候；而圣皮埃尔和密克隆以及法属南部和南极领地则属于副极地气候，全年寒冷乾燥。

法国于1971年设立环境部，是世界上最早设立环境部的国家。虽然法国是世界上工业化程度最高的国家之一，但是其二氧化碳排放量较其它发展中国家少，位列世界第19位。这与1973年石油危机后法国大力发展低污染的核电技术不无关系，现今法国总发电量的75%来自核能。与其它欧盟成员国相同，法国同意削减温室气体排放量，定于2020年削减1990年水平的20%，相比之下，美国仅计划削减1990年水平的4%。法国的人均二氧化碳排放量也保持在较低水平，低于人口众多的中国（2009年数据）。2009年，法国曾计划徵收17欧元/吨的碳税，这将为法国政府提供每年大约40亿欧元的收入，但该计划最终因经济效益原因流产。

法国28%的国土为森林所覆盖，而其中一些富多样化的森林拥有超过140个树种。法国拥有9个国家公园和46个自然公园，而政府定于在2020年将20%的专属经济区建为。法国政府亦在一些景致美丽的村落设立地区自然公园（），以保证当地经济的可持续发展、保护自然环境和文化遗产不受破坏，同时也促进自然科学层面上生态研究和公共教育的发展。截至2014年，这样的地区公园有49座。

在2016年美耶鲁大学与哥伦比亚大学发布的环境绩效指数列表中，法国以88.20的分数位列世界第10位。

行政区划

法国的一级行政区为大区（région），全国共有18个大区（包括科西嘉），其中5个是海外大区（DOM）；过去本土大区共有21个，2014年经投票后合并部分大区成为13个本土大区。大区又被分为101个省（département），按照字母顺序编号，用于邮政编码（亦曾用于车牌号码）。在101个省中，有5个海外省（与海外大区重叠），其与本土省享有相同的地位。101个省又被分为335个区（arrondissement），区又被分为2,054个县（canton），县被分为36,658个市镇（commune），由选举产生的市议会治理。人口最多的三个市镇（巴黎、马赛、里昂）又划分为45个市区。大区、省与市镇被称为领土集体（collectivité territoriale），拥有本地议会和行政长官；区与选区则没有这样的设定。1940年以前，区也属于领土集体，拥有议会，这被维希政权暂停，1946年被第四共和正式废止。

法国拥有瓜德罗普、法属圭亚那、马提尼克、留尼汪、马约特5个海外大区，法属波利尼西亚、圣巴泰勒米、法属圣马丁、圣皮埃尔和密克隆、瓦利斯和富图纳、新喀里多尼亚5个定义各异的海外集体（COM），法属南部领地1个海外领地，以及1个由政府直接管理的克利珀顿岛。海外地区为法兰西共和国的一部分，但并非欧盟的一部分（圣巴泰勒米除外）。法属波利尼西亚、新喀里多尼亚和瓦利斯和富图纳组成太平洋集体，统一使用太平洋法郎，与欧元之间采取固定汇率；其它海外地区现使用欧元。

法国是一个单一制国家，上述的任何部分都不握有主权。

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政治

法兰西共和国是实行半总统制的单一制共和国，具有悠久的民主传统。法兰西第五共和国宪法于1958年9月28日由法国民众全体公民投票通过，决定第五共和国的国家政体运作方式。此后宪法经历多次修订，它大幅度地增强行政机关与议会的关系。所有行政机关共有两位领袖，一是共和国总统，二是总理。

总统是法国的国家元首，拥有任免总理，主持内阁会议和颁布法律的权力，同时也是国家军队的最高司令，由普选直接产生，经过两轮投票，获过半数支持的候选人当选总统。总统任期原本为七年，2000年9月24日法国全民公投之后确立总统任期由七年缩短为五年，并最多可连任二次。总统主持内阁会议，颁布法律；总统亦是三军统帅。另外，根据宪法第16条，在面临重大危机时，总统拥有采取非常措施的权力，例如宣布国家进入紧急状态或启动全国动员令等，并有权解散国民议会。目前的总统为埃马纽埃尔·马克龙，是法兰西共和国的第二十五任总统，于2017年5月14日正式上任。

总理是法国的政府首脑。总理系由国民议会席次过半党派（或联盟）组成的联合政府推举而出，由总统任命。根据法国宪法第8条，有权任命政府内阁其他成员。根据宪法第20和21条，在总理的领导下，政府决定并主管国家的政策；领导政府的运作，保证法律的实施；政府向议会负责，并对议会的议事日程有很大的影响力。过去总统和总理曾经分别隶属不同而互相对立的政党，当总统所属政党在国会占过半，总统所委任的总理就是总统所属政党，变成由总统主政，总理负责组阁。相反，当在野党在国会过半的话，那么总统需任命在野党所推举的人为总理，由总理主政，总理的权力较大，形成「左右共治」的局面，这个情况在1986年至1988年、1993年至1995年，以及1997年至2002年出现过，但自从总统任期缩短至5年后，由于和国民议会选举同年举行，出现「左右共治」局面的概率微乎其微。爱德华·菲利普于2017年5月15日由埃马纽埃尔·马克龙任命为现任法国总理。

法国议会是两院制机构，由国民议会（下院）和参议院（上院）组成。国民议会是国家的最高立法机关，总共有577名议员，每名议员代表单一的选区。议会成员由民众直接选举产生，任期5年。议会的多数派能够左右政府的决策。议会可以通过不信任案，或者拒绝政府的施政纲领而迫使政府向总统提出集体辞职，但无权弹劾总统。参议院总共有348名参议员（在2010年席次由321席增至348席），参议员由一个选举机构（取决于各地方议会的提名）选举产生，任期为6年，自2008年9月起每3年重新选举二分之一的参议员；参议院被视为法国地方势力在议会内的代表，参议院的立法职能受到限制；当两院意见不同时，国民议会拥有最后裁决权。政府对于议会议程的安排具有很大影响。

法律

法国法律制度属于欧陆法系，是成文法律，不容许法官制定法律，法官只能够根据法条来诠释法律（在某些领域的司法解释数量使得一些法律类似于遵循判决先例）。法国法律的基本法治精神仍然跟从《法国民法典》。根据《人权宣言》，只有危害社会的行为才会被禁止。前法国翻案法院首席法官曾关于监狱管理事务写道：「自由是准则，对于自由的束缚是例外；任何对自由的束缚必须被依法进行，也必须遵循必要性原则与比例原则」——即法律只有在必要时、不会造成额外麻烦时，才能出台禁律禁令，才能「束缚自由」。

法国的法律体系分为两大主要领域——私法与公法。前者包括民法与刑法，后者包括行政法和宪法。只有《》上出版的条款才拥有法律效力。其中，刑法遵循不溯及既往原则，追溯法令被禁止。就行政法而言，法国的行政法与一些国家行政法从属于民法的情形不同，是与其它法律完全分开且独立的。法国拥有两套相互独立的法院系统，即行政法院系统和普通法院系统，两者并行运转。两个法院系统有各自管辖的诉讼案件并能够作出最终的判决。行政法院系统，由行政法院、上诉行政法院和最高行政法院所组成，而普通法院系统则由基层法院（初审法庭、大审法庭、轻罪法院、重罪法院、商事法院、劳资调解委员会等）、上诉法院和翻案法院组成。为了解决两个法院系统在管辖范围上的争议，法国还设立权限争议法庭。

法国政府并未制定有宗教性质的法律，也并未将宗教当作发布禁令的动机或是目的，但对于宗教信仰自由的态度复杂。根据1789年《人权宣言》，信仰自由是宪法赋予公民的权利。自1905年政教分离法案实施以来，政府尽量避免宗教势力和因素对于决策的干预，但是近年来政府对于新兴宗教的态度违反宗教自由的准则——1995年起许多新兴信仰被议会认定为邪教；2004年法律禁止在学校穿戴宗教象徵物；2010年法律禁止在公共场合佩戴伊斯兰面纱。一些人因此抱怨遭到歧视，造成不满，亦有相关组织如国际特赦组织和人权观察对上述法案提出了批评，但这些争议法案仍得到大多数人支持。

法国的法律体系中，并无性悖轨法（1791年废除）或是亵渎法之类明文条例，但是「反道德」（contraires aux bonnes mœurs）和「扰乱公共秩序」（trouble à l'ordre public）的字眼曾常被用于限制街头卖淫和同性恋的公众表达，直至近年来LGBT平权运动在法国得到肯定。1999年，法国同性结合通过民事互助契约的登记成为可能；2013年5月，同性婚姻与LGBT收养完成合法化。法国于1881年便制定关于禁止歧视性言论的法案，但近年来，相关法案因侵犯言论自由的理由而遭到质疑和争议。法国法律中亦有反对反犹主义以及种族主义的条款，如1990年的《》禁止了对于犹太人大屠杀的否认。

外交

法国是联合国的创始会员国，亦为联合国安全理事会常任理事国之一，拥有一票否决权。法国是八国集团、世界贸易组织、太平洋共同体、法语圈国际组织以及印度洋委员会的正式成员，亦是加勒比国家联盟的联系成员国。作为国际关系的重要枢纽，法国拥有全世界第二大的外交网络，驻外机构数量仅次于美国。法国是经济合作与发展组织、联合国教科文组织、国际刑警组织、国际度量衡局以及法语圈国际组织的总部所在地。

法国在1778年成为第一个和美国建交的国家，又在1964年成为第一个和中国建交的西方大国。

战后法国的外交战略受其欧盟成员身份影响很大。法国是欧洲各共同体的六大创始成员国之一，自20世纪60年代以来法国一直致力于与西德发展友好的外交关系。法德关系的升温是欧洲走向联合的一个重要驱动因素。在20世纪60年代，法国试图将英国排除于欧洲联合计划之外，但是英法之间的历史联系密不可分，使得意图无法实现。法英关系非常亲密：历史上，双方曾在1904年签订有「挚诚协定」结成英法协约；近年来英法合作频繁，2010年签订有重要的《》，加强双方的军事防务合作。

早在1547年，法国就创立了世界上最早的外交部门制度，在1589年，四位法国国务大臣的职位变得专门化，其中一位便是外交大臣。

法国是北大西洋公约组织的成员。戴高乐总统任期奉行独立的外交政策，退出北约的军事指挥机构，并驱逐法国境内北约部队。法国强烈反对2003年多国部队武装干涉伊拉克，法美关系及法英关系一度紧张。萨科齐总统任期又奉行亲美政策（被国内左派及部分右派批评），于2009年重返北约军事组织。

20世纪90年代早期，法国曾因为在法属波利尼西亚实行地下核试验而受到国际批评。此外，法国在部分前法属殖民地国家保持有强大的政治和经济影响力，曾向科特迪瓦和乍得发放物资支援及出兵维和。2013年，法国出兵介入马里北部冲突，协助马里政府与阿扎瓦德民族解放运动、伊斯兰卫士和等武装组织作战。

2015年，法国是世界第五大发展援助支出国，位于美国、英国、德国和日本之后。发展援助支出占法国GDP的0.37%，比率排名世界第十一。法国的发展援助由法国开发署管理运作，主要投资于撒哈拉以南非洲的人道主义支援，目标为帮助目标地区「发展基础设施、卫生保健及教育事业，协助实行适合的经济政策，巩固民主法治」。

军事

法国武装力量（Forces armées françaises）的最高统帅为法国总统，由法国陆军（Armée de Terre）、法国海军（Marine Nationale）、法国空军（Armée de l'Air）和国家宪兵（Gendarmerie nationale）组成。2014年，法国武装力量共有约22万名常备军人，位列世界第24位。法国军事发展历史悠久，对欧洲历史甚至世界历史都有多次关键影响力，法国2019年常备军费开销为638亿美元，占GDP2.3%，世界排行第五。法国是联合国安全理事会常任理事国之一，亦是北约组织特许成员国，冷战时期和诸多北约国家都进行过国内和国外的联合行动。在北约以外，法国于非洲、中东和巴尔干半岛积极或消极地参与有各种单方或多方维和行动，也时常扮演领导角色。1997年以来，法国从未实施过徵兵。

由于国家宪兵的警察职能因素，其事实上由内政部管辖，而非国防部；国家宪兵干预队（Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale，GIGN）属国家宪兵编制，当国家宪兵履行军事任务时作为特种部队出现。此外，国家宪兵的下属单位还有，负责维护公共秩序；共和国卫队，负责政府机构的警卫工作；，负责海岸警卫。就情报单位而言，对外安全总局是隶属于国防部的对外情报机构；对内安全总局则是隶属于内政部和的对内情报机构。法国外籍兵团是隶属于法国陆军的一支特殊部队，于1830年建立，主要由来自140多个国家、意愿效力法军的外籍人员组成，其服役满五年后可申请法国国籍。

法国是拥核国家，拥有世界第三大核武贮备量，签署有《全面禁止核试验条约》和《不扩散核武器条约》。曾经拥有核三位一体打击能力。法国现有核力量包括4艘搭载潜射弹道导弹的凯旋级核潜艇，以及大约60枚搭载有核弹头的ASMP中距空对地导弹。其中，约50枚用于武装空军的幻影2000N，10枚用于武装海军的超级军旗攻击机（SEM）。这两种机种皆可作为戴高乐号航空母舰的舰载机，而可搭载ASMP-A型导弹的阵风战斗机将逐渐取代幻影2000N和SEM的核打击机地位。

法国拥有规模庞大的军事工业，其中以航空制造业为代表。阵风战斗机和飞鱼反舰导弹即为其杰作。法国亦是欧洲武器联合开发计划的主要参与者，尽管其退出台风战斗机的设计计划，法国仍然是虎式直升机、欧洲多用途巡防舰、神经元无人作战飞机和空中巴士A400M等开发计划的主要贡献者之一。除上述武器之外，著名的法国制武器还有FAMAS突击步枪、PAMAS-G1手枪、勒克莱尔主战坦克、VBCI装步战车、西北风级两栖突击舰、苏弗朗级潜舰等。法国是世界上主要的军火销售商，法制武器于发展中国家市场中广受欢迎，主要集中于导弹、军舰和航天设备。

财政

法国政府的财政状况并不乐观。2012年，法国政府债务水平达到1.8万亿欧元，相当于GDP的90%。同年，信用评级机构警告法国政府的债务水平危及其AAA的信用评级，增加信用评级下调和借贷成本上升的风险。据欧盟的相关要求，法国必须将国债限制在经济产出的60%（或是根据该上限自结构上下调比率），且公共赤字不能超过GDP的3%。

自20世纪70年代以来，法国政府长期存在财政赤字。弗朗索瓦·奥朗德总统反对，上任后宣称要在2017年消除政府的财政赤字。在奥朗德所属的社会党于2012年国会选举大获全胜后，新任政府得以修改宪法，以实行财政改革。新政府取消对富人的减税免税政策，并将最大累进税率提高到75%，带来100多万欧元的收入。政府恢复此前裁减的6万个公共教育岗位，并调整租金的涨幅。政府亦为穷人建立额外的公共住房。此外，公民的退休年龄被延长至60岁，工龄满42年的可领取全额退休金。法国政府债券的利率下降30%，达到纪录最低点，较德国政府债券利率低50个基点。

经济

法国按其GDP为全球第七大经济体，具备世界第十大购买力。法国属于欧元区和欧盟单一市场的一部分，2002年，欧元代替法郎成为国家的官方货币。2015年财富世界500强榜单中，有31家法国企业。根据世界贸易组织的统计，2009年，法国是世界第六大制成品出口国以及第四大进口国。2008年，法国获得1180亿美元的外商直接投资，位居经济合作与发展组织成员国中的第三位，次于卢森堡和美国；同年法国企业对外投资2200亿美元，位居经济合作与发展组织成员国中的第二位，仅次于美国。在家庭总体财富方面，法国是最富有的欧洲国家（同时是世界第四）。法国人享有高水平的生活质量，教育水平和较长的预期寿命。

法国经济是结合现代化的资本主义经济以及政府干预的混合经济，政府在各个行业的主要版块仍有重要影响；在铁路、电力、航空和电信领域，政府握有主要控制权。这使得法国经济有较强的国家资本主义色彩。从20世纪90年代初开始，法国政府就一直在逐渐放宽对这些版块的控管，并正在缓慢地释出在法国电信、法国航空以及保险、金融、国防企业的控股份额。

金融服务业、银行业和保险业是法国经济的重要组成部分。巴黎证券交易所（La Bourse de Paris）历史悠久，于1724年由路易十五设立，为欧洲第二大证券交易所，仅次于伦敦证券交易所。2000年3月，巴黎、布鲁塞尔和阿姆斯特丹三家证券交易所合并为泛欧交易所，相提供全欧洲交易服务。2007年，泛欧交易所与纽约证券交易所合并为纽约泛欧证券交易所，成为世界最大的证券交易所。在世界保险业和银行业中，法国企业具有重要的地位。法国巴黎银行、法国农业信贷银行分别为世界第一大和第六大银行（根据资产排名，2010年统计），法国兴业银行2009年的总资产排名世界第八；安盛则是世界上最大的保险公司。

农业

法国农业人口占总人口的3.8%，农产品行业产值占法国2005年GDP的4.2%。肥沃的田土、先进的技术以及使法国成为欧洲领先的农业生产国，其农业生产量占欧洲总量的20%，是世界第三大农产品出口国。小麦、家禽、乳制品、牛肉、猪肉和国际认证加工食品是法国主要的农业出口品。牛奶及乳品、猪肉、家禽，以及苹果的生产都集中在西部地区。牛肉产自法国中部，而葡萄酒的生产则分布于法国中部和南部地区。法国畜牧业在第二次世界大战后发展较快。20世纪80年代初，畜牧业和种植业的产值比重大致保持在55%和45%左右。另外，农场平均规模不断扩大，根据1980年度农业普查，平均规模已经超过25公顷。这些大农场主要分布在巴黎盆地。畜牧业集中在诺曼底、布列塔尼和法国中央高原。中央高原以养牛业为主，布列塔尼以养猪为主，西北部则以养羊为主。当地养禽业较普遍，鹅肝就是有名的出口食品。在酒品方面，桃红葡萄酒主要供应国内消费，而法国产香槟酒和波尔多葡萄酒则世界闻名，亦是重要的出口品。达能集团是著名的法国乳制品加工商。法国农业依赖来自欧盟的补贴，为欧盟内反对降低补贴的主要国家。近年来，欧盟对于法国农业的补贴有所下降，但2007年仍达到80亿美元。

工业

法国是七国集团的成员，是世界上工业最发达的国家之一，工业产值约占GDP的11.2%，传统工业区域集中在巴黎盆地。法国的核电设备能力、民用航空技术和石油工业技术仅次于美国，居世界第二位；钢铁和纺织工业也具有较高地位。主要工业部门有汽车飞机制造、电子电器工业、化学工业和纺织工业等。其中航空工业极具实力，欧洲的空中客车集团总部位于法国图卢兹，为欧洲航空工业的领航企业之一；达梭航太是军用飞行器制造业的主要企业；法国亦拥有自有航天发射中心——圭亚那太空中心。此外，道达尔石油公司是石油巨头之一，标致雪铁龙集团是欧洲第二大汽车制造商，米其林则是世界第二大轮胎及橡胶制品制造商。奢侈品和化妆品制造业是法国工业的特殊组成部分，为世界瞩目的工业部门，主要的生产商有爱马仕、路易威登、香奈儿、迪奥、伊夫圣洛朗和欧莱雅。法国的研究与发展经费高达国内生产总值（GDP）的2.26%，在经济合作与发展组织（OECD）国家中排名第四。

服务业

服务业近年来发展较快，现为法国经济最为重要的部门，2014年法国服务业人口占总就业人口的76.9%。法国连锁式经营企业发达，扩展到零售、房地产、旅馆、运输、娱乐业等多种行业。著名的服务业企业有家乐福、欧尚、卡西诺和雅高等。

旅游业

法国是世界上最受欢迎的旅游目的地，2012年有8300万名游客赴法旅游，其中并不包括停驻时间少于24小时的游客，例如计划赴西班牙和意大利旅游但将法国作为中转站的北欧游客。在旅游收入方面，法国则排名世界第三，这主要是因为游客的停留时间较短。法国拥有37个联合国教科文组织认定的世界文化遗产，同时拥有文化氛围浓厚的城市、海滩和海岸度假胜地、滑雪度假村以及景色优美而宁静的农村地区。「法国最美丽的村庄」组织致力于对适宜生态旅游的村庄进行评级，而法国亦由文化及通信部评选出200多座景色怡人的花园，给予「」称号，便于给予生态保护。此外，法国圣雅各伯朝圣之路和露德圣母朝圣地是重要的宗教性旅游目的地，每年皆可吸引众多基督教朝觐者。

法国（尤其是巴黎）拥有众多世界知名的博物馆，其中，卢浮宫是世界上游览人数第二多的艺术博物馆，仅次于中国故宫博物院。奥赛博物馆和蓬皮杜中心亦为著名的法国博物馆，前者主要收集印象派艺术作品，后者主要收集当代艺术作品。巴黎迪士尼乐园度假区是欧洲最受欢迎的主题公园，2009年有1500万名游客游览度假区的迪士尼乐园和华特迪士尼影城。

蓝色海岸（Côte d'Azur）每年大约接待1000万名游客，为法国第二大旅游目的地，仅次于首都巴黎所在的法兰西岛大区，每年世界50%的豪华游艇集结于此。蓝色海岸每年大约有300天的日照时长和的海岸和海滩，18处高尔夫球场、14处滑雪度假村以及大约3,000家餐厅。卢瓦尔河流域是法国的另外一个主要旅游目的地，被称为「法国的花园」和「法语的摇篮」，以其高质量的建筑遗产著称，拥有众多法式城堡（châteaux）。著名的城堡有昂布瓦斯城堡、香波尔城堡、于塞城堡、维朗德里城堡、舍农索城堡和蒙索罗城堡。

根据2003年的统计排名，法国最受欢迎的旅游景点（按年游客多寡排序）有埃菲尔铁塔（620万）、卢浮宫（570万）、凡尔赛宫（280万）、奥赛博物馆（210万）、巴黎凯旋门（120万）、蓬皮杜中心（120万）、圣米歇尔山（100万）、香波尔城堡（71万）、圣礼拜堂（68万）、（55万）、多姆山（50万）、毕加索博物馆（44万）和卡尔卡松（36万）。

能源

2012年，法国的发电量达到559 TW·h（国际能源署统计），位列世界第8位。法国电力公司是法国主要的发电及供电公司，也是世界上规模最大的电力供应商之一，2003年其发电量占欧盟总电量的22%。法国主要藉由核能发电，其在核科技上投资巨大。法国总发电量的75%来自全国59座核电站（2012年数据），比率为世界最高。得益于核能发电的广泛应用，法国是八国集团中温室气体排放量最少的国家。此外，法国的水能和地热资源的开发利用较为充分，国内的水电发电所有、和。2014年，法国19.5%的电力由可再生能源提供，其中13.8%来自水力、3.5%来自风力、1.2%来自太阳能、1.0%来自其它能源。

法国本土的主要矿产为铁矿，蕴藏量约10亿吨，但品质低、不利开采。非铁金属蕴藏量少。近年来，法国面临资源枯竭、矿场关闭的问题（尤以煤矿为甚），矿产资源依赖进口。

交通

，法国铁路总长，为欧洲第二长，仅次于德国。法国的铁路运输由法国国家铁路（SNCF）运作，拥有大力士高速列车、欧洲之星和法国高速列车（TGV）三种高速列车，其中TGV列车达到的速度（商务），欧洲之星线路则通过英法海底隧道与英国相连。除安道尔外，法国与所有邻国都设有跨国铁路。市内轨道交通方面，除公共汽车运输外，法国的地铁（主要于巴黎、里昂、里尔、马赛、图卢兹、雷恩等）与有轨电车（主要于南特、斯特拉斯堡、波尔多、格勒诺布尔、蒙彼利埃等）建设同样完备。

法国国内有大约长的可用公路，为欧洲之最。巴黎是国家道路网的中心，周边地区布满了密集的道路与高速公路网，与全国几乎所有运输网点相连接。跨国公路方面，法国公路网与邻国比利时、卢森堡、德国、瑞士、意大利、西班牙、安道尔和摩纳哥相连，运作跨国运输。虽然法国不设年注册费或路税，但大部分私有高速公路为收费通过（一些大型市镇的周边地区除外）。法国的汽车市场基本为国内品牌控制，例如雷诺（2003年售出车辆占法国总售出车辆的27%）、标致（20.1%）和雪铁龙（13.5%）。在2004年，法国超过75%售出的汽车装有柴油引擎，远多于汽油引擎和液化石油气引擎。世界上最高的桥梁米约高架桥位于法国，除此以外，法国亦建有许多重要桥梁，例如诺曼底大桥。

法国国内有464家机场，其中巴黎近郊的夏尔·戴高乐机场最为繁忙、规模最大，运作著繁重的民用运输与商务运输事务，同时也是全世界几乎所有主要城市与巴黎的联系点。法国航空是法国的国家航空公司，除此之外亦有数个私有公司运作国内国际的旅行服务。

法国国内拥有10座主要港口，其中马赛港规模最大，其亦是地中海规模最大的港口。法国国内的水路航线长，其中包括通过加龙河沟通地中海与大西洋的米迪运河。

科技

自中世纪起，法国就是世界科技发展的重要贡献者之一。11世纪初，罗马教宗西尔维斯特二世（法国人，本名热尔贝·德奥里亚克）在北欧与西欧重新引入算盘、环形球仪、阿拉伯数字和钟表。12世纪中期成立的巴黎大学现今仍是西方世界最为重要的高等学府之一。17世纪，勒内·笛卡尔创立解析几何，将当时完全分开的代数和几何学联系到一起；布莱兹·帕斯卡是概率学和流体力学的奠基人。此二人都是当时席卷欧洲的科学革命的重要人物。为激励和保护法国人的科学研究精神，17世纪，路易十四设立法国科学院，这是世界上最早的科学学院之一。该机构在17至18世纪站在欧洲科技发展的最前沿。

启蒙时代法国的科技成就非凡，其中两位科学巨人布丰和安托万·拉瓦锡的著作和理论分别对于近代生态学和化学有著深远影响。德尼·狄德罗和让·勒朗·达朗贝尔主编了《百科全书》，它是历史上第一部致力于普及科学和艺术知识的综合性百科全书。19世纪，随著工业革命的开展，法国科技依然硕果累累，涌现出一批批著名科学家。奥古斯丁·菲涅耳是近代光学的奠基人；尼古拉·卡诺为热力学的研究提供了理论基础；路易·巴斯德则是微生物学的先驱。巴黎埃菲尔铁塔上所刻的72个姓名，其中绝大部分都是法国的杰出科学家。

20世纪法国的著名科学家包括数学家兼物理学家昂利·庞加莱；物理学家亨利·贝可勒尔、保罗·朗之万、路易·德布罗意、皮埃尔·居里和玛丽·居里，其中居里夫妇对于放射学的贡献卓著；病毒学家吕克·蒙塔尼耶，是人类免疫缺陷病毒的发现者之一。1998年9月23日，一支由世界各国科学家组成的研究团队在里昂成功实现手移植，这其中包括法国医生，他成功地实行世界首例双手移植手术。2001年9月7日团队成功实现世界首例远距外科手术，即。2005年11月27日实现了脸部移植。

法国是世界上第四个拥有核武器的国家，现拥有世界第三大核武贮备量，而且在民用核技术领域具有领军地位。法国于1965年通过钻石A型运载火箭发射其第一颗人造卫星，成为世界上第三个能够完全自行发射人造卫星的国家。法国现为欧洲空间局的主要贡献者（参见法国国家空间研究中心）。空中客车集团总部位于法国图卢兹，主要负责民用／军用飞行器以及通信系统、导弹、宇宙火箭、直升机、卫星和相关仪器的设计研发，其前身欧洲航空防务与航天公司由法国航空航天公司、和合并而成。1970年法国国有铁路公司法国国家铁路推出法国高速列车（TGV），2007年4月3日以574.8公里的时速创造轮轨列车的最快纪录。如今法国TGV网络同样负责西欧的铁路运输。

，法国有67人获得过诺贝尔奖（其中物理学奖13人、化学奖8人、生理学或医学奖13人），12人获得过菲尔兹奖。

人口

法国于2016年1月估计人口约有6,660万人，若不包括海外领地和海外地区则为6,450万人。法国人口数量位居世界第20，并居欧洲第三位。

法国人口增长相较于其他发达国家，尤其是欧洲国家相对特殊，拥有较高的出生率及自然增加率。法国于2006年的自然增长人口几乎与欧盟相同，该年自然增长约30万人，为1973年婴儿潮结束以来的新高，并将总和生育率由1994年的1.7提高到2010年的2.0。

法国自2006年至2011年人口年均增长率为0.6%，移民人口生育率为人口增长的主要因素，于2010年，法国本土27%的新生儿中至少有父母一方为外国出生，并有24%新生儿的父母至少一方出生于欧洲以外地区。

民族

绝大多数法国人的先祖为凯尔特人（高卢人），同时具有拉丁（罗马）及日耳曼（法兰克）血统，他们被称为法兰西人，占全国总人口九成以上。国内的其他民族有阿尔萨斯人、巴斯克人、布列塔尼人、加泰罗尼亚人、科西嘉人、弗拉芒人和奥克人等。根据法国法律，大规模统计民族与血统资料是被禁止的。这项法律源自1789年的大革命，在1958年宪法中被重申。

20世纪起法国迎来大规模的移民，这使得法国社会趋向多元化。仅自1921年至1935年间，法国便迎来110万净移民；在20世纪60年代，阿尔及利亚战争又导致大约160万「黑脚」（北非法裔居民）回国，而一些西班牙、葡萄牙、北非及西非人也趁此移民至法国。智库2004年估计法国本土有5,100万欧裔（占总人口85%）、600万北非裔（占总人口10%）、200万非裔（黑人，占总人口3.3%）以及100万亚裔（1.7%）。2008年，法国国家统计与经济研究所和联合进行一项题为「轨迹与来源」的调查，表明法国有大约500万意大利裔、300万至600万北非裔、250万非裔（黑人）以及20万土耳其裔。在法国，数量较多的其他欧裔居民大多为西班牙人、葡萄牙人、罗姆人、波兰人和希腊人。

现今法国仍是主要的移民目的地之一，每年大约接收20万合法移民；法国亦是西欧重要的难民接收国及庇护寻求地，2005年大约有5万名难民或庇护寻求者。根据法国国家统计与经济研究所2008年的估计，法国国内第一代移民总数为500万，占总人口8%；第二代及后代移民约650万，占人口的11%，因此从目前来看，法国大约五分之一的人口为移民（其中约有400万北非裔）。2008年，法国新授予137,000人以公民身份，他们大多来自摩洛哥、阿尔及利亚和土耳其。2014年，法国国家统计与经济研究所又发表研究称，自2009年至2012年间，由于同时期的经济危机（参见欧猪四国），法国的西班牙、葡萄牙以及意大利移民数量增加一倍，例如西班牙移民从5300人增长到11,000人，大约增加107%。在国内23万外国人中，大约有8%葡萄牙人、5%英国人、5%西班牙人、4%意大利人、4%德国人、3%罗马尼亚人和3%比利时人。而由于欧盟允许成员国公民的自由流动，法国近年来亦受到东欧移民潮较大影响，迫使其对东欧移民设置限制。移民正在成为法国的争议政治问题之一。

主要城市

法国是高度城市化的国家，主要大城市如下：