Proper noun

Singular France

Plural -

France

1. A country in Western Europe having borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra and Spain. Member state of the European Union. Official name: French Republic (République Française). Population: 62 million inhabitants.

Related terms

• Franco-
• francophobe
• Francophone
• French
• Frenchman
• New France
• Tour de France

Territory of the French Republic in the world (excl. Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended)

France (pronounced /ˈfræns/ ( listen) or /ˈfrɑːns/; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as L’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Metropolitan France is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. France's overseas departments and collectivities also share land borders with Brazil and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and the Netherlands Antilles (bordering Saint-Martin). France is linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel.

France is the largest country in the European Union by area and the second largest in Europe behind Ukraine (first if one includes its extra-European territories like French Guiana). France has been a major power for many centuries with strong economic, cultural, military and political influence. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Pacific islands.

France is a developed country and possesses the fifth largest economy by nominal GDP and eighth largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the most visited country in the world, receiving 82 million foreign tourists annually. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, possesses the third largest number of nuclear weapons in the world and the largest number of nuclear power plants in the European Union.

France is a country in Western Europe.

Sourced

• The creation of Modern France through expansion goes back to the establishment of a small kingdom in the area around Paris in the late tenth century and was not completed until the incorporation of Nice and Savoy in 1860. The existing “hexagon” was the result of a long series of wars and conquests involving the triumph of French language and culture over what once were autonomous and culturally distinctive communities. The assimilation of Gascons, Savoyards, Occitans, Basques, and others helped to sustain the myth that French overseas expansionism in the nineteenth century, especially to North and West Africa, was a continuation of the same assmilationist project.
  • George M. Fredrickson, Race, Ethnicity, and National Identity in France and the United States: A Comparative Historical Overview, November 8, 2003

• And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.
  • John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis (1667), stanza 39.

• That sweet enemy, France.
  • Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella (1581), Sonnet 41, line 4.

• "They order," said I, "this matter better in France."
  • Laurence Sterne, Sentimental Journey, page 1.

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Fri Sep 25 15:56:20 2009