Interesting Facts about France - Week 8 - Legal & Fiscal System

Legal & Fiscal System

• In France, in exceptional cases it is possible to marry a deceased person with the authorisation of the President of the Republic.

• France has the highest wealth tax of any European country.

• France is the only EU country to have all its V.A.T. rates with decimal fractions (19.6%, 5.5% or 2.1%). Only Britain and Ireland also use some rates with decimal fractions.

• In the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape in Provence, a municipal law of 1954 prohibits flying saucers from landing within the borders of the municipality.

Paris Plage - The River Seine Turns Into a Beach Front

A Seine-side holiday. That, in a nutshell, is what Paris Plages is all about – complete with sandy beaches, deckchairs, ubiquitous ice cream sellers, and concerts for French and foreign guests. Holidaymakers at the Bassin de la Villette (Paris 19) can also borrow books free of charge, play beach volley, take an aquagym class in a mini pool, or kayak around the lake – or, of course just chill and enjoy. The Seine’s banks become pedestrian and the beaches are spread across different spots:

• (Louvre/Pont de Sully, Port de la Gare and Bassin de la Villette). 

From the Louvre to Pont de Sully This was the first beach that opened in 2002. It spans three kilometres through historical Paris, and features a swimming pool, concert stage, and open-air attractions (rollerblading, tai-chi, wall climbing, boules etc.). Refreshment areas, play areas and deckchairs are available for your time out unwinding by the river.

• Bassin de la Villette. 

This is the latest addition to Paris Plages, and opened in 2007 round Bassin de la Villette (Paris 19). It stretches from Rotonde de Ledoux (nearest Jaurès Metro station) to the former Magasins Généraux (in Rue de Crimée) and features a proper water-sports complex (with rowing boats, kayaks, pedal boats and dinghies) alongside quaint quay-side restaurants and boules courts. Every year, Paris Plages begins around 20 July and lasts four weeks.

All Paris Plages beaches are open non-stop from 8.00 am to midnight. 2012 : Paris Plages will start around July 20.

Interesting Facts about France - Week 7 - Food & Drinks

Food & Drinks

• Crêpes, one of the most popular food in Europe, originate from Brittany, in western France.

• Wine has been made in France since Roman times.

• There are 450 different wine appellations in France. There are tens of thousands of small wine-producing domains, but only 15% of all French wines enjoy the marketing benefits of AOC designations.

• Bordeaux alone has over 9,000 different châteaux.

• 72% of the adult French population finds it difficult to understand French wine labels.

• In 2004, France produced 56.6 millions hectoliters of wine.

• Wines from the North of France (e.g. Alsace) are usually made from a single variety of grape (e.g. Pinot Noir), whereas wines further south are typically blends of varietals (e.g. Carbernet Sauvignon + Merlot), which is why they do not mention them on the label like in Australia, California, Chile or South Africa.

• France produces some of the world’s most famous liqueurs, such as Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Triple Sec, Mandarine Napoleon, Cognac, Armagnac, Crème de Cassis, Pastis, Chartreuse, etc.

• The international market of Rungis, in a southern suburb of Paris, covers 232-hectares (573 acres). With 1.7 million tonnes brought annually, it has the largest turnover of any wholesale markets in the world.

Interesting Facts about France - Week 6 - Economy

• France is the world’s leader in luxury goods, including haute couture, perfumes and cosmetics.

• France is the world’s first producer of wine and liquors.

• France is the first producer of nuclear electricity in Europe and second producer in the world after the United States. France produces as much nuclear electricity as Germany, the UK, Spain and Russia combined!

• France has the third highest GDP (PPP) per capita per hour in the world, after Norway and Luxembourg, with an average of US$ 38.16 per hour.

• The Millau Viaduct, completed in 2005 in the south of France, is the tallest bridge in the world.

• The largest and most advanced passenger cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, was built in France in 2004.

• The France-based Arianespace is the world leader in commercial space launch, with over 50% of the global market for launching satellites.

• The European Space Agency (ESA) is based in Paris, while the headquarters of the pan-European aerospace concern Airbus are in Toulouse.

• The French TGV is one of the fastest train in the world, with an average speed of 263.3 km/h from station to station. It reached a record 574.8km/h on a test run in April 2007. At the time, it held the world record of endurance, running from Calais to Marseille (1067.2 km) in 3h29min, in 2001.

• Charles De Gaulle International Airport in Paris is Europe’s busiest airports by cargo traffic (6th in the world).

• The Société Bic was the world’s first mass manufacturer of ball-point pens. It sold its 100,000 millionth ball pen in 2005.

Interesting Facts about France - Week 5 - Culture and Science

• There are some 40,000 châteaux (castles, manors, palaces…) in France.
• Famous French inventions include the adding machine, the hot air balloon, the airship, the parachute, the submarine, the ambulance service, photography, animation and cinema.

• France is the country that has won the most Nobel prizes for literature (13 as of 2005, with the last prize going back to 1985).

• French people are the second biggest consumers of alcohol per capita in the Western world – after Luxembourg…

• A 2007 study revealed that the French were the biggest consumers of medicines in Europe, both in quantity and total money spent per person.

• There are over 300 kinds of cheese made in France.

• There are 28 categories of sites in France listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including 3 Roman sites (Arles, Orange and Le Gard), 4 cathedrals (Amiens, Bourges, Chartres, Reims), 4 abbeys (Fontenay, Reims, Saint-Savin sur Gartempe and Vezelay), 8 historic city/town centres (Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Avignon, Le Havre, Mont-Saint-Michel, Provins and Carcassone) as well as numerous belfries, castles and palaces.

• More tourists visit France each year than any other country in the world, with 67 million annual tourist arrivals (more than the country’s population).

• The spectacle “Ionesco” has been playing at the Théâtre de La Huchette since 1957, with over 15,000 performances – a world record.

• There are about 2 new cooking books published every day in France.

• Pop singer Claude François (1939-1978) is still as popular as ever in France 30 years after his accidental death. Two of his songs have remained constantly in the top 10 of music played in night club for the last 20 years. A real cult has developed around him. In many ways, Claude François can be regarded as the French equivalent of Elvis Presley.

• About one fourth of French people nowadays choose to be cremated when they die, instead of the traditional Catholic burial.

Interesting Facts about France - Week 4 - Language

• French used to be the language of the nobility and diplomacy all across Europe and in the Ottoman Empire, it was the world’s first real international language until English replaced it in the mid-20th century.

• Metropolitan France counts several native regional languages : Alsatian and Lorraine German, Occitan, Oïl, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican and Franco-Provençal.

• In spite of foreign stereotypes, many French people can speak at least one foreign language, and English is the most widely spoken at 34%.

• A survey in 1794 revealed that a mere 11% of the population of France were pure French speakers. As late as in 1880, only 20% of the population could actually speak French fluently. Nowadays, 86% of French people are native French speakers if this is defined by the language their parents spoke with them before the age of 5. Oc languages account for 3.65%, Oïl languages for 3.10%, German and German dialects for 3.15%, and Arabic for 2.55%.

• French was the official language of England for over 300 years (from 1066 until the early 15th century). It is still the official language of 30 countries worldwide.

• The French language is spoken by 270 million people worldwide (almost as much as the population of the USA), of which 120 million are native or fluent. There are less than 60 million of White Caucasian native speakers of standard French worldwide.

• The variety of French spoken in Quebec, Canada, is a distant dialect from the French spoken in Europe, and sometimes hard to understand for French people.

Interesting Facts about France - Week 3 - Land

• France is the third largest European country in terms of land area, after Russia and the Ukraine. 

• Nearly 20% of the territory of France lies outside Europe. These regions are known as “DOM-TOM”, where over 2.5 million French citizens live. 

• The Canal du Midi is Europe’s oldest functional canal. It was built from 1666 and 1681. It is 240 km (150 miles) long, has 63 locks, 126 bridges, 55 aqueducts, 7 canal-bridges, 6 barrages and 1 tunnel. 

• Rivers played a major role in French history, acting as the main transportation routes before the advent of the railway. 24 rivers in France exceed 300 km in length (against only 2 in the UK and 4 in Italy). 66 of the 95 metropolitan départements are named after rivers. 

• The tides in the region of Brittany and Normandy are the strongest in Europe, with a difference in level of up to 15 meters between high and low tide. 

• Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes department) is the highest municipality in Europe. The village itself is located at 2,042 metres of altitude, and the highest point on its territory reaches up to 3,175 metres. 

• Seaside resorts in France were given catchy or poetic names, typically after precious stones. On the Channel and North Sea coast you can find the Opal Coast, Alabaster Coast, Mother-of-pearl Coast, Emerald Coast, Pink Granit Coast; on the Atlantic coast, some beaches are known as the Jade Coast, Silver Coast or Love Coast ; while on the Mediterrnean side, tourists are greeted with colourful names like the Amethyst Coast, Ruby Coast, Mauresque Coast or Azure Coast. The French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) was the first to aquire such a nickname, in 1887. 

• The largest canyon in Europe is the Verdon Gorge, near Castellane and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. It is the world’s second largest gorge, at about 25 kilometers in length and up to 700 meters deep. Language

Interesting Facts about France - Week 2 - History

• The name "France" comes from "Frank", a Germanic tribe that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 6th century and founded the first independent kingdom covering most of today's France.

• The French state is one of the oldest in Europe; it was founded in 843, splitting from the Carolingian empire based in Aachen on the Belgo-German border.

• France had 3 Revolutions. the famous French Revolution of 1789, in getting rid of Louis XVI to become a Republic. In 1830 also known as the July Revolution abdicating Charles X, and in 1848 also known as the February Revolution, abdicating Louis-Philippe and establishing the second French Republic. 3 years later in 1851, Napoleon III initiated a coup d' état and became Emperor of the French. He holds the unusual distinction in being both the first titular president and the last monarch.

• The region of Paris was settled since around 4200 BCE. The city itself was founded by the Parisii, a Celtic tribe around 250 BCE. The Roman renamed it Luteca from 53 BCE, and it only became known as "Paris" after the fall of the western Roman Empire in the 5th Century.

• Foie Gras may be part of French cuisine, but its origins go back to 4,500 years ago in Ancient Egypt, from where it spread the Greece (500 BCE), then to the Romans, ancestors of the modern French.

• Gothic art has origins in the middle of the 12th century in the north of France. The world's first Gothic building is said to be the Basilica of Saint Denis, just north of Paris, which is the burial place for many Frankish kings since Clovis, as well as most Kings of France including Louis XVI. Gothic architecture then spread to Picardy, notably with the cathedrals of Noyon, Laon and Senlis, Followed by the Île de France (Notre Dame de Paris).

• Nicotine was named after Jean Nicot (1530-1600), a French diplomat and scholar who introduced the tobacco plant to France in 1559 (from Portugal).

• "La Marseillaise", France's national anthem was composed in Strasbourg in 1792, not in Marseille as its name suggests.

• The world's first international scientific conference was held in Paris on 2 February 1799.

• The world's first true department store was Le Bon Marché  in Paris, founded by Aristide Boucicaut in 1838.

• At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 km2 of land, or 6.8% of the world's land area. This is over 22 times the size of modern Metropolitan France.

• France has hosted the Summer Olympic five times, the winter olympic Games three times, and the FIFA World Cup twice.

• France has won the most nobel Prizes for literature of any country (13 so far) and the second highest number of field medals (mathematics) after the USA.

• On 10 June 2007. a sabre having belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte was sold at an auction for 4.8 million euros - the most expensive weapon of it's kind ever sold.

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Interesting Facts about France - Week 1 - People & Lifestyle

France is a country of unique traits and traditions and has a long and varied history. Each week I will be writing a short post about some interesting facts to learn. In week 1, we will be looking at the people and the French lifestyle.

• French people do the 'social kiss'  to introduce each other (between man and woman,) to greet each other between family and friends, even between men who have a close friendship. The number of kisses varies according to the region, from 1 (in the tip of Brittany) to 4 (e.g. Paris and most of the North), usually it is 2.

• French people have the highest female and third highest male life expectancy in the European Union.

• 20% of the French people live in the Parisian region.

• Although French language is direct descent of Latin, French people have some of the most diversified genetic make-up in Europe, with genes inherited from the Celts, the Basques, the Romans, the Franks and the Normands, which explains the wide physical diversity in French facial traits, as well as hair and eye colour.

• According to Graham Robb in his book The Discovery of France, there were hundreds of small, autonomous republics within France until the 18th or 19th century. Some were autonomous hamlets that didn't pay tax at all and were almost completely isolated from the rest of France.

• Until the early 20th century at least two thirds of the French population was rural and most people lived in communities less than 100 people. Few people knew anything a dozen mile beyond their place of birth, and few identified themselves with France as a country.

• The French are the world's biggest consumers of psychotropic drugs. About a fourth of the population admits having taken anti-depressant or tranquilisers over the past year.

Do you know any interesting facts about the people and the culture of France that I haven't listed on here? Please let me know by writing a comment!

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How to get along with the 'rude' French people.

This is often something I hear from many of my friends, acquaintances, colleagues and general people I meet almost exclusively from the UK.  I can't think of a more typical stereotype about the French people on how rude they are. What astonishes me is people who have never been in France also take it upon themselves to warn potential visitors about the 'rude French' which makes me laugh.

Truth is, there are rude people all over the world, in every country and city. No matter where you are if you are rude, they will be rude back. That's just a given, and France is no exception. There is no universal definition of rudeness. Something which is rude in your culture may not be in another, and vice versa.

Politeness and respect


These are the absolute key words when talking to French people. All conversations with strangers in France depends on this."When in Rome, do as the Romans do" should be your go-to phrase when in any country or place of different culture. When in France, that means you should make an effort to speak French. No one expects you to be fluent in French, but knowing a few key words and phrases will get you a long way.

• Bonjour - Hello
• Excusez moi - Excuse me
• Merci - Thank you
• Savez vous ou est la Tour Eiffel - Do you know where the eiffel tower is?
• Au revoir / Bonne journee / Bonne soiree - Goodbye / Good day / Good evening
• Parlez-vous anglais? -  Do you speak English?
• Pouvez-vous m'aider s'il vous plait? - Could you please help me?

 Parisians have a very limited attention span and I guarantee you if you learn and use these words and sentences, they will be more than happy in helping you. The last thing you want to do is doing is tapping someone on the shoulder and say "Hey, do you know where the Louvre is?" You wouldn't want a tourist doing this to you and listen to them yammering away in Spanish or Chinese, right?

Another common mistake that British people do is talk to French people in the informal tense. I personally blame the schools on how they teach it. In France, their are two ways of saying the word "You", the formal - Vous and the informal way - Tu. Because of the practicality, it is easier to learn the french language in the informal way. This is something weird to many British people but that's the way the British people use to talk, very formally and not so long ago. So when asking a French person, it is not unusual for a British person to say "Comment t'appelles tu? (What's your name?) and get a rude or a not very engaged response. Instead one should ask "Comment appelez vous? / Comment vous vous appelez? (What is your name?) This is a more polite and respectful way of asking and will be more willing in giving a genuine response.

Although English is the main international language, it is far from the only one and the French knows this (French being the second most important language in the world for the moment). Generally, you will get by with English, but you should use whatever French you can first, by learning the words above. Traveling is about learning, experiencing and immersing yourself in a different culture and enjoying it, correct? (Maybe Karl Pilkington has a different opinion about this).

Related to this, is what we call the "ugly American" syndrome - you know, the ones who goes around yelling everyone in English, denouncing everyone and everything French. It's very annoying. A bit like seeing a stag do, yelling down the street in town. Showing respect for another culture means enjoying what it has to offer, rather than searching for signs of one's own home. The French are very patriotic and proud of their language, culture and country and to be honest quite rightly so. If you are respectful of their culture and heritage, they will respond very kindly to you.

Rude French?

Another aspect of the French myth is often a misunderstanding of the French personality. Smiling is considered friendly when meeting and talking to strangers and indeed it is. People from many cultures smile when meeting new people, and American and British in particular smile a lot, in order to be friendly. The French, however don't smile unless they mean it (of course they will most likely smile when you introduce yourself and vice versa), and they don't smile a lot when talking to a perfect stranger. Therefore, when Americans or British smiles a lot at a French person during a conversation whose face remains neutral and impassive, they feel that they are unfriendly and rude and makes them wonder "How hard is it to smile back?" "How rude!"

In summary, if you make an effort to be polite and respectful in the way you ask your question to French people. So that means asking them a question in the formal way using the word Vous instead of Tu (refer to the sentences above), and showing respect for French culture, and if you avoid taking it personally when your smile isn't returned, you'll have a hard time finding the "rude French." In fact you will be pleasantly surprised to discover how very friendly and helpful they really are.

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