France
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
France can be reached from Italy via several Alpine and Pyrenean passes, as well as by sea. The main link from northern Italy is the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which connects Courmayeur with Chamonix (motorway unable to parse / [E25]), open all year round for a fee; the Frejus Tunnel connects Bardonecchia with Modane (motorway unable to parse); the Petit St Bernard Pass (only open in summer) and the Montgenèvre Pass are free road alternatives. The Ventimiglia-Menton pass, on the -unable to parse motorway, is the main corridor for the connection to the Côte d'Azur from Liguria. The Italian Railways (FS) and the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français) serve the international routes: the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) connects Paris with Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Lille in less than 3 hours; TGV Lyria trains connect Paris with Geneva and Berne; Eurostar connects Paris with London via the Channel Tunnel. The main airports are Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Paris-Orly (ORY); secondary international airports are Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Grenoble-Isère. The French motorway network is extensive and tolled (péage); the payment system accepts credit cards. The Autoroute Blanche unable to parse is the main access route to the Alps from the French plain towards Chamonix and Mont Blanc. The Alpine motorways unable to parse and unable to parse serve Grenoble and Savoie.
.Introduction
France is a western European state, a founding member of the European Union (1957) and the second-largest economy in the Union, and the fourth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP. It is the largest country in the European Union by metropolitan area (551,695 km²) and the third largest by total area including overseas territories. It borders Belgium and Luxembourg to the north-east, Germany, Switzerland and Monaco to the east, Italy to the south-east, Spain and Andorra to the south-west; to the west it faces the Atlantic Ocean, to the north the English Channel and to the south the Mediterranean Sea. The Alps, with Mont Blanc (4,807 m), and the Pyrenees define the southern and south-eastern borders. The geographical variety - from the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts to the plains of the Paris basin, from the Massif Central to the Savoy Alps - makes France one of the European countries with the richest landscape diversity. The capital, Paris, is the main economic, cultural and political centre and is among the most visited cities in the world. French, a Romance language derived from the medieval Latin of Gaul, is spoken as a mother tongue by some 75 million people worldwide and is the official language of 29 countries.
Description
The French territory is divided into four large geographical domains: the Paris basin and northern plains, the Massif Central, the Alpine and Pyrenean ranges, and the coastal strip. The Paris basin - occupied by the plains and rolling hills furrowed by the Seine, the Loire and their tributaries - is the agricultural and demographic heart of the country. The Massif Central, a Hercynian plateau with altitudes up to 1,886 m (Puy-de-Sancy), is dotted with ancient volcanoes (Puys chain) and thermal springs. The French Alps, in the north-western part of the Alpine arc, are home to the highest peaks in Western Europe: Mont Blanc (4,807 m), the Grandes Jorasses (4,208 m), the Aiguille Verte (4,122 m) and the Monte Rosa chain in the southern part. The Pyrenees mark the border with Spain with peaks exceeding 3,400 m (Pico de Aneto, in Spain, is the highest peak, but Vignemale, 3,298 m, is the highest peak entirely on the French side). The Rhone, the Alpine river par excellence, flows from Switzerland to the Mediterranean via Lyon; the Loire is the longest river entirely in France (1,020 km). The climate varies from oceanic (Brittany, Normandy) to continental (Alsace, Lorraine), Mediterranean (Côte d'Azur, Languedoc) and alpine (Alps and Pyrenees).
The history of France is among the most complex in Europe. Pre-Roman Gaul was inhabited by the Celts and earlier peoples, including the builders of the Carnac megaliths (5th millennium BC). The Roman conquest by Julius Caesar (58-52 BC) turned the territory into one of the richest provinces of the Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Franks - a Germanic tribe - established the first nucleus of the French state. Charlemagne (748-814) created the Carolingian Empire that unified western Europe. The medieval Capetian monarchy (987-1328) built the kingdom of France with Paris as its centre. The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), then the French Revolution (1789) - which overthrew the absolute monarchy, proclaimed the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity and introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man - and the Napoleonic era (1799-1815) are the fundamental caesuras of modern history. France was a protagonist in both world wars: occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940-1944, the French Resistance and the Allied landing in Normandy (D-Day, 6 June 1944) led to liberation. The Fifth Republic (1958-present), founded by De Gaulle, is the current constitutional regime.
The French economy is among the most diversified and advanced in the world. The agri-food sector - with viticulture (Burgundy, Champagne, Bordeaux, Alsace, Rhone Valley, Provence), cheese production (over 1,000 types of cheese) and haute cuisine products - is a key identity and commercial asset. Industry includes automotive (Renault, Peugeot-Citroën), aeronautics (Airbus, of which Toulouse is the production centre), luxury (LVMH, Hermès, Chanel), pharmaceuticals and nuclear power (France produces around 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear reactors). Tourism is the most important economic sector for international inflows: with about 90 million visitors per year, France is the most visited tourist destination in the world.
French UNESCO heritage includes 53 sites, among the most numerous in Europe. Among the main ones are the Gothic cathedrals (Notre-Dame de Paris, Chartres, Amiens, Reims), the castles of the Loire Valley, the cave paintings of the Lascaux cave and the Vézère area, Mont Saint-Michel, the Palais des Papes in Avignon, the port of Marseille and the Canal du Midi. The French Alpine arc is home to the Vanoise National Park (1963, the first French Alpine national park, twin of the Grand Paradis), the Écrins National Park, the Mercantour National Park and the Pyrenees National Park. The Alpine fauna includes ibex (Capra ibex) - reintroduced from the Gran Paradiso colony - Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the Pyrenees and wolf (Canis lupus) in the south-western Alps. The French Alps are home to an exceptional system of Club Alpin Français (CAF) refuges along the Alte Vie (GR5, GR10, GR20 in Corsica).
French hiking has the most extensive GR (Grandes Randonnées) trail network in Europe, with over 60,000 km marked. The GR5 (North Sea-Nice, about 2,500 km) crosses the French Alps from north to south; the GR10 and GR11 traverse the French and Spanish sides of the Pyrenees respectively; the GR20 in Corsica is considered among the most technical and scenic routes in Europe. The High Routes of the Alps (Haute Route de la Beaufortain, Traversée du Belledonne, Tour du Mont Blanc - TMB, with over 50,000 participants per year) are among the European trekking classics. The Tour du Mont Blanc (170 km, approx. 10,000 m D+, 7-11 days) circumnavigates the massif through France, Italy and Switzerland and is the most popular long-distance trek in the Alps.
French mountaineering history is inseparable from that of Mont Blanc and Chamonix, the "Capital of Mountaineering". The first ascent of Mont Blanc was made on 8 August 1786 by Michel Paccard and Jacques Balmat, opening the era of modern mountaineering. Figures such as Horace-Bénédict de Saussure - promoter of the first ascent - and then Gaston Rébuffat, the mountain guide and writer who first completed the six great north of the Alps, defined the French mountaineering tradition. The Mont Blanc massif is home to the most iconic classic routes: the Aiguille du Midi (normal route and Cosmiques Arête), the Brenva, the Grandes Jorasses (Walker route) and the Pilier du Frêney. The Aiguille du Dru, the Petit Dru and the rock pinnacles of the massif were the scene of the first ascents that defined Alpine climbing in the 20th century.
French trail running has the UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) as its world reference event. The UTMB, which takes place in Chamonix every August, is the world's best-known trail race: the 170-kilometre route circumnavigates Mont Blanc through France, Italy and Switzerland with 10,000 metres of positive altitude difference. The event attracts over 10,000 participants and generates an ecosystem of satellite races (CCC, OCC, TDS, MCC, PTL) with distances from 15 to 300 km. The Grand Raid de la Réunion (on the island of Réunion, French Overseas Department) with its 163 km and 9,638 m D+ is another world reference race. The France Trails and numerous regional series enliven one of the richest national calendars in Europe.
.Information
General Data
Capital: Paris
Area: 551.695 km² (metropolitan territory + d'overseas)
Minimum elevation: -2m (coastal areas in the north)
Maximum elevation: 4,807m - Monte Bianco
Number of inhabitants: 68.600,000 (as of 01.01.2025, INSEE)
Official name: République Française
Name of inhabitants: French
Regions: 13 metropolitan regions + 5 departments and overseas regions
Border countries: Andorra - Belgium - Germany - Italy - Luxembourg - Monaco - Spain - Switzerland
Institutional website: https://www.gouvernement.fr