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France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north, Germany to the north east, Switzerland to the east, Italy and Monaco to the south east, Andorra and Spain to the south, and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the north west. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its overseas territories include French GuianainSouth America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and have a total population of 68.4 million . France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Nantes, and Nice.
Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron AgebyCeltic tribes known as Gauls before Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture. In the Early Middle Ages, the Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia evolving into the Kingdom of France. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but decentralized feudal kingdom, but from the mid-14th to the mid-15th centuries, France was plunged into a dynastic conflict with England known as the Hundred Years' War. In the 16th century, the French Renaissance saw culture flourish and a French colonial empire rise. Internally, France was dominated by the conflict with the House of Habsburg and the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots. France was successful in the Thirty Years' War and further increased its influence during the reign of Louis XIV.
The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars significantly shaped the course of European history. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured the Bourbon Restoration until the founding of the French Second Republic which was succeeded by the Second French Empire upon Napoleon III's takeover. His empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This led to the establishment of the Third French Republic, and subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participantsofWorld War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allied powersofWorld War II, but it surrendered and was occupied by the Axis in 1940. Following its liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.
France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts the third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018. France is a developed country with a high nominal per capita income globally, and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world. It is a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the eurozone, as well as a key member of the Group of Seven, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Francophonie. (Full article...)
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The Bal des Ardents (Ball of the Burning Men) or the Bal des Sauvages (Ball of the Wild Men), was a masquerade ball held on 28 January 1393 in Paris, France, at which King Charles VI performed in a dance with five members of the French nobility. Four of the dancers were killed in a fire caused by a torch brought in by Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the king's brother.
The ball was one of a series of events organised to entertain Charles, who the previous summer had suffered an attack of insanity. The circumstances of the fire undermined confidence in the king's capacity to rule; Parisians considered it proof of courtly decadence and threatened to rebel against the more powerful members of the nobility. The public's outrage forced Charles and his brother Orléans, whom a contemporary chronicler accused of attempted regicide and sorcery, to offer penance for the event. (Full article...) Featured biography – show another
Twenty-five years after her execution, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr. Joan of Arc was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She is – along with St. Denis, St. Martin of Tours, St. Louis IX, and St. Theresa of Lisieux – one of the patron saints of France. Joan said that she had visions from God that instructed her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the dismissive attitude of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims.
To the present day, Joan of Arc has remained a significant figure in Western civilization.
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French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and American wine-producing regions. French wine traces its history to the 6th century BCE, with many of France's regions dating their wine-making history to Roman times. The wines produced range from expensive wines sold internationally to modest wines usually only seen within France such as the Margnat wines of the post-war period.
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The National Rally (French: Rassemblement National, pronounced [ʁasɑ̃bləmɑ̃ nɑsjɔnal], RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (French: Front National, pronounced [fʁɔ̃ nɑsjɔnal], FN), is a French nationalist and right-wing populist party in France. It is the largest parliamentary opposition group in the National Assembly; it has seen its candidate reach the second round in the 2002, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. It is an anti-immigration party, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration and protection of French identity, as well as stricter control of illegal immigration. It also advocates for a 'more balanced' and 'independent' French foreign policy by opposing French military intervention in Africa and by distancing France from the American sphere of influence by leaving NATO's integrated command. It supports reform of the European Union (EU) and its related organisations. It also supports economic interventionism and protectionism, and zero tolerance of breaches of law and order. The party has been accused of promoting xenophobia and antisemitism.
The party was founded in 1972 to unify the French nationalist movement. Its political views are anti-globalist. Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the party and was its leader until his resignation in 2011. While the party struggled as a marginal force for its first ten years, it has been a major force of French nationalism since 1984. It has put forward a candidate at every presidential election but one since 1974. In 2002, Jean-Marie came second in the first round, but finished a distant second in the runoff to Jacques Chirac. His daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. She temporarily stepped down in 2017 in order to concentrate on her presidential candidacy; she resumed her presidency after the election. She headed the party until 2021, when she temporarily resigned again. A year later, Jordan Bardella was elected as her successor. (Full article...)
The Patrouille de France, a precision aerobatic demonstration team, in full formation at the Radom Air Show. The team was established as part of the French Air Force in 1947, although aerobatic teams had existed in the country since 1931. The Patrouille fly Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets.
Graziella is an 1852 novel by the French author Alphonse de Lamartine. It tells of a young French man who falls in love with the eponymous character, a fisherman's granddaughter, during a trip to Naples, Italy; they are separated when he must return to France, and Graziella dies soon afterwards. The novel received popular acclaim; an operatic adaptation had been completed by the end of the year, and the work influenced paintings, poems, novels, and films. This 1878 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre shows Graziella sitting on a rock, fishing net in hand, gazing over her shoulder at a smoking Mount Vesuvius in the distance. The painting is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Joséphine Fodor (13 October 1789 or in 1793 – 10 August 1870) was a French lyrical artist (soprano) with Hungarian and Dutch ancestors. Her family moved to Saint Petersburg when she was an infant, probably because of the French Revolution. After marrying in 1812, Fodor and her husband moved back to France when Saint Petersburg came under attack during the French invasion of Russia. She performed roles for the Opéra-Comique in Paris, later being engaged by the Comédie-Italienne, and also appeared in London, Venice, Naples and Vienna. Experiencing problems with her voice, she gradually ended her operatic career and withdrew from the stage. This lithograph depicts her in 1815.
ALantern of the DeadinSarlat-la-Canéda, Dordogne, France. Such small stone towers are found chiefly in the centre and west of France. They are often thought to have indicated cemeteries through lights exhibited at the top of the structures.
Georges Ernest Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche, was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the Third Republic, he won a series of elections and was feared to be powerful enough to establish himself as dictator at the zenith of his popularity in January 1889. This photograph of Boulanger was produced by the atelier of the French photographer Nadar.
Serge Gainsbourg (1928–1991) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, actor, author and filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop music, he was renowned for often provocative and scandalous releases which caused uproar in France, dividing its public opinion, as well as his diverse artistic output, which ranged from his early work in jazz, chanson, and yé-yé to later efforts in rock, zouk, funk, reggae, and electronica. He is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians. His lyrical works incorporated wordplay, with humorous, bizarre, provocative, sexual, satirical or subversive overtones. Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France, and he has become one of the country's best-loved public figures. He has also gained a cult following all over the world with chart success in the United Kingdom and Belgium with "Je t'aime... moi non plus" and "Bonnie and Clyde", respectively. This photo of Gainsbourg was taken in 1981.
Marie-Gabrielle Capet (6 September 1761 – 1 November 1818) was a French Neoclassical painter. Until the French Revolution, the Royal Academy of Art in Paris was responsible for training artists and exhibiting artworks at the Salon, but limited the number of female students to four at a time. Unable to gain a place, she moved to Paris in 1781 to become a student of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, with whom she struck up a lifelong friendship. She specialised in painting portraits, her works including oil paintings, watercolours and miniatures. This oil-on-canvas self-portrait of Capet, dating from around 1783, is in the collection of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
"Au Clair de la Lune", a traditional French folk song, from a 1910s children's book. It is commonly taught to beginner students of various instruments.
Listen to:An1860 recording of the song, which is believed to be the oldest recognizable sound recording of a human voice in existence.
Champ de Mars (Paris, France), as seen from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. In the distance is Tour Montparnasse and the dome on the left is Les Invalides. The École Militaire is at the end of the Champ de Mars. In English the name means "Field of Mars", from Mars the Roman god of war, from its original use for military training. During the French Revolution, the Champ de Mars was the setting of the Fête de la Fédération, on 14 July 1790.
The French franc is a former currency of France and Monaco and, alongside the Spanish peseta, a former de facto currencyinAndorra. The first franc was a gold coin introduced in 1360, which showed King John II of France on a richly decorated horse, earning it the name franc à cheval. A later coin, showing Charles VII on foot, under a canopy, was named the franc à pied. The decimal franc was established by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit, and became the official currency of France in 1799. France joined the euro in 1999, and the franc was replaced by euro notes and coins in 2002.
This picture shows a 20-franc coin, dated 1803. The obverse shows an image of Napoleon.
See also: 1807 40-franc coin
Louis XVI of France (1754–1793) was King of France (later King of the French) from 1774 until his deposition in 1792. His early reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideals, including ultimately quashed efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. However, after several years of national debt and financial and food crises, Louis was arrested during the insurrection of 10 August 1792, found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793.
Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) is the best known painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. This large oil painting shows a number of figures walking through the Carrefour de Moscou, a road intersection to the east of the Gare Saint-Lazare in north Paris. It was first shown at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877, and is currently owned by the Art Institute of Chicago.
Étienne Maurice Gérard (4 April 1773 – 17 April 1852) was a French general, statesman and marshal of France. He served under a succession of French governments, including the monarchy of the Ancien Régime, the First Republic, the First Empire, the Bourbon Restoration, the July Monarchy, the Second Republic, and arguably the Second Empire, becoming prime minister briefly in 1834. This 1816 portrait of Gérard by Jacques-Louis David is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son is an oil-on-canvas painting by Claude Monet from 1875. The Impressionist work depicts his wife Camille and their son Jean during a stroll on a windy summer's day in Argenteuil. It has been held by the National Gallery of ArtinWashington, D.C., since 1983.
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