la france - bienvenue
french history
No one can ever express france's beautiful history in 2 mins, but here is a video that gets you ready to embark on a wonderful journey learning french, french culture and history... enjoy!
la france - hier
France’s official name is the French Republic (République Française) – it became a republic in 1792, after centuries of royal rule, as a result of the French Revolution. The Revolution started with the storming of the Bastille fortress on 14th July 1789, an event that is celebrated every year all over France on Bastille Day.
SAVOIR: Le jour de la Bastille (Bastille Day) is also known as the Fête Nationale (Independance Day). It is every July 14th. It is 10 days after the American Independence Day.
the french revoultionHere's the French Revolution in a NUTSHELL (right)
SAVOIR: Liberté, égalitié, fraternité meaning ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ (or brotherhood) is the national motto of France – first appearing around the time of the Revolution, it was written into the constitution in 1958 and today you’ll see it on coins, postage stamps and government logos often alongside ‘Marianne’ who symbolises the ‘triumph of the Republic’. |
SAVOIR: The French flag (drapeau) is bleu, blanc and rouge NOT red, white and blue.
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la france - aujourd'hui
France is the largest country in the EU – with an area of 551,000 square km, it's almost a fifth of the EU’s total area. About a quarter is covered by forest; only Sweden and Finland have more.
French is the official language and the first language of 88 percent of the population. Some 85 percent of the French population live in urban areas! Metropolitan France is administered as 13 regions (reduced from 22 as from 2016) , 96 "départements" or departments, and some 36,000 "communes". (There are also 4 overseas regions - French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Ile de la Réunion - and other overseas territories known as "TOM" ) "France" includes a number of overseas departments and territories (known in French as the DOM-TOMs), including Tahiti in the Pacific and French Guyana in South America. France has the second largest economy in the Eurozone – France's economy is only second to Germany's.
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France is also known as ‘the hexagon' – because of its six-sided shape, France is sometimes referred to as l’hexagone.
Here’s a little map overlay with the country of France placed under a map of the Continental US state boundaries. The total area of France is 211,209 square miles, making France slightly smaller than two Colorados. France is smaller than the state of Texas at 268,820 square miles of area.
http://www.wanderingfrance.com/blog/articles/182/how-big-is-france |
le GOUVERNEMENT
What type of government does France have ?
Semi-Presidential Republic – it has both a President and a Prime Minister France is a republic; the head of the executive is the President, elected by universal suffrage, currently François Hollande. The Prime Minister which is chosen by the President is Manuel Valls. The President determines policy with the aid of his Council of Ministers (Conseil des ministres). Ministers cannot sit in parliament, and if an elected member of parliament (député) is appointed minister, he or she has to hand over parliamentary duties to his / her deputy (adjoint). Since each elected member has a deputy, by-elections are unusual in France. http://about-france.com/facts-figures.htm |
Originally, a president of the Fifth Republic was elected for a 7-year term (le septennat), renewable any number of times. Since 2002 the President has been elected for a 5-year term (le quinquennat). Since the passing of the 2008 Constitutional reform, the maximum number of terms a president can serve has been limited to two.
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François hollande - president of france
Birth name: Francois Gerard Georges Hollande
Birth date: August 12, 1954
Birth place: Rouen, Normandy, France
He is the first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.
Promises made during the campaign include renegotiating the austerity agreement, troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, lower retirement age and higher taxes for the very wealthy.
He taught economics at the elite Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, or Sciences Po.
Birth date: August 12, 1954
Birth place: Rouen, Normandy, France
He is the first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995.
Promises made during the campaign include renegotiating the austerity agreement, troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, lower retirement age and higher taxes for the very wealthy.
He taught economics at the elite Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, or Sciences Po.
Previous French Presidents
la france - demain
Each country and culture has contributed to the world in some shape and form. France is well-known for its Gastronomy, Fashion, Ballet (dance), Literature and Philosophy. As France continues to share its beauty with the world here are some exciting facts to add to your knowledge.
economics - gastronomy
Here is a LIST of typical French food that you may want to try if you visit France:
- Baguette: long bread stick - Croque Monsieur/Croque Madame: ham and cheese grilled sandwich while Croque Madame is the more heavy version with ham, cheese and a fried egg on top - Escargots: snails - Foie Gras: Goose liver pate (YUMMMM!) - Ratatouille: Vegetable Stew - Pain au chocolat: similar to a croissant (not same shape and it is not a croissant!) filled with chocolate - Crepes: French very thin pancakes with filling le fromageThere are over 1,000 different types of cheese made in France – the blue/green-veined Roquefort is the oldest variety. Its ripening process, which takes place in natural caves, dates back to the 17th century.
pastryOf course, France is renowned for its delightful patisseries and cake shops, all selling the most delectable pastries, cakes and fondants. A national treasure is, of course, the chocolate éclair, a sublime concoction of light pastry, cream and chocolate; though kids will enjoy sampling their way through the other delicacies on offer, including the Tarte Aux Fruits (fruit tarts) and the more sophisticated Pain au Chocolat.
Try to visit also a patisserie for the wonderful sweet like cakes like the petit fours or pain au chocolat. Not to forget to eat some pancakes in the many creperies. In Paris, you will find the oldest café or coffee shop in the world which was opened in 1694. It is called Le Procope. |
le painThe bread you will get in France in a typical French "boulangerie" (bakery) is mostly white wheat bread or bread sticks, called "baguette". The 'baguette' (means stick or baton) become the iconic symbol of French bread and France in the 20th century when a law was passed in 1920 banning bakers from starting work before 4am (and no later than 10pm), which made it difficult for them to have fresh bread for the morning, so they made the fast-baking baguette as a solution. Besides baguettes, other French bread types include the couronne (ring shaped), the flute (twice the size of a baguette), the batard (a half-length normal loaf) and the ficelle (long, thin loaf), wholemeal breads (pain complet or aux céréales), rye bread (pain de seigle), sourdough bread (pain au levain), and a sweet bread called brioche.
Fun Facts: - National law dictates that ‘French’ bread should contain only flour, yeast, salt and water. - March 21st is National French Bread Day and a national festival happens around the feast of St Honore (patron saint of bakers) in May. - Every year there is a competition in Paris for the best baguette baker. - Bread is such an important part of French cuisine/culture, laws up until 2014 prevented all bakers in Paris taking summer holidays at the same time. le vinFrench wine is an integral part of the French identity and pride, as demonstrated by the wines having more of a regional than a national identity. France is one of the oldest wine producing regions and today it is the world’s second largest wine producer. On average, France produces more than 6 billion bottles of wine per year. For centuries, France has been regarded as a premier wine-producing country, but the reputation of the quality French wine has been challenged over the recent decades by Italy, Spain and Australia.
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tourism - monuments
la dame de ferThe Eiffel Tower was designed by the French engineer and bridge builder Alexandre Gustave Eiffel to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution. The two years, two months and five days it took to build it is considered both a technical and architectural achievement.
The Palace of Versailles is a French royal palace located in the Ile de France region, about 15 miles south west of Paris, France, that was built for King Louis XIV in the late 1600s. The Palace of Versailles required the work of approximately 3000 people to construct the building and the grounds. There are more than 700 rooms, including 1,200 fireplaces and 60 staircases in the Palace of Versailles. In today's money it would have cost roughly $2 billion to build. In 1682 the French government moved to Versailles and it remained there for almost 100 years. In 1789 a mob took the Palace and the French Revolution began.
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France is the world's most popular tourist destination – some 84.7 million visitors arrived in France, according to the World Tourism Organisation report published in 2014.
Most Visited Attractions:
1. La tour Eiffel 2. Musée du Louvre 3. Le Château de Versailles (NOT IN PARIS) Louvre museumThe Louvre Museum in Paris was the most visited museum in the world in 2014 – with an amazing 9.3 million visitors, it received almost the same amount of people as the population of Sweden. Le Château de VersaillesThe French people looked at the Palace of Versailles as a symbol of what was wrong with life in France at the time. The nobility and the aristocracy had everything they wanted and more, and the people of France were poor, and often starving.
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sports |
Traditional and modern sports are popular in France...
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The most popular sports in France are football, rugby, tennis and cycling while older people still enjoy the traditional game of pétanque or boules (a game played with heavy metal balls) in the town square. Le trotter Français is a type of horseracing where the rider sits in a two-wheeled buggy.
The world’s greatest cycle race, the Tour de France, has been around for more than 100 years – with the first event held on July 1, 1903. Every July, cyclists race some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) primarily around France in a series of stages over 23 days, with the fastest cyclist at each stage wearing the famous yellow jersey.
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beaucoup plus à découvrir
tgv - train à grande vitesseWANT TO TRAVEL IN FRANCE AND SEE SOME OF EUROPE AND NOT ON A BIKE...
At 29,000 km, the French rail network is the second largest in Europe (after Germany) and the ninth biggest in the world – France was one of the first countries in the world to utilise high-speed technology, introducing the TGV high-speed rail in 1981. |
the french alps... what a beauty! |
Europe’s highest mountain is in the French Alps – Mont Blanc, at 4,810m, takes an arduous 10 to 12 hours to climb to the summit.
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literature
poisson d'avril -
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