France Portal

The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises a collection of overseas islands and territories located in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany) and the 20th largest in the world. Paris is the most populated city in France with over 12 million people in its aire urbaine.

The French Republic is a democracy which is organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. It has the seventh-largest economy in the world. Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. France is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council wielding veto power, and it is also one of eight acknowledged nuclear powers. With almost 75 million foreign tourists each year, France is the most popular international tourist destination in the world.

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations.

Picture of the Month (Archive)

Napoleon Bonaparte's exile to Elba, from a British engraving, 1814. Image credit: Published by J. Phillips, No. 32 Charles Street Hampstead road (London), May 1814.

Article of the Month (Archive)

Catherine de' Medici's building projects included the Valois chapel at Saint-Denis, the Tuileries Palace, and the Hôtel de la Reine in Paris, and extensions to the château of Chenonceau, near Blois. Born in 1519 in Florence to an Italian father and a French mother, Catherine de' Medici was a daughter of both the Italian and the French Renaissance. She grew up in Florence and Rome under the wing of the Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, she left Italy and married Henry, the second son of Francis I and Queen Claude of France. On doing so, she entered the greatest Renaissance court in northern Europe.

King Francis set his daughter-in-law an example of kingship and artistic patronage that she never forgot. She witnessed his huge architectural schemes at Chambord and Fontainebleau. She saw Italian and French craftsmen at work together, forging the style that became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. Francis died in 1547, and Catherine became queen consort of France. But it wasn't until her husband King Henry's death in 1559, when she found herself at forty the effective ruler of France, that Catherine came into her own as a patron of architecture. Over the next three decades, she launched a series of costly building projects aimed at enhancing the grandeur of the monarchy. During the same period, however, religious civil war gripped the country and brought the prestige of the monarchy to a dangerously low ebb.

Catherine loved to supervise each project personally. The architects of the day dedicated books to her, knowing that she would read them. Though she spent colossal sums on the building and embellishment of monuments and palaces, little remains of Catherine's investment today: one Doric column, a few fragments in the corner of the Tuileries gardens, an empty tomb at Saint Denis. The sculptures she commissioned for the Valois chapel are lost, or scattered, often damaged or incomplete, in museums and churches. Catherine de' Medici's reputation as a sponsor of buildings rests instead on the designs and treatises of her architects. These testify to the vitality of French architecture under her patronage. Read more...

Person of the Month (Archive)

Djibril Cissé (born August 12, 1981, in Arles, France) is a French international football player of Ivorian descent who plays as a striker for both the France national football team and Sunderland of the Premier League, on loan from Ligue 1 side Olympique Marseille. He is noted particularly for his speed and acceleration, as well as his often eye-catching hairstyles. Since 2005, he has held the title of Lord of the Manor of Frodsham.

Cissé started his career at Nîmes Olympique in 1993 at the age of 11. He then moved to Auxerre still in the youth team, before graduating to the first team in 1998. After having his move to Liverpool held up once, he moved to the Merseyside based club in 2004 having played for Auxerre for six season; scoring 70 goals from 128 appearances. He was brought to Liverpool by Gérard Houllier, although he left shortly after signing him. During his time at Anfield he played 49 games with 11 goals to his name; though he was sometimes played on the right wing. Towards the end of his Liverpool career he had a loan spell at Marseille scoring eight goals in 21 appearances, he then made the deal permanent. Close by to his hometown Arles, he currently plays for Marseille, though he was loaned out to Sunderland with a view to make the move permanent. Read more...

Recent events in France

October 13 - Actor Guillaume Depardieu Dies
The French actor Guillaume Depardieu died on October 13, 2008, at the Garches hospital the age of 37 after contracting severe viral pneumonia at a filming location in Romania, where he had been working on a new movie, L'Enfance d'Icare. AFP, BBC News

October 9 - J. M. G. Le Clézio Wins Nobel Prize
Franco-Mauritian novelist Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nobelprize.org

July 27 - Carlos Sastre wins 2008 Tour de France
The Spanish cyclist Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre is the third consecutive Spanish rider to win the Tour. Full story: NYTimes BBC CNN

July 5 - 2008 Tour de France begins
The 2008 Tour de France began on July 5 and will run through the 27th. This year's Tour differs from previous years' in significant ways. For the first time since 1967, the Tour will begin without a prologue time trial. Tour organizers have also decided to eliminate time bonuses. Full story: NYTimes Telegraph

Did you know ... (Archive)

• ...that the marriage of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson took place at Château de Candé?
• ...that a replica of the château from the Bordeaux wine estate Château Beauregard was constructed for the Guggenheim family on Long Island, New York?
• ...that Haulotte Group are the third-biggest manufacturer of aerial work platforms (pictured) in the world?
• ...that the Bordeaux wine estate Château Beau-Séjour-Bécot was demoted in the Saint-Émilion classification amidst controversy, only to be later re-instated?

• ...that many of the viaducts (pictured) on the Chemin de Fer de Côtes du Nord were two-tiered structures, and that the Viaduc de Souzain had a railway junction on the viaduct itself?
• ...that the final section of the Chemins de Fer du Calvados was closed by damage from the 1944 D-Day invasion?

Things you can do

Wikiproject