The Republic of France ( La Republique Fran?aise)

July 14 is celebrated every year as the National Day. It is in commemoration of the Legislative Assembly in 1880, which ignited the bourgeois French Revolution).

"Marseille Qu"

The Republic of France, which is the Western Europe largest country, has a total land area of 551,602 square kilometers. France is about 80% the size of Texas. In the Alps near the Italian and Swiss borders is western Europe's highest point— Mont Blanc ( 15,781 ft; 4,810 m). The forest-covered Vosges Mountains are in the northeast, and the Pyrénées are along the Spanish border. Except for extreme northern France, the country may be described as four river basins and a plateau. Three of the streams flow west—the Seine into the English Channel, the Loire into the Atlantic, and the Garonne into the Bay of Biscay. The Rh?ne flows south into the Mediterranean. For about 100 mi ( 161 km), the Rhine is France's eastern border. In the Mediterranean, about 115 mi ( 185 km) east-southeast of Nice is the island of Corsica (3,367 sq mi; 8,721 sq km).

Population (2006 est.): 60,876,136 (growth rate: 0.4%); birth rate: 12.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.2/1000; life expectancy: 79.7; density per sq mi: 289. Most of the French people are Roman Catholic 83%–88%. Others may be Protestant 2%, Islam 5%–10%, Jewish 1%, unaffiliated 4%

The capital and the largest city Paris has a total land area of 9,854,000sqaure kilometers while the city proper is 2,110,400square kilometers.

France is divided into regions, provinces and municipalities. 省下设专区和县，但不是行政区域。 Each province has its own judicial and electoral units. 法本土共划为 22 个大区、 96 个省、 4 个海外省、 4 个海外领地、 2 个具有特殊地位的地方行政区。 France is home to a total of 22 regions, 96 provinces and four overseas departments and four overseas territories where two of which are in the status of SAR (Special Administrative Region). France has a total of 36,565 towns with a population of no less 34, 000. The city has usually about 30 000 people. France has about 400 cities to this day. 全国共有 36565 个市镇，其中人口不足 3500 人的有 3.4 万个，人口超过 3 万人市有 231 个，人口超过 10 万的市有 37 个。
22 个大区是：

The 22 Regions of France:
阿尔萨斯、阿基坦、奥维尔涅、布尔高涅、布列塔尼、中部地区、香槟－阿登、科西嘉、弗朗什－贡岱、巴黎大区、朗克多克－鲁西翁、利姆赞、洛林、南比利牛斯、北加莱海峡、下诺曼底、上诺曼底、卢瓦尔地区、皮卡尔迪、布瓦图－夏朗德、普洛旺斯－阿尔卑斯－蓝色海岸、罗讷 - 阿尔贝斯。 Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Brittany, Burgundy, Center, Champagne-Ardenne, Corsica, Franche-comte, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Lower-Normandy, Midi-Pyrenees, North-Calais, Paris-Isle-of-France, Pays-de-la-Loire,

Picardy, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Azur, Rhone-Alps, and Upper-Normandy

Four overseas departments are:
瓜德鲁普、马提尼克、法属圭亚那、留尼旺。 Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Réunion.
4 个海外领地是：

Four overseas territories are:
法属波利尼西亚、新喀里多尼亚、瓦利斯群岛和富图纳群岛、法属南半球和南极领地。 French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, French Southern and Antarctic territories.
2 个地方行政区是：

Two Districts:
马约特岛、圣皮埃尔岛和密克隆岛。 The Island of Mayotte, St. Pierre and Miquelon.

法国是工业发达国家，生产和资本高度集中，国内生产总值位居世界前列。 France is a developed industrial country whose GDP is considered as the world’s largest. 主要工业部门有矿业、冶金、汽车、造船、机械、纺织、化学、电器、食品等。 The main industrial sectors are mining, metallurgy, automobiles, shipbuilding, machinery, textiles, chemicals, electrical appliances, and agricultural products. 核能、石化、海洋开发、军火、航空和宇航等部门发展很快，已位居世界前列。 Nuclear energy, petrochemical, marine development, arms, and aviation and aerospace sectors have also developed rapidly and is now considered the largest in the world. 1993 年主要工业产品产量为：粗钢 1661 万吨、生铁 1201 万吨、原煤达 1035 万吨、纸浆 252 万吨、小汽车 280 万辆、发电 4510 千瓦 / 小时。 In 1993, French output of major industrial products has reached 16.61 million tons of steel, 12.01 million tons of pig iron, coal reached 10.35 million tons, 2.52 million tons of pulp, more than 2.8 million generators that supply about 4,510 kilowatt / hour. 农业发达，为世界著名的农产品出口国。 French agriculture sector is developed and emerged as the world’s leading exporter of agricultural products. 主要农产品有麦类、玉米、马铃薯、甜菜、稻米、烟草、葡萄 等。 The main agricultural products are wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar beet, rice, tobacco, and grapes. 1993 年产小麦 2490 万吨、大麦 650 万吨、玉米 1330 万吨、葡萄 酒 53 亿升。 In 1993, the annual harvest has reached 24.9 million tons of wheat, barley of 6.5 million tons, 13.3 million tons of corn, and 5.3 billion liters of wine. 法国是西欧 “ 共同市场 ” 成员国，主要外贸对象是西欧 “ 共同市场 ” 国家。 France is considered as the “Market” of the Western European countries due to France’s 出口机械、化学品、汽车、钢铁和粮食。 Large exports of machinery, chemicals, automobiles, steel and food as well as imports of fuels, raw materials MIC and the ore. 有铁路 35000 多千米，公路约 80 万千米。 There are over 35,000 km railway, highway about 80 million meters.

Arc De Triomphe in Paris (L'arc de Triomphe)
T he Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile {ahrk duh tree-ohmf' duh lay-twahl'}, the world's largest triumphal arch, forms the backdrop for an impressive urban ensemble in Paris. The monument surmounts the hill of Chaillot at the center of a star-shaped configuration of 12 radiating avenues. It is the climax of a vista seen the length of the Champs Elysées from the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tuileries gardens, and from the Obélisque de Luxor in the place de la Concorde. This was made by Napoleon who was impressed about the Greek architectural designs.

Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower in Paris is the world’s first steel structure of a high tower and became the symbol of Paris. An architect named Gustav designed and supervised the construction of the tower. The Eiffel Tower, which was built in 1887-1889, stands 300 meters high and weighs 9,000 tons.

The Louver (Palais du Louvre)
The Louvre Museum ( French: Musée du Louvre) in Paris, France, is the most visited and one of the oldest, largest, and most famous art galleries and museums in the world. The Louvre has a long history of artistic and historic conservation, inaugurated in the Capetian dynasty and continuind to this day. The building was previously a royal palace and holds some of the world's most famous works of art, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Madonna of the Rocks, Jacques Louis David's Oath of the Horatii, Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo. Located in the centre of the city of Paris, between the Rive Droite of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli in the Ier arrondissement, it is accessed by the Palais Royal — Musée du Louvre Metro station. The equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point of the " axe historique", but the palace is not aligned on this axis.

With 8.3 million visitors in 2006, [1] the Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world.

Notre Dame de Paris (Notre-Dame de Paris)
This is the most famous medieval Gothic cathedral well known for its size, age, and archaeological and architectural value.

Place de la Bastille
The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until the ' Storming of the Bastille' and its subsequent physical destruction between July 14, 1789 and July 14, 1790 during the French Revolution; no vestige of it remains.

The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely the 4th, 11th and 12th. The square and its surrounding areas are normally called simply Bastille.

The July Column (Colonne de Juillet) which commemorates the events of the July Revolution ( 1830) stands at the centre of the square. Other notable features include the Bastille Opera, the Bastille subway station and a section of the Canal Saint Martin. Prior to 1984, the former Bastille railway station stood where the opera house now stands.

The square is often home to concerts and similar events. The north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at night due to many cafés, bars, night clubs, and concert halls.

As a consequence of its historical significance, the square is often used for political demonstrations, including the massive anti-CPE demonstration of March 28, 2006.

(Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou) 、(Place de la Concorde in Paris) (Ave des Champs-Elysees) In addition, France there are many scenic spots, such as the Pantheon, the Georges Pompidou National Center for Art and Culture, Paris Concorde Square, the Champs Elysees (Ave des Champs-Elysees), and so on.

The 17th century is known to be the glorious period of French classical literature. Some of the celebrated writers were Moliere, Stendhal Balzac, Dumas, Hugo, Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Romaine Rolland and other great masters in literature. Many of their works are now considered as a gem of world literature. The "Notre Dame de Paris", "Red and the Black" and "highly old man", "jealous" and "Les Miserables" and "John Andonade" are famous plays written by French genius and have been translated into various languages and are now taken as course of study worldwide. Modern French art can be characterized as a traditional inheritance rather than innovation. Famous sculptors include the classicist Auguste Rodin, the impressionists Monet and fauvist Matisse. Since the 17 th century, France has been the world’s leader in terms of arts design and architectural masterpieces. The practical art, architecture, fashion design, and industrial design professional schools are of French origin.