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Full
country name:
French Republic
Area: 547,030 sq km
Population: 60,424,213
Capital city: Paris (pop 10.95 million)
People: Celtic and Latin with Teutonic,
Slavic, North African, Indochinese, Basque minorities
Language: French 100%, rapidly declining
regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton,
Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)
Religion: Roman Catholic 83%-88%,
Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%, unaffiliated
4%
Government: Republic
Business Hours: Office hours are
generally 9am-5.30/6pm, with a one-hour lunch break.
Banking hours are Monday to Friday 9am-4.30pm. Shops
are some are open Sunday 9am-1pm ; some close all
or part of Monday
Major
industries: Oil refining, steel, cement,
aluminium, agricultural products & foodstuffs
(wheat, barley, maize, cheese), luxury goods, chemicals,
motor manufacturing, energy products
Major trading partners: EU (Germany,
Italy, UK), USA
Internet Domain: .fr
International Dialing Code: +33
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France is known throughout the world for
its luxury goods, its haute couture and perfumes and its
gourmet food. The French wrote the book on la vie en rose
and gave the world Champagne and camembert, de Beauvoir
and Debussy, the Tour de France and the Tour Eiffel. So
if they have a finely tuned sense of national pride, who
are we to point fingers? Although the ubiquity of Levis
and Le Big Mac flusters the country's cultural purists,
anything from a year in Province to a weekend in Paris
will explain why half the world grows dreamy over stalking
the streets of Cyrano or picnicking Manet-style sur l'herbe.
France has been synonymous with Romance for longer than
your grandmother cares to remember, so whether you visit
Paris or the Pyrenees, the Côte d'Azur or the auberge
de jeunesse, be sure to keep your fantasies in check,
your expectations in line and your joie in your vivre.
