France

Officially known as the French Republic (République Français), FRANCE (la France) is located in Western Europe. France is north of Andorra, northeast of Spain, south of Belgium, southwest of Germany and Luxembourg, and west of Switzerland and Italy. The Bay of Biscay is on the western coast of France, the English Channel separates northern France from the United Kingdom, and the Mediterranean Sea is on the southeast coast. The map above was created on March 15th, 2016.

● ● ● ● ●  People and Places  ● ● ● ● ●  Christianity is the religion with most worshippers in France, followed by Islam and Judaism. A wide variety of languages are spoken, but it is no surprise that French is the national and official language. Other major, international, and regional languages spoken in France include Basque, Catalan, Corsican, English, Italian, Ligurian, Luxembourgish, Portuguese, Romani, and Spanish. The capital of France is Paris (le Paris), and the seven other most-populated cities are Marseille (over 850,700 residents in 2016), Lyon (>484,300), Toulouse (>441,800), Nice (>343,300), Nantes (about 285,000), Strasbourg (about 272,800), and Montepellier (>257,300). The financially and economically powerful Paris has a population of over 2.2 million in the city limits and over 11 million in the whole metropolitan area. The French people's currency is the Euro, which was adopted in 1999. The previous currency was the French Franc, and its ISO 4217 currency code was FRF. Sites of interest scattered across France include many pristine castles, world-renown historic monuments, and modern buildings. Some of these buildings include the Arc De Triomphe, Basilica of Saint Denis, Château d'Avrilly (Avrilly Castle, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), Château de Montbrun (in Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes), Cœur Défense, Grand Palais, Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Mont-Saint-Michel (in Normandie), and of course the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower).

● ● ● ● ●  Land and Water Features  ● ● ● ● ●  The southeastern French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes* form the French Alps' western extent. One prominent member of the French Alps is eastern Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes' Mont Blanc (White Mountain), standing about 4,810 meters and 15,780 feet in elevation on the France-Italy border. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain of France and Italy. Excluding mountains in the Caucasus region of extreme eastern Europe and western Asia, Mont Blanc is Europe's highest point. A Mediterranean island located north of Italy's Sardinia, Corsica (link to post) is part of France and is the birthplace of the notorious Napoléon Bonaparte. Other French islands are much smaller and are off the mainland coast. These small islands include Batz, Belle-Île, Bréhat, Groix, Îles Chaussey, Noirmoutier, and Oléron.

France's main rivers include Authie, Loire, Maas, Meuse, Rhine (Le Rhin in French), Rhône, Seine, and Somme. The Rhine River forms France's eastern border with Germany, flowing for about 1,230 kilometers and 764 miles. These major rivers served as important transportation routes and water sources for plenty of cities, hence why many cities in France and the rest of the world are riverside cities. Located about 100 kilometers southeast of Dijon, Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) is the largest lake within France's borders, covering a surface area of 580.2 square kilometers and 224 square miles along the border between eastern France and western Switzerland's panhandle region. Other lakes in France are rather small in comparison. With a 56.7 square-kilometer area, Lac d'Hourtin-Carcans has the second-largest surface area most of the year. In the winter season, Lac de Grand-Lieu grows to a surface area of 62.9 sq. kilometers. Other notable natural and artificial lakes in France include Lac d'Aiguebelette, Lac d'Annecy, Lac du Bourget, Lac du Der-Chantecoq (artificial), and Lac de Serre-Ponçon (artificial).

* — Since 2016, Rhône-Alpes — the former mountainous administrative territory in SE France — is now part of the new Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.