Economy

France's economy combines extensive private enterprise with substantial, but declining, government intervention. 

Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Western Europe.

Even after the loss of Algeria in the sixties, the French economy remains one of the most important and influential economies in the world. 

France also has a leading aerospace industry and is the only European power, after Russia, to have its own national space center.

The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms. 

It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Telecom, Air France, as well as the insurance, banking, and defense industries.

France joined 10 other EU members to launch the euro on January 1, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002.

From the end of WWII the government is making enormous efforts to integrate their economy more and more with Germany to form what is today called the Franco German locomotive that pushes the rest of the European Union to become the most powerful economy in the world of all time.

Language

French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland,Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the province of Quebec and the Acadiaregion in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of which reside in Francophone Africa. In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% report fluency) Mauritius (78%), Algeria(75%) and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having between 70 million and 110 million native speakers and 190 million second language speakers. French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world, after English.

French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Sardinian and Catalan. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl, languages historically spoken in northern France and Belgium which have largely been supplanted by French today. The development of French was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankishinvaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerousFrench-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole.

It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, la francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million, or twenty-six percent of the Union's total population, speak French, of whom 72 million are native speakers (65 million in France, 4.5 million in Belgium, plus 2.5 million in Switzerland which is not part of the EU) and 69 million are second-language or foreign language speakers, thus making French the third language in the European Union that people state they are most able to speak, after English and German. Twenty-percent of non-Francophone 

Europeans know how to speak French, totaling roughly 145.6 million people in Europe alone.

George Weber, author of "Top Languages: The World's 10 most influential Languages", wrote that until the end of the nineteenth century, French had a global dominance similar to that now occupied by English. He said "nobody could pass for educated without the ability to speak French" and "However, French dominance was never so complete as its rival's is now for the simple reason that 100 years ago large parts of the world were not yet connected to rest as they are all today. In Mongolia it was sufficient to speak Mongolian, in Madagascar Malagasy could get you anywhere. Globalization had not been heard of then."[3] As a result of extensive colonial ambitions of France and Belgium (at that time governed by a French-speaking elite), between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, the Levant, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.

According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, French will be represented by approximately 500 million people in 2025 and by 650 million people, or approximately seven percent of the world's population in 2050.

Top 15 Most Visited Tourism Destination in France

 

1. Disneyland ,  Paris
2. The Louvre, Paris
3. The Eiffel Tower Paris
4. The Georges Pompidou centre and museum of art
5. Château de Versailles
6. Orsay museum of the 19th century Paris
7. La Villette science museum
8. Pompidou Centre (Modern art museum)
9. Parc Astérix - Parc Astérix theme park Plailly north of Paris
10. Futuroscope theme park, Poitiers
11. Arc de Triomphe, Paris
12. Natural history museum, Paris
13. Mont Saint-Michel, Brittany
14. Puy du Fou theme park Vendée
15. Musée de l'Armée

Religion

Following from the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right. 

A 1905 law instituted the separation of Church and State and prohibited the government from recognizing, salarying or subsidizing any religion. 

In the preceding situation, established 1801-1808 of the Concordat, the State used to support the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Calvinist Church and the Jewish religion and provided for public religious educations in those religions (for historical reasons, this situation is still current in Alsace-Moselle).

The French government does not keep statistics as to religion.

The 2003 CIA World Factbook lists the religion of France as: 

• Roman Catholic 83-88%,
• Protestant 2%, 
• Jewish 1%, 
• Muslim (North African workers) 5-10%, unaffiliated 4%

It is unclear where these numbers come from.

However, in a 2003 poll 41% said that the existence of God was "excluded" or "unlikely". 33% declared that "atheist" described them rather or very well, and 51% for "Christian". 

When questioned about their religion, 62% answered Roman Catholic, 6% Muslim, 2% Protestant, 1% Jewish, 2% "other religions" (except for Orthodox or Buddhist, which were negligible), 26% "no religion" and 1% declined to answer. 

The discrepancy between the number of "atheists" (41%) and the number of with "no religion" (26%) may be attributed to people who feel culturally close to a religion, follow its moral values and traditions, but hardly believe in God. 

In France, there is a strong gap between civilian life and religion. Religion is considered as private as possible. French people in general are opposed to clerical power and its influence in policy. 

Islamic fundamentalism is considered as a real threat for the cohesion of the french society where communitarism is not accepted. 

This had already occurred in the past with Catholics before the French Revolution in 1789.

The People, The Culture & Ethnic Groups

THE PEOPLE & ETHINC GROUPS


Ethnic Groups in France are Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, Basque minorities

Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, travel, and invasion. Three basic European ethnic stocks--Celtic, Latin, and Teutonic (Frankish)--have blended over the centuries to make up its present population. France's birth rate was among the highest in Europe from 1945 until the late 1960s. Since then, its birth rate has fallen but remains higher than that of most other west European countries. Traditionally, France has had a high level of immigration.

The government does not keep statistics on religious affiliation; according to a January 2007 poll, 51% of respondents describe themselves as Catholic, and another 31% describe themselves as having no religious affiliation. There also are Muslim, Protestant, and Jewish minorities. France is home to both the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe. More than 1 million Muslims immigrated to France in the 1960s and early 1970s from North Africa, especially Algeria. In 2004, there were over 6 million Muslims, largely of North African descent, living in France.

Education is free, beginning at age 2, and mandatory between ages 6 and 16. The public education system is highly centralized. Private education is primarily Roman Catholic. Higher education in France began with the founding of the University of Paris in 1150. It now consists of 91 public universities and 175 professional schools, including the post-graduate Grandes Ecoles. Private, college-level institutions focusing on business and management with curriculums structured on the American system of credits and semesters have been growing in recent years.

The French language derives from the vernacular Latin spoken by the Romans in Gaul, although it includes many Celtic and Germanic words. Historically, French has been used as the international language of diplomacy and commerce. Today it remains one of six official languages at the United Nations and has been a unifying factor in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.

THE CULTURE

The culture of France is noted for its cosmopolitan, civilised approach to life, combined with great concern for style, fashion and appearances.

French people are sometimes perceived as taking a great pride in the national identity and positive achievements of France, although many French people would argue that all nations tend to do that.

French people address each other with formality, calling each other Madame, Mademoiselle or Monsieur in a way which may seem formulaic to outsiders, but signifies a respect for the individual which permeates the French way of life. 

The French value family life, the art of cooking good food and enjoyment of theatrical and musical arts.

France Traditional Clothes

Fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the 17th century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses. The expression Haute couture is, in France, legally protected name, guaranteeing certain quality standards.

The association of France with fashion and style (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. But France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (French: couture or haute couture) industry in the years 1860–1960 through the establishing of the great couturier houses such as Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy.

In the 1960s, the elitist "Haute couture" came under criticism from France's youth culture. In 1966, the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established Haute Couture norms by launching a prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing. With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH.

There isn't one traditional cloth for France. Every region has it's own, and they are sometimes very different. The most famous ones are the ones of Brittany and Alsace (in my opinion). It's the women's traditional costume that is famous, not the men's one. But as I said, most French regions have their own traditional clothes (there are 22 regions in France).  But no one dresses like that anymore, except some very old people.

There is no single traditional Breton costume, as there are variations in colours and cuts between towns and provinces. Generally speaking, men wear black trousers and jacket plus a wide-brimmed black hat. Women wear dresses with tiered skirts. Some have elaborate bodices, but all have aprons which are usually embroidered or decorated with lace, the extravagance of the decoration reflecting the wealth of the family. 

The traditional lace headwear worn by women is called a coiffe and again varies in size and complexity, from small pieces of lace worn over a bun, to elaborate, towering creations with flowing ribbons. Unfortunately use of the Breton language, similar to Gaelic, is dwindling, but Breton folk music is flourishing - old songs have been revived and young bands are producing modern interpretations of traditional music.

Traditional Dance

The great innovations in dance in the 17th century originated at the French court under Louis XIV, and it is here that we see the first clear stylistic ancestor of classical ballet. The same basic technique was used both at social events, and as theatrical dance in court ballets and at public theaters. The style of dance is commonly known to modern scholars as the French noble style or belle danse (French, literally "beautiful dance"), however it is often referred to casually as baroque dance in spite of the existence of other theatrical and social dance styles during the baroque era.

Primary sources include more than three hundred choreographies in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, as well as manuals by Raoul Auger Feuillet and Pierre Rameau in France, Kellom Tomlinson and John Weaver in England, and Gottfried Taubert in Germany. This wealth of evidence has allowed modern scholars and dancers to recreate the style, although areas of controversy still exist. The standard modern introduction is Hilton.

French dance types include:

·               Bourrée

·               Canarie (canary)

·               Chaconne

·               (French) courante

·               Entrée grave

·               Forlane (forlana)

·               Gavotte

·               Gigue

·               Loure (slow gigue)

·               Menuet (minuet)

·               Musette

·               Passacaille (passacaglia)

·               Passepied

·               Rigaudon

·               Sarabande

·               Tambourin

The English, working in the French style, added their own hornpipe to this list.

Many of these dance types are familiar from baroque music, perhaps most spectacularly in the stylized suites of J. S. Bach. Note however, that the allemandes, that occur in these suites do not correspond to a French dance from the same period.