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.

Geography and Facts About France

Metropolitan France is situated mostly between latitudes 41° and 51° N (Dunkirk is just north of 51°), and longitudes 6° W and 10° E, on the western edge of Europe, and thus lies within the northern temperate zone

While Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, France also has a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica. These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas department to overseas collectivity. France's overseas departments and collectivities share land borders with Brazil, and Suriname (bordering French Guiana), and Sint Maarten (bordering Saint-Martin).

Metropolitan France covers 547,030 square kilometres (211,209 sq mi), having the largest area among European Union members. France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyreneesin the south-west.

At 4,810.45 metres (15,782 ft) above sea level, the highest point in Western Europe, Mont Blanc, is situated in the Alps on the border between France and Italy. Metropolitan France also has extensive river systems such as the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, and the Rhone, which divides the Massif Central from the Alps and flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the Camargue. Corsica lies off the Mediterranean coast.

France's total land area, with its overseas departments and territories (excluding Adélie Land), is 674,843 km2 (260,558 sq mi), 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. However, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,637 sq mi), approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, just behind the United States (11,351,000 km2/4,382,646 sq mi) and ahead of Australia (8,232,000 km2/3,178,393 sq mi). The north and northwest have a temperate climate, while a combination of maritime influences, latitude and altitude produce a varied climate in the rest of Metropolitan France.

In the south-east a Mediterranean climate prevails. In the west, the climate is predominantly oceanic with a high level of rainfall, mild winters and cool to warm summers. Inland the climate becomes more continental with hot, stormy summers, colder winters and less rain. The climate of the Alps and other mountainous regions is mainly alpine, with the number of days with temperatures below freezing over 150 per year and snow cover lasting for up to six months.

The French Republic or France (French République Française), is a country located in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. It is a founding member of the European Union

FACTS ABOUT FRANCE

Coastline: 

• 3120 km (= 1939 miles) (including inlets and bays); 
• 1600 km (995 miles) as the crow flies. 
• 4 sea fronts (the North Sea, the Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean) with 
• 5500 km (3,418 miles) of coastline
• The largest beach in Europe at La Baule (Loire-Atlantique department).
  (12 km - 7.5 miles): 

The highest:

• Sand dune: Dune de Pilat - 150 m (492 feet) (the Gironde département of Aquitaine) 
• The highest mountain in Western Europe: Mont Blanc, ascending to 4807 meters (15,771 feet), in the Savoy Alps 
• Inhabited village (2200 m - 7218 feet) Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes) 
• Skiable area of 1,950 km2 equipped with 4200 ski lifts and 13000 km (8,078 miles) of downhill ski pistes. 

Other stats:

• 6000 species of plant life (200 specific to France) 
• 365 different sorts of cheese - one for every day of the year 
• About 450 AOC wines! 
• 15 million hectares of forest. 
• France has 35,000 boulangeries (bakeries). Buy a baguette, a ficelle, a flûte, a boule, an épi or a longuet and enjoy! 
• 3.7 million tons of bread consumed every year, 
• 25 million cars, 
• 750 000 associations, 
• 16 million dogs and cats owned by 51% of households, 
• 36 673 mayors, 
• 600 000 farmers, 
• 780 000 shopkeepers, 1000 hypermarkets, 7000 supermarkets, 
• 816 000 craftsmen. 

History

The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1.800.000 years ago. Men were then confronted by a hard and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras which modified their framework of life and let them to a nomadic life of hunters-gatherers. France counts a large number of decorated caves from the upper Paleolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved : Lascaux (Dordogne, approximately 18.000 BC).

At the end of the Last glacial period (10,000 BC), the climate softened and from approximately 7,000 BC, this part of Western Europe entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary. After a strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium, initially with the work of gold, copper and bronze, and later with iron. France counts numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptionally dense Carnac stones site in Brittany (c. 3,300 BC).

In 600 BC, Ionian Greeks, originating from Phocaea, founded the colony of Massalia (present-day Marseille), on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, making it the oldest city of France. At the same time, some Gallic Celtic tribes penetrated some parts of the current territory of France, but this occupation spread in the rest of France only between the 5th and 3rd century BC.

The pagan Franks, from whom the ancient name of “Francie” was derived, originally settled the northern part of Gaul, but under Clovis I conquered most of the other kingdoms in northern and central Gaul. In 498, Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity, rather than Arianism; thus France was given the title “Eldest daughter of the Church” (La fille aînée de l’Église) by the papacy, and the French kings would be called “the Most Christian Kings of France” (Rex Christianissimus).

During the course of the 9th and 10th centuries, continually threatened by Viking invasions, France became a very decentralised state: the nobility's titles and lands became hereditary, and the authority of the king became more religious than secular and thus was less effective and constantly challenged by powerful noblemen. Thus was established feudalism in France. Over time, some of the king's vassals would grow so powerful that they often posed a threat to the king. For example, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Duke of Normandy added "King of England" to his titles, becoming both the vassal to (as Duke of Normandy) and the equal of (as king of England) to the king of France.

After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, the absolute monarchy was abolished and France became a constitutional monarchy. Through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, France established fundamental rights for French citizens and all men without exception. The Declaration affirms "the natural and imprescriptible rights of man" to "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression". It called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges by proclaiming an end to exemptions from taxation, freedom and equal rights for all men, and access to public office based on talent rather than birth. The monarchy was restricted, and all citizens were to have the right to take part in the legislative process. Freedom of speech and press were declared, and arbitrary arrests outlawed. The Declaration also asserted the principles of popular sovereignty, in contrast to the divine right of kings that characterized the French monarchy, and social equality among citizens, eliminating the privileges of the nobility and clergy.

While Louis XVI, as a constitutional king, enjoyed broad popularity among the population, his disastrous flight to Varennes seemed to justify the rumors that the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the dubious prospects of foreign invasion. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined and the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an ever increasing possibility.

As European monarchies gathered against the new régime, to restore the French absolute monarchy, the Duke of Brunswick, commanding general of the Austro–Prussian Army, issued a Manifesto, in which he threatened the destruction of Paris if any harm should come to the king or his family. The foreign threat exacerbated France's political turmoil and deepened the passion and sense of urgency among the various factions and war was declared against Austria the 20 April 1792. Mob violences occurred during the insurrection of the 10 August 1792 and the following month. As a result of the spike in public violence and the political instability of the constitutional monarchy, the Republic was proclaimed on 22 September 1792.

FRANCE HISTORY IN DETAILS

The borders of modern France closely match those of the ancient territory of Gaul, inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. 

Gaul was conquered by the Romans in the first century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted Romance speech and culture. Christianity also took root in the second and third centuries AD. 

Gaul's eastern frontiers along the Rhine were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fourth century AD, principally the Franks, from which the ancient name of "Francie" derived, modern name "France" derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France, around Paris (now Île-de-France).

Although the French monarchy is often dated to the 5th century, France's continuous existence as a separate entity begins with the 9th-century division of Charlemagne's Frankish empire into an eastern and a western part. 

The eastern part can be regarded the beginnings of what is now Germany, the western part that of France.

Charlemagne's descendants ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. 

His descendants, starting with the Capetian dynasty, ruled France until 1792, when the French Revolution established a Republic, in a period of increasingly radical change that began in 1789.

Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the republic in 1799, making himself Emperor. 

His armies engaged in several wars across Europe, conquered many countries and established new kingdoms with Napoleon's family members at the helm.

Following his defeat in 1815, monarchial rule was restored to France, which was then legislatively abolished and followed by a Second Republic. 

The second republic ended when the late Emperor's nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected 

President and proclaimed a Second Empire. 

Less ambitious than his uncle, the second Napoleon was also ultimately unseated, and republican rule returned for a third time.

Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France suffered extensive losses in its empire, wealth, manpower, and rank as a dominant nation-state. 

Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy (known as the Fifth Republic) that has not succumbed to the instabilities experienced in earlier more parliamentary regimes.

In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of the Euro in January 1999.

Today, France is at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to advance the creation of a more unified and capable European political, defense and security apparatus.

It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Etimology

The name "France" comes from the Latin Francia, which means "country of the Franks". There are various theories as to the origin of the name of the Franks. One is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. Another proposed etymology is that in an ancient Germanic language, Frank means free as opposed to slave.

Literature

French literary figures. Clockwise from top left: Molière is the most played author in the Comédie-Française; Victor Hugo is one of the most important French novelists and poets, and is sometimes seen as the greatest French writer of all time. 19th century poet, writer, and translator Charles Baudelaire; 20th century philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre.

The earliest French literature dates from the Middle Ages, when what is now known as modern France did not have a single, uniform language. There were several languages and dialects and each writer used his own spelling and grammar.[citation needed] Some authors of French mediaeval texts are unknown, such as Tristan and Iseult and Lancelot and the Holy Grail. Other authors are known, for example Chrétien de Troyes and Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who wrote in Occitan.

Much mediaeval French poetry and literature were inspired by the legends of the Matter of France, such as The Song of Roland and the various chansons de geste. The Roman de Renart, written in 1175 by Perrout de Saint Cloude, tells the story of the mediaeval character Reynard ('the Fox') and is another example of early French writing.

An important 16th century writer was François Rabelais, whose novel Gargantua and Pantagruel has remained famous and appreciated until now. Michel de Montaigne was the other major figure of the French literature during that century. His most famous work, Essais, created the literary genre of the essay. French poetry during that century was embodied by Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay. Both writers founded the La Pléiade literary movement.

During the 17th century, Madame de La Fayette published anonymously La Princesse de Clèves, a novel that is considered to be one of the very first psychological novels of all times. Jean de La Fontaine is one of the most famous fabulist of that time, as he wrote hundreds of fables, some being far more famous than others, such as The Ant and the Grasshopper. Generations of French pupils had to learn his fables, that were seen as helping teaching wisdom and common sense to the young people. Some of his verses have entered the popular language to become proverbs.

Jean Racine, whose incredible mastery of the alexandrine and of the French language has been praised for centuries, created plays such as Phèdre or Britannicus. He is, along with Pierre Corneille (Le Cid) and Molière, considered as one of the three great dramatists of the France's golden age. Molière, who is deemed to be one of the greatest masters of comedy of the Western literature, wrote dozens of plays, including Le Misanthrope, L'Avare, Le Malade imaginaire, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. His plays have been so popular around the world that French language is sometimes dubbed as "the language of Molière" (la langue de Molière), just like English is considered as "the language of Shakespeare".

Politics

GOVERNMENT

Logo of French Republic

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential republic with strong democratic traditions. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on 28 September 1958. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to parliament. The executive branch itself has two leaders: the President of the Republic, currently Nicolas Sarkozy, who is head of state and is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years), and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister, currently François Fillon.

Nicholas Sarkozy has been the President of French since 2007

The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government. Senators are chosen by an electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submitted to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.

The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National Assembly has the final say. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament.

French politics are characterised by two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred previously around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and now its successor the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The executive branch is currently composed mostly of the UMP.

LAW

The basic principles that the French Republic must respect are found in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 

France uses a civil legal system; that is, law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it (though the amount of judicial interpretation in certain areas makes it equivalent to case law). Basic principles of the rule of law were laid in the Napoleonic Code (which was, in turn, largely based on the royal law codified under Louis XIV). In agreement with the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen law should only prohibit actions detrimental to society. As Guy Canivet, first president of the Court of Cassation, wrote about the management of prisons:  Freedom is the rule, and its restriction is the exception; any restriction of Freedom must be provided for by Law and must follow the principles of necessity and proportionality. That is, Law should lay out prohibitions only if they are needed, and if the inconveniences caused by this restriction do not exceed the inconveniences that the prohibition is supposed to remedy.

French law is divided into two principal areas: private law and public law. Private law includes, in particular, civil law and criminal law. Public law includes, in particular, administrative law and constitutional law. However, in practical terms, French law comprises three principal areas of law: civil law, criminal law and administrative law.

France does not recognize religious law, nor does it recognize religious beliefs or morality as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions. As a consequence, France has long had neither blasphemy laws nor sodomy laws (the latter being abolished in 1791). However, "offenses against public decency" (contraires aux bonnes mœurs) or disturbing public order (trouble à l'ordre public) have been used to repress public expressions of homosexuality or street prostitution.

Criminal laws can only address the future and not the past (criminal ex post facto laws are prohibited) ; and to be applicable, laws must be officially published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française.

France is tolerant of the LGBT community. Since 1999, civil unions for homosexual couples are permitted, although same-sex marriage is illegal in France. Laws sentencing racism, sexism or antisemitism are old and important, for instance, laws prohibiting discriminatory speech in the press are as old as 1881.

In 2010, France passed a law banning face veils in public, including those worn by Muslim women. Amnesty International has condemned the law as a violation of freedom of expression. In September two Muslim women were fined for wearing the niqab (an Islamic face-covering veil), though they appealed the fines.

FOREIGN RELATION

Signing of the Rome Treaty. France is a founding member of the EEC in 1957 and the European Union in 1993

France is a member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights. It is also a member of the G8, World Trade Organization (WTO), the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI). It is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of fifty-one fully or partly French-speaking countries. It hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol, Alliance Base and the International Bureau for Weights and Measures. In 1953, France received a request from the United Nations to pick a coat of arms that would represent it internationally. Thus the French emblem was adopted and is currently used on passports.

Postwar French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the European Union, of which it was a founding member. In the 1960s, France sought to exclude the British from the organization, seeking to build its own standing in continental Europe. Since the 1960s, France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU.

Since 1904, France has maintained an "Entente cordiale" with the United Kingdom, and there has been a strengthening of links between the countries, especially on a military level.

MILITARY

Examples of France's military. Clockwise from top left: Nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle; A pair of Rafale fighter aircraft; French Chasseurs Alpins patrolling the valleys of Kapisa province in Afghanistan; a Leclerc tank in Paris for the 14 July Bastille Day Military Parade.

France's armed forces (Armées françaises), comprising the French Army (Armée de Terre), French Navy (Marine Nationale), and the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air), and the auxiliary paramilitary force, the National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie nationale) is the thirteenth largest in the world.Individually, the Navy employs 42,550 professional sailors and 15,000 part-time reservists and has a displacement 307,000 tons making it the world's sixth biggest navy The Army employs 123,100 regulars and 118,350 part-time reservists making it the fourth largest in NATO. The Air Force is the oldest and first professional air force in the world and employs 57,400 regulars making it also the fourth largest in NATO. While administratively a part of the French armed forces, and therefore under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, the Gendarmerie is operationally attached to the Ministry of the Interior. The gendarmerie is a military police force which serves for the most part as a rural and general purpose police force. It encompasses the counter terrorist units of the Parachute Intervention Squadron of the National Gendarmerie (Escadron Parachutiste d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale) and the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale). One of the French intelligence units, the Directorate-General for External Security (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) reports to the Ministry of Defence. The other, the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur), reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior. There has been no national conscription since 1997. The president is the supreme commander of the French Armed Forces. France is a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN, and a recognised nuclear state since 1960. France has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)and acceeded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. France's annual military expenditure in 2010 was US$61.3 billion, or 2.5% of its GDP making it the third biggest military spender in the world after China and the United States of America.

The French deterrence, (formerly known as “Force de Frappe”), relies on complete independence. The current French nuclear force consists of four Triomphant class submarines equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles. In addition to the submarine fleet, it is estimated that France has about 60 ASMP medium-range air-to-ground missiles with nuclear warheads, of which ~50 are carried by the Mirage 2000N long-range multirole fighter and arm the Air Force and ~10 can be carried by the French Navy's Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) attack planes which use the only non-American nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world, the Charles de Gaulle when at sea. The new Rafale F3 aircraft will gradually replace all Mirage 2000N and SEM in the nuclear strike role with the improved ASMP-A missile with a nuclear warhead.

France has major military industries that have produced the Rafale fighter, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, the Exocet missile and the Leclerc tank amongst others. Some weaponry, like the E-2 Hawkeye or the E-3 Sentry was bought from the United States. Despite withdrawing from the Eurofighter project, France is actively investing in European joint projects such as the Eurocopter Tiger, multipurpose frigates, the UCAV demonstrator nEUROn and the Airbus A400M. France has the largest aerospace industry in Europe. France is a major arms seller, with most of its arsenal's designs available for the export market with the notable exception of nuclear-powered devices. The military parade held in Paris each 14 July for France's national day is the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe.