The Francofiles- France, the Hexagon

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The Hexagon (L'hexagone) is the nickname French people call France. This is because the country is roughly six sided.

Geography

France is the largest country in western Europe and is often called the Hexagon because of its six sided shape. The country can be drawn inside a hexagon which has a diameter of 1 000 km.

Children in France learn to draw the map of their country through first constructing a hexagon.

France has an area of 547 000 sq km.
From north to south the country is approximately 1100 km in length.
From East to West, it measures about 500 km.

France shares her borders with eight countries. Here is the list, with the length of the shared frontiers:

France has 3,427 km of coastline: bordering the Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea. No place in France is more than 500 km from the sea.

Andorra 60 km
Belgium 620 km
Germany 451 km
Italy 488 km
Luxembourg 73 km
Monaco 4.4 km
Spain 623 km
Switzerland 573 km

Seas, rivers and mountains form natural frontiers on five sides of France. The border with Belgium is low lying, flat land.

The map shows the mountainous areas of France:

the Vosges
the Jura
the Alps
the Massif Central (Auvergne)
the Pyrenees
Corsica

Population

In 2005 - the estimated Population of France was about 61 million. While the Paris area has about 9 million people living in it, the other cities of France are much smaller. Lyon is the second city of France, with about 2 million inhabitants. Marseille is the third city of France, just a little smaller than Lyon.
Life expectancy at birth for the total population is 79.6 years; for men it is 76 years, and for women, 83 years.
Population density 105 persons per sq km. This varies from region to region. The mostly densely populated areas are the Parisian region, the Rhone valley (around Lyon), the Rhone delta (around Marseille) and the South of France. Other areas, such as the Auvergne, have a very small population.
The unemployment rate is about 10%
About 6 people in every hundred live below the poverty line.

Adminstrative areas.

France is divided into 22 Adminstrative regions (see the map on the left.) Each region has its own personality, history, traditions, wines and food.

These regions are further subdivided into 96 departments. There are at least two, and sometimes as many as eight "départements" for each region.

The départements' names are organised alphabetically and each one is numbered. The numbers of the département are used for post codes and car registration number plates. Some of the overseas territories are départements too, and have a number.

Dept 01 = Ain
Dept 95=Val d'Oise
Dept 974=La Réunion

Overseas Territories

By the 19th century, France had many colonies throughout the world. During the 20th century, many of these colonies gained their independence. In most, French is still either an official language or the mother tongue.

France still has 4 Dependent Overseas territories or DOMTOMS. The map on the right shows their names and locations.

Other information.

France is the fourth economy in the world.
It is the world's most popular tourist destination with 70 million visitors in 2005 (this is more than its population!
The Eiffel Tower is the world's best known and visited monument.
The currency is the Euro (€) and the legacy currency was the Franc. 100 centimes made 1 Franc.
While France has only 4 Dependent Overseas Territories, there are about 44 countries in the world where French is spoken. These countries are known as "Francophone" (French speaking) countries.
About one person in five who lives in France was born outside the country.
Islam is the second religion of France.

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