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Geography
France is a country of Western Europe, covering an area of 550,000 km ² and with 65 million citizens. It shares borders with Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. Its capital is Paris (2.2 million inhabitants), its official language is French and its political system is a democratic republic. France is the fifth world power, and is part of the European Union, of which it has been a founding member in 1958.
Landscapes and geography of France, despite the relative size of its territory, are extremely varied. Vaguely shaped like a hexagon, the country is almost split in two parts along a diagonal oriented north-east / south-west. The main mountain ranges are located on the east side of this partition, starting with the Vosges rising near the Rhine River, which marks the frontier with Germany. Further south rises the Jura, another massif of secondary importance separating the French and Swiss territory. Finally, the great Alpine chain (the largest in Europe) develops a tight arc curved beneath the Jura to plunge into the Mediterranean Sea. Here stands the highest point over the country and the continent: the Mont Blanc (4810 m), also a border with Italy. To the west of the Alps, along the Rhone Valley which runs along a north-south trajectory, the Massif Central spreads eroded ancient heights and has the country's only volcano area, in the Auvergne region. On the southwest line of the hexagon, we find the fourth mountain range forming a border with another nation: the Pyrenees, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, separate France and Spain. All these mountains ranges gather the largest tourist ski resorts of Europe and internationally renowned for many activities such as skiing, snowboarding, hiking and mountain climbing.
The mountain ranges are not the only natural frontiers of France. The northwest coast overlooks the North Sea and the Channel, which, at the bend of the large peninsula of Brittany, turns into the Atlantic Ocean all the way down to the Spanish border. To the south-east, the Mediterranean Sea coastline runs alongside Languedoc-Roussillon and Côte d'Azur. All the French coasts have seaside towns also very famous: from the elegant resorts of Normandy (Deauville, Cabourg) to the rugged coastline of Brittany (St Malo, Quimper) as well as the broad beaches of the Atlantic (La Baule, Les Sables d'Olonne, Biarritz), the very chic cities of the Cote d'Azur (Antibes, Cannes, Nice, St. Tropez ..) and the coves of Corsica, a Mediterranean island, tourism has taken full advantage of a wide variety of coastal landscapes to attract tourists from around the world.
On the west side of the country lie plains and forests, particularly in Aquitaine in the south-west, in Normandy and the Loire Valley to the northwest, and the vast basin of Paris. The north of France, in Picardy, Champagne and Burgundy, is characterized by flat and fertile terrain very propitious to different cereals harvest (canola, corn, wheat etc.) and livestock breeding. Other regional highlights include the Camargue and Poitevin Marshes, the gorges of Ardeche, coves and blue waters of Cassis in Provence or the Mont Saint-Michel bay in Normandy.
Historically an agricultural country, the distribution of men has also changed over the late 19th century with the industrial revolution with the development of major urban centers. The largest urban center (population 11 million) is located in Ile-de-France, where the capital Paris exerts its influence within a 100 km radius. Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux and Nantes are also major socially and economically attractive centers for the population.
Finally, must be mentioned the overseas territories, mostly islands and located in the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy), the Indian Ocean (Reunion, Mayotte) or the Pacific Ocean (French Polynesia), these destinations are also very popular among travelers for their tropical climate and beautiful beaches.
