What's interesting about France? (Part 2)

Land and geography :

• France is the largest European country in terms of land area after Russia and Ukraine.

• Nearly 20% of the territory of France lies outside Europe. These regions are known as "DOM-TOM" (overseas departments and territories), where over 2.5 million French citizens live.

• The 45th parallel north, which marks the theoretical halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, is said to be the limit between Northern France, where the Oïl dialects are spoken, and Southern France, where the Occitan dialects prevail. It is also the boundary between the butter and olive oil cuisines. In a wider European context, the 45th parallel roughly marks the division between northern and southern Europe, a division that may date back to the Neolithic

• 
  The Canal du Midi is Europe's oldest functional canal. It was built from 1666 and 1681. It is 240 km (150 miles) long, has 63 locks, 126 bridges, 55 aqueducts, 7 canal-bridges, 6 barrages and 1 tunnel.
• Rivers played a major role in French history, acting as the main transportation routes before the advent of the railway. 24 rivers in France exceed 300 km in length (against only 2 in the UK and 4 in Italy). 66 of the 95 metropolitan départementsare named after rivers.

• The tides in the region of Brittany and Normandy are the strongest in Europe, with a difference in level of up to 15 meters between high and low tide.

• According to a 2008 study published by Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank, the municipality of Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat, between Nice and Monaco, is the world's most expensive peninsula, and the world's third most expensive place for real estate - after London and Monaco. Prices per square metre were found to be twice higher than in Tokyo and three times higher than in Paris.

• Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes department, is the highest town in the European Union. It lies at an altitude of 1,326 metres.

• The village of Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes department) is the highest municipality in Europe. The village itself is located at 2,042 metres of altitude, and the highest point on its territory reaches up to 3,175 metres.

• Seaside resorts in France were given catchy or poetic names, typically after (semi-)precious stones. On the Channel and North Sea coast you can find the Opal Coast, Alabaster Coast, Mother-of-pearl Coast, Emerald Coast, Pink Granit Coast; on the Atlantic coast, some beaches are known as the Jade Coast, Silver Coast or Love Coast ; while on the Mediterranean side, tourists are greeted with colourful names like the Amethyst Coast, Ruby Coast, Mauresque Coast or Azure Coast. The French Riviera (Côte d'Azur) was the first to aquire such a nickname, in 1887.

• The largest canyon in Europe is the Verdon Gorge, near Castellane and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, where the Provence meets the Alps. It is the world's second largest gorge, at about 25 kilometers in length and up to 700 meters deep.

People and life style :

• French people cheek kiss to greet each others between family and friends, even between men. The number of kisses varies according to the region, from 1 (e.g. in the tip of Brittany) to 4 (e.g. Paris and most of the North), and occasionally up to 5 in Corsica.

• The 2003 Durex Global Sex Survey found that the French are the people who have sex the most often in a year.

• According to a 2004 IFOP survey, 44% of French people are Atheists (up by 24% since 1947).

• French people have the highest female and third highest male life expectancy in the European Union.

• According to the WHO (2002 stats), French men have the lowest incidence of obesity in the EU (women come 2nd after Denmark).

• The French are the world's biggest consumers of psychotropic drugs. About one fourth of the population admits having taken anti-depressants or tranquillisers over the past year.

• There are between 5 and 6 million of more or less seriously handicaped people in France (nearly 1 person out of 10). This includes physical, sensorial and mental handicaps.

• A 2007 study revealed that the French were the biggest consumers of medicines in Europe, both in quantity and total money spent per person.

• French people are the second biggest consumers of alcohol per capita in the Western world - after Luxembourg...

• France was the first modern country to legalise same-sex sexual activity, in 1791. In contrast, gay sex was only legalised nationwide in the USA in 2003.

• 20% of the French people live in the Parisian region.

• André Gide, French writer and Nobel Prize of Literature, said "French people are Italian people in bad mood".

• Although French language is a direct descent of Latin, French people have some of the most diversified genetic make-up Europe, with genes inherited from the Celts (or Gauls), the Basques, the Romans, the Franks (originally from the Benelux) and the Normands (originally from Denmark), which explains the wide physical diversity in French facial traits, as well as hair and eye colours.

• According to Graham Robb in his book The Discovery of France, there were hundreds of small, autonomous republics within France until the 18th or 19th century. Some were autonomous hamlets that didn't pay tax at all and were almost completely isolated from the rest of France.

• Until 1964 French women were not allowed to open a bank account or get a passport without their husband's permission.

• Until the early 20th century at least two thirds of the French population was rural and most people lived in communities numbering less than 100 people. Few people knew anything a dozen miles beyond their place of birth, and few identified themselves with France as a country.

Immigration:

• 4.9 million foreign-born immigrants currently live France (8.1% of the country's population), including 1.2 million of other Latins (Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese), 1.5 million of Maghrebans (Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians), and 570,000 from sub-Saharan Africa.

• Recent immigrants and their offspring (foreign-born + first and second generations of immigrants) make up over 10% of the population of France, including 8.7% of Muslims.

• 40% of all immigrants live in the region of Paris. 60% of sub-Saharan African immigrants live in the region of Paris.

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