What's interesting about France? (Part 3)

The language:

• French used to be the language of the nobility and diplomacy all across Europe and in the Ottoman Empire, then the world's first real international language until English replaced it in the mid-20th century.

• The French word for 'deadline' is (ironically) délai, and indeed delay is part and parcel of the French work culture.

• Metropolitan France counts several native regional languages : Alsatian and Lorraine German (both High German dialects), Occitan (incl. Gascon and Provençal), Oïl dialects (such as Picard and Poitevin-Saintongeais), Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican and Franco-Provençal.

• In spite of foreign stereotypes, many French people can speak at least one foreign language (45% are able to participate in a conversation in a foreign language according to Eurobarometer in 2005), and English is the most widely spoken (34%).

• A survey in 1794 revealed that a mere 11% of the population of France were pure French speakers. As late as in 1880, only 20% of the population could actually speak French fluently. Nowadays, 86% of French people are native French speakers if this is defined by the language their parents spoke with them before the age of 5. Oc languages account for 3.65%, Oïl languages for 3.10%, German and German dialects for 3.15%, and Arabic for 2.55%.

• French was the official language of England for over 300 years (from 1066 until the early 15th century). It is still the official language of 30 countries worldwide.

• French language is spoken by 270 million people worldwide (almost as much as the population of the USA), of which 120 million are native or fluent. There are less than 60 million of White Caucasian native speakers of standard French worldwide.

• The variety of French spoken in Quebec, Canada, is a distant dialect from the French spoken in Europe, and sometimes hard to understand for French people.

The French cultural exception :

• France is the only continental European country or Eurozone member where cheques are still used as one of the main forms of payment. Most of European countries stopped using them since the 1990's because it was not deemed a safe method of payment.

• As of 2013 France was last EU member that did not yet have ID-1 format (like credit cards) identity cards. France is also one of the few EU member state with compulsory ID card that does not use chip cards.

• France is the only EU country to have all its V.A.T. rates with decimal fractions (19.6%, 5.5% or 2.1%). Only Britain and Ireland also use some rates with decimal fractions.

• France is the only country in the world where any kind of personal DNA tests, even paternity tests and genetic genealogy tests, are prohibited by law (except when court ordered) and punishable by heavy fines or prison sentences.

• According to the Bioethic Law of 29th July 1994, both parents of a child born through a sperm donation outside one of the few officially sanctioned clinics will face a fine of 30,000 € and two years imprisonment.

• A child born in France from an single mother can be recognised by any man who claims the child as his own at the town hall, even if he is not the biological father and the mother disagrees. The first man who reaches the town hall and claims the newborn baby is officially the father. Paternity tests being illegal in France, they cannot be used to prove who is the rightful biological father.

• In France, in exceptional cases it is possible to marry a deceased person with the authorisation of the President of the Republic.

• In the town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape in Provence, a municipal law of 1954 prohibits flying saucers from landing within the borders of the municipality (!)