France

France

FRANCE - TRAVEL AND TOURISM

The figure 79.1 million excludes people staying less than 24 hours in France, due to France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world. France features cities of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). Aside of casual tourism France attracts a lot of religious pilgrims to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées département that hosts a few million tourists a year.

FRANCE - COMMUNICATION

Meeting Etiquette

The handshake is a common form of greeting.

Friends may greet each other by lightly kissing on the cheeks, once on the left cheek and once on the right cheek.

First names are reserved for family and close friends. Wait until invited before using someone’s first name.

You are expected to say ’bonjour’ or ’bonsoir’ (good morning and good evening) with the honorific title Monsieur or Madame when entering a shop and ’au revoir’ (good-bye) when leaving.

FRANCE - CULTURE

French, the official language, is the first language of 88% of the population. Most of those who speak minority languages also speak French, as the minority languages are given no legal recognition. 3% of the population speak German dialects. Flemish is spoken by around 90,000 people in the northeast, which is 0.2% of the French population. Near the Italian border, roughly 1.7% of the population, speaks Italian.
Basque is spoken by 0.1% and mainly along the French-Spanish border.

FRANCE - POLITICS

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, who is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year term (formerly 7 years) and is the Head of State, and the Government, led by the president-appointed Prime Minister.

FRANCE - HISTORY

Recent history

The monarchy ruled France until the French Revolution, in 1789. Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed, along with thousands of other French citizens. After a series of short-lived governmental schemes, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself First Consul, and later Emperor of what is now known as the First Empire (1804–1814).

FRANCE - ECONOMY

France’s economy combines extensive private enterprise (nearly 2.5 million companies registered) with substantial (though declining) government intervention (see dirigisme). The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunications firms. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Télécom, Air France, as well as the insurance, banking, and defence industries.

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