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France

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France above all! ~ Charles Maurras

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s], officially the French Republic (République française, pronounced [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛːz], is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions (five of which are situated overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.08 million. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Its current head of state is President Emmanuel Macron, and its current head of government is Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice. France, including its overseas territories, has the most number of time zones of any country, with a total of 12.

Quotes

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17th century

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  • The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are.
    • Francis Bacon, "Of Seeming Wise", in Essays (1625); Brian Vickers (ed.) The Major Works (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 389.
  • And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove,
    Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.

18th century

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  • Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease
    Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.
  • I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.
    • Oliver Goldsmith, Essays (ed. 1765), 24. Appeared in the British Magazine, June, 1760. Also in Essay on the History of a Disabled Soldier. Dove—English Classics.
  • Providence has given the French nation precisely two instruments, two arms, so to speak, with which it stirs up the world – the French language and the spirit of proselytism that forms the essence of the nation's character.

19th century

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  • France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme.
    • Matthew Arnold, The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems, "To a Republican Friend" (c. March 1848)
  • A Frenchman comes here to make money, and that is about all that need be said of him. He is only a Frenchman. He neither learns our language nor loves our country. His hand is on our pocket and his eye on Paris. He gets what he wants and, like a sensible Frenchman, returns to France to spend it.

20th century

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  • France had been the cradle of anarchism, fathered for a long time by some of her most brilliant sons, of whom Proudhon was the greatest.
  • I have never liked France or the French, and I have never stopped saying so.
    • Adolf Hitler, The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler (15 February 1945)
  • Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France.
    • Translated: "All my life I have had a certain idea of France".
    • Charles de Gaulle, opening sentence of his Mémoires de guerre.
  • La France a perdu une bataille, mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre.
    • Translated: "France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war".
    • Charles de Gaulle, Proclamation, June 18 1940.
  • France cannot be France without greatness.
    • La France ne peut être la France sans la grandeur.
    • Charles de Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre (1954)
  • O France, the time of reproach has passed and we have closed like a book; o France, the day of reckoning is at hand. So prepare to receive from us our answer!
  • France is the land of the inner psyche. The inner expertise. They are wonderful confessives. But when I was young what impressed me most was their high seriousness about literature. Often humorless. But high.
  • First of all, let's dispense with this absurd stereotype that the French are rude. The French are not rude. They just happen to hate you. But that is no reason to have bypass this beautiful country, whose master chefs have a well-deserved worldwide reputation for trying to trick people into eating snails. Nobody is sure how this got started. Probably a couple of French master chefs were standing around one day, and they found a snail, and one of them said: "I bet that if we called this something like 'escargot,' tourists would eat it." Then they had a hearty laugh, because "escargot" is the French word for "fat crawling bag of phlegm."
    • Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need (1991), New York: Fawcett Columbine, p. 131

21st century

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  • According to current birthrate projections, France will be a majority Muslim country anyway in about 50 years... I get a lot of e-mails from Americans who think that Europeans are spineless. And I think they're right.

See also

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At Wikiversity, you can learn about:
  • Encyclopedic article on France on Wikipedia
  • Media related to France on Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of France on Wiktionary
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