Andreiya

Member States of the EU
France

• Year of EU entry: Founding member
• Political system: Republic
• Capital city: Paris
• Total area: 550 000 km²
• Population: 60.9 million
• Currency: euro
• Listento the official EU language:
French


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Detailed map - click on the map [pic]



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|France is one of the largest countries in Europe, stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Thelandscape is diverse, |
|with mountains in the east and south, including the Alpine peak of Mont Blanc (4 810 m) which is western Europe's highest point. |
|Lowland France consists of four riverbasins, the Seine in the north, the Loire and the Garonne flowing westwards and the Rhone |
|which flows from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea.|
|[pic]The president of the Republic has an important political role. He chairs the meetings of the Council of Ministers (cabinet), |
|and retains overall responsibility inkey areas of foreign affairs and defence. The day-to-day running of the country is in the |
|hands of the prime minister. The president is elected by direct suffrage for a period of five years.The parliament consists of a |
|National Assembly, directly elected every five years, and a Senate whose members are chosen by an electoral college. |
|France has an advanced industrialeconomy and an efficient farm sector. Main activities include automobile manufacture, aerospace, |
|information technology, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and fashionware.|
|France has produced some of the continent's most influential writers and thinkers from Descartes and Pascal in the 17th century, to|
|Rousseau and Voltaire in the18th, Balzac, Baudelaire and Flaubert in the 19th and Sartre and Camus in the 20th. In the last two |
|centuries it has given the art world the works of Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse and...