French Property For Sale

With 79.1 million foreign tourists in 2006, France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain (55.6 million in 2005) and the United States (49.4 million in 2005). 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 tranquility. Next to more casual tourism, France also attracts religious pilgrims to Lourdes which hosts a few million tourists a year.

With an estimated population of 64 million people, France is the 23rd most populous country in the world. France's largest cities are Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, and Nantes.

French Geography:

Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and North Sea, onto the Atlantic Ocean from the Rhine. Due to the territory’s geometric shape, the French refer to Metropolitan France as L’Hexagone.

It is bordered by a host of countries, including Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and Spain. France also shares borders with Brazil and Suriname, both of which border French Guiana, and the Netherlands Antilles which borders Saint-Martin. Metropolitan France is also linked to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel which passes underneath the English Channel.

Metropolitan France boasts a variety of landscapes. Coastal plains grace North and West, while mountain ranges of the Alps rein supreme in the South-East. These differing landscapes offer a wide range of climates within Metropolitan France. The North and North-West have a temperate climate; the South-East features a Mediterranean climate, and in the West the climate is Oceanic, with a high level of rain, cool summers and fairly mild winters. Further inland, the climate is more Continental – hot, stormy summers coupled with colder winters and less rain. The climate of the Alps and other mountainous regions are mainly Alpine – the numbers of days with temperatures below freezing are usually over 150 per year, with snow cover lasting for up to six months.

France possesses the second largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world, which covers 11, 035, 000 square kilometers (4, 260, 000 sq. miles). An Exclusive Economic Zone is the area of sea for which a state has rights over the exploration and use of resources.

The natural resources of France include: coal, iron ore, bauxite, fish, timber, potash and zinc.

French Government:

The French Republic is a unitary semi-presidential state with strong democratic traditions. The Executive branch has two leaders: the President of the Republic, who is elected by universal adult vote, and carries out a five year term, and a president-appointed Prime Minister who leads the government. The President stands as the Head of State and Government.
France is divided into regions, departments and communes which have local assemblies as well as an executive.

French Economy:

France's economy combines extensive private enterprise (nearly 2.5 million companies registered) with substantial (though declining) government intervention. The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms, although it has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s.

A member of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries, France is ranked as the sixth largest economy in the world in 2005, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom.

France joined 11 other EU members to launch the Euro on January 1, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002. According to the OECD, in 2004 France was the world's fifth-largest exporter and the fourth-largest importer of manufactured goods. In 2003, France was the 2nd-largest recipient of foreign direct investment among OECD countries at $47 billion.

Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe. Wheat, poultry, dairy, beef, and pork, as well as an internationally recognised foodstuff and wine industry are primary French agricultural exports. EU agriculture subsidies to France total almost $14 billion.
Despite figures showing a higher productivity per hour worked than in the US, France's GDP per capita is significantly lower than the US GDP per capita, being in fact comparable to the GDP per capita of the other European countries, which is on average 30% below the US level. The reason for this is that a much smaller percentage of the French population is working compared to the US, which lowers the GDP per capita of France, despite its higher productivity.

French Foreign Relations:

France is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, WTO, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (COI). They are also a partial member of NATO, having withdrawn from the joint military command. France is an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and is a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation. The country also hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol and the International Bureau for Weights and Measures.

French Transportation:

France has rail connections to all neighbouring countries in Europe, except Andorra. The railway network in France is the most extensive in Western Europe. There are also ten major ports in France – the largest of which is in Marseille. This is also the largest port to border the Mediterranean Sea.

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© Written by E.J.Clarke.