France

Wikipedia - France is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. With 79.5 million foreign tourists in 2011, France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of the United States and China. This 79.5 million figure excludes people staying less than 24 hours in France, such as Northern Europeans crossing France on their way to Spain or Italy during the summer. France has 37 sites inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost, but also Toulouse, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon, and others), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity.

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Top Ten Crazy France Facts

1. Paris is home to 38 of the world’s Fortune 500 companies.
2. Paris has gigantic phone booths.
3. Paris has over 2,400 km of underground passageways dedicated to the evacuation of its sewage and wastewater.
4. Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
5. Trees with camouflage-patterned bark line the roadways in Provence
6. Provence got its name from being the first Roman province outside of Italy.
7.  Lavender is one of Provence’s major exports.
8.  The defeat of the French army in the Hundred Years War forced the cities of Provence to build walls and towers to defend themselves against armies of former soldiers who ravaged the countryside.
9.  One of the first motion pictures ever to be made, a 50 second silent film called The Entry of a Train into the station of Ciotat was filmed in Provence and shown to audiences in Paris
10. In 1860 by Sir Thomas Coventry asked the municipality to fire a cannon (which he supplied) every day at noon to remind his absent-minded wife that it was time to sit down for lunch. The custom survived and every day noon, a blast reminds the citizens of Nice to eat lunch.