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France-world map

République Française

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” is the French motto.

Centrally located within Western Europe, hexagonal-shaped France belongs to both Northern and Southern Europe (see The Travel Guide: Northwestern Europe). The only country bordered by the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea on three sides, two of its sides are bordered by the Alps and the Pyrenees Mountains.

The United Kingdom is France’s northern neighbor across the English Channel, or la Manche in French, which is the arm of the Atlantic Ocean linked to the North Sea by the Straight of Dover, or Pas-de-Calais in French. The eastern French border is shared with Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany in the north, Switzerland and Italy to the south. On the eastern Mediterranean shoreline near the Italian border, France surrounds the independent enclave of Monaco, the smallest principality in the world. The far southwestern border is shared with Spain and Andorra.

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Discover the Regions of France

CAPITAL REGION

Île-de-France

Paris metropolitan area:
Petite Couronne + Grande Couronne +

Paris

20 Arrondissements

CENTRAL FRANCE

Pays de la Loire
Centre-Val de Loire
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Nouvelle Aquitaine

Poitou-Charentes + Limousin + Aquitaine

THE NORTH

Normandie
Bretagne
Hauts-de-France

Nord-Pas-de-Calais + Picardy

Grand-Est

Champagne-Ardenne + Lorraine + Alsace

THE SOUTH

Occitanie

Midi-Pyrénées + Languedoc-Roussillon

Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

MONACO (independent state)

La Corse

OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

Caribbean Islands + South America

Guadeloupe and Martinique (Caribbean islands), Guyane (South America)

African Islands (Indian Ocean)

Mayotte and Réunion (African islands)

 

Historical | Cultural Provinces

Explore Places in France

Regions + Cities


Basics of France

Know Before You Go


French

official language

Euro €

currency

18

official regions

Paris

capital of France

Languages + Dialects

French dialects remain from pre-Revolutionary times at which point assimilation of French as a common language became important for communication. Today, locals work to preserve their ancestral language heritage, each with unique traditions, food, music, and architecture.

  • Blues: Français (French, Gallo-Romance langue d’oil dialects)
  • Green: Breton (Celtic language from Anglo-Saxons)
  • Dark yellow: Flamand (Dutch dialect)
  • Yellow: Francique (German dialect)
  • Orange: Alsacien (German dialect)
  • Purple: Franco-Provençal (Swiss/Italian Romance dialect)
  • Reds: Occitan (Romance langue d’oc (lenga d’òc) dialects similar to Catalan)
  • Brown: Catalan (language of Catalonia in northeast Spain)
  • Gray: Basque (language isolate of the Basque region)

Read More

All About France


Travel Guide: Northwestern Europe

As we watched the 2018 FIFA World Cup games, we prepared for a nearly month-long trip to Europe. The global game of football, soccer to Americans, was our theme. Aaron and I had wanted to take our two teenage boys to…

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