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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
Paris metropolitan area:
Petite Couronne + Grande Couronne +
20 Arrondissements
CENTRAL FRANCE
Poitou-Charentes + Limousin + Aquitaine
THE NORTH
Nord-Pas-de-Calais + Picardy
Champagne-Ardenne + Lorraine + Alsace
THE SOUTH
Midi-Pyrénées + Languedoc-Roussillon
MONACO (independent state)
OVERSEAS TERRITORIES
Guadeloupe and Martinique (Caribbean islands), Guyane (South America)
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)
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