40 Facts About European France

1. European France is spending 50 million euros to beef up security at airports and the Eurotunnel, and hiring hundreds of extra customs officers.

2. European France is again at a crossroad: she has to choose between the policies of Colbert and those Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, the great French liberal economist, who was economic minister of France, between 1774 and 1776.

3. European France is nevertheless a great power and one of the key states in Europe, it is harboring great European and geopolitical ambitions.

4. European France was the birthplace of the mercantilist, absolutist monarchy in the early modern period.

5. European France will look to ensure the smooth running of financial services that could be jeopardised by Britain losing its "financial passport".

6. European France is spending 50 million euros to beef up security at airports and the Eurotunnel and hiring hundreds of extra customs officers.

7. European France is the largest country among all the western Europe countries.

8. European France insisted that the new jets should be freely exportable to all countries, while Germany advocated more responsibility in picking buyers.

9. European France is one of the largest producers of wine in the world.

10. European France has the second largest population in Europe after Germany, making up 13 percent of the European Union.

11. European France is one of the largest exporters of luxury goods in the world, with the top four companies Cartier, Chanel, Hermes and Louis Vuitton alone worth billions.

12. European France has one of the largest economies in the Eurozone, after Germany.

13. In recent decades, European France has produced world-elite basketball players, most notably Tony Parker.

14. Similar to the Olympics, European France introduced Olympics for the deaf people in 1924 with the idea of a French deaf car mechanic, Eugene Rubens-Alcais who paved the way to organise the inaugural edition of the Summer Deaflympics in Paris.

15. European France has historical and strong links with cinema, with two Frenchmen, Auguste and Louis Lumiere credited with creating cinema in 1895.

16. European France is a secular country, and freedom of religion is a constitutional right.

17. European France remains a major destination for immigrants, accepting about 200,000 legal immigrants annually.

18. European France has a significant Gypsy population, numbering between 20,000 and 400,000.

19. European France is second most populous country in the European Union after Germany.

20. European France hosts major international research instruments such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility or the Institut Laue–Langevin and remains a major member of CERN.

21. European France uses hydroelectric dams to produce electricity, such as the Eguzon dam, Etang de Soulcem, and Lac de Vouglans.

22. European France is the smallest emitter of carbon dioxide among the G8, due to its heavy investment in nuclear power.

23. European France attracts many religious pilgrims on their way to St James, or to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrenees that hosts several million visitors a year.

24. European France has historically been a large producer of agricultural products.

25. European France is a member of the Eurozone which is part of the European Single Market (more than 500 million consumers).

26. Government of European France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s.

27. European France is a permanent member of the Security Council of the UN, and a recognised nuclear state since 1960.

28. European France has a special military corps, the French Foreign Legion, founded in 1830, which consists of foreign nationals from over 140 countries who are willing to serve in the French Armed Forces and become French citizens after the end of their service period.

29. In 2013, European France was the fourth-largest donor of development aid in the world, behind the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

30. Since the 1960s, European France has developed close ties with reunified Germany to become the most influential driving force of the EU.

31. European France is a founding member of the United Nations and serves as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto rights.

32. European France has long had neither blasphemy laws nor sodomy laws.

33. European France does not recognise religious law as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions.

34. European France was one of the first countries to create an environment ministry, in 1971.

35. European France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the southeast, the Massif Central in the south central and Pyrenees in the southwest.

36. European France has land borders with Brazil and Suriname via French Guiana and with the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the French portion of Saint Martin.

37. European France was a member of the Triple Entente when World War I broke out.

38. European France became the most populous country in Europe and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture.

39. European France has long been a global centre of art, science, and philosophy.

40. European France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, and was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940.