18 Interesting Facts About France

The Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years.

1. French is the official language of many countries including: Switzerland, Canada, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Monaco, Congo and Niger.

2. At the time of the French Revolution, 75% of French citizens didn’t speak French as a mother tongue.

3. 34% of the French can speak English. And Between 6-11 million Americans speak French.
30% of the English language actually is composed of French.

4. French was the official language of England for over 300 years. It’s the mother tongue of 75 million people worldwide and one of the official language of the United Nations.

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5. The variety of French spoken in Quèbec, Canada, is a distant dialect from the French spoken in Europe, and sometimes hard to understand for French people.

6. The most visited attraction in Paris isn’t the Eiffel Tower, or the Louvre, but Disneyland Paris at 13 million people.
The Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years.


Zinneke / Via en.wikipedia.org

7. France is the largest European country in terms of land area after Russia and Ukraine.

8. 20% of the French live in the Parisian region.
Paris nickname “city of lights,” lights actually refers to the number of intellectuals who live there.

9. Nearly 20% of the territory of France lies outside Europe. These regions include overseas departments and territories, where over 2.5 million French citizens stay.

10. France is about the same size as Texas, with twice the population of California.

11. France shares an island with Spain the Pheasant Island, part time: six months for Spain, six months for France.
Spanish: Isla de los Faisanes, French: Île des Faisans, Basque: Konpantzia.

12. France is third highest in the European Union for the life expectancy of men.

13. The population of France is the world’s largest consumer of psychotropic drugs.

14. France has the highest wealth tax of any European country. And About 75% of France's electricity is from nuclear power.
Grasse is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department on the French Riviera. The town is considered the world's capital of perfume.

15. The concept of denim clothing was born in the Languedoc-Roussillon city of Nimes, France, from where it was imported by Levi Strauss to California to make tough clothes for gold miners.

16. Napoleon wasn't short. He was actually above the average Frenchman.
It’s illegal to name a pig Napoleon in France.

17. In France, you can marry a dead person.

18. The Statue of Liberty was made in France and then gifted to the U.S in 1886, in the celebration of its centennial.

Preview photo credit: Zinneke, Wikipedia