France
Surface: 543.965 square kilometre
Total population: 60.180.529 (2003)
Population density: 110,6 pro square kilometre
Capital: Paris
Inhabitant: 2.110.400 (2003)
France is the largest country of the European Union. It borders in the north on the English Channel (La some), in the northeast on Belgium and Luxembourg, in the east on Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Monaco. In the south France is limited by the Mediterranean, in the southwest of Spain and Andorra and in the west of the Atlantic ocean. The island Corsica is appropriate for the Italian island Sardinia in the Mediterranean north.
The landscape variety reaches to the river valleys of the Loire, Rhône and Dordogne from the mountain massifs of the alps and Pyreneeses, up to the Côte d'Azur and the flatter regions of normandy and the Atlantic coast.
Republic since 1875. Condition of 1958, last change 2000.
Two-chamber parliament: National assembly (577 members) and senate (321 members).
Head of state: Jacques Chirac, since 1995.
Head of the government: Jean Pierre Raffarin, since 2002.
The president is selected directly on seven years. France is European Union member.
The language is French, it gives many regional dialects. In Brittany partially Bretonish is spoken, in Corsica Corsish, Baskish is far common in the southwest.
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