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Portal:France

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Welcome to the France Portal!
Bienvenue sur le Portail France !

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Map of France in the world and position of its largest single land territory in continental Europe

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany to the northeast; Switzerland to the east; Italy and Monaco to the southeast; Andorra and Spain to the south; and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its eighteen integral regions—five of which are overseas—span a combined area of 632,702 km2 (244,288 sq mi) and have an estimated total population of over 68.6 million as of January 2025. France is a semi-presidential republic and its capital, largest city and main cultural and economic centre is Paris.

Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron Age by Celtic tribes known as Gauls before Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture. In the Early Middle Ages, the Franks formed the kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia evolving into the Kingdom of France. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but decentralized feudal kingdom, but from the mid-14th to the mid-15th centuries, France was plunged into a dynastic conflict with England known as the Hundred Years' War. In the 16th century, French culture flourished during the French Renaissance and a French colonial empire emerged. Internally, France was dominated by the conflict with the House of Habsburg and the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots. France was successful in the Thirty Years' War and further increased its influence during the reign of Louis XIV.

The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured the Bourbon Restoration until the founding of the French Second Republic which was succeeded by the Second French Empire upon Napoleon III's takeover. His empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This led to the establishment of the Third French Republic, and subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allies of World War II, but it surrendered and was occupied in 1940. Following its liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.

France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts the fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, having received 100 million foreign visitors in 2023. A developed country, France has a high nominal per capita income globally, and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world by both nominal GDP and PPP-adjusted GDP. It is a great power, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. The country is part of multiple international organizations and forums. (Full article...)

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Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).

Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de Saché, and published three editions with three different titles. The novel contains a minimal plot, focusing mostly on the metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist and his only friend (eventually revealed to be Balzac himself). Although it is not a significant example of the realist style for which Balzac became famous, the novel provides insight into the author's own childhood. Specific details and events from the author's life – including punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized autobiography. (Full article...)

Émile Michel Hyacinthe Lemoine (1840–1912) was a French civil engineer and a mathematician, a geometer in particular. He was educated at a variety of institutions, including the Prytanée National Militaire and, most notably, the École Polytechnique. Lemoine taught as a private tutor for a short period after his graduation from the latter school.

Lemoine is best known for his proof of the existence of the Lemoine point (or the symmedian point) of a triangle. Other mathematical work includes a system he called Géométrographie and a method which related algebraic expressions to geometric objects. He has been called a co-founder of modern triangle geometry, as many of its characteristics are present in his work.

For most of his life, Lemoine was a professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique. In later years, he worked as a civil engineer in Paris, and he also took an amateur's interest in music. During his tenure at the École Polytechnique and as a civil engineer, Lemoine published several papers on mathematics, most of which are included in a fourteen-page section in Nathan Altshiller Court's College Geometry. Additionally, he founded a mathematical journal titled, L'intermédiaire des mathématiciens.

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a traditional Marseille bouillabaisse, with the broth served first, and the seafood then served separately

Bouillabaisse (/ˌbjəˈbɛs/ BOO-yə-BESS, US also /-ˈbs/ -⁠BAYSS, French: [bujabɛ(ː)s] ; Provençal: bolhabaissa [ˌbuʎaˈβajsɔ, ˌbujaˈbajsɔ]) is a traditional Provençal fish soup originating in the port city of Marseille. The word is originally a compound of the two Provençal verbs bolhir ('to boil') and abaissar ('to reduce heat', i.e. 'simmer').

Bouillabaisse was originally a dish made by Marseille fishermen, using bony rockfish, which they were unable to sell to restaurants or markets. There are at least three kinds of fish in a traditional bouillabaisse: typically red rascasse (Scorpaena scrofa); sea robin; and European conger. It can also include gilt-head bream, turbot, monkfish, mullet, or European hake. It usually also includes shellfish and other seafood such as sea urchins, mussels, velvet crabs, spider crabs, or octopus. More expensive versions may add langoustine (Dublin Bay prawn; Norway lobster), though this was not part of the traditional dish made by Marseille fishermen. Vegetables such as leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery, and potatoes are simmered together with the broth and served with the fish. The broth is traditionally served with rouille, a mayonnaise made of olive oil, garlic, saffron, and cayenne pepper, on grilled slices of bread. (Full article...)

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Réunion National Park (French: Parc national de La Réunion) is a National Park of France located on the island of Réunion, an overseas department in the western Indian Ocean. Established on 5 March 2007, the park protects the endemic ecosystems of Les Hauts, Réunion's mountainous interior, and covers around 42% of the island. Notable endemic species include the Réunion cuckooshrike and the Reunion Island day gecko.

Plans for a park date back to 1985, and in a public survey in 2004, the communes of Réunion approved the creation of a national park. It officially came into existence in 2007. The park's volcanic landscape, including the Piton de la Fournaise, an active volcano, was designated a World Heritage Site in 2010, under the name "Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island" for its imposing rugged terrain and exceptional biodiversity. The park's mission, other than preserving landscape and biodiversity, is to share knowledge and welcome visitors, and to work together with local communes. It is a popular destination for hiking and mountaineering. (Full article...)

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In the news

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3 June 2025 – Killing of Nahel Merzouk
A French police officer goes on trial after being charged with killing 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk on June 27, 2023, whose death sparked the riots across France and other French territories. (Reuters)
1 June 2025 – 2025 UEFA Champions League final, 2024–25 UEFA Champions League
Fireworks and flares are fired in Paris, France, after Paris Saint-Germain FC's Champions League title win. Two people are killed, a police officer is in a coma, 201 others are injured, four stores are looted and hundreds are arrested in clashes with riot police for violence and looting. (CTV News) (BBC News) (Le Monde)
31 May 2025 –
Thirteen people are injured, including one critically, when a 93-year-old man falls ill and drives into a restaurant terrace in Narbonne, Occitanie, France. (Midi Libre)
30 May 2025 – Diplomatic impact of the Gaza war, France–Israel relations
French president Emmanuel Macron states that France may be willing to impose sanctions on Israel if humanitarian aid is blocked, and says a Palestinian state is a political necessity. (Al Jazeera) (The Jerusalem Post)

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French Chasseurs d'Afrique on outpost in Tunis, 1881.

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