France

France has played a pivotal role in Europe throughout history. From Art to Politics to Architecture, it is truly a mesmerizing place and has a lot to offer for anyone planning a trip.
Known as the French Republic, the country covers 220,668 square miles, which makes it the largest country in all of Western Europe. For comparison purposes, that makes France about 80% the size of the great state of Texas.
The capital of France is Paris. If you have ever watched the Tour de France then you know that the terrain of France ranges from wonderful majestic mountain peaks to flat plains to beautiful coast lines along the southern and western borders of the country. This makes for various climates in the country as well, ranging from very cool in the mountains to extremely hot in the southern beach locations such as Nice.
The French population exceeds 62.4 million with a very strong growth rate of over 2 percent per year. The Ethnic breakdown is of Celtic and Latin creating strong influences of Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Sub-Saharan African, Indochinese and Basque minorities. Two major reasons for this strong minority base are a very lax immigration policy and migration of people from former colonies of France during its more imperial periods.
France has a large uniform religious society despite the large influx of immigrants. 90% of all French claim the Roman Catholic faith. However, a strong Muslim sector exist and it growing rapidly from the lax immigration policy. The official language is French and it is the dominant language used in daily life and because France has a free compulsory education system, the literacy rate is over 99%, which makes perfect sense.
This makes it a great travel destination as most of the country offers historical value, which you experience just by strolling down the street.

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