A way of life, elegance, charm and wit - only a few nations carry as many positive clichés as France does. Excellent cuisine and extraordinary wines belong to the French way of life as well as socialising in a bistro or café, a chat whilst shopping, the game of Boule and last but not least a distinctive sense of individualism.
France has influenced Europe in a lasting way: the absolutism of Ludwig XIV was an example for many European dynasties. The ideas of the French revolution - Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood - still hold good for modern democracies. Since then France has come to mean 'terre d'asile', the country of refuge. About a third of the French population are immigrants of the first, second and third generation. Many of them come from the former colonies.

Again and again, French artists have been forerunners in the arts: painting, music, architecture, literature, philosophy and film.

French engineering created not only the Eiffel Tower that was build for the world exposition 1889 on the occasion of the centenary of the French revolution. At the end of the 19 century, France already had  a well developed state railroad network. Today, the French state-run railway is again leading in Europe with their high-speed train TGV. 

France is one of the big industrial nations. The influential state sector of the economy has been gradually privatised during the last 20 years. Although centralist rulers formed France over the centuries - France is more than Paris. There is the Atlantic coast with the austere charm of Brittany, the Mediterranean Cote d'Azur and Provence, the Pyrenees and  Cevennes… Since the early 1980s, the 22 regions with their diverse cultures and landscapes have directly elected local parliaments.