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France Portal

The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and that also comprises a collection of overseas islands and territories located in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica. After Russia, France is the largest country in Europe (643,427 km² with its overseas départements). With a population of over 63 million inhabitants, France is the second most populous country in Western Europe (after Germany) and the 20th largest in the world. Paris is the most populated city in France with over 12 million people in its aire urbaine.

The French Republic is a democracy which is organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. It has the seventh-largest economy in the world. Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. France is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of the G8, NATO, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council wielding veto power, and it is also one of eight acknowledged nuclear powers. With almost 75 million foreign tourists each year, France is the most popular international tourist destination in the world.

French is the official language of France, but each region has its own unique accent; in addition to French, there are several other languages of France traditionally spoken, although use of these languages has greatly decreased over the past two hundred years. French is also an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations.

Picture of the Month (Archive)

"Discussing the War in a Paris Café" from the Illustrated London News of 17 September 1870: A scene from the Franco-Prussian War. The Napoleonic empire had ended a few days before this when Napoleon III was captured in the Battle of Sedan and deposed by the French government soon thereafter. However, the proposed German peace treaty was rejected, and two days after this image was published, Paris came under siege. Image credit: Frederick Barnard (1846-1896).

Article of the Month (Archive)

The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid to waste the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid (the actual genus of the aphid is still debated, although it is largely considered to have been a species of Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, commonly known as grape phylloxera) that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic sometime around the late 1850s. While France is considered to have been worst affected, the blight also did a great deal of damage to vineyards in other European countries.

How the Phylloxera aphid was introduced to Europe remains debated: American vines had been taken to Europe many times before, for reasons including experimentation and trials in grafting, without consideration of the possibility of the introduction of pestilence. While the Phylloxera was thought to have arrived sometime around 1858, it was first recorded in France in 1863, near the former province of Languedoc. It is argued by some that the introduction of such pests as phylloxera was only a problem after the invention of steamships, which allowed a faster journey across the ocean, and consequently allowed durable pests, such as the Phylloxera, to survive.

Eventually, following Jules-Emile Planchon's discovery of the Phylloxera as the cause of the blight, and Charles Valentine Riley's confirmation of Planchon's theory, Leo Laliman and Gaston Bazille, two French wine growers, proposed that the European vines be grafted to the resistant American rootstock that were not susceptible to the Phylloxera. While many of the French wine growers disliked this idea, many found themselves with no other option. The method proved to be an effective remedy. The following "Reconstitution" (as it was termed) of the many vineyards that had been lost was a slow process, but eventually the wine industry in France was able to return to relative normality. Read more...

Person of the Month (Archive)

Tristan Tzara (born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; April 4 or April 16, 1896–December 25, 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement. A Symbolist influenced by the work of Adrian Maniu, the adolescent Tzara co-founded the magazines Simbolul together with Ion Vinea, with whom he also wrote experimental poetry, and painter Marcel Janco. During World War I, after briefly collaborating on Vinea's Chemarea, he joined Janco in Switzerland. There, Tzara's shows at the Cabaret Voltaire and Züntfhaus zür Waag, as well as his poetry and art manifestos, became a main feature of early Dadaism. A main promoter of Dada culture, he represented its nihilistic side, in contrast with the more moderate approach favored by Hugo Ball.

After moving to Paris in 1919, Tzara, by then one of the "presidents of Dada", joined the staff of Littérature magazine, which marked the first step in the movement's evolution toward Surrealism. Subsequently, he was involved in the major polemics which led to Dada's split, defending his principles against André Breton and Francis Picabia, and, in Romania, against the eclectic modernism of Vinea and Janco. This personal vision on art defined his plays Le Cœur à gaz (The Gas Heart) and Mouchoir de nuages (Handkerchief of Clouds). A forerunner of automatist techniques, Tzara eventually rallied with Breton's Surrealism, and, under its influence, wrote his celebrated utopian poem L'Homme approximatif (The Approximate Man).

During the final part of his career, Tzara combined his humanist and anti-fascist perspective with a communist vision, joining the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance during World War II, and serving a term in the National Assembly. Having spoken in favor of liberalization in the People's Republic of Hungary just before the Revolution of 1956, he distanced himself from the French Communist Party, of which he was by then a member. In 1960, he was among the intellectuals who protested against French actions in the Algerian War. Read more...

Recent events in France

July 27 - Carlos Sastre wins 2008 Tour de France
The Spanish cyclist Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre is the third consecutive Spanish rider to win the Tour. Full story: NYTimes BBC CNN

July 5 - 2008 Tour de France begins
The 2008 Tour de France began on July 5 and will run through the 27th. This year's Tour differs from previous years' in significant ways. For the first time since 1967, the Tour will begin without a prologue time trial. Tour organizers have also decided to eliminate time bonuses. Full story: NYTimes Telegraph

July 1 - France takes over EU presidency
France began its six-month European Union presidency got on July 1. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said that the EU needs profound changes following Ireland's rejection of a key reform treaty. Full story: Canada.com Deutsche Welle AP

June 17 - French workers go on strike to protest reforms
French workers went on strike on Tuesday to protest reforms to the pension system and the 35-hour work week. Full story: Reuters

June 16 - France will rejoin NATO military command
French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that France will rejoin NATO's military command. While France has been a member of the 26-member alliance, participating fully in all political decision-making bodies, it has been not part of the integrated command structure since 1966. Full story: NYTimes AP

June 1 - Yves Saint Laurent dies at 71
Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent died today at age 71 in Paris, following a long illness. Full Story: AFP AP BBC

Did you know ... (Archive)

• ...that a replica of the château from the Bordeaux wine estate Château Beauregard was constructed for the Guggenheim family on Long Island, New York?
• ...that Haulotte Group are the third-biggest manufacturer of aerial work platforms (pictured) in the world?
• ...that the Bordeaux wine estate Château Beau-Séjour-Bécot was demoted in the Saint-Émilion classification amidst controversy, only to be later re-instated?

• ...that many of the viaducts (pictured) on the Chemin de Fer de Côtes du Nord were two-tiered structures, and that the Viaduc de Souzain had a railway junction on the viaduct itself?
• ...that the final section of the Chemins de Fer du Calvados was closed by damage from the 1944 D-Day invasion?

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