France

France is the largest country in the EU, stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. The landscape is diverse, with mountains in the east and south, including the Alpine peak of Mont Blanc Four thousand eight hunderedand ten metre which is western Europe's highest point. Lowland France consists of four river basins, the Seine in the north, the Loire and the Garonne flowing westwards and the Rhône, which flows from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea.

The president of the Republic has an important political role. He chairs the meetings of the Council of Ministers cabinet, and retains overall responsibility in key areas of foreign affairs and defence. The day to day running of the country is in the hands of the prime minister. The president is elected by direct popular vote for a period of five years. The parliament consists of a National Assembly, directly elected every five years, and a Senate whose members are chosen by an electoral college.


France has an advanced industrial economy and an efficient farm sector. Main activities include automobile manufacture, aerospace, information technology, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and fashion.France has produced some of the continent's most influential writers and thinkers from Descartes and Pascal in the seventh century, to Rousseau and Voltaire in the eigthyth, Balzac.

Baudelaire and Flaubert in the ninth and Sartre and Camus in the twentyth. In the last two centuries it has given the art world the works of Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse and Braque, to name but a few.French cuisine is one of the finest in Europe; cooking and eating are part of French culture and lifestyle.