France, the official name of the French Republic is a state in Western Europe. The motto of the Republic is “Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood”, its principle is the rule of the people, by the people and for the people. The capital is the city of Paris. The name of the country comes from the ethnonym of the Germanic tribe of the Franks, despite the fact that the majority of the population of France is of mixed Gallo-Roman origin and speaks the language of the Romanesque group.
Most of France is located in Western Europe, its mainland in the northeast borders with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, in the east with Switzerland, in the southeast with Monaco and Italy, in the southwest with Spain and Andorra. France is washed by four water spaces (English Channel, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea). In the west and north, the country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay and the English Channel), in the south - by the Mediterranean Sea (Gulf of Lyon and the Ligurian Sea). The length of the sea borders is 5500 kilometers. France is the largest country in Western Europe by territory: it occupies almost one fifth of the territory of the European Union, has extensive sea spaces (the exclusive economic zone extends over an area of 11 million sq. Km).
The state also includes the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea and more than twenty overseas departments and dependent territories. The total area of the country is 547,030 km² (674,685 km², together with overseas possessions).
France is the most visited country in the world (by the number of visiting foreigners); Paris is the most touristic city; The Eiffel Tower is the most visited and popular attraction in the world, which means that France is the undisputed champion of world tourism. What undoubtedly attracts visitors to France is a wide variety of landscapes, long lines of the ocean and sea coasts, a temperate climate, many different monuments, as well as the prestige of French culture, cuisine and lifestyle.