* With a surface area of approximately 550,000 sq km, France is Europe's largest country.

* The French population in 1999 was counted as just over 60 million people, with Paris, the capital, having over 2 million inhabitants. Population density in this country is 109 inhabitants per sq km, with an average population increase of 350,000 per year, equivalent to 0.6%

.* France's official language is French, with other languages such as Alsacien, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corse, Occitan also spoken, in addition to various regional dialects.

* The French mainland itself is divided into 22 administrative regions, 95 departments and over 36,000 cities. World-wide, there are over 122 million french-speakers.

* The geographical shape of France is often described as hexagonal - with the distance north-south very similar to that of east-west (approximately 950 km). Infact, no location in France is further than 500 km from the sea.

* Much of the country is coastal (2,700km of coastline) with the remaining 2,900km sharing common borders with 5 different countries.

* France's four largest rivers are the Seine (776 km), the Loire (1,012 km), the Garonne (580 km) and the Rhône (522 km of a total of 812 km).

* In addition, the French island of Corsica, is located 180 km from the Côte d'Azur in the Mediterranean sea. Corsica's geographical area is nearly 9,000 sq km, measuring 183 from north to south, and 85 from west to east.

* France also has 4 non-metropolitan departments (Guadeloupe, Guyane, Martinique and Reunion), 3 territories (Nouvelle Calédonie, Wallis et Futuna, la Polynésie Française) and 2 territorial collectivities (Mayotte, St Pierre et Miquelon).

* Mountain regions consist of the sharp peaks of the Alps (a region covering 500 sq km), Pyrenees and the Jura, and the contrasting Massif Central and the Vosges.

* Glaciers can be found in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the largest being the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) in the Alpine mountain Mont Blanc, stretching 18 km