France:13 mainland regions following the territorial reform, four overseas regions (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Reunion Island) plus French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna, Mayotte, St-Pierre & Miquelon, and the French Southern and Antarctic Territory.
Population: 66.3 million (2014 estimate)
Foreign visitors in 2014: 83.8 million – the world's number 1 tourism destination for over 20 years.
American visitors in 2014: 3.2 million (a 6.8% increase over 2013).
Cultural Facts:
• France has 43, 589 historical monuments.
• There are over 1,227 museums in France. The Louvre stays #1 with 9.1 million visitors.
• In the past year, ten major museums have opened in France:
• La Philarmonie de Paris in January 2015
• New Aeronautical Museum in Midi-Pyrénées in January 2015
• Joan of Arc Historical Museum in Rouen in March 2015
• Pont d'Arc Cave in Rhone Alps in April 2015
• Musée Dom Robert in Midi-Pyrénées in Spring 2015
• The Memorial ACTe in Pointe à Pitre in May 2015
• Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in July 2015
• The Perfume Museum in September 2015
• The Museum at Baccarat in Lorraine in October 2015
• Musée Unterlinden in Alsace in December 2015
Hotels & Restaurants
• In 2014, there were 18,100 hotels in France and 1,344 rated hotels in Paris.
• There are more than 160, 000 restaurants in France. Restaurants nationwide are Michelin starred, including 87 in Paris.
Nature & Environment
Farms and forests cover 118.6 million acres, i.e. 82% of the total surface of France.
• Some 26% of French territory is covered by forests, ranking France third in the European Union for the amount of forestland, behind Sweden and Finland.
• France possesses 136 different kinds of trees - an exceptional diversity for a European country - and the wildlife population is on the rise: in 20 years, the deer population has doubled and the number of roe deer has tripled. In order to conserve and develop France’s natural heritage, the government has established:
• - 9 national parks
• - 156 nature reserves
• - 516 designated areas for protected species
• - 429 protected coastal areas
• - France also has 46 regional nature parks covering more than 7% of the country.
• 47.7 billion euros are allocated to the protection of the environment. Three quarters of this goes to waste water management and waste disposal. France is party to many international treaties and conventions concerning the environment, among them United Nations agreements on climate, biodiversity and desertification.
• Principal mountain ranges: the Alps (of which the highest peak, Mont Blanc, rising to 15,871 feet, is the highest mountain in Western Europe), the Pyrénées, Jura, Ardennes, Massif Central and the Vosges.
• Coastline: Bordered by four bodies of water: North Sea, English Channel, Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; France has over 2,100 miles of coastline.
