France: 22 mainland regions, four overseas regions (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Réunion Island) plus French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna, Mayotte, St-Pierre & Miquelon, and the French Southern and Antarctic Territory.
Population: 65.4 million (2013 estimate)
Foreign visitors in 2013: 84.7 million – the world's number 1 tourism destination for over 20 years.
American visitors in 2013: 3.2 million (a 3% increase over 2012). A 3% increase is expected for 2014
Cultural Facts:
France has over 44,000 historical monuments.
There are over 1,140 museums in France. The Louvre stays #1 with 9.3 million visitors.
In the past five years, seven major museums have opened in France:
- Pompidou Metz in Lorraine in 2010 - Louvre-Lens in the Pas de Calais in 2012 - MUCEM in Marseille in 2013 - Overlord Museum in Normandy in 2013 - Musée Soulages in the Midi-Pyrénées in 2014 - Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2014 - Musée des Confluences in Lyon in 2014
Hotels & Restaurants
In 2013, there were 17,700 hotels in France and 1,430 rated hotels in Paris.
There are 147,100 restaurants in France including 13.643 in Paris. 610 restaurants nationwide are Michelin starred, including 95 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.