France Statistics – Prepare your adventure to France with some Facts

Total area:

• 551 100 km2 of territory (appr. 180,000 sq. miles – almost like Texas)
• 95 metropolitan departments
• 8 overseas departments and territories.
• Each is administered by a general council with a Préfet who works from a Préfecture.

Population

• 65 million inhabitants (10 million in the Paris region alone)
• 36 000 towns and villages,
• 964 356 km (599,240 miles) of roads
• 31 940 km (19,847 miles) of railway.

Coastline:

• 3120 km (= 1939 miles) (including inlets and bays);
• 1600 km (995 miles) as the crow flies.
• 4 sea fronts (the North Sea, the Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean) with
• 5500 km (3,418 miles) of coastline
• The largest beach in Europe at La Baule (Loire-Atlantique department).
  (12 km – 7.5 miles):

The highest:

• Sand dune: Dune de Pilat – 150 m (492 feet) (the Gironde département of Aquitaine)
• The highest mountain in Western Europe: Mont Blanc, ascending to 4807 meters (15,771 feet), in the Savoy Alps
• Inhabited village (2200 m – 7218 feet) Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes)
• Skiable area of 1,950 km2 equipped with 4200 ski lifts and 13000 km (8,078 miles) of downhill ski pistes.

Other stats:

• 6000 species of plant life (200 specific to France)
• 365 different sorts of cheese – one for every day of the year
• About 450 AOC wines!
• 15 million hectares of forest.
• France has 35,000 boulangeries (bakeries). Buy a baguette, a ficelle, a flûte, a boule, an épi or a longuet and enjoy!
• 3.7 million tons of bread consumed every year,
• 25 million cars,
• 750 000 associations,
• 16 million dogs and cats owned by 51% of households,
• 36 673 mayors,
• 600 000 farmers,
• 780 000 shopkeepers, 1000 hypermarkets, 7000 supermarkets,
• 816 000 craftsmen.

Tourism

• 84 million overseas visitors in 2003, making France the 1st tourist destination in the world!
• 19 912 hotels,
• About 3900 museums which attract tens of millions of visitors every year,
• 12 million visitors come every year to the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Versailles alone!
• 5.6 million annual visitors to the Eiffel Tower (320 meters high, 7000 tons and 1652 steps from base to summit)
• 1500 private châteaux open to the public,
• 4400 cinemas,
• 38 879 historic monuments,
• 50 000 theatrical productions every year.

Religion:

• 63% of French people consider themselves Catholic,
• 30% declare themselves without religion.

Climate:

• France has a temperate climate, and is made up of four broad climatic zones:
  • the humid seaboard zone west of the line Bayonne-Lille with cool summers;
  • a semi-continental zone with cold winters and hot summers in Alsace-Lorraine, along the rhodanian corridor and in the mountainous massifs (Alps, Pyrénées, Massif Central);
  • an intermediate zone with cold winters and hot summers in the North, the Paris region and the central region;
  • a Mediterranean zone with mild winters and very hot summers in the south of France.

Daylight Savings Time:

As decided upon by the European Parliament, daylight savings time in the European Union

• begins on the last Sunday of March at 2:00.am
• ends on the last Sunday of October at 3:00.am