60 Interesting Facts About France (+ fun France facts!)

Facts on France to Learn All About It

Ready to learn all about France?

Facts are one of the best ways to learn more about something, and I personally love to read them! I’ve put together for you quite a bit of facts on France; I’ve split them in 5 categories:

• The best France facts
• Fun facts about France
• France facts for kids
• Weird facts about France
• General facts of France

Let’s dive in right away with our first category! 🚀

The Best France Facts

France is one of the most intriguing and interesting countries in the whole world. It has a huge cultural and historical heritage.

There are some very interesting facts I thought you should know about, so today I’m listing 60 best interesting facts on France for you. 

1. The French flag is called “le tricolore”

The name of the French flag is actually very simple, it means “3 colors”. It’s also known as the “bleu, blanc, rouge”, which means “blue, white, red”.

These colors are historically an important symbol of France.

2. French people usually don’t like Paris

The French capital is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, that can not be denied.

However, the French living in the rest of the country, called “Province” in France, don’t like Paris, especially its inhabitants. In France, they’re known for being unfriendly and arrogant.

3. France has several symbols

France has a very important historical heritage, and some of the old symbols are quite well known.

The most famous ones are the “Marianne”, a female figure with a red hat symbolizing Freedom, the “Coq”, a rooster that you can see on the football team jerseys for instance.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, 1830

4. The French anthem is quite controversial

Historically, there was never any real issue with the French anthem, “La Marseillaise”. It was created during the French Revolution… and is quite bloody, with lyrics like “let an impure blood water our furrows”. Nowadays, it has become a bit more controversial.

5. Just like in the United States, the President in France has an official residence

The White House of France is called “L’Élysée”, and it’s the official residence of the French president.

It was bought by King Louis XV in the 18th century as a residence for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour at first, before becoming a state property.

6. French King Charlemagne could be the father of almost every European

In case you don’t know him, Charlemagne was one of the most famous French Kings.

He conquered almost the entirety of France and Germany (as we know of now). He had 23 children, so the saying “every European is related to King Charlemagne” could be true.

Bust of Charlemagne

7. Not everyone in France speaks French

Of course, wherever you go in France, it’s very unlikely to speak to someone who absolutely doesn’t understand French, but there are many dialects (like Alsacien in Alsace, Basque near Spain and Corse in Corsica), and mostly old people know them well (sometimes more than French).

8. There are 5 main rivers in France

Some are more famous internationally than the others, but there are 5 big main rivers in France:

• the Seine in Paris
• the Rhône in Lyon
• the Loire in central France
• the Garonne near Bordeaux
• the Rhine near Switzerland and Germany

Seine river in Paris

9. There is a meaning behind the French flag

The colors of the French flag weren’t chosen randomly. Instead, the national emblem was born under the French Revolution, at the end of the 18th century.

White is for the monarchy, and blue and red are for the city of Paris.

10. France is a master of wine

How could I list 60 interesting facts about France without mentioning its wine?

The French are legendary when it comes to producing and exporting some of the best wine bottles in the world. Champagne, Bordeaux or any wine from Alsace are very reputed internationally.

11. The French are huge baguette consumers, that’s not a stereotype

While the image of the typical French man walking down the street with a baguette under his arm is very stereotypical, it’s true that French people are crazy about baguettes.

They eat 6 billion baguettes every year, and there are over 32,000 bakeries in the country!

12. France is the most visited country in the world

Over 85 million people visit France every year, and this number is only getting bigger as time passes by.

They mostly come to Paris, of course, because of the incredible amount of monuments and museums, but all France is full of landmarks and is internationally coveted.

13. France has given the world many revolutionary inventions

Historically, there have been many French revolutions in many different fields, the most important one being probably literature.

But there are also many inventions we have to thank France for: the metric system, canned food, the montgolfier, braille language and the hairdryer for example.

14. The world’s oldest person ever was French

To this day, Jeanne Calment was still the oldest person ever to have walked the Earth. She died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

Her record might be broken in a few years by Japanese people though.

15. There are tons of streets and monuments named after people in France

The French like to use famous people’s names to name streets and monuments.

Charles de Gaulle has 3,903 places named after him, Victor Hugo, 2,555 and Louis Pasteur, 3,354. Be careful of the name of the city if you’re using a GPS, otherwise you might end up in the wrong place!

Place de l’Etoile in Paris, also called Place Charles de Gaulle

And that’s it, those were the 15 most interesting facts of France!

But don’t worry, if you want to learn more, feel free to keep reading, I still have tons of fun facts on France to tell you about.

Fun Facts About France

France is so complex and has so much history that there are definitely lots of fun or unusual facts you’ll want to know about.

I have 15 France fun facts, right below. 👇

16. France is truly the land of the free

Historically and still to this day, France is probably one of the countries where freedom is most important and respected.

It has always been part of the name of the country, since its name comes from the Franks, people whose name derived from “frank”, meaning “free”.

Statue of Liberty replica in Paris

17. France spans over the highest number of time zones in the world

Sure, continental France in Western Europe, isn’t that big and only has 1 time zone of course.

But if you include the multitude of old French colonies that are still part of the country, France spans over 12 different time zones!

18. French eggs are brown

As a French person, this has never bothered me, but I recently learned that many eggs in the world are white.

In France, all of them are brown, and that is because of the different breed we use.

19. There was only one “STOP” sign in Paris, France until 2012

The French capital is very, very active in terms of traffic. You might expect an insane amount of “STOP” signs to regulate all these vehicles… but until 2012, there was only one in the entire city!

20. Monarchy isn’t completely over in France

The French Revolution is one of the most important revolutionary events in the history of the world.

It ended monarchy… but only in metropolitan France since other French territories like Wallis and Futuna still have honorary kings!

Statue of King Louis XIV in front of Versailles Palace

21. Carrier pigeons are the symbol of the French army

Among all European countries, France is the only one that still has carrier pigeons within its ranks.

These pigeons are kept near Paris and will be used for communication purposes in case of major disasters. Just to be clear, they aren’t the official symbol.

22. France is by far the most nuclear-powered country in Europe

This topic is often very controversial, especially in recent times, but France has lots of nuclear reactors.

And what I mean by lots is 56 for less than 70 million inhabitants, making it by far the most nuclear-powered country in Europe, and second in the world only to the US.

23. The first public transport system was added introduced in France

You must have heard of the metro in Paris, one of the most developed ones in the world.

Well, France introduced the first public transport system in the world, back in the 1660s, with 5-floor carriages dragged by horses.

24. Paris was forced to use the same time zone as Berlin.

If you look on a map, you’ll see that Paris and London are almost on the same longitude, which means they should use the same time zone… and they did, until World War II, when Paris was occupied by the Germans.

Hitler forced France to use Berlin’s time zone, and this has never changed since then.

25. Officially, French traders have no obligation to give change

I’m not going to lie, this will probably never happen, as not many people know this.

Legally, French traders are under no obligation whatsoever to give change to their customers. The customer is supposed to pay with the exact amount of money.

26. France and the United Kingdom could have been one nation

During the Middle Ages, France and Britain were the worst enemies in the world. As time passed though, they became very similar, and even briefly considered merging into a single nation to face the Nazi invasion!

27. Trains in France almost always run on the left

In all of France, except for Alsace-Moselle in the West, trains run on the left. Why would that be different there?

Because the region switched multiple times between France and Germany, and the railway was built during German domination.

28. Over half of all roundabouts in the world are in France

French people go crazy when it comes to roundabouts. So much in fact that over half of the roundabouts in the world are in France!

To be more precise, there are 30,000 roundabouts in France.

29. The shortest city name in France is “Y”

Yes, there is an actual city in France called “Y”. This small city is located in the Somme department.

If you ever wonder about its inhabitants, they are called “Ypsilons”. Pretty cool, huh?

30. In France, you cannot call your pig “Napoleon”

This one last fun fact about France is amazing. 

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is a French legend, that’s for sure. People respect him so much that they passed a law a while ago (and it’s still valid) prohibiting people from naming their pigs “Napoleon”.

Statue of Napoleon

That’s all I have for the funny French facts.

There’s still a whole lot to come though, starting with facts on France for kids, so don’t go anywhere!

France Facts for Kids

The next part is dedicated to fun facts about France for kids.

While every fact is suited for everyone, I insist on having a special part for the younger ones and their special curiosity.

31. France’s 2 oldest cities date back to the Greeks

France is a historical country, you all know that, but did you know that the cities of Marseille and Béziers, located in southern France, date back to Greek times?

They were both built in the 6th century BC, and are France’s oldest towns.

Marseille

32. French writers are legendary, and have been rewarded for it multiple times

Hugo, Voltaire, Zola, Rousseau, Balzac … these are all legendary French writers.

In fact, French literature is so good that the French are the ones with the highest number of Nobel Prizes in literature, with 15 (before the US with 11 and the UK with 10).

33. France has the second largest maritime surface area

Again, France is quite small but don’t underestimate it. Only the United States surpasses the country in terms of maritime surface area.

France has 11 million km² / 4.2 million sq mi of maritime surface area, and could extend it by another million.

34. The most powerful radar ship in the world is French

“Monge”, the most powerful radar ship in the world, was designed especially to monitor the course of nuclear missiles.

It’s a French ship, and its most impressive achievement was to detect a monkey wrench that was lost in space by an American astronaut.

35. The most populous French department is in the North

The area of the French capital, Paris, is by far the most populated zone in France.

However, when it comes to departments, because of how they are defined, it’s not the department of Paris that is the most populous one, but “Nord” (meaning “North”), with 2.9 million inhabitants.

Lille, the main city of the Nord department

36. The least populated French department is very sparsely populated

When it comes to the extremes, the least populated French department is very surprising.

While many countries are above 100,000 inhabitants in the country, the entire department of “Lozère” counts 80,000 living souls.

37. The oldest French construction is a rock

Not a simple rock of course, but the oldest known construction in France is a huge megalithic monument, called The Cairn of Barnenez, in Brittany.

Dating back to the 5th millennium BC, it’s 75 m / 246 feet long.

38. Paris subway system is the densest one in the world

Paris is one of the first cities in the world to develop a subway system, and it’s still to this day the densest one.

In an area of less than 90 km² / 35 sq mi, the city boasts a crazy amount of 245 stations, spread through 14 lines.

39. Among continental European Union countries, France is the largest one

While this doesn’t look like it, considering how small France is, it’s actually the largest country in the European Union, with a surface area of 672,051 km² / 259,480 sq mi.

40. It’s illegal to throw out food in French supermarkets

France has made history in many fields, but you might not expect supermarkets to be of huge concern.

Yet in 2016, the French government made the historical decision of banning any sorts of food waste in supermarkets.

41. The most famous bicycle race in the world is French

You must have heard of the Tour de France. This worldwide famous race was created in France in 1903.

But did you know it was only a marketing project at first? Newspaper “L’Auto” only wanted a bit of advertisement, but now the Tour is so much more than that.

Learn more facts about the Tour de France here.

42. We have the French to thank for keeping food fresh

Were it not for the French, we might have had to wait for a whole while before being able to keep our food fresh.

Nicolas Appert started the concept of canning foods, and Pierre Durand came up with tin cans as we know now.

Learn more facts about French food here.

43. There are specific rules for French radio

Have you ever noticed that around half of the songs you can hear on the French radio are… French?

That’s because 40% of all music on private French radio stations must be of French origin. On top of that, half of these must be less than 6 months old.

44. You can see some of the oldest paintings in the world in France

France has been populated for a very long time. Lascaux Caves, in southwestern France, is quite famous for displaying some of the oldest paintings known to mankind. Perfectly preserved, these rock paintings date back to over 17,000 years!

Jack Versloot / CC BY

45. France is very organized in terms of regions and departments

The country of France is divided into 13 regions (previously 22). Each region has several departments, for a grand total of 101.

Add overseas regions that are part of France and you have a complex yet very organized system.

There you go, you know now my 15 fun facts in France for kids. The last part will be about… weird facts!

Weird Facts About France

France is romantic, France is beautiful, France is… very weird. So weird in fact that there are 15 things I need to tell you about the country.

You probably have never heard about these, so here are 14 France weird facts! 😊

46. French people can’t decide their departments names

Over the years, many French departments have changed names, as it seems like the French just can’t decide.

For instance, Basses-Pyrénées became Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Côtes-du-Nord became Côtes-d’Armor and Loire-Inférieure became Loire-Atlantique. These changes were often made because of derogatory connotations.

47. France is a huge fast-food consumer

France is one of the (if not the) best countries in the world when it comes to gastronomy and cuisine in general.

However, the country is completely crazy about fast-food, and is the third best market in the world for junk food after the United States and the United Kingdom.

48. There are 6 actual ghost villages in France

Ghost villages are a thing in France. There are 6 towns with zero inhabitants… but they have a mayor.

These villages were destroyed during World War II but their respective mayors are in charge of assuring their maintenance.

49. France’s longest border is… Brazil

Metropolitan France has relatively short borders with Spain and Germany for instance, and a lot of coastline.

French Guiana however is situated right next to Brazil, and shares a border of 730 km / 454 miles, making it France’s longest border.

50. French public holidays are different throughout the country

I have already talked about Alsace-Moselle in France. This part of the country is very unique, and it’s the same for public holidays.

It’s the only place in France where both December 26th and Good Friday are considered holidays.

51. French is a secular state, especially in schools… but not everywhere

Again, because Alsace-Moselle was a German territory when the law regarding State and Church separation in 1905, it wasn’t involved.

So, religious education is mandatory there, even if France is famous for having secular schools.

Learn more facts about French schools here.

52. The pianos in French train stations were a fortunate accident

If you have ever been to France, you must have noticed that there are often pianos in the middle of train stations.

This initiative was started by SNCF (the national train company) when a piano stayed a few days at Montparnasse station in 2011, and people started to play it.

53. French train stations are fairly known for their pianos

Ever since the piano trend began to develop, there have been more and more pianos added to the most famous train stations in France.

Today, you can find around a hundred of them, spread throughout all the country. What a good way to wait for your train, right?

54. Until 2012, women were legally forbidden to wear pants

Whether you believe it or not, an old law preventing women from wearing pants was still valid in France until 2012.

Obviously, no one got arrested or fined because of that, but that law was probably forgotten until the French government finally decided to cancel it.

55. The guillotine was still used in the 20th century in France

Officially, the guillotine was last used in 1977 in France. Why? Because it was the lawful mode of execution for people sentenced to death.

The abolition of death penalty only came in 1981, which is a bit surprising for France.

56. There are a few French cities with a very inappropriate name

Several French cities have a funny, inappropriate or sniggering name, however you want to call it.

These are very funny for French kids and teenagers: Chatte, Gland, Vulvoz and Anus. All of them have a sexual connotation.

François GOGLINS / CC BY

57. There are several French flags

Of course, the one you’ll see most of the time is the blue, white and red classic version of the flag.

However, you’ll find another slightly different version using a darker blue. This one is often displayed in town halls and public buildings.

58. The French president has his or her own flag

There’s even a third official version of the French flag, exclusively used for TV appearances by the head of state.

The white part of this flag is much narrower than that of the others, so that when filmed in close-up, the face of the president will not be surrounded by white.

59. French King Louis XIX had the shortest reign in history

Kings like Louis XIV have reigned for what seemed forever, sometimes years, sometimes even decades.

However, Louis XIX wasn’t that lucky: his reign lasted for… 20 minutes! He immediately abdicated the throne in favor of his nephew.

60. Jews became Muslims during the World War II

World War II is infamous for the utter extermination of Jews by the Nazis.

In France, during these times, they were supplied by the Mosque of Paris by having Muslim identification cards. They of course didn’t change religions officially.

Mosque of Paris

So there you have them, these were all my 60 interesting France facts. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.

In case you want to learn more about the rest of the country, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about. 👇

General Facts of France

You’ll find below a few general facts of France, to learn more about this European country:

• Name: France
• Land area: 672,051 km² / 259,480 sq mi
• Population: 68 million
• Name of inhabitants: Français, Française (French) / French (English)
• Top-level domain: .fr

France Flag

More Facts!

Do you want even more cool facts about France?

Check out these France facts by city:

• Facts about Paris
• Facts about Marseille
• Facts about Lyon
• Facts about Nice
• Facts about Toulouse
• Facts about Strasbourg
• Facts about Bordeaux
• Facts about Cannes

Or these French facts by region:

• Facts about Brittany
• Facts about Corsica
• Facts about Normandy
• Facts about Guadeloupe
• Facts about French Guiana
• Facts about Martinique

You can also check these French facts by topic: 

• Facts about French food
• Facts about French people
• Facts about the Tour de France
• Facts about Christmas in France
• Facts about the French language
• Facts about French schools
• Facts about French cheese
• Facts about fashion in France
• Facts about Easter in France
• Facts about the French Alps
• Facts about Disneyland Paris

Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.

The Full List of 60 France Facts

1. The French flag is called “le tricolore”
2. French people usually don’t like Paris
3. France has several symbols
4. The French anthem is quite controversial
5. Just like in the United States, the President in France has an official residence
6. French King Charlemagne could be the father of almost every European
7. Not everyone in France speaks French
8. There are 5 main rivers in France
9. There is a meaning behind the French flag
10. France is a master of wine
11. The French are huge baguette consumers, that’s not a stereotype
12. France is the most visited country in the world
13. France has given the world many revolutionary inventions
14. The world’s oldest person ever was French
15. There are tons of streets and monuments named after people in France
16. France is truly the land of the free
17. France spans over the highest number of time zones in the world
18. French eggs are brown
19. There was only one “STOP” sign in Paris, France until 2012
20. Monarchy isn’t completely over in France
21. Carrier pigeons are the symbol of the French army
22. France is by far the most nuclear-powered country in Europe
23. The first public transport system was added introduced in France
24. Paris was forced to use the same time zone as Berlin.
25. Officially, French traders have no obligation to give change
26. France and the United Kingdom could have been one nation
27. Trains in France almost always run on the left
28. Over half of all roundabouts in the world are in France
29. The shortest city name in France is “Y”
30. In France, you cannot call your pig “Napoleon”
31. France’s 2 oldest cities date back to the Greeks
32. French writers are legendary, and have been rewarded for it multiple times
33. France has the second largest maritime surface area
34. The most powerful radar ship in the world is French
35. The most populous French department is in the North
36. The least populated French department is very sparsely populated
37. The oldest French construction is a rock
38. Paris subway system is the densest one in the world
39. Among continental European Union countries, France is the largest one
40. It’s illegal to throw out food in French supermarkets
41. The most famous bicycle race in the world is French
42. We have the French to thank for keeping food fresh
43. There are specific rules for French radio
44. You can see some of the oldest paintings in the world in France
45. France is very organized in terms of regions and departments
46. French people can’t decide their departments names
47. France is a huge fast-food consumer
48. There are 6 actual ghost villages in France
49. France’s longest border is… Brazil
50. French public holidays are different throughout the country
51. French is a secular state, especially in schools… but not everywhere
52. The pianos in French train stations were a fortunate accident
53. French train stations are fairly known for their pianos
54. Until 2012, women were legally forbidden to wear pants
55. The guillotine was still used in the 20th century in France
56. There are a few French cities with a very inappropriate name
57. There are several French flags
58. The French president has his or her own flag
59. French King Louis XIX had the shortest reign in history
60. Jews became Muslims during the World War II

Share the knowledge!

Click on the buttons below to share these facts with your friends, and help them learn more about the world 🙂