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Bonjour mes amis, and welcome to the majestic country of France! My name is Louis, and I will be your travel guide today as we explore the Wonders of France! Let us dive right in and explore, allons-y, or let's go!

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Rural areas, or the outskirts of France.

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Strasbourg, a city in northeastern France along the border of Germany.

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Alright explorers! First stop on our trip is an overview of the country itself. France is a country located at 46.2276° N, 2.2137° E in Northwestern Europe, bordering Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and Luxembourg. It is a large and expansive country, a major key to the agricultural and geographical aspects of Europe. It connects to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, providing unique climates and lifestyles in its 210,016 mi² region!

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Welcome Explorers to the demography of France! Above me is the Demographic Transition Model, a graph illustrating the different development stages and population changes as a country matures. France is a Stage 4 country, which indicates it has a high, stable population with balanced birth and death rates.

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Emin, Kenan. “10 Reasons to Move to Paris.” Currency Solutions, https://www.currencysolutions.co.uk/insights/10-reasons-to-move-to-paris.

“Push Factors.” All about France - Home, https://france-geography.weebly.com/push-factors.html.

Ensign, Alison. “French Traditions and Culture • • Familysearch Blog.” • FamilySearch Blog, 17 Nov. 2021, https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/french-culture-traditions

“Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/France/Agriculture-forestry-and-fishing.

Wilde, Robert. “Key Events in French History.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 21 Oct. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/key-events-in-french-history-1221319.

France Government, https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/france/government.

Parilla, Joseph, et al. “Global Paris: Profiling the Region's International Competitiveness and Connections.” Brookings, Brookings, 9 Mar. 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/research/global-paris-profiling-the-regions-international-competitiveness-and-connections/.

Oliver, Huw. “Paris Is Planning to Become Europe's Greenest City.” Time Out Paris, Time Out, 2 Nov. 2021, https://www.timeout.com/paris/en/things-to-do/paris-green-sustainable-city-plan-2030.

Sawe, Benjamin Elisha. “The Biggest Industries in France.” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, 26 Sept. 2017, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-biggest-industries-in-france.html.

Amiel, Sandrine. “Who Are France's Anti-Vaccine Rule Protesters and What Do They Want?” Euronews, 6 Aug. 2021, https://www.euronews.com/2021/07/26/who-are-france-s-anti-vaccine-rule-protesters-and-what-do-they-want.

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Oh man, here's the exciting part! France's pop culture is incredibly unique, with outstanding cuisine, art, and fashion! The country has an array of fresh pastries, vast art museums, and art styles that define its cultural landscape, or how a population shapes the terrain with their culture. Pastries such as croissants and fresh tarts along with art such as the famous "Thinker" statue definitely make France a place worth visiting! By the way, these are all examples of material cultures, or cultural traits that can be physically seen on the landscape!

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Notre Dame in Paris featuring Gothic architecture

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The folk culture in France has just as many things to offer as the pop culture! France's folk culture is heavily influenced by the original German, Roman, and Celtic imperialism, or the taking and control of a region through a militaristic force, so France features gothic architecture as seen above in the Notre Dame, as well as a majority of the population being Roman Catholic.

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Indo-European Language Tree detailing European and India lingua.

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Bienvenue dans l'arbre des langues, or welcome to the language tree! The tree shown above illustrates the Indo-European family of languages, showing all the languages related to each other in this certain family. French, the dominant language of France, is a Germanic language, showing grammatical and spelling similarities to the German and English languages.

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Chart depicting France's religious composition.

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As mentioned earlier through folk culture, France has a dominant religion of Roman Catholicism, with the religion expressing a overwhelming majority in the population as seen in the pie chart above!

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Map showing the extent of the Francia kingdom in the year 800

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France, like many other countries, has quite a complex and ancient history! Events happening concerning the region of France can be traced all the way to 800 BCE, when the Celts started arrive in the area, and it was around 50 BCE when Julius Caesar began to start its conquest in the Northern regions of France. The region got the name "Francia" in 843 when West Francia was created when the lineage of Charlemagne, the king of the Franks as well as Holy Roman Emperor in the year 800. After a series of smaller wars, a man named Hugh Capet became the king of West Francia in 987, and France gained its formal name around they year 1200. After this, several other conflicts broke out years afterward such as the 100 years war, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars that shaped France into what it is today. Man, that was a big history lesson!

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Extensive Grain Farming in rural France.

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Oh man, now we are at the food aisle in France! France is a massive region, and over half of its extensive land area is suitable or is used for agriculture! The agricultural composition consists of mostly grains, fruits and wines, and also dairy and livestock to take advantage of the region's fascinating climates. Grains take up 1/6 of the total agricultural value, fruits and wines take up 1/4, and dairy and livestock take up 1/3. As mentioned earlier, France is a main part of Europe's overall agricultural outcome, and specific crops they grow include wheat, corn, grapes, as well as apples, pears, and peaches! You can probably guess this impacts the cultural cuisine in France significantly. Most foods in France are entirely grain-based, including breads, pastries, and many tarts!

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Behold mes amis, and feast your eyes upon Paris, the majestic capital of France! This is a world city, and has a major role in all things internationally!

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While we are here looking at the French population, lets look at their demographic makeup! Above me is a Population Pyramid, basically a chart illustrating the gender and age distributions throughout a population. France has a population of about 65 million people, and due to the country being Stage 4, the population composition is evenly distributed throughout the entire chart.

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Traffic jam in Paris due to overcrowding

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France itself has lots of ups and downs that may encourage people to emigrate, or move from a region, or migrate there, or move to a region. Push factors of France, or reasons that deter people from living in a region, include overcrowding, high living costs, and high rates of unemployment. Pull factors, or reasons that encourage people to live in a region, include the unique culture, a lower amount of work time, and also an incredible amount of parks and other areas reserved for nature!

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French Colonial Empire at its height in the 1800s-early 1900s

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France sure has changed its borders over time! As you look at the map above of the peak extent of France's borders, you can tell France was a force to be reckoned with! They have colonies almost all over the world, including regions in North America, Northern Africa, South and Southeast Asia, as well as other parts of Europe! Much broader than the compact state it is today!

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I know you all are excited for France's politics! France's government is a Unitary Democratic Republic. Unitary, meaning that governmental power is confined to central authorities, and Democratic Republic being a form of government where power is shared between the people and the government. In this case though, due to it being unitary, most power resides in the French Parliament as well as the President and the Prime Minister. Not much conflict goes on internally within the state, but various military personnel are deployed out-of-state in North Africa and the Middle East to attempt to battle rising chaos and conflict within those regions.

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As mentioned earlier, France is a main part of Europe's overall agricultural outcome. Examples of specific crops grown in France include wheat, corn, grapes, as well as apples, pears, and peaches! Woooh, peaches are my absolute favorite!

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France's climate varies a lot in different regions of the country! As you can see, Mediterranean climates comprise of the land bordering the Mediterranean Sea, while all other regions are either mountainous or oceanic depending on the terrain of the land or its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean.

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One of the things France is most known for is its beloved capital Paris! It it known as a world city, or a city that is a global hub of culture and trade, and it is a hot spot for education, tourism, and trade!

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Paris is home to many big-shot corporations! Companies that are heavily specialized in and around Paris include Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Bouygues, and Hermes are seen everywhere around Paris. They are all mainly either fashion or perfume related, supporting France's common name as the most romantic city on Earth!

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As for factors that challenge the urban sustainability, or the ability to sustain a city economically and environmentally for a growing urban population, they're surprisingly minimal! Paris is a highly compact city, being only 40.7 mi², and this causes bikes to be the new car! Owning a bike is common in Paris, and this reflects in the amount of bike paths and greenbelts, or areas preserved for nature, around the city!

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France's economy specializes in agriculture, energy, tourism, manufacturing, and transportation! Gender Inequality is virtually non-existent throughout the country, ranking 3rd in the EU based on the gender equality index! This is reflected in the work force composition, where opportunities for males and females are almost equivalent.

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The Human Development Index, or a measurement combining the overall life expectancy, education, and standard of living of a country, of France is between 0.875 and 0.9 as you can see from the thematic map above. This means they have relatively above average standard of living compared to the rest of the world!

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France's economy is, as mentioned earlier, mainly agriculture, manufacturing ,transportation, and energy, making the secondary and quaternary sectors the most popular. France is home to the Electricite de France, the largest utility company in the world that creates up to 22% of the EU's energy! France is a massive producer of solar and nuclear energy, contributing to its lead for urban sustainability. Because of this, the environment isn't as challenged due to the mass use of renewable energy resources. They are also the fourth largest automobile manufacturer in the world, containing big companies such as Peugeot or Renault! The nation also has one of the densest networks of roads and railways in the world, as well as the airline Air France which connects to over 150 destinations worldwide!

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France can be described as a core country

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Because of France's high standard of living as well as its control over the global market, they can be described as a core country!

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As you can see, France is known for quite a lot of things. There are many reasons on why its the most toured country on earth, including its unique culture, beautiful rural landscape, and also iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower or the Arc De Triomphe! The people are really friendly, and they really appreciate it when foreigners speak French to them! It is also generally really safe for most tourists, for crime involving them is pretty low. France is a majestic and amazing country, and no one has lived yet until they have toured its proud, grand capital of Paris!

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Mega Horn art summarizing French protests

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Currently in France, conflict is minimal, but there are occasional protests in Paris that proclaim anti-vaccination beliefs. They demand for lighter restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they often agglomerate in tens of thousands of people to effectively try to convey the word to the unitary government.