France has changed its form of government 9 times since the French Revolution in 1789, including 5 republics, 2 empires and 2 constitutional monarchies.
Which is quite interesting, considering France has only had 4 presidents in the last 37 years (since 1974) : Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy !
The Languedoc-Rousillon city of Nîmes is the birthplace of jeans. The distinctive fabric was imported to California by Levi Strauss in order to make tough work trousers for gold diggers. Denim is short for “de Nîmes”
French people are the second biggest consumers of alcohol per capita in the Western world - after Luxembourg...
French people have the highest female and third highest male life expectancy in the European Union.
French literature is very popular and well known. Charles Perrault was one of France’s most influential children’s writers. He wrote books such as Cinderella (well, re-wrote, it's actually a translation of a Chinese tale; but in the Asian version she has slippers of fur [vair], not glass [verre], Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots.
Under laws that no-one has ever got round to removing from the statute book, it is illegal to call a pig Napoleon.
In 1607, the longest gallery in the world, the Grande Galerie of the Louvre was built for King Henri IV. On wet days, the King and his court held miniature fox hunts inside, riding up and down the center.Rocks, trees and grass were moved indoors to make it as real as possible.
In France, in exceptional cases it is possible to marry a deceased person with the authorization of the President of the Republic.A bientot mes amis!!
