FRANCE - The Truly Transcontinental European Nation

This week's video is all about FRANCE, a country that needs no introduction. But I'm sure you'll learn a thing or two about the country from this video. I sure learned a few things while making it! :)

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Producer, co-writer and host: Paul
Writer: James Watson
Video editor: Luis Solana Ureña (Acribus Studio)

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Santiago González

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The following images were used under Creative Commons Attribution licenses:

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"Sunshower" by LATASHÁ
Outro: "Elevator Ride" by JCSD, licensed from Epidemic Sound.

[GEOfocusChannel]

Hi, everyone! I hope you like the new video on France!

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[latribudes]

I am French and I have several answers why France is the most visited country on Earth.
1. The historic monuments (history is litteraly everywhere in France. You can visit castles, old city centers, important places like Normandy's landing...)
2. The ski tourism
3. The beach tourism (a lot of northern europeans come in France to benefit of the sun, especially in the Mediterranean bay)
4. The cultural events (we have a lot of associations and museum which organize festivals often globally popular like Cannes festival. Personnaly, I am a fan of La Machine, an association based in Nantes which make big robots well animated. 😉 )
5. The nature (we have many natural parks with their own biodiversity. It's a good trick for hiking).
6. The health tourism (we have too balnear sources and other places where people can cure themselves)
7. The diplomatic and business power of France (international organizations and entreprise needs to travel abroad most of time. As we have several headquarters (UNESCO, Interpol, FIFA...), they're attracting many peoples)
8. The gastronomy (Need I to explain? 😁)
9. The transports, especially trains.
When you arrive in an airport in France, it's easy to move to another place thanks to the train and to the bus. If needed, it's possible to do carpooling with applications like Blablacar.
So, when you arrive in France, you can easily visit the rest of the country.
10. Basically, the geographic position. We are at the intersection of West Europe, so logically, we are crossed by many travellers who want to travel abroad, even if their final destination is not France.

Thank you for your work. It's very detailled and it's always a pleasure to see its country from an outside point of view. ^^

[idraote]

Oh, la douce France.
For us Italians, it's the land of our cousins, with which we constantly quarrel like any big family. I also love French but I am never telling them: I'd rather complain about their incomprehensible everyday speech that makes even ordering a baguette in a boulangerie a problem.

Before watching the video, I didn't know the extent of their overseas territories. I knew they existed, but I thought they were much more limited.

[jbogren]

France is like a micro-continent ; a huge diversity on a limited surface. You can travel a few miles and change everything: landscape, architecture, climate, food and even language ❤

[albevanhanoy]

As a French, I would encourage visitors to not stop at Paris! Many foreigners only think of Paris when they think of France, but it is not the only place worth visiting, and dare I say not even the best one!

[LexUniverse]

it always fascinates people when I tell them that France's longest border is with Brasil :D

[jloliverpool]

Fun facts about France:

-France's longest border is shared with Brazil
-France has the world's largest EEZ
-France has the most time zones in the world : 13
-France is the only country in the world located on 5 different continents (or 6 if you count Antartica)

[richglobal]

I moved to France (from the UK) 9 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did. I live near Paris but France has so much...I'm a big fan of their surfing region down near Biarritz, but there's a lot more around the country. The Christmas Markets, the hiking trails....did you know that France is one of the few European countries that has a desert? It's a delight to be in a culture that prizes manners, respect and sincerity. Of course when you live in a country rather than just visit you become more aware of the social and political problems that a country has - and France has plenty. But so does every country, in their own way.

[jademangin]

As a non-parisian French person, thank you for talking about the metropolitan parts of France too. It kind of surprises me that this is the most visited country in the world knowing that tourists usually only come to visit Paris (I can't blame them, I also usually mostly do capital cities when I travel abroad). But Paris is still quite a small city. Also, if you plan on visiting France, you can take into account that French sceneries are very diversed and that other regions would love to welcome you too

[dashbolts]

For having studied in detail France's geography, it's like a videogame. You go from one "biome" to another and each of them have unique landscape and rich and unique culture. And there's around 50 different ones.

[chubbydanny]

As a south korean who was born and raised in france and naturalised french, i am so proud of both countries but i am more proud of france for its culture and diversity and its diplomatic power. Vive la république.

[robertoverzee]

Kudos for your French accent. Close to perfection. Why do people visit France ? Because its culture is a brilliant mix between North European efficiency and mediterranean "Joie de vivre". (Dutch person speaking, who spent half a century in France)

As a Moroccan national who studied and lived in France for many years and also visited many European countries, I can safely say that France is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe if not the most beautiful.
France is the most diverse European country. Diversity in landscapes, cuisines, cultures, populations and climate. When it comes to Europe, many countries are beautiful and worth visiting but if someone has no choice but to visit one and only one European country then France is the way to go.

[cookkydn]

As a French people, we are always taught in school that there is five important rivers, even if the last one is not 100% French, there is « Le Rhin »

[heyguyshowru]

I am from spain and i visited 4 Times France and its one of the most beautiful countries in the world

[charbitre]

Due to the large variety of landscapes and regional cultures France has, I feel like it's the type of map you can find in a videogame, where biomes don't have much logic

[TheJcman]

I'm not french, but I feel french a lot because I grew up near Paris and never stopped visiting that country.
Paris is so far the most incredible city I had the chance to visit, but as some other comments said, there's much more than Paris in France.
Although some English speaking countries love to hate France, it's a fact that in some areas nothing can beat the prestige of France.

[achaastheoneaboveall]

Hi !
Bonjour !

I live in one the French overseas regions mentionned in the video, Martinique.
And as such, I thought that I could, perhaps, add a few things that could be interesting.

- Geographically, the island of Martinique is relatively small.(1 128 km² and around 64 km long.)
However, it is very lush and filled with many beaches as well.
In terms of fauna, it is notable for a remarkable concentration of hummingbirds (Colibri in French), which are often used as a symbol of the Island.
As for it's proximity to other countries, from Martinique, the island-country of St.Lucia can be seen and, on really sunny days, you can even see the island-country of Dominica (not the same as the Dominican republic, btw 🇩🇲/🇩🇴), just behind St-Lucia.(🇱🇨)
It should be noted that, despite being French, the Island isn't included in the E.U's Schengen area, which allows European citizens to travel freely, without passport or other border checks between the E.U's internal borders.
That's also the case for all of France's oversea territories as well.

- Culturally, the majority of the island's population is comprised of descendants of black slaves. In fact, one the bigger cities here, Schoelcher, is named after Victor Schoelcher, who is often recognized as the man responsible for the abolishment of slavery in France in 1848.(For good this time, since it has been abolished earlier in 1794 but Napoleon I reinstated it in 1802.)
So slavery is a touchy subject here, especially given that the descendants of white colonists (Béké as they're called here.) from way back then, are still, today among the island's richest citizens.

- Economically, it is one of France's poorest territories (when compared to other French territories, it's still above the economic standards of it's area.).
As of 2020, it was among the three poorest ones in fact along with Réunion and Corsica.
Though, it is still the second richest island of the "lesser Antilles", with a GDP of around 9 billion USD.
One it's main products is Rum which is mainly exported towards, mainly metropolitan France and from there, the rest of Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America.

- If you ever visit, I would recommend the Garden of Balata, on the heights of Fort-De-France, Martinique's capital city.
It's a great place to see the variety of the island's flora.
But there's also other places of interest like : The town of St-Pierre which was devastated by a volcanic eruption In 1902, one of the most devastating of the 20th century, claiming the lives of 30 000 people and left only 2 survivors, one of whom was in his prison cell at the time ; The town of Le Diamant (The Diamond), which has a giant rock in the shape of, you guessed it, a diamond 💎, and that rock was also a vessel of the British Navy at some point, seriously, they even named it "H.M.S Diamond Rock." and put cannons on top of it.

And that's about it.
I just wanted to add some information about one the French oversea territories, since they're often really forgotten about in discussions regarding France.(Even in Metropolitan France itself.)
But the value of these territories shouldn't be underestimated, not only from an economic standpoint (Granted, still not as comparable as Metropolitan France but often, still above the surrounding foreign territories) but more importantly, from a strategic standpoint given that they're the reason why France has the largest ZEE in the World.

If you've read that far, I hope you learned something of value.
Au revoir ! 🇫🇷

[jayyou]

Let's not forget to mention local languages such as "Créole" spoken in most the overseas Régions . Each of the Région has its own Créole.

[jamesm.]

Just when I've started to learn French again. Perfect timing Paul! 👏 😄 🇫🇷