Why France is Secretly the World's 5th Biggest Country

Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images

Special thanks to MapTiler / OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3

[jaredgordon]

As someone in Quebec, it's true: I could start hearing someone speak French at any moment

[brunoglopes]

Fun fact: France’s largest land border is actually shared with Brazil, on the French Guiana

[eddie_castorin]

Something worth mentioning : Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion, French Guiana and Mayotte are French overseas regions/departments (ruled by the president), while the other are French overseas collectivities (basically they are somewhat independant, can be governed by local monarchs), plus New Caledonia having it's own status. No matter which territory you're born in, you're automatically a French citizen. All these territories decided through voting to stay French.

Je suis Français, et fier de l'être.

[SeigneurSidious]

I'm a french from the Caribbean islands. This ability to vote in french elections created a scandal in 2007. We have 6 hours of time difference. So the new french president (Sarkozy) had been announced in the media but people were still voting in the overseas departments. It's like our vote never mattered.
Since this incident, the overseas departments are allowed to vote 1 day before France and people can see the scores of the overseas even before the election begins in France.

[sekaihunter]

"France is WAY Bigger Than You Think!"

Vietnamese, Laos and Cambodian: Why am I having a Déjà vu?

[aname]

Imagine Tour de France across the entirety of France

[Jamesaan]

okay so France is now the country where "The Sun Never Sets"

[pedrovictorsilvaladeira]

I already knew that French Guiana was actually part of France, not an independent country. However, I never could imagine that French was so huge and had so many Islands. Really interesting.
Ah, since I'm a brasilian, I always thought interesting to imagine we are neighbors of France

[FunkAndFluff]

I love how you staged this video as if you are either:
1. Safe from France, or
2. In danger

[pupGoji]

Fun fact: in the back of the euro banknotes you can see a drawn map of the European union, and in this draw, you can find French Guiana too in the down left corner, and along with the French Guiana the are drawn a bunch of island too, which I suppose are the other french overseas territories

[JAK]

And my father was born on sovereign france but my mother was born overseas at The Reunion Island, which fwas french before the area we live next to Mont Blanc and Switzerland and believe me, Reunion inhabitants feel very french and are firmly against independance...they are french for several centuries..And we are proud of it!!!

[Toka]

As a French from one of those islands, I love this video because they understand the concept of a stellar nation and that Metropolitan France isn't France anymore. As someone who grew up being told "but it's not really France" I lost patience. This were the video isn't really right tho... Each of the part of France mentioned in the video had a referendum were the population had to vote for either independence or being fully integrated in France. It started with the war of Algeria, France decided to put a stop to the colonies on its own after the bad Algerian experience, and simply asked for the inhabitants of those places what they wanted. Saying it's not part of France is insulting the words and decisions of the people of France... Technically Islands like Réunion or Guadeloupe are more French than Hawaii is American. It's a total legislative and administrative fusion. There's no discerning it from metropolitan France as a rule but as an exception. Laws making an exception must be formulated, in the absence of said laws, the normal code applies...and none of the territories have their own set of laws.
All those territories are 100% part of Europe too, and a European citizen doesn't even need a passport to travel there - just an ID card or a driving licence will suffice.

[MrPictor]

Another fun fact : in 1958, Gabon petitioned to become a French département. President Charles de Gaulle refused and Gabon became independent in 1960.

[Antarius]

"France is closer than you think"

Me, a French who lives in France : Really ?

[brainlesscactus]

Also fun fact: France two biggest borders are not with any European nation but with Australia if you count Terre Adélie in Antartica as the biggest french border, and with Brazil as the 2nd one because of French Guyana

[Da__goat]

Fun fact: France is also home to the world’s longest domestic flight, between Paris and Reunion, taking more than 10 hours and traveling a distance greater than 5, 000 miles. Even funner fact: Despite the vast majority of the British Empire being let go in the 20th century, its actually France that has the greatest number of territorial remnants of her old Empire among all former European colonial/imperial powers. France is one of only two nations that exists across all hemispheres and has territory in every single ocean. The only other being the UK

[simonrblx]

"The sun never sets on the French Empire"
The French trying to sleep: >_<

[AshAftxn]

i'm proud of my country and the fact that other countries are getting interested in it. many people are misjudging or underestimating france because of history joke as we ''surrender'' ( when it was out national flag at the moment) but actually don't know how much we can do and how important we really are, in culture or in military, we have a huge influence.

[LordofSyn]

France never stopped playing RISK, they just stopped playing publicly.

[alexthekay]

Title: France is closer then you think
Me: "looks slowly over my shoulder"