Intro to La FranceReading about France online and in travel books and brochures will not adequately prepare you for the amazing experience this country can bestow upon travellers.
Mostly, thinking about France leaves the average traveller open to a range of stereotypical images of the Eiffel Tower, croissants, chateaus, the Tour de France and wine, but dig a little deeper and the true treasure of this medieval country is revealed.
Situated on Europe’s western seaboard, France is one of the cultural capitals of the world. It shares borders with seven other countries, has lengthy coastlines on three of the six edges of its hexagonal shape and mountainous borders on two others.
Its capital, Paris, is regarded as the most beautiful and culturally rich city by many - an opinion supported by the vast numbers who visit annually. In fact, Paris is most visited place on the globe, attracting millions of tourists annually.
France is one fourteenth the size of Australia, yet its population, nearing 60 million, triples ours. This equates to a population density 42 times our own.
Don’t let this figure misguide you - France is anything but overpopulated.
It has such a diverse range of landscapes and urban and rural settings all within reach of one another, whether it be by TGV on one of the worlds leading train systems or in a car on the arteries of freeways that complete an excellent transport infrastructure.
So if skiing the Alps, hiking in the Pyrenees, catching a tube at Biarritz, stargazing at Cannes, chancing your hand at Monte Carlo, eyeballing art at Le Louvre, pedalling up L’Alpe d’Huez, paying homage at La Somme, sampling a pinot noir in Saint Emilion, degusting foie gras in l’Aveyron, making acquaintance with Marie Curie in her Parisian museum, visiting Airbus in Toulouse, sipping champagne in Reims, splashing perfume on in Provence, guzzling Perrier at Roland Garros, retracing Catharian footsteps in Carcassonne, being a cheeseeater in Normandy, slaying bulls in Bayonne, being nice in Nice or looking slim in Nimes tickles your fancy, get to France.
 Someone was once famously quoted as saying that “France would be a fantastic place to live if it weren’t for the French”.
This perception of the French is shared by many, but anyone who has spent any significant period of time there would strongly contest it. The negativity surely emanates from Paris where locals are frustrated by the sheer numbers of tourists that flock to the city.
Parisians are not particularly keen to share their precious jewel with the influx of foreigners and tend to give the cold shoulder to anyone speaking a language other than français. Hostility towards the English tends to remain even though the Hundred Years’ War ended some 550 years ago.
The hexagon that is France is split into 22 regions (there exists four further regions off the mainland) which are in turn divided into sub regions called départements. France is composed of 100 départements.
For example, the city of Toulouse is in the département of Haute Garonne, which is in the Midi Pyrenees region. An interesting anecdote is that the last two digits on every French number plate indicate the department the car is from.
To call on la ville rose in another example, all Toulousain number plates are concluded by the number 31. This number plate numerical fact has several benefits. The most notable being the opportunity for motorists to include an insult upon the town of the driver who cuts them off.
Most French people can name towns for all 100 numbers, arming them nicely for all incidents of road rage. They rarely use the horn, preferring to show their departmental knowledge to fellow passengers with a fiery slur upon the offending driver’s village.
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