Top 10 Most Interesting Facts About France

Here is the collection of Top 10 Most Amazing Facts About France :-

1. France Is The Most-Visited Country In The World 

France was visited by 89 million total foreign tourists in 2018, the most of any country in the world. France has 45 sites inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities or sites of high cultural interest, beaches and seaside resorts. The most popular tourist sites include Notre-Dame de Paris, Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, Centre Pompidou, Musée d'Orsay, Musée du quai Branly, Arc de Triomphe and Mont Saint-Michel. France is a beautiful country that boasts of spectacular cities with picturesque topography, colourful culture, free-spirited people and delectable cuisine.










2. France Has The Largest Art Museum 

The Louvre is the world's largest museum. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. The Louvre attracted approximately 8 million visitors, making it the most visited museum worldwide. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci and the Venus de Milo. 

The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings. The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre exhibits sculptures, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds.










3. France has the Most Time Zones in the World

France actually has 12 different times zones due to its various territories around the world. Surprisingly, France is a tiny country compared to Russia and the United States, which have 11 time zones each. France, including its overseas territories, has the most time zones with 12 and if we include its claim on Antarctica, it has 13. The main part of the country, France métropolitaine, which lies in central Europe and includes the capital Paris, spans only 1 time zone. When Saint Pierre and Miquelon observes Daylight Saving Time, it even adds a 13th local time to the count.

These time zones are:

UTC−10:00 — most of French Polynesia
UTC−09:30 — Marquesas Islands
UTC−09:00 — Gambier Islands
UTC−08:00 — Clipperton Island
UTC−04:00 (AST) — Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin
UTC−03:00 (PMST) — French Guiana, Saint Pierre and Miquelon
UTC+01:00 (CET) — Metropolitan France
UTC+03:00 — Mayotte
UTC+04:00 — Réunion
UTC+05:00 — Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands
UTC+11:00 — New Caledonia
UTC+12:00 — Wallis and Futuna

The above time zone is used during other parts of the year. It will become active again after the next clock change as Daylight Saving Time begins or ends. Only the European part of France and the collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon use Daylight Saving Time.











4. Supermarkets In France Can’t Throw Away Food

France became the first country to pass a national regulation specifically against food waste in 2016. That means, supermarkets were forbidden to destroy unsold food products and were compelled to donate it instead to charities and food banks. In December a bill on the issue passed through the national assembly, having been introduced by the former food industry minister Guillaume Garot.

The law follows a grassroots campaign in France by shoppers, anti-poverty campaigners and those opposed to food waste. The campaign, which led to a petition, was started by the councillor Arash Derambarsh. Charities will be able to give out millions more free meals each year to people struggling to afford to eat. This law constituted the starting point of the fight against food waste through banning its destruction and facilitating donation. That effort earned a lot of attention resulting in a top ranking in the 2017 Food Sustainability Index.










5. The French Army Invented Camouflage

Concealment and deception have always had some part in warfare. The use of aerial reconnaissance made it easier to detect troops both on and behind the front lines. Armies needed to find new ways to hide from, observe and deceive enemy forces. Camouflage was first developed in France in 1914 by artist Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola and others. The word 'camouflage' came from the French verb meaning 'to make up for the stage'. Guns and vehicles were painted by artists called camofleurs. In 1915, the French Army became the first to create a dedicated camouflage unit.

As early as August 1914, militaries hid their guns under branches and canvases painted in hues matching their natural surroundings so as to avoid detection by the enemy. They had artillery-men wear earth-coloured coats that allowed them to blend into the landscape. Following the experiments and demonstrations carried out by a small group of artists, the minister of war was convinced of the technique’s effectiveness and officially established a Camouflage Section on 14 August 1915. Scévola was appointed commander in chief and Jean-Louis Forain inspector general. The following year the British Army established its own camouflage section under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Wyatt followed by Americans.










6. The world’s first artificial heart transplant and face transplant both took place in France

The first implantation of its artificial heart in a 75-year-old patient was performed on 18 December 2013. The implant operation was performed on Wednesday at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. An artificial heart may give patients up to five years of extra life. The artificial heart, designed by French biomedical firm Carmat. It is powered by lithium ion batteries that can be worn externally. The device is three times the weight of a real organ. It is designed to replace the real heart over the long run, mimicking nature’s work using biological materials and sensors.










7. The French Eat 25,000 Tons Of Snails Each Year

French are the world's biggest snail eaters, with the Portuguese lagging behind them. They eat 25000 tonnes of snails a year. It is almost 7 million snails in total. Snails are not at all exclusive to France. It is also eaten in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Great Britain. It is consumed in Asia, too. The dish is a favorite delicacy among the French. Such is the popularity of this delicacy that there’s even a special day to honor it – the National Escargot Day, celebrated every 24th of May. Snails are called as “escargot” in France. These edible land snails are often served in their shells as an appetizer.

There are two in every three snails consumed in France. In France, you can buy snails in cans, with a carton of empty shells attached and even plates to serve them on. All the major edible snail species have always thrived in the French countryside. They became an extra food source that was important for survival and adaptation of ancient humans from this side of the world. Its popularity among in France just kept on growing until the modern era. Most of eastern Europe and the Balkans supply two-thirds of snails in France. The snail industry in this part of Europe has flourished. Poland and Hungary make a big market for French. The French market made this industry grow in the region.










8. Europe’s highest mountain is Mont Blanc in the French Alps

Mont Blanc highest mountain in Europe. It is located along the French-Italian border and reaches into Switzerland. Mont Blanc is situated in the east of the French département of Haute-Savoie where France, Switzerland and Italy meet. This awe-inspiring mountain, meaning literally “White Mountain” in French. Its summit rises 4,810.45 m above sea level, between the French and Italian towns of Chamonix and Courmayeur. It extends southwestward from Martigny, Switzerland, for about 40 km and has a maximum width of 16 km. The summit is in French territory. The majestic Mont Blanc towers are so much higher than the surrounding mountains that it stands out. Glaciers cover approximately 100 square km of Mont Blanc. Surrounding the massif are the Graian Alps on south, the Chamonix Valley and Savoy Alps on west, the Pennine Alps on northeast, and the Valley of Courmayeur on east.












9. France Had A King – That Lasted Only 20 Minutes

Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was disputedly King of France and Navarre for less than 20 minutes. Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was the elder son of Charles X of France and the last Dauphin of France from 1824 to 1830. In July 1830, Louis-Antoine of France the last “Dauphin”, or heir apparent ascended the French throne as King Louis XIX, succeeding his father, Charles X. His father abdicated the throne on August 2nd, 1830, at the demand of protestors, Louis-Antoine became Louis XIX, King of France and Navarre. His reign only lasted 20 minutes, after which he too gave in to demands to abdicate the throne. Louis-Antoine also had also abdicated, making him the joint shortest reigning monarch in history. He shares the record with the unfortunate Crown Prince Luís Filipe of Portugal, who technically became King of Portugal.












10. France Invented A System Of Measurement

Measurement is one of the most important developments in human history, affecting everything from engineering to international trade to political systems. Imagine a world where every time you travelled you had to use different conversions for measurements, as we do for currency. World was facing same problem before the French Revolution in the late 18th Century. That time weights and measures varied not only from nation to nation, but also within nations. In France alone, 250,000 different units of weights and measures were in use during the Ancien Régime. The French Revolution changed all that. Metric System was created in France and it is the official system of measurement for every country in the world except three: the United States, Liberia and Myanmar.

During French revolution, the revolutionaries sought not only to overturn politics by taking power away from the monarchy and the church, but also to fundamentally alter society by overthrowing old traditions and habits. Existing system of measures had become impractical for trade, and was replaced by a decimal system based on the kilogram and the metre. The basic units were taken from the natural world. The unit of length, the metre, was based on the dimensions of the Earth, and the unit of mass, the kilogram, was based on the mass of a volume of water of one litre. Reference copies for both units were manufactured in platinum and remained the standards of measure for the next 90 years. The French government officially adopted the system in 1795.