Weather in dordogne valley in may series#

It remains a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a developed country with the world's seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and tenth-largest by PPP. It hosts the fifth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.įrance retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science and philosophy. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Following liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. It was among the Allied powers of World War II but was soon occupied by the Axis in 1940.

France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at a great human and economic cost. Subsequent decades saw a period of optimism, cultural and scientific flourishing, as well as economic prosperity, known as the Belle Époque. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured a tumultuous succession of governments until the founding of the French Third Republic during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of European and world history. This precipitated the French Revolution of 1789, which overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day.įrance reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating much of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. Inadequate economic policies, inequitable taxes and frequent wars (notably a defeat in the Seven Years' War and costly involvement in the American War of Independence) left the kingdom in a precarious economic situation by the end of the 18th century. France again emerged as Europe's dominant power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following the Thirty Years' War. The second half of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots that severely weakened the country. The French Renaissance saw art and culture flourish, conflict with the House of Habsburg, and the establishment of a French colonial empire, which by the 20th century would become the second-largest in the world.

Weather in dordogne valley in may series#

From the mid-14th to the mid-15th century, France was plunged into a series of dynastic conflicts involving England, collectively known as the Hundred Years' War, and a distinct French identity emerged as a result. Philip II successfully strengthened royal power and defeated his rivals to double the size of the crown lands by the end of his reign, France had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but highly decentralised feudal kingdom.

The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987. The Germanic Franks formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language. Inhabited by archaic humans since the Paleolithic era, the territory of Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron Age by Celtic tribes known as Gauls.

France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Nice. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km 2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. The CIA reports the total as 643,801 km 2 (248,573 sq mi).įrance ( French: ), officially the French Republic (French: République française ), is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Adding these give the total shown here for the entire French Republic. Source gives area of metropolitan France as 551,500 km 2 (212,900 sq mi) and lists overseas regions separately, whose areas sum to 89,179 km 2 (34,432 sq mi).