Tarassuk, Leonid; Blair, Claude (1982). The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms and Weapons: the most comprehensive reference work ever published on arms and armor from prehistoric times to the present with over 1,250 illustrations. Simon & Schuster. p.186. ISBN 978-0-671-42257-8 . Retrieved 5 July 2011. The name of the Franks is related to the English word frank ("free"): the latter stems from the Old French franc ("free, noble, sincere"), ultimately from Medieval Latin francus ("free, exempt from service; freeman, Frank"), a generalisation of the tribal name that emerged as a Late Latin borrowing of the reconstructed Frankish endonym * Frank. [21] [22] It has been suggested that the meaning "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation, [23] or more generally because they had the status of freemen in contrast to servants or slaves. [22]

On 10 August 1792, an angry crowd threatened the palace of Louis XVI, who took refuge in the Legislative Assembly. [60] [61] A Prussian army invaded France later in August 1792. In early September, Parisians, infuriated by the Prussian Army capturing Verdun and counter-revolutionary uprisings in the west of France, murdered between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners by raiding the Parisian prisons. The Assembly and the Paris City Council seemed unable to stop that bloodshed. [60] [62] The National Convention, chosen in the first elections under male universal suffrage, [60] on 20 September 1792 succeeded the Legislative Assembly and on 21 September abolished the monarchy by proclaiming the French First Republic. Louis XVI was convicted of treason and guillotined in January 1793. France had declared war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic in November 1792 and did the same on Spain in March 1793; in the spring of 1793, Austria and Prussia invaded France; in March, France created a " sister republic" in the " Republic of Mainz" and kept it under control. Like all European Union state members, France agreed to cut carbon emissions by at least 20% of 1990 levels by 2020, [97] compared to the United States' plan to reduce emissions by 4% of 1990 levels. [98] As of 2009 [update], French carbon dioxide emissions per capita were lower than that of China. [99] The country was set to impose a carbon tax in 2009 at 17 euros per tonne of carbon emitted, [100] which would have raised 4billion euros of revenue annually. [101] However, the plan was abandoned due to fears of burdening French businesses. [102] France generally has a positive reputation regarding LGBT rights. [136] Since 1999, civil unions for homosexual couples have been permitted, and since 2013, same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption are legal. [137] Laws prohibiting discriminatory speech in the press are as old as 1881. Some consider hate speech laws in France to be too broad or severe, undermining freedom of speech. [138] French cuisine is renowned for being one of the finest in the world. [376] [377] Different regions have different styles. In the North, butter and cream are common ingredients, whereas olive oil is more commonly used in the South. [378] Each region of France has traditional specialties: cassoulet in the Southwest, choucroute in Alsace, quiche in the Lorraine region, beef bourguignon in Burgundy, provençal tapenade, etc. France is most famous for its wines, [379] and cheeses, which are often named for the territory where they are produced ( AOC). [380] [381] A meal typically consists of three courses, entrée (starter), plat principal (main course), and fromage (cheese) or dessert, sometimes with a salad served before the cheese or dessert. See also: List of national parks of France, Regional natural parks of France, and Climate change in Francea b c "Bilan démographique 2022 – Composantes de la croissance démographique, France". Insee. 17 January 2023 . Retrieved 27 January 2022. France is a secular country in which freedom of religion is a constitutional right. French religious policy is based on the concept of laïcité, a strict separation of church and state under which public life is kept completely secular. The exception to this is the region of Alsace and Moselle where Lutheranism, Catholicism and Judaism enjoy official status and state funding. The official language of France is French, [275] a Romance language derived from Latin. Since 1635, the Académie française has been France's official authority on the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal weight. There are also regional languages spoken in France, such as Occitan, Breton, Catalan, Flemish ( Dutch dialect), Alsatian (German dialect), Basque, and Corsican (Italian dialect). Italian was the official language of Corsica until 9 May 1859. [276] Rex, Richard (2014). Tudors: The Illustrated History. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-4403-5– via Google Books.

France uses a civil legal system, wherein law arises primarily from written statutes; [87] judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it (though the amount of judicial interpretation in certain areas makes it equivalent to case law in a common law system). Basic principles of the rule of law were laid in the Napoleonic Code (which was, in turn, largely based on the royal law codified under Louis XIV). In agreement with the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the law should only prohibit actions detrimental to society. As Guy Canivet, first president of the Court of Cassation wrote about the management of prisons: "Freedom is the rule, and its restriction is the exception; any restriction of Freedom must be provided for by Law and must follow the principles of necessity and proportionality." That is, Law should lay out prohibitions only if they are needed, and if the inconveniences caused by this restriction do not exceed the inconveniences that the prohibition is supposed to remedy. Originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or "realm of the Franks". [20] Modern France is still named today Francia in Italian and Spanish, while Frankreich in German, Frankrijk in Dutch and Frankrike in Swedish and Norwegian all mean "Land/realm of the Franks". Clovis I was the first Germanic conqueror after the fall of the Roman Empire to convert to Catholic Christianity, rather than Arianism; thus France was given the title "Eldest daughter of the Church" ( French: La fille aînée de l'Église) by the papacy, [42] and French kings would be called "the Most Christian Kings of France" ( Rex Christianissimus). Main article: Cinema of France A Palme d'Or from the Cannes Film Festival, one of the " Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival [350] [351] [352]a b c Jean Carpentier (dir.), François Lebrun (dir.), Alain Tranoy, Élisabeth Carpentier et Jean-Marie Mayeur (préface de Jacques Le Goff), Histoire de France, Points Seuil, coll. " Histoire ", Paris, 2000 (1re éd. 1987), p. 17 ISBN 978-2-02-010879-9 French Guiana is in South America; Guadeloupe and Martinique are in the Caribbean Sea; and Réunion and Mayotte are in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. All five are considered integral parts of the French Republic. France also comprises Saint Pierre and Miquelon in North America; Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin in the Caribbean; French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean; and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. French artists developed the rococo style in the 18th century, as a more intimate imitation of the old baroque style, the works of the court-endorsed artists Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard being the most representative in the country. The French Revolution brought great changes, as Napoleon favoured artists of neoclassic style such as Jacques-Louis David and the highly influential Académie des Beaux-Arts defined the style known as Academism. Contemporary period (1946–present) Charles de Gaulle, a hero of World War I, leader of the Free French during World War II, and President of France Around 125 BC, the south of Gaul was conquered by the Romans, who called this region Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), which over time evolved into the name Provence in French. [34] Julius Caesar conquered the remainder of Gaul and overcame a revolt carried out by the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix in 52 BC. [35] Gaul was divided by Augustus into Roman provinces. [36] Many cities were founded during the Gallo-Roman period, including Lugdunum (present-day Lyon), which is considered the capital of the Gauls. [36]

Etat des lieux de la laïcité en France – 2021" (PDF) (official statistics) (in French). Observatoire de la laïcité, Government of France.In addition to .fr, several other Internet TLDs are used in French overseas départements and territories: .re, .mq, .gp, .tf, .nc, .pf, .wf, .pm, .gf and .yt. France also uses .eu, shared with other members of the European Union. The .cat domain is used in Catalan-speaking territories. Around 390 BC, the Gallic chieftain Brennus and his troops made their way to Roman Italy through the Alps, defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Allia, and besieged and ransomed Rome. [31] The Gallic invasion left Rome weakened, and the Gauls continued to harass the region until 345 BC when they entered into a formal peace treaty with Rome. [32] But the Romans and the Gauls would remain adversaries for the next centuries, and the Gauls would continue to be a threat in Italy. [33] Crémieux-Br Doyle, William (1989). The Oxford History of The French Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp.191–192.

See also: France in the long nineteenth century and History of France (1900–present) Napoleon, Emperor of the French, built a vast empire across Europe. [64] The current Constitution of France does not specify a national emblem. [1] The lictor's fasces is very often used to represent the French Republic, although today it holds no official status. [2] In addition to the coat of arms, France also uses a different emblem for diplomatic and consular purposes. During the 9th and 10th centuries, continually threatened by Viking invasions, France became a very decentralised state: the nobility's titles and lands became hereditary, and the authority of the king became more religious than secular and thus was less effective and constantly challenged by powerful noblemen. Thus was established feudalism in France. Over time, some of the king's vassals would grow so powerful that they often posed a threat to the king. For example, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror added "King of England" to his titles, becoming both the vassal to (as Duke of Normandy) and the equal of (as king of England) the king of France, creating recurring tensions. Gothic architecture, originally named Opus Francigenum meaning "French work", [313] was born in Île-de-France and was the first French style of architecture to be imitated throughout Europe. [314] Northern France is the home of some of the most important Gothic cathedrals and basilicas, the first of these being the Saint Denis Basilica (used as the royal necropolis); other important French Gothic cathedrals are Notre-Dame de Chartres and Notre-Dame d'Amiens. The kings were crowned in another important Gothic church: Notre-Dame de Reims. [315]Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a gathering spot for artists from across Europe and the world. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland ( Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina ( Gaspar Noé, Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia ( Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria ( Michael Haneke) and Georgia ( Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur or Francis Veber in the United States. Although the French film market is dominated by Hollywood, France is the only nation in the world where American films make up the smallest share of total film revenues, at 50%, compared with 77% in Germany and 69% in Japan. [359] French films account for 35% of the total film revenues of France, which is the highest percentage of national film revenues in the developed world outside the United States, compared to 14% in Spain and 8% in the UK. [359] In 2013 France was the second greatest exporter of films in the world, after the United States. [360] France has a close association with the Modern Olympic Games; it was a French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who suggested the Games' revival, at the end of the 19th century. [395] [396] After Athens was awarded the first Games, in reference to the Olympics' Greek origins, Paris hosted the second Games in 1900. [397] Paris was the first home of the International Olympic Committee, before it moved to Lausanne. [398] Since 1900, France has hosted the Olympics on 4 further occasions: the 1924 Summer Olympics, again in Paris [396] and three Winter Games ( 1924 in Chamonix, 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville). [396] Similar to the Olympics, France introduced Olympics for the deaf people (Deaflympics) in 1924 with the idea of a French deaf car mechanic, Eugène Rubens-Alcais who paved the way to organise the inaugural edition of the Summer Deaflympics in Paris. [399]