France officially the French Republic, is a sovereign country in Western Europe that includes overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channeland the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean.
France is the largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, and the third-largest in Europe as a whole. With a total population of around 67 million, it is the third most-populous European country. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the nation's largest city and the main cultural and commercial centre. The current Constitution of France, adopted by referendum on 4 October 1958, establishes the country as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people. The nation's ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, one of the world's earliest documents on human rights, which was formulated during the seminal French Revolution of the late 18th century.
France has been a major power in Europe since the Late Middle Ages. It possessed the second-largest colonial empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This legacy is reflected in the prevalence of French language, culture, and jurisprudence worldwide. Throughout its long history, France has produced many influential artists, thinkers, and scientists, and remains prominent global centre of culture. It hosts the world's fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites, drawing around 83 million foreign tourists annually – the most of any country in the world.
French citizens enjoy a high standard of living, with the country performing well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, civil liberties, and human development. France is a founding member of the United Nations, where it serves as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a member of numerous international institutions, including Francophonie, the G8, G20, NATO, OECD, WTO, and the Latin Union. France is a founding and leading member state of the European Union.
Toulouse is the capital city of the department of Haute-Garonne, in southwestern France. It lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea and 230 km from the Atlantic Ocean, and 580 km away from Paris. With 1,202,889 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008, the Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in France, after Paris (12.1 million),Lyon (2.1 million), and Marseille (1.7 million).
Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, EADS, ATR and the Aerospace Valley, considered as a global cluster.
The city also hosts l'Oncopole de Toulouse, the largest cancer research centre in Europe, the European headquarters of Intel and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space centre in Europe.Thales Alenia Space, and Astrium Satellites, EADS's satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. Its world renowned university is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 119,000 students.
Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution), the former Visigothic Kingdom and was the capital of the historical region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the Midi-Pyrénées region, the largest region in metropolitan France.
A city with architecture typical of Southern France, Toulouse counts two UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Canal Du Midi (designated in 1996 and shared with other cities), and the Basilica of St. Sernin.
The Canal du Midi is a 241 km (150 mi) long canal in Southern France. It was originally named the Canal royal en Languedoc (Royal Canal in Languedoc) but the French revolutionaries renamed it to Canal du Midi in 1789. It was considered at the time to be one of the greatest construction works of the 17th century.
The canal connects the Garonne River to the Étang de Thau on theMediterranean and along with the 193 km (120 mi) long Canal de Garonneforms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau near the Mediterranean.
Strictly speaking, the Canal du Midi means that part initially built from Toulouse to the Mediterranean — the Deux-Mers canal project aimed to link together several sections of navigable waterways to join the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
It was the wheat trade that motivated the construction of the canal. Colbert authorized the commencement of work by a royal edict of October 1666. Under the supervision of Pierre-Paul Riquet the construction took from 1666 to 1681 during the reign of Louis XIV. The Canal du Midi is one of the oldest canals of Europe still in operation (the prototype being the Briare Canal). The challenges in these works are closely related to the challenges of river transport in modern times. The key challenge, raised by Pierre-Paul Riquet, was to convey water from the Montagne Noire (Black Mountains) to the Seuil de Naurouze, the highest point of the canal.
It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
The Pyrenees, also spelled Pyrénées, is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. It separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extends for about 491 km (305 mi) from the Bay of Biscay (Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus).
For the most part, the main crest forms a massive divider between France and Spain, with the tiny country of Andorra sandwiched in between. The Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the mountain range, with small northern portions now in France and much larger southern parts now in Spain.
The demonym for the noun "Pyrenees" in English is Pyrenean.
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