History, geography, and culture

1789 — French Revolution. Storming of the Bastille (July 14). King Louis XVI was in power. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted.

1848 — Definitive abolition of slavery.

1881-1882 — Jules Ferry makes school free, secular, and compulsory.

1905 — Law separating Churches and State (laïcité).

1914-1918 — World War I. Armistice: November 11, 1918 (public holiday).

1939-1945 — World War II. The Shoah: genocide of European Jews by the Nazis.

1957 — Creation of the EEC (European Economic Community).

1958 — Charles de Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic. He was its first President.

1981 — Abolition of the death penalty.

France has had 5 Republics in total.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) was an emperor, not a king or president. He modernized the administration and created the Civil Code.

Capital: Paris (on the continent of Europe).

Seas/Oceans: Atlantic Ocean (west), Mediterranean Sea (south), and the English Channel (north).

Mountains: The Alps (France-Italy border) and the Pyrenees (France-Spain).

Rivers: the Seine, the Loire, the Rhône, and the Garonne.

Key cities: Lyon, Marseille (port), Nice (Mediterranean), Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lille.

Corsica: an island in the Mediterranean Sea.

13 metropolitan regions, 101 departments.

Overseas departments (DOM): Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte.

Writers: Molière (17th c. playwright), Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire (19th c. poet), George Sand (19th c. female writer), Albert Camus (Nobel Prize), Simone de Beauvoir (feminist philosopher), Jean de La Fontaine (fables).

Painters: Paul Cézanne (post-impressionist), Marc Chagall (Russian-born, lived in France).

Performers: Édith Piaf (singer), Joséphine Baker (American-born artist and Resistance fighter who became French).

Landmarks: The Louvre (largest art museum in Paris), the Eiffel Tower (Paris).

Holidays: Christmas = December 25th.