What you didn’t know about France - Interesting Facts about France

France is one of the most popular tourist destinations with its rich cultural and political heritage. A recent statistics says that nearly 82 million foreigners visit France every year. France is ranked as the seventh country in country brand index; how about knowing some interesting facts about France?

1. France is also referred as L’Hexagone as it looks like the geometrical shape hexagon; L’Hexagone means a hexagon.
2. Rivers played a major role in transportation before the introduction of railways; France has 24 rivers and majority of the metropolitan departments got their names from these rivers.

3. Verdon Gorge in France is the 2^nd largest gorge in the world; this is where Provence meets the Alps.

4. Eiffel Tower was built in the year 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for a fair; French government wanted to tear down the tower after the fair, but its popularity made them not to do so.

5. There are 1665 steps in the Eiffel Tower.

6. Visit France to know how many different varieties of cheese is available; you can find close to 1000 varieties of cheese in France.

7. In France, beer is a luxury drink while wine is served with almost every meal free. France is one of the leading producers of wine in the world.

8. The early inhabitants of France were people from Netherlands.

9. France got its independence from the monarchy on 14^th of July 1789. This day is also called as the “Bastille Day.”

10. France has bagged the most number of Nobel Prizes for Literature; it has got 13 Nobel Prizes in the field of Literature. Is this the reason why many words in English language originated from French?

11. Paris is called as the “City of lights” as it has nearly 296 illuminated sites that consist of hotels, fountains, churches, national buildings, bridges, etc.

12. It is believed that April fool’s Day originated in France. In the year 1564, France switched to Gregorian calendar and those who were not aware of this change were teased as fools on this day as they believed April 1^st to be French New Year. This tradition is now followed in almost every country.

13. We talk about human rights for almost everything these days; do you wish to know the origin of human rights? Human rights originated in France; the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” was passed on 1789.

14. Among the European countries, France has the highest wealth tax.

15. Since 1789, the form of government has been changed 9 times in France. These include 5 times Republics, 2 times Empires and 2 times Constitutional Monarchies.

Hope you enjoyed these facts! Visit http://ukhamba.web.officelive.com/InterestingFactsaboutFrance.aspx for more such interesting facts about France.