French Geography
A look at the populations, climates, and landscapes of France.
Geographical Statistics of France
France is a Western European nation bordering the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. A large, centralized country, France borders eight other European states. Its mainland is known as Metropolitan France. In addition, the nation controls Overseas France, a collection of territories including French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion. The land area of Metropolitan France covers 212,344 square miles or 549,970 square kilometers. Its total land area is 247,270 square miles or 640,427 square kilometers. Paris, its capital city, is home to around 10.843 million people, while Lyon and Marseille-Aix-en-Provence have populations of about 1 million each.
Landscapes and Climate of France
To the north, along the English channel, the landscape transitions from high coastal cliffs to central plains and farmlands. Many large rivers flow into the North Atlantic through this region, and the Rhone flows instead into the Mediterranean. France’s southern border with Italy and Switzerland is marked by the Alps, and its Mediterranean coast is largely mountainous. Its large size and position between these bodies of water gives the nation a wide range of climates. The coasts, north and south, tend toward mild winters and summers, though the Atlantic coast is colder and wetter. Inland areas see greater temperature variations, including snowy winters.
Native flora and fauna are as diverse as France’s climate. Forests of beech, oak, cork, pine, spruce, fir, and larch are common. Wilderness areas are inhabited by red deer, boar, foxes, wolves, seals, whales, beaver, and polecats, among many other species.
France, from the CIA World Factbook.
References
Haine, W. Scott. The History of France. Greenwood Press. 2000.
Hewitt, Nicholas. The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture. Cambridge University Press. 2003.
Simons, Gary F., and Charles D. Fennig. “Summary by Language Size.” Ethnologue, SIL International, www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size.
Small, Graeme. Late Medieval France. Palgrave Macmillan. 2009.
“The World Factbook: France.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 4 June 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html.
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