Fact – 1
Almost 90 million tourists visit France annually.
Fact – 2
The most popular tourist attraction in Paris is Disneyland Paris, not the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre.
Fact – 3
The world-famous French croissants actually come from Austria.
Fact – 4
In France, they believe that turning a baguette or any other bread upside down on the table is bad luck.
Fact – 5
The French invented the hot air balloon, the parachute, the airship, the submarine, the scuba gear, the ambulance service, photography and cinema.
Fact – 6
France bans children’s beauty pageants.
Fact – 7
There used to be a law in France forbidding women to wear trousers in public.
Fact – 8
The Louvre is considered the largest palace in the world. In total, there are about forty thousand palaces and castles in France.
Fact – 9
In France, you can get married to a dead partner. Most often this happens to legitimize children when the bride is pregnant.
Fact – 10
About 1,000 different types of cheese are produced in France.
Fact – 11
In French cities, some cafés give discounts to visitors for politeness, such as “thank you” and “please”.
Fact – 12
The French eat about 30,000 tons of snails a year.
Fact – 13
In 2016, France banned shops and supermarkets from throwing away unsold food. Since then, they have been donated to charitable societies.
Fact – 14
France is the largest country in the European Union, with an area of 551,500 square kilometers.
Fact – 15
The name of the country received from the name of the Germanic tribe of the Franks.
Fact – 16
The flag of France consists of three colors. White is the symbol of the Bourbon royal family, while blue and red are the colors of the Paris Commune. The flag combines monarchy and revolution.
Fact – 17
More people speak French on the African continent than in Europe.
Fact – 18
The French army still has carrier pigeons in case of some kind of disaster.
Fact – 19
France has 12 time zones.
Fact – 20
In France, the law prohibits a boss from contacting his employees on weekends or after hours.
Fact – 21
Sellers in France are not required to give change to buyers.
Fact – 22
In 1660, the first public transport appeared in France – carriages.
Fact – 23
Louis XIX, representative of the French Bourbon dynasty, stayed on the throne for only 20 minutes.
Fact – 24
During the war, Hitler wanted to go up to the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower to admire the occupied city. However, the French deliberately broke the elevator.
Fact – 25
In the Paris Cathedral Mosque, during the war years, Jews were secretly issued certificates of Muslim communities so that they could leave the city.
Fact – 26
Napoleon Bonaparte, in contrast to the prevailing opinion, was not a dwarf, his height was about 169 cm.
Fact – 27
The death penalty was abolished in France only in 1981.
Fact – 28
Until 1964, French women were not allowed to obtain a passport or open a bank account without the permission of their husbands.
Fact – 29
Nicotine got its name in honor of the French ambassador Jean Nicot. He brought tobacco from Portugal in 1559.
Fact – 30
The Eiffel Tower, which was built in 1889, was the tallest building for 40 years.
