France

Hello everyone, here we are at Monday again and this week we are still in Western Europe with the country many people consider the country of love, France.

It is a country that includes medieval cities, beaches and alpine villages. It is known for its fashion houses, awesome museums and the Eiffel Tower, oh and of course its wines and what some call a sophisticated cuisine, just to name a few things. Although this Aussie gal doesn’t think of snails and frog legs as sophisticated, they are more on the gross side for me.

The capital is Paris, it has a population of around 68 million it was founded on the 10 Aug 843AD.

The currency is the Euro since 2002 before that it was the Franc.

The flag is a vertical tricolour flag with blue, white and red which has been around since the 15 February 1794, however, in 1976 a lighter version of it was adopted.

It has a unitary and semi-presidential system of government which consists of an executive branch, a legislative branch and a judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the president. A semi-presidential republic also know as a dual executive republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet.

It is the Prime Minister of France through the government and parliament that overseas much of the nation’s day to day domestic affairs. The President wields significant influence and authority in the fields of national security and foreign policy.  

The country has problems with terrorist attacks and the national terror warning is at its highest level, and of course there is crime in France as in every country.

Since 1495 France as played a part in around 130 wars.