France
France is along Western Europe, is also has a number of overseas islands and territories based amongst other countries. This means that metropolitan France is surround by a number of sea's and oceans including; the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel, the North Sea, along to the Rhine which then connects to the Atlantic Ocean.
Metropolitan France is the part of France which is located in England, which is boarded by a number of countries including Spain, Luxembourg, Italy and Germany. France is also linked to the UK by the Channel tunnel which passes underneath the English Channel; all of this makes France the largest country within the European Union and the second largest within Europe.
France has always been a very powerful country with its own strong economy, military backing alongside its strong cultural and political beliefs. During the 19th and early 20th century France built largest empires - to be exact the second largest empire of all time, this included large areas of Central Africa and also North, West, Southeast Africa and part of the Pacific Islands. They were able to do this due to them being the fifth largest economy by GDP. France also posses the largest number of nuclear weapons in the EU and the third largest Worldwide.
France has a number of beautiful villages, all of which have their own special qualities that attract a high number of tourists. France is also known for its number of extremely famous and popular site, take a read through our list below on some o the most popular;
The Eiffel Tower - not only is the Eiffel Tower Frances most popular tourist attraction, but it is one of the world most popular and famous attractions too. The tower was built in 1889 and hits a massive 324 metres tall, it took 50 engineers, and designers to produce 5,300 drawings and more than 100 workers building 18,000 different parts of the tower. Since then the tower now has 240 restaurants within it and can also connect to a number of TV channels and radio stations. The tower is also the centre of a number of events including the Tour de France, it is also the centre of many record breaking tricks including Hugues Richard setting his first record in 1998 climbing the town on his mountain bike and later beating it in 2002. In recent times in 2007 the tower welcomed a 240 square pool in the foot of the tower. The Tower is also famous for its stunning illuminations and has been involved in a number of famous lighting displays!
Disneyland Paris - Disneyland Paris is one the best and most popular parks in the world spread over 500 acres made up for fun, adventure and entertainment for all the family. Disneyland had been going since April 12th 1992 and is located in Marne-la-Vallee on the eastern suburbs of Paris, just 32 km from the centre of Paris. It is made up of two theme parks, a shopping centre, entertainment area, hotels and dining restaurants. In 2008 it welcomed a huge 15.3 million visitors through its gates making it one of Europe's leading tourist attractions. The second theme park in Disneyland Paris was opened in March 2006 and is called the Walt Disney Studios Park; this helped the resort to get named the most visited attraction in 2008.
Louvre Museum in Paris - the Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world, and is often referred to as the greatest art museums in the world as is contains a number of pieces from the Middle ages, and various other time period. Within the Louvre Museum visitors will be able to see the very famous paint of Mona Lisa by Leonardo de Vinci! The museum was built in the 12th century, on the Right Bank of the Seine and contains round 35,000 objects from prehistoric to the 19th century amongst the 60,600 square metres. The museum was opened on the 10th August 1793 with 537 paintings in it, however due to the problems with the Louvre's structure it had to be closed in 1796 to 1801, the collection then increase under Napoleon and the museum's name was even changed to Musee Napoleon however his defeat at Waterloo meant that a number of the piece's were seized and returned to their original owners. Now in 2008 the collection is divided among eight departments;
o Painting and drawings.
o Decorative arts.
o Islamic arts.
o Sculpture.
o Greek.
o Etruscan and Roman antiquities.
o Near Eastern antiquities.
o Egyptian antiquities.
Tourism