France – The Facts
- Full name: French Republic
- Population: 61.6 million (UN, 2007)
- Capital: Paris
- Area: 543,965 sq km (210,026 sq miles)
- Major language: French
- Major religion: Christianity
- Life expectancy: 77 years (men), 84 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents
- Main exports: Machinery and transport equipment, agricultural products, including wine
- GNI per capita: US $34,810 (World Bank, 2006)
- Internet domain: .fr
- International dialling code: +33
- President: Nicolas Sarkozy
- Prime minister: Francois Fillon
- The press
- Le Monde - respected national daily, considered to be France's newspaper of record
- Liberation - national daily, founded in 1973 by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, centre-left leaning
- Le Figaro - national daily, centre-right leaning
- Ouest France - Rennes-based; France's best-selling daily
- L'Express - news weekly
- Le Point - news weekly
- Television
- France 2 - national, main public TV network
- France 3 - national, public
- France 5 - national, public, educational
- TF1 - national, commercial
- M6 - national, commercial
- La Chaine Info - rolling news
- France 24 - global news channel, owned by public broadcaster and TF1; services in
- French, English, Arabic
- TV5 Monde - international French-language TV, with programmes from French, Belgian,
- Swiss and Canadian public broadcasters
- Canal Plus - national, subscription channel
- Radio
- Radio France - operates national and regional outlets, including speech-based France Inter and all-news France Info
- Radio France Internationale (RFI) - international broadcaster, via shortwave and FM relays worldwide
- Europe 1 - major commercial station, news and entertainment
- RTL - major commercial station, speech and music
- NRJ - commercial, leading hit music network
- Links
