90+ reasons why we love France
Reasons 1-30
- For taking Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité to heart or at least continually making strides with those principles in mind. Liberté: One of the first countries to legislate inter sex marriage. Egalité: parity, equal numbers of female and male members in government; gender balanced tickets for municipal elections; in 2017 a record nearly 40% women elected to the Assemblée Nationale. Fraternité: French non governmental organizations, financed generously by the French people, abound and are known throughout the world such as Medecins sans Frontières (aka The French Doctors or Doctors without borders).
- For the founder of the FBI: Charles Joseph Bonaparte was the great nephew of Napoleon I.
- For word games. The French language lends itself to word games very nicely. So many options in Scrabble and Ruzzle and great tongue twisters based on homonyms such as: Il était une fois, un homme de foi qui vendait du foie dans la ville de Foix. Il dit ma foi, c’est la dernière fois que je vends du foie dans la ville de Foix. Choisis six cents chouchous et si ces six cents chouchous sont chouettes choisis-en six cents autres!
- For festivals of all sorts: Fest-Noz in Brittany, Féria in Arles, The Festival d’Avignon, Carnaval in Nice, Lemon festival in Menton, the Bordeaux wine festival, the Kites and wind festival in Berck-sur-Mer…
Pink Flamingos in the Camargue
- For her special places for birds: Ma Marquenterre, La Camargue, Le Lac du Der, Les Iles Chaussey, Ile de Ré, Corsica, Belle-Ile…
- For its shape – the Hexagon, not many other countries can claim a distinguishable shape that becomes a nickname (Italy of course looks like a boot and according to travel guru Rick Steves Slovenia looks like a running chicken, but I can’t think of any others with particular shapes.)
- For appreciation of cheese. Cheese is a course with each evening meals. Only a Greek eats more cheese than a French person. We know there are many, many types of cheeses available in France. «How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?» wondered Charles de Gaulle in 1962. In fact today’s leaders have an even bigger task as the number of varieties is actually closer to 1000 with 450 new cheeses on the market in 2014 alone according to the Figaro Magazine. (English wikipedia says 350-450, French wikipedia says 1000 and yet another site says 1600). Read more
- For love of sausage. There are nearly as many types of sausage as cheese.
- For picturesque villages and provincial cities with competitions and official labels awarded each year to choose the “town preferred by the French”, “the most beautiful villages in France”… There is even a television show hosted by Stephane Bern
Fireworks over Arles
- For fireworks – France has some of the most wonderful fireworks displays put on by two master French fireworks companies Groupe F and Ruggieri. You can see displays on the 14th of July of course but also at such events at the Féria of Arles, summertime weekend shows at Versailles and in September at the annual Le Grand Feu at the Domaine de Saint Cloud near Paris, which is the largest fireworks show in Europe.
- For sending the first cat in space was a French cat named « Felicette » (a.k.a.Astrocat) in 1963.
- Because France is also beautiful when seen from the sky just ask astronaut Thomas Pesquet who became the French chouchou of space, sending beautiful photos of Earth from above back to us on social media. His photos alone will make you love France as will those of Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
- For famous people who are not just glamorous stars, but creators, environmentalists, thinkers: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Pierre de Coubertin, Les Frères Lumière, Louis Pasteur, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Molière, Edith Piaf, Jules Verne, Gustave Eiffel, Brigitte Bardot, Claude Monet, Françoise Dolto
- For daily fresh bread. With one boulangerie for every 1800 Inhabitants we are spoiled.
- For patisseries. The best in the world. Creative, delicious, elegant and distinctive. Check out the magnificent “fruit cakes” which are sculpted look exactly like a strawberry or an apple by Cedric Grolet
- For the varied and even unusual faces in French show-biz. Personalities have a wide variety of looks, odd shaped mouths, bulbous noses, gaps between their teeth (which are called lucky teeth), plenty of “imperfections”. Many are not particularly physically attractive at all : Gérard Dépardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Serge Gainsbourg, Emmanuelle Béart, Nagi, Coluche, Yvette Horner, Agnès Varda, Vanessa Paradis, but oh how they are loved!
- For indispensable help during the American Revolution. For the writers of the Enlightenment who inspired Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and other American Founding Fathers while in Paris. And of course the financial and military support of France during the war.
- For the French language – once the language of the courts all over Europe and Russia – the lovely lilting, sexy sounds baffle even the French themselves when written. French was officialized as the language of France by an addendum to the constitution only in 1992.
- For the continued expansion of the French language. The number of French speakers grows as African populations continue to grow. 274 million people speak French. French is one of or the exclusive official language in 29 countries and spoken but not official in 8 others. French is also the official language of The United Nations, UNESCO, NATO, the Olympic Committee, The International Red Cross and the international courts.
- For the origins of some of the most popular American sensations: The Village People, the song My Way, Rin Tin Tin
- For French film and the Cannes Film Festival
- For liberal conservatives: the separation of church and state is clear, the death penalty, abortion, universal health care, free and equal education through university level are all anchored even in the conservative platform.
- For a gazillion rond points / traffic circles. To drive 5 kilometers to our local shopping area there are no fewer than 10 traffic circles. They make traffic fluid most of the time, but sometimes you feel kind of dizzy. Some have some pleasant art or gardens in their centers. But if you miss your turn there is nothing like having a second chance to get it right thanks to a rond point to allow you to circle around again (and again) to re-read all the signs
Cirque du Gavarnie
- For mountains. There are five mountain ranges in France to provide great skiing. Ski towns are way up the mountain with incredible lifts and cable cars to give access to the glaciers of Mount Blanc and others. In the summer the same lifts allow hiking at the very top. Then there is the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrénées with its 10 waterfalls.
- For health care: excellent care at a reasonable price and insurance that is affordable. For ambulances. Different than first responders, medical taxis or ambulances offer transportation to those who cannot get to medical appointments and treatments on their own. Patients who must remain prone or under surveillance ride in ambulances, whereas other ride in regular taxis. Often the transportation is paid for by social security. For pharmacies. Just walk in with your problem and the pharmacist will help you find a solution.
- For their centuries old love/hate relationship with the British and a little more recent one with Americans.
- For a sane system of Presidential elections: every 5 years with 2 rounds of voting and a campaign financing system allowing for a wide variety of candidates and reasonable spending.
- For a plethora of civil honors: the Légion d’honneur, the Academie française, Médaille de la Famille Française which originally was created to honor mothers of big families can now also be awarded to fathers (Egalité!), medal Hommage à Centenaire for the residents of Boulogne-Billancourt who turn 100. And of course burial in the Pantheon.
Viaduc du MIllau
- For the Viaduc de Millau: the tallest bridge in the world with one mast’s summit at 343m (1,125ft) above the base of the structure. And it is breath-taking too.
- For chickens and beehives in the center of Paris in parks and on rooftops
Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister in the early 20th century, once said: « English is just badly pronounced French. »