Oooo LaLa!

"Remember, if there are any complaints, in France, the customer is always wrong." (from the film A Good Year)

The name "France" comes from "Frank", a Germanic tribe that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 6th century and founded the first independent kingdom covering most of today's France.

French people cheek kiss to greet each others between family and friends, even between men. The number of kisses varies according to the region, from 1 (e.g. in the tip of Brittany) to 4 (e.g. Paris and most of the North), and occasionally up to 5 in Corsica.

There are over 300 kinds of cheese made in France.

Oscar de la Renta Fall 2012

The world's first true department store was Le Bon Marché in Paris, founded by Aristide Boucicaut in 1838.

The tradition of decorating Christmas trees started in Eastern France in the 16th century (then part of Germany). Trees were then ornated with flowers and fruits (notably apples). A drought in 1858 destroyed the apple harvest, prompting a glass blower from Goetzenbruck, a Lorraine village on the Moselle, to create apple-shaped glass baubles. The practice spread quickly around Europe, and by the late 1800's the local glass factory at Goetzenbruck was manufacturing tens of thousands of baubles.

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There are some 40,000 châteaux (castles, manors, palaces...) in France.

French was the official language of England for over 300 years (from 1066 until the early 15th century). It is still the official language of 30 countries worldwide.

French people have the highest female and third highest male life expectancy in the European Union.

French people are the second biggest consumers of alcohol per capita in the Western world - after Luxembourg

There are about 2 new cooking books published every day in France.

Crêpes, one of the most popular food in Europe, originate from Brittany, in western France.

The 2003 Durex Global Sex Survey found that the French are the people who have sex the most often in a year.

Wine has been made in France since Roman times.

France is the world's leader in luxury goods, including haute couture, perfumes and cosmetics.

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