Life-Style and Culture in France
With at least 80 million tourists visiting in a year, France is the most visited country in the world and one of the very few countries that have more visitors annually than its population.
France is heralded as one of the cultural havens of Europe and its people are very fascinating to watch.
There are 28 categories of sites in France listed in the UNESCO World Heritage list, these include 3 cathedrals, 4 abbeys, 8 historic cities, as well as numerous belfries, castles, and palaces.
French people are world leaders when it comes to politics, education, art, science, and technology. They created their own internet in the 1980s called ‘Minitel’. Originally created to function as a telephone directory by but rapidly became useful in more areas like banking, stock exchange, weather reports, travel reservations, university applications, and lots more.
April Fool’s Day in France is apparently a huge deal that dates back to the 16th century, it is not surprising that on this day, children run around pasting paper cut-outs of fish drawings on the back of unsuspecting adults.
This started many years ago when Charles XIV of France changed the calendar and people still who continued celebrating the end of March as the end of the new year were laughed at and made fun of.
French people are very superstitious and have some unusual beliefs for example, French wives must not iron their spouse's underwear whilst wearing a belt because it would most likely lead said spouse suffering kidney pain.
Also, French people move their tables first when moving into a new house, for good luck. For the same reason, women wear polka dot dresses on the first day of the new year.
There are many more superstitious French beliefs that are still practiced in different regions until today.
France’s flag has three equal vertical bands of blue (right panel), white (middle panel), and red (left panel), all known as the French tricolor. The origin dates to 1790 during the French Revolution when the ancient French color of white was combined with the red and blue colors of the city of Paris. The city of Paris is the most visited city in the world thanks to its art, culture, history, beauty, architecture and of course, The Eiffel Tower.
Famous French inventions include the adding machine, the hot air balloon, the airship, the parachute, the submarine, the ambulance van, photography, animation, cinema, braille writing for the blind, margarine, the Grand Prix racing, and the first public interactive computer.
The French government gives the medal of the ‘French Family’ to citizens who have successfully raised several children with dignity. The medal is divided into bronze, silver, and gold categories depending on the number of children, going from 4 to 8.
French people love cheese and the country produces approximately a billion tonnes of cheese per year in around 1,200 varieties.
Almost 50% of the country eats cheese on a daily basis, the French are also known for their love of ‘Escargot’ which is cooked land snails, they eat approximately 30,000 tonnes of snails a year.
French people love pastry, chocolate, and wine and are known for romance and chivalry. French cuisine is one of the most reputable cuisines in the world, as the refinement and taste supersede many world cuisines.
