• Description of the flag: three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red (the ratio being 30:33:37) became the flag during the French Revolution and made popular by Marquis de Lafayette; known as the drapeau tricolore (Tricolour Flag).

• The foundation of France as a kingdom is dated 496 (baptism of Clovis I) since this event funds put together three essential features of the country: the definition of a territorial limit (however much smaller than the current one), the definition of a power rule (succession from a king to his first son) and the definition of a social system (3 categories of people: warriors, priest and workers). The Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the Frankish Empire and created the kingdom of Francia Occidentalis (“Western Frankland”), from which France is descended, represents only the legal founding of the state. The French state has been in continuous existence since 843, among the oldest states in existence in the world.

• Although commonly associated with the French Revolution and suggested by Robespierre in December, 1790, France's motto, "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" was not adopted until the Revolutions of 1848 in France.

• The national holiday of France since 1880 is the Fête Nationale (National Holiday), colloquially known as le 14 juillet, celebrating the Fête de la Fédération (July 14, 1790) and not the storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789) as is often mistakenly believed, even by a majority of French people, and is the reason why the holiday is referred to as Bastille Day in English. On the occasion of the Fête de la Fédération, celebrated exactly one year after the storming of the Bastille, all the representatives of the provinces of France gathered on the Champ de Mars in Paris in presence of the king Louis XVI and proclaimed the national unity of France. They vowed to remain faithful to "the Nation, the Law, the King".

• This day is considered by French Republicans as the real birth of France: France is no more a country made up of provinces conquered by kings, but a country of provinces and men who freely agree to form a common Nation. This concept of a Nation agreed upon is opposed to the German concept of a Nation based on ethnicity and race, and it was responsible for much of the conflicts between France and Germany in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Germany considered that Alsace was a German land that had been annexed by the conquest of the French kings, while France considered that although Alsace had indeed been a conquered province in the first place, it had legitimately and freely become a part of France by the oath of July 14, 1790. It is thus no surprise that the 14th of July was proclaimed the National Holiday of France in 1880, 9 years after Germany had detached Alsace-Lorraine from France.

• Despite being associated with the Fête de la Fédération, 14 July irked many French monarchists, to whom it recalled the bloody memory of the storming of the Bastille. French monarchists used to wear a black armband each 14 July, in defiance of the National Holiday.

• The Mont-Saint-Michel is the most visited tourist site in France. Other very popular and well-known tourist sites include: Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, Disneyland Resort Paris, Centre Pompidou, the châteaux of the Loire Valley, the ski resorts of the French Alps, Tahiti and the lagoons of French Polynesia, etc.

Tour de France Mont Saint Michel, the most visited tourist site in France

Symbol of France, the Eiffel tower