France is famous for its luxury goods: perfumes, jewelry, distinguished Bordeaux and Bourgogne wines, Champagne, fashion designers such as Yves Saint-Laurent and Jean-Paul Gaultier, and last but not least its gastronomy.

Culturally, France is an incredibly rich country. Almost all kinds of art are represented here and many art forms have their cradle in France. You will surely have the possibility to visit a museum during your stay. By mentioning famous impressionist painters Renoir, Monet and Degas, in addition to well-known authors such as Balsac, Voltaire, Sartre, Baudelaire and Dumas, you have just scratched the surface of the renowned history of French artists and writers. For instance it was in France that the movie lit up the darkness of a theatre for the first time, and where great artists such as Renoir, Truffaut and Goddard created style-forming works.

The national holiday on July 14 is celebrated in memory of the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and which was the start of the French Revolution. When the haze of the Revolution had subsided “La Première République” was formed. Now France has moved on to the “Fifth Republic”, created after the Second World War by the legendary general Charles de Gaulle.

The biggest cities are Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg. When you leave the big cities behind you will very soon be in the countryside. There are plenty of small picturesque villages that have remained unchanged through the years. In France you will find Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, that measures as much as 4.807 meters above sea level.

When staying in France you will get to know different types of nature in different parts of the country. The north of France is considerably level and resembles the Belgian or German landscapes. In central France the country is greener, turning into typical Mediterranean scenery in the very south. There are two mountain chains, the Alps in the southeast and the Pyrenees at the Spanish border in the southwest.