FRANCE Hello, my name is David and I'm going to talk about France. This country is one of the most important in the European Union. It's because of it's monuments, it's museums and it's culture, without forgetting its capital, Paris, the city of the light or it's economical importance in the E.E.C. The French flag is the union of the colours of the King(white) and of the city of Paris(red an blue), during the French revolution. At first, these colours weren't distributed like nowadays. From 1880 this banner is the official device of the French Republic. It's colours means: blue is the liberty, white equality and red is fraternity, as is revealed in it's euro coins. Catholicism is the prevalent religion in France, more or less 75% of its population practise it. The French culture is united to the cultural development of the occidental world, specially in the areas of arts and literature. Paris has been considered for a long time as the origin of the French culture. During the middle ages, France was an outstanding cultural place in Europe; Next, the wealth of the French monarchy from XVI to XVIII century subsided art which made Paris a centre for The most European artistic talents. The majority of the French cities have public library's and museums, but the principal one's are in Paris; as the French National Library, with more than 9 million books, and the universities of the city, as the Sorbonne.

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Louvre museum, also in Paris contains one of the biggest and the most important collections of art in all the world. Another museum is the National Centre of Art and Culture Georges− Pompidou, which has important paintings and pictures of the XX century. A lot of the biggest masterpieces of the French architecture, like churches, cathedrals, castles and palaces, are preserved like national monuments. France is also one of the countries with the biggest development in transport systems in all Europe. The French railway has been nationalized in 1983. France has high velocity trains which are one of the most modern in most of the main lines. It has more or less 6.000 Km in different routes. Paris is the national and international commercial French centre, but another two big cities like Marseille and Lyon, also play and important role in the commercial life in Paris, The French commerce has been characterized by the predominance of the small commerce, although nowadays there is a tendency to the increasing of the big commercial stores. Approximately 74 of the active population works in commerce and services. The most beautiful think that France has are its monuments. The most important are: Notre − Dame Cathedral: It's a masterpiece of Maurice de Sully, which was built in 1163. It's shape is in a form of a Latin cross, it's 130 mts long, with two aisles. It's the most monumental cathedral of all the XII century. Eiffel Tower: It was built as a peace symbol in 1889, it was designed by Gustave Eiffel. He used 6.300 tons of forged iron, and it constitutes a masterpiece of the XIX century's technology. Triumph Arch: It's placed at the top of the Elysian Champs, it's one of the most

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emblematic monuments in Paris. It was built in 1806, because of Napoleon Bonaparte, and nowadays it is in the centre of the town, and all the town is distributed in concentric shape around it. So thank you for your time and that's all!

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