14 July: National day of France

France became a republic in 1792, after centuries of royal rule, as a result of the French Revolution. The Revolution started with the storming of the Bastille fortress on 14th July 1789, an event that is celebrated every year all over France on Bastille Day.

1. France is the largest country in The EU, with an area of 551,000 square km – making up a fifth of the area of the EU. It has the second largest population (after Germany). It is vaguely hexagonal in shape and for this reason is sometimes referred to as l’hexagone.
2. Nearly 85 million tourists visit France every year, making it the most visited country in the world. It is perhaps not surprisingly, then, home to the world's most visited museum - The Louvre in Paris which had 9.3 million visitors in 2014.
3. The metric system for weighing and measuring originated in France in 1793. France is still home to the prototype kilo, known as Le Grand K – a cylinder made in the 1880s out of platinum and iridium and about the size of a Plum, the only object known to scientists at the time to have a mass of exactly 1kg. It’s kept under three vacuum-sealed bell jars in a vault in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Sevres. In due course, duplicates were made and sent around the world, and every so often they are weighed and compared. Last time this was done, in 1988, Le Grand K was found to be 0.05 milligrams (less than a grain of sugar) lighter than the copies. Nobody knows why.
4. France has five mountain ranges and is home to Europe's highest mountain (Mont Blanc, at 4,810m) and allegedly the highest and scariest cable car ride. This doesn't go up Mont Blanc, but the Aiguille in Chamonix and travels 12,392 feet (3,777 m) in just 20 minutes. While we're talking about mountains, a significant chunk of France's tourists are probably there to ski. The most popular ski resort in the world is in France. About 2.5 million people go to La Plagne each season. A different ski area has the most lifts in the world, though - Les Portes du Soleil at 200.
5. France has won 15 Nobel Literature prizes, more than any other country. They don't do quite so well at acting, though. Only one French actor has ever won an Oscar. That was Jean Dujardin, for The Artist in 2011.
6. Kilts were invented in France, not Scotland; but croissants were invented in Austria.
7. France’s national anthem, La Marsellaise, was officially adopted in 1795. It was originally known by the slightly less catchy title of Le chant de guerre pour L’Armée du Rhin (War Song for the Army of the Rhine). The National Guard of Marseille sang it while marching into Paris in 1792 during the French Revolutionary War. The Flag dates from that period as well. White was deemed to be the ancient colour of France, and the Paris militia colours were red and blue. The colours were combined to make the current flag in 1790.
8. Paris was called Lutetia by the Romans.
9. French President Charles de Gaulle is included in the Guinness Book of World Records as surviving more assassination attempts—32—than anyone in the world.
10. Assassination attempts aside, life expectancy is good in France: 81.5 years (86 years for women and 79 for men), the sixth highest in the world. The longest lived human being ever since records began, was French. Her name was Jeanne Louise Calment, and she lived 122 years, 164 days. The secret of her long life? She once said, “I took pleasure where I could, I acted morally and without regret.”