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France

Below you will find some general data about the country. For more specific information look into the "Cities" or "Universities" sections.

The country

Capital: Paris

Official language: French

Ethnic groups: French (majority) and Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, African...

Leading religion: Catholicism

Member of EU: yes (since 1951)

Total area: around 550,000 km2

Total population: around 61,000,000

Currency euro, earlier French franc

National sports: boules, football, rugby

Time zone: winter: CET -> UTC+1,
                    summer (DST) CEST -> UTC+2

Calling prefix: +33

The weather: Note that the area of France is relatively big, so the climate conditions may vary from place to place. Thus the climate is quite diverse - depending on the area:

• The northern and north-western parts: a temperate climate.
• The south-eastern part: a Mediterranean climate.
• The western parts: predominantly oceanic climate. Typically a high level of rainfall, rather mild winters and moderately warm summers.
• Inland parts: predominantly continental climate. Hot and stormy summers, much colder winters.
• The Alps and other mountainous regions: mainly alpine climate. Harsh and rather cold, over 150 days per year with temperatures below freezing, snow cover lasting for up to 6 months.

Travelling to France

Probably the most convenient way to get to France is to travel by plane or by bus. You may use services provided by the almost all airlines and bus travel agencies. However, based on students' own experience it wouldn't seem recommended to use the services of Eurolines. Below you can read a comment left by a Polish student travelling to Grenoble by Eurolines:

"Do not take Eurolines! The journey is superlong, and the customers are cheated and mistreated by the Eurolines' employees. I was travelling from Lodz to Grenoble. Upon departure, the driver claimed that my luggage is too heavy (he weighted it more-less using his hamd only) and that I will have to pay 30 PLN for the extra kilograms. In that case, I asked for a receipt (in order to make sure the driver does not take the money for himelf), the man became impolite and finally informed me that he was going to fetch the scales and if my luggage is even 1kg too heavy, he would not take it into the bus at all(!). Surprisingly the weight of my luggage was exactly 40kg (which was the limit) and it had to be taken into the bus. Nobody apologised to me, of course. Farther in Poznan it was the same story again. A few people were made to pay. This time it was 10 euro. At the end of the journey, the drivers decided to stop again just before Grenoble, although the previous long stop was in Lyon, which is only 1,5 hours from Grenoble. I strongly advise against choosing Eurolines!"

Practical advise

The strikes are extremely common in France. Everyone may strike there, that is why before you go somewhere check whether there is strike or not. Strikes may involve for example: air traffic controllers, trains, trams, underground, buses but Eiffel Tower crew as well (it happens that employees are on strike, and consequently the tower is closed for visitors).

And be aware of the fact that a few times per year you've got a general strike in France - as the name implies, during such days everything (in public sector) is on strike and if only possible it's better to stay at home or if you need to go out forget about any kind of public transport (even if something works, most probably you will wait very long and/or it will be extremely crowded).

Useful links

French Railways - website of french railways. Pay attention while searching for connections because ticking that you have special card 12-25 (to have it you must be under 25, the card is vaild for one year, it costs 50 euro and gives various discounts), is not the same as ticking that you are under 25! In other words if you have the card always pay attention to tick both - card possesion and your age (might happened there is no discount for the card, but there will one for your age!).

Skyscanner - a great flight searchengine. Allows querries without date and city defined precisely. Instead you define only a month and country - which really allows to pick up the cheapest option.

Euro-Countries - information about France, its anthem (also mp3), French euro, photos.

Google Maps - a well known website, especially recommended for finding how to get from one place to another. Satellite maps are of a much better quality than these of Poland.

Univeristies

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