Chapter-1

Chracteristics

Geographic/Location :

France is a country located primarily in Western Europe, but containing territory in South America, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean, as well as numerous territories of various status. In Europe France borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean. To the west is the Bay of Biscay, to the north is the English Channel.

The land hemisphere—the half of the Earth with the most land—is centred on Nantes. Thus the antipodes of France are in the middle of the water hemisphere in the South Pacific. The only significant land mass antipodal to metropolitan France is the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, corresponding to an area north of Montpellier including much of the Cévennes National Park, though the antipodes of the uninhabited Bounty Islands are between Tours, Orléans, and Le Mans, and those of the likewise uninhabited Antipodes Islands are in Normandy, near Saint-Saëns outside of Rouen.
However, French overseas possessions are widespread enough that Clipperton Island and Réunion are passably close to being antipodal to each other, and several are antipodal to other countries. The Indonesian island of Buru, for example, finds its antipodes within French Guiana, as do a few smaller islands. The French Antarctic territory of Kerguelen is opposite the border between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the US state of Montana. In French Polynesia, the Marquesas are opposite central Ethiopia; the Society Islands of northern Sudan, with Tahiti close to antipodal with Al Dabbah on the Nile. The Austral Islands cover southern Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Tuamotus cover a broad swath of Sudan, northern Eritrea, the Red Sea, and Saudi Arabia, with Khartoum antipodal to Rangiroa and Jeddah close to Tematangi. The Gambier Islands overlap Arabia, with Mangareva between Riyadh and Mecca.
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Area :

• Total area: 674,843 km2

o (Whole territory of the French Republic, including all the overseas departments and territories, but excluding the disputed French territory of Terre Adélie in Antarctica) • Metropolitan France: 551,695 km2

o (Metropolitan - i.e. European - France only, French National Geographic Institute data) • Metropolitan France: 543,965 km2

o (Metropolitan - i.e. European - France only, French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds, glaciers larger than 1 km2 , and estuaries)
Terrain
Mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west.
Elevation extremes: • Lowest point: Rhone River delta -2 m • Highest point: Mont Blanc 4,808 m
[edit] Land use • Arable land: 33% • Permanent crops: 2% • Permanent pastures: 20% • Forests and woodland: 27% • Other: 18% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 16,300 km² (1995 est.)
[edit] Natural resources
Coal, iron ore, fish, zinc
[edit] Natural hazards
Flooding; avalanches; forest fires; Earthquakes