Day 3443 (Thursday) 12th November 2026.
This is Cap-Ferrat
and this is Eze Village
The weather was horrible this morning and it stayed like that all day. The brave passengers on this ship still came ashore despite the weather.
The storm didn't really arrive but it was very cold and wet all day. Huw saw an article online this morning showing a rockfall on the road between Beaulieu and Eze, it looks horrendous.
Fun facts about France 2026: 45 things you might not know.
Geographically correct facts about France
1. France, the hexagon
France has roughly six sides, so it’s no surprise it’s nicknamed l’Hexagone. It is also the largest country in the European Union and, after Ukraine and European Russia, the third largest in Europe.
2. Eight borders
The hexagon borders eight countries. Moving clockwise from the north: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain and Andorra. Three of them (Monaco, Andorra and Luxembourg) are among the world’s smallest countries.
3. D for département
France is divided into 101 administrative departments. Five are overseas, including the largest by area, French Guiana. They’re listed alphabetically and numbered, the digits used for postcodes and number plates.
4. The most time zones in the world
France spans 12 time zones, more than any other country, because its territories reach from Martinique in the Caribbean to French Polynesia in the Pacific. So no, mainland Nantes isn’t 12 hours behind Strasbourg.
5. The world’s most visited country
France tops the tourism charts year after year. In 2025 it welcomed a record 102 million international visitors, holding off a fast-closing Spain to remain the most visited country on earth. The 2024 Paris Olympics had already pushed France past 100 million for the first time. Disneyland Paris is the single most popular paid attraction, ahead of the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles.
Historically accurate facts about France
6. All the way back to Asterix and Obelix
The Gaulish tribes founded the first settlements in what is now France, back in the Iron Age. These Celtic peoples spread across western Europe and, despite the best efforts of a certain comic-book duo, the Romans conquered the lot, leaving behind some remarkable monuments.
7. The longer-than-100-years Hundred Years’ War
History doesn’t always add up. The Hundred Years’ War actually ran 116 years, as five generations of French and English monarchs fought over the French throne between 1337 and 1453.
8. Plenty of monarchs, not all long-reigning
Some barely warmed the throne. The record for the briefest reign goes to Louis Antoine, who became king in 1830 and abdicated 20 minutes later.
9. So much more than Joan of Arc
Jeanne d’Arc, the Maid of Orléans, was far more than a fighter. She won a series of battles, was burned at the stake for heresy, and remains a symbol of France and one of its patron saints.
10. A quintet of republics
Since the storming of the Bastille in 1789, France has packed in a turbulent history: in under 250 years, three revolutions and five republics. The current Fifth Republic dates from 1958. The Republic even has a face: Marianne, the female figure in a red Phrygian cap who has symbolised liberty and the Republic since the Revolution, and who still appears on French coins, stamps, town halls and government documents.
Marianne
11. The number plate invention
In 1893 the French devised a way to tell one car from another and invented the number plate. The current form is two letters, three numbers, two letters, and once assigned it can’t be changed, so no spending a fortune on a personalised plate here.
Foodie facts about France
12. UNESCO World Heritage status for the French meal
French gastronomy is so prized that the “gastronomic meal of the French” has held UNESCO intangible cultural heritage status since 2010, recognised for the way it brings people together. À table.
13. So many cheeses
France has 46 protected AOP cheeses, more than any other country, and estimates of its total number of cheese varieties run from around 400 to well over a thousand. General de Gaulle is famously said to have asked how you govern a country with 246 cheeses.
14. Don’t put that bread upside down
French superstition says a baguette should always sit the right way up on the table. Folklore holds that medieval bakers left an upside-down loaf for the executioner, so a baguette turned over was a bad omen for everyone else.
15. The biggest galaxy of Michelin stars
France invented the accolade and still has the most starred restaurants. The 2026 Michelin Guide lists 668 starred establishments across France and Monaco (around 659 in France alone), well ahead of any other country.
16. Not quite so gourmet
Despite that constellation of Michelin stars, France also has one of the highest counts of McDonald’s outlets in Europe. Data from McDonald’s states that in 2025 they had 1,630 restaurants in France up from 1,589 the previous year.
17. A wine for every corner of the country
France has more than 360 official wine appellations (the AOC/AOP system, now widely copied around the world), each one tying a wine to a specific patch of land and a strict set of rules. The very first, granted in the 1930s, was Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the Rhône.
From Bordeaux and Burgundy to Champagne, the Loire and Alsace, there is a French wine region for almost every taste, many of them best explored from the water.
18. One of the world’s biggest wine producers
France vies with Italy each year for the title of the world’s largest wine producer, turning out billions of bottles a year. Wine is woven through French life and landscape: the country has been making it since the 6th century BC, when the Greeks first planted vines near Marseille, and many regions trace their vineyards back to Roman times.
Culturally curious facts about France
19. The longest novel in the world
Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” is often cited as the longest novel ever written, running to seven volumes and well over 3,000 pages. Not one for the book group.
20. All those strikes and protests
Liberté, égalité, fraternité runs deep, and the French appetite for taking to the streets in defence of justice and equality is part of the national character.
21. The most Nobel Literature laureates
France has produced more winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature than any other country, with 16 to date, among them Annie Ernaux, who won in 2022.
22. A prestigious prize, but rubbish money
The Prix Goncourt, the most coveted French literary award, goes to the best novel of the year. Don’t write yours for the riches, though: the prize is a symbolic €10.
23. Da Vinci in France
Italian-born Leonardo da Vinci moved to France in 1516 at the invitation of François I. His luggage reputedly included the Mona Lisa, which is part of the reason why it hangs in the Louvre.
24. The highest fashion
Paris is a world fashion capital, and France gave us haute couture and prêt-à-porter. We can also thank France for denim, the name of which comes from “de Nîmes”. And the modern day bikini – bearing a women’s navel – which was launched in 1946 courtesy of Louis Réard who was both an automotive engineer and a fashion designer.
the rest of these will be posted tomorrow.
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