1.
National Order of Merit (France)
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The National Order of Merit is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. It comprises about 187,000 members worldwide, the President of the French Republic is the Grand Master of the order and appoints all its members by convention on the advice of the Government of France. The order has a common Chancellor and Chancery with the Legion of Honour, every Prime Minister of France is made a Grand cross of the order after 24 months of service. The medal of the order is a six-armed Maltese asterisk in gilt enamelled blue, the obverse central disc features the head of Marianne, surrounded by the legend République française. The reverse central disc has a set of crossed tricolores, surrounded by the name of the order, the badge is suspended by a laurel wreath. The star is worn by Grand-Croix and Grand Officier respectively, it is a twelve-armed sunburst, the central disc features the head of Marianne, surrounded by the legend République française and the name of the Order, and in turn surrounded by a wreath of laurel. The ribbon for the medal is a blue field. For the grade of Officier and above, a rosette is centered in the field, for the grades of Commandeur, Grand Officier, and Grand-Croix, the rosette is centered bar of silver, silver and gold, and a solid gold respectively
2.
President of France
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The President of the French Republic, is the executive head of state of the French Fifth Republic. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, and their relation with the prime minister, the current President of France is François Hollande, who took office on 15 May 2012. Hollande has announced that he stand down in the upcoming 2017 French presidential election. President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002, at that time, there was no limit on the number of terms, so Chirac could have run again, but chose not to. He was succeeded by Nicolas Sarkozy on 16 May 2007, following a further change, the Constitutional law on the Modernisation of the Institutions of the Fifth Republic,2008, a president cannot serve more than two consecutive terms. François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac are the only Presidents to date who have served a two terms. In order to be admitted as a candidate, potential candidates must receive signed nominations from more than 500 elected officials. These officials must be from at least 30 départements or overseas collectivities, furthermore, each official may nominate only one candidate. There are exactly 45,543 elected officials, including 33,872 mayors, spending and financing of campaigns and political parties are highly regulated. There is a cap on spending, at approximately 20 million euros, if the candidate receives less than 5% of the vote, the government funds €8,000,000 to the party. Advertising on TV is forbidden but official time is given to candidates on public TV, an independent agency regulates election and party financing. After the president is elected, he or she goes through an investiture ceremony called a passation des pouvoirs. The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system, unlike many other European presidents, the French President is quite powerful. The president holds the nations most senior office, and outranks all other politicians, the presidents greatest power is his/her ability to choose the prime minister. When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, when the majority of the Assembly sides with them, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the choice of the President. This device has been used in recent years by François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a cohabitation is lower, among the powers of the government, The president promulgates laws
3.
Charles de Gaulle
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, in 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era, born in Lille, he graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1912. He was an officer of the First World War, wounded several times. During the interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions, during the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division which counterattacked the invaders, he was then appointed Under-Secretary for War. Refusing to accept his governments armistice with Nazi Germany, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and he led a government in exile and the Free French Forces against the Axis. Despite frosty relations with Britain and especially the United States, he emerged as the leader of the French resistance. He became Head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, frustrated by the return of petty partisanship in the new Fourth Republic, he resigned in early 1946 but continued to be politically active as founder of the RPF party. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, when the Algerian War was ripping apart the unstable Fourth Republic, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a presidency. He granted independence to Algeria and progressively to other French colonies and he restored cordial Franco-German relations to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet spheres of influence. However, he opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring a Europe of sovereign nations, De Gaulle openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his later years, his support for an independent Quebec, De Gaulle resigned in 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization. He died a year later at his residence in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, leaving his Presidential memoirs unfinished, many French political parties and figures claim the Gaullist legacy. De Gaulle was ranked as Le Plus Grand Français de tous les temps, De Gaulle was born in the industrial region of Lille in the Nord departement, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Catholic and traditional family and his father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college who eventually founded his own school. Henri de Gaulle came from a line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy. De Gaulles mother, Jeanne, descended from a family of entrepreneurs from Lille
4.
Gilding
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The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as gilt. Where metal is gilded, it was silver in the West, to make silver-gilt objects, but gilt-bronze is commonly used in China. Methods of gilding include hand application and glueing, chemical gilding, and electroplating, parcel-gilt objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, herodotus mentions that the Egyptians gilded wood and metals, and many such objects have been excavated. Certain Ancient Greek statues of great prestige were chryselephantine, i. e. made of gold and ivory, extensive ornamental gilding was also used in the ceiling coffers of the Propylaea. But he adds that luxury advanced on them so rapidly that in very little time you see all, even private and poor people, gild the walls, vaults. Owing to the thickness of the gold leaf used in ancient gilding. Fire-gilding of metal goes back at least to the 4th century BC, in Europe, silver-gilt has always been more common than gilt-bronze, but in China the opposite has been the case. The ancient Chinese also developed the gilding of porcelain, which was taken up by the French. Modern gilding is applied to numerous and diverse surfaces and by various processes, mechanical gilding includes all the operations in which gold leaf is prepared, and the processes to mechanically attach the gold onto surfaces. The process is completed by cold burnishing, overlaying or folding or hammering on gold foil or gold leaf is the simplest and most ancient method, and is mentioned in Homers Odyssey and the Old Testament. The Ram in a Thicket of about 2600–2400 BCE from Ur uses this technique on wood, the next advances involved two simple processes. The first involves gold leaf, which is gold that is hammered or cut very thin sheets. If gilding on canvas or on wood, the surface was often first coated with gesso, gesso is a substance made of finely ground gypsum or chalk mixed with glue. Other gilding processes involved using the gold as pigment in paint, then the gold was applied in the same way as with any paint. Sometimes, after either gold-leafing or gold-painting, the artist would heat the piece enough to melt the gold slightly and these techniques remained the only alternatives for materials like wood, leather, and the vellum pages of illuminated manuscripts. Chemical gilding embraces those processes in which the gold is at some stage of chemical combination and these include, In this process the gold is obtained in a state of extremely fine division, and applied by mechanical means
5.
Marianne
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Marianne is a national symbol of the French Republic, an allegory of liberty and reason, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty. Marianne is displayed in places in France and holds a place of honour in town halls. She symbolizes the Triumph of the Republic, a bronze sculpture overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris. Her profile stands out on the official government logo of the country, is engraved on French euro coins and appears on French postage stamps, Marianne is one of the most prominent symbols of the French Republic, and is officially used on most government documents. Marianne is a significant republican symbol, opposed to monarchy, in classical times it was common to represent ideas and abstract entities by gods, goddesses and allegorical personifications. Less common during the Middle Ages, this practice resurfaced during the Renaissance, during the French Revolution of 1789, many allegorical personifications of Liberty and Reason appeared. These two figures finally merged into one, a figure, shown either sitting or standing, and accompanied by various attributes, including the tricolor cockade. This woman typically symbolised Liberty, Reason, the Nation, the Homeland, in September 1792, the National Convention decided by decree that the new seal of the state would represent a standing woman holding a spear with a Phrygian cap held aloft on top of it. A feminine allegory was also a manner to symbolise the breaking with the old monarchy headed by kings, even before the French Revolution, the Kingdom of France was embodied in masculine figures, as depicted in certain ceilings of Palace of Versailles. Furthermore, France and the Republic themselves are, in French, feminine nouns, as are the French nouns for liberty, the use of this emblem was initially unofficial and very diverse. A female allegory of Liberty and of the Republic makes an appearance in Eugène Delacroixs painting Liberty Leading the People, Marianne made her first major appearance in the French spotlight on a medal in July 1789, celebrating the storming of the Bastille and other early events of the Revolution. From this time until September 1792, the image of Marianne was overshadowed by other such as Mercury. It was not until September 1792 when the new Republic sought a new image to represent the State that her popularity began to expand. Marianne, the allegory of Liberty, was chosen to represent the new regime of the French Republic. The imagery of Marianne chosen as the seal of the First French Republic depicted her standing, young and it was symbolic of the First Republic itself, a newly created state that had much to prove. Marianne is clad in a classical gown, in her right hand, she wields the pike of revolution with the Phrygian cap resting on it, which represents the liberation of France. Marianne is shown leaning on a fasces, a symbol of authority, although the initial figure of Marianne from 1792 stood in a relatively conservative pose, the revolutionaries were quick to abandon that figure when it no longer suited them. By 1793, the figure of Marianne had been replaced by a more violent image
6.
Ray Bradbury
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Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction author and screenwriter. While most of his best known work is in speculative fiction, he wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine or the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows. Recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 Pulitzer Citation, Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick, many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats. On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream. Bradbury was born on August 22,1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, to Esther Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and he was given the middle name Douglas, after the actor Douglas Fairbanks. Bradbury was related to the American Shakespeare scholar Douglas Spaulding and was descended from Mary Bradbury, Bradbury was surrounded by an extended family during his early childhood and formative years in Waukegan, Illinois. An aunt read him stories when he was a child. This period provided foundations for both the author and his stories, in Bradburys works of fiction, 1920s Waukegan becomes Green Town, Illinois. The family arrived with only US$40, which paid for rent and this meant that they could stay, however, and Bradbury—who was in love with Hollywood—was ecstatic. Bradbury attended Los Angeles High School and was active in the drama club and he often roller-skated through Hollywood in hopes of meeting celebrities. Among the creative and talented people Bradbury met this way were special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, throughout his youth, Bradbury was an avid reader and writer and knew at a young age that he was going into one of the arts. Bradbury began writing his own stories at age eleven, during the Great Depression — sometimes writing on the available paper, butcher paper. In his youth, he spent much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, reading such authors as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, at twelve, Bradbury began writing traditional horror stories and said he tried to imitate Poe until he was about eighteen. In addition to comics, he loved Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan of the Apes, the Warlord of Mars impressed him so much that at the age of twelve he wrote his own sequel. The young Bradbury was also a cartoonist and loved to illustrate and he wrote about Tarzan and drew his own Sunday panels. He listened to the radio show Chandu the Magician, and when the show went off the air every night he would sit, as a teen in Beverly Hills, he often visited his mentor and friend, science fiction writer Bob Olsen, sharing ideas and maintaining contact. In 1936, at a bookstore in Hollywood, Bradbury discovered a handbill promoting meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society. Excited to find there were others sharing his interest, Bradbury joined a weekly Thursday-night conclave at age sixteen, at age 17, Bradbury read stories published in Astounding Science Fiction, and read everything by Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C
7.
Majida El Roumi
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Majida El Roumi Baradhy is a Lebanese soprano. She is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador and she first garnered acclaim in 1974 when she participated in the talent show Studio El Fan on Télé Liban and performed songs for Asmahan and Layla Murad at the age of 16. Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 and descends from the “Al Baradhy” family from Tyre, when Halim moved to Egypt to follow his musical career, he met Marie Loutfy, a Melkite Greek Catholic woman. They got married in Port Said and had three girls Maha, Mona, Majida and a boy Awad. The whole family moved from Egypt to Lebanon and settled in Kfarshima, Kfarshima is also home to many Lebanese singers, musicians and poets like Philimon Wehbe, Melhem Barakat and Issam Rajji. The residence of Halim El Roumi was a place for many cultural figures as he worked with many singers with mentioning his discovery to many well-known artists. Her vocal abilities attracted the attention of her family and neighbors, at the age of 14 she accompanied her father in an interview on Télé Liban with Najib Hankash when she firstly performed songs for Umm Kulthum and Fairuz. At the age of 16, Raymond Safadi, Majida’s cousin, noticed her musical capabilities and she participated in the talent show Studio El Fan in 1974 after she sneaked out of the house with her brother and her cousins. From her first appearance on television, she performed for Layla Murad and Asmahan and knew a distinguished success, later on, Majida graduated from the Lebanese University after receiving her BA in Arabic Literature. In 1975, Majida released her first single “Am Behlamak” with collaboration with Lebanese poet Said Akl, the song made a huge spreading in Lebanon as it kicked off with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in April 1975. After releasing her first album Wadaa in 1976, Majida got the attention of well-known Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine and she starred alongside Hisham Saleem in her first and only movie Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal and performed three soundtracks for it. When she performed at Hunter College in May 1989 accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra, music reviewer Peter Watrous said, in 1991, Majida released Kalimat, her first pan-Arab hit, under the Music Master label. Later in the 90s, exactly in 1994, Ibhath Anni followed the set by Kalimat was Majidas seventh released album. In 1996, Majida signed with the Saudi label Rotana and released Rasael, Majida El Roumi released her ninth official album in 1998, titled Ouhibbouka Wa Bad, working in the title song with Saudi poet Al Nasser and composer/singer Abdel Rab Idriss, who also produced. Tawq Al Yasmin marked Majidas fourth collaboration with Qabbani and her first with Iraqi singer/songwriter Kadim Al Sahir, in 2001, Majida El Roumi released a single titled Nachid El Hobb with lyrics from Dama wa Ibtisama written by the Lebanese artist and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran. El Roumi chose this text after the UN ceremony in 2001, when she was named Goodwill Ambassador,2001 was also the year Magidas sister Maha had to be transported to USA for better medical care, as she was suffering from cancer. In addition, Majida released in 2003 two religious albums, the first one was titled Irhamni Ya Allah, and Joseph Khalifeh composed all 12 tracks. Title song was taken from Psalm 51, as well as Radita from Psalm 85, with a call for God to enforce humans with his mercy
8.
Aishwarya Rai
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Aishwarya Rai, also known by her married name Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, is an Indian actress, model and the winner of the Miss World 1994 pageant. Through her successful acting career, she has established herself as one of the most popular, Rai has received numerous awards and accolades, including two Filmfare Awards from eleven nominations, and she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009. She has often called the most beautiful woman in the world. While in college, Rai did a few modelling jobs, following appearances in several television commercials, she entered the Miss India pageant, in which she placed second. She was then crowned Miss World 1994, after which she began receiving offers to act in film and she made her acting debut in Mani Ratnams 1997 Tamil film Iruvar and had her first Hindi film release in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya that same year. Rai married actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007 with whom she has one daughter and her off-screen roles include duties as a brand ambassador for several charity organisations and campaigns. She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS, in 2003, she was the first Indian actress to be a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival. Rai was born into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family in Mangaluru, Karnataka and her father, Krishnaraj who passed away on 18 March 2017, was an Army biologist, while her mother, Brinda, is a homemaker. She has one brother, Aditya Rai, who is an engineer in the merchant navy. Rais movie Dil Ka Rishta was co-produced by her brother and co-written by her mother, the family moved to Mumbai, where Rai attended the Arya Vidya Mandir High School. Rai did her schooling at Jai Hind College for a year. She trained in dance and music for five years during her teens. Her favourite subject was zoology, so she initially considered a career in medicine, then with plans to become an architect, she enrolled at Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture, but later gave up her education to pursue a career in modelling. In 1991, Rai won an international supermodel contest and was featured in the American edition of Vogue. In 1993, Rai gained huge public recognition for her appearance in a Pepsi commercial with actors Aamir Khan, the single line – Hi, Im Sanjana, of her dialogue in the commercial made her instantly famous. With Sen representing India at the Miss Universe pageant, Rais duties as the first runner-up included representing India in the rival Miss World Pageant, held that year in Sun City, South Africa. She went on to win the crown where she won the Miss Photogenic award. After winning the pageant, Rai spoke of her dream for peace for this world, Rai continued to pursue a career as a model until she became an actress
9.
Donald Sutherland
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Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor whose film career spans six decades. Since then, he established himself as one of the most respected, prolific, Sutherland has been nominated for eight Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films Citizen X and Path to War, the former also brought him a Primetime Emmy Award. Inductee of Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canadian Walk of Fame, several media outlets and movie critics describe him as one of the best actors who has never been nominated for an Oscar. He is father of actors Rossif Sutherland, Angus Sutherland, Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Dorothy Isobel and Frederick McLea Sutherland, who worked in sales and ran the local gas, electricity and bus company. He is of Scottish, German and English ancestry, as a child, he battled rheumatic fever, hepatitis, and poliomyelitis. His teenage years were spent in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia and he obtained his first part-time job, at the age of 14, as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW. Sutherland graduated from Bridgewater High School and he then studied at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he met his first wife Lois Hardwick, and graduated with a double major in engineering and drama. He had at one point been a member of the UC Follies comedy troupe in Toronto and he changed his mind about becoming an engineer, and left Canada for Britain in 1957, studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After quitting the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Sutherland spent a year, in the early to mid-1960s, Sutherland began to gain small roles in British films and TV. He featured alongside Christopher Lee in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead and he also had a supporting role in the Hammer Films production Die. With Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers, in 1966, Sutherland appeared in the BBC TV play Lee Oswald-Assassin, playing a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Givens. In 1967, he appeared in The Superlative Seven, an episode of The Avengers and he also made a second, and more substantial appearance in The Saint. The episode, Escape Route, was directed by the star, Roger Moore. They came to view a rough cut and he got The Dirty Dozen, the film, which starred Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGMs highest-grossing movie of the year. In 1968, after the breakthrough in the UK-filmed The Dirty Dozen and he then appeared in two war films, playing the lead role as Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altmans MASH in 1970, and, again in 1970, as hippie tank commander Oddball in Kellys Heroes. He stars with Gene Wilder in the 1970 comedy Start the Revolution Without Me, during the filming of the Academy Award-winning detective thriller Klute, Sutherland had an intimate relationship with co-star Jane Fonda. Sutherland and Fonda went on to co-produce and star together in the anti-Vietnam War documentary F. T. A, consisting of a series of sketches performed outside army bases in the Pacific Rim and interviews with American troops who were then on active service. A follow up to their teaming up in Klute, Sutherland and Fonda performed together in Steelyard Blues and his role as Corpse of Lt. Robert Schmied in the Maximilian Schells 1976 German film-directed End of the Game is listed in crazy credits
10.
Legion of Honour
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The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction, Chevalier, Officier, Commandeur, Grand Officier and Grand-Croix. The orders motto is Honneur et Patrie and its seat is the Palais de la Légion dHonneur next to the Musée dOrsay, in the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, the badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon. Napoleon originally created this to ensure political loyalty, the organization would be used as a facade to give political favours, gifts, and concessions. The Légion was loosely patterned after a Roman legion, with legionaries, officers, commanders, regional cohorts, the highest rank was not a grand cross but a Grand Aigle, a rank that wore all the insignia common to grand crosses. The members were paid, the highest of them extremely generously,5,000 francs to an officier,2,000 francs to a commandeur,1,000 francs to an officier,250 francs to a légionnaire. Napoleon famously declared, You call these baubles, well, it is with baubles that men are led, do you think that you would be able to make men fight by reasoning. That is good only for the scholar in his study, the soldier needs glory, distinctions, rewards. This has been quoted as It is with such baubles that men are led. The order was the first modern order of merit, under the monarchy, such orders were often limited to Roman Catholics, and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers, the Légion, however, was open to men of all ranks and professions—only merit or bravery counted. The new legionnaire had to be sworn in the Légion and it is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution. The jewel of the Légion has five arms, in a decree issued on the 10 Pluviôse XIII, a grand decoration was instituted. This decoration, a cross on a sash and a silver star with an eagle, symbol of the Napoleonic Empire, became known as the Grand Aigle. After Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and established the Napoleonic nobility in 1808, the title was made hereditary after three generations of grantees. Napoleon had dispensed 15 golden collars of the legion among his family and this collar was abolished in 1815. The Légion dhonneur was prominent and visible in the French Empire, the Emperor always wore it and the fashion of the time allowed for decorations to be worn most of the time
11.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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