Fun Facts

Did you know…?

• France is the largest country in EU with a land area that spans 551,695 square kilometers. The country is often called the Hexagon, or l’Hexagone, for its 6 sides, and Paris is sometimes called the snail, thanks to its 20 arrondissements arranged in the form of a clockwise spiral.

• It’s illegal to waste French food! France was the first country to prevent supermarkets from throwing away or destroying food in 2016. Stores are now required to donate all food that can’t be sold.

• French gastronomy has had UNESCO World Heritage status since 2010 as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. France produces over 1,600 types of cheese (about 1.7 million tons) a year, and the country consumes over 700 million snails (about 30,000 tons) and 80 million frogs annually.

• There’s something fishy about April Fool’s Day in France… On the first day of April, you might see folks with paper fishes stuck on their backs, or you might find one on your own. It’s tradition for children to do this and call their victim a poisson d’avril, an April fish. This practice supposedly dates to the 16th century when King Charles XIV changed the calendar and those who continued to follow the old calendar, which had the year ending in March, were ridiculed.

• Movies always show couples kissing on train platforms just before one of them hops on and rides away… but in 1910 a law was introduced in France to ban train-side smooches as they were causing too many delays. Nowadays, if you want to kiss your love goodbye before riding the rails, you have to do it before the train actually arrives. (This is not actually enforced in our experience…)