A striking impression on anyone travelling in France is the infinite variety of landscape, climatic conditions, vegetation and architecture concentrated into a relatively small area. The culture of France's people reveals a similar variety despite a long tradition of highly centralized government administration.

Standard French, although the official language since the 16th century, was spoken as a mother tongue by less than half of the population until the beginning of this century. In the North, communities spoke Flemish, in the North-East, Alsatian- a German dialect- and in the West, Breton- a Celtic language related to Welsh and Old ...