149 Fun Facts About France

Joan of Arc is known as the Maid of which city, whose English siege she helped break in 1429?

Orléans had been under English siege for months when the teenage Joan arrived with a relief army in April 1429; the siege was soon lifted, and Charles VII was crowned at Reims that summer.

Which river is the longest entirely within France?

The Loire rises in the Massif Central and stays in France all the way to the sea, unlike the Rhône, which begins at a glacier in the Swiss Alps.

On what date does France celebrate its National Day, often referred to as Bastille Day?

July 14th marks the storming of the Bastille in 1789, but the French never say Bastille Day: the holiday, official only since 1880, is simply 'le 14 juillet' or 'la fête nationale'.

Which mountain range forms France's border with Spain?

The Pyrenees became the agreed frontier in 1659, when Louis XIV's France and Philip IV's Spain ended a long war with a peace named after the mountains, the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

Approximately how tall is the Eiffel Tower, including its antenna?

The Eiffel Tower stands about 330 meters tall after a new antenna was added in 2022; at its 1889 completion it was roughly 300 meters, then the world's tallest structure.

The French flag's blue, white and red are often said to represent which Revolutionary values?

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is a later reading of the colours: the flag began in 1789 by adding the white of the monarchy to the blue and red worn by the capital's revolutionary militia.

'La Marseillaise' was written in 1792 as a war song for the Army of the Rhine in which city?

Strasbourg's mayor asked army engineer Rouget de Lisle for a marching song in April 1792; it got its name later, when volunteers from Marseille sang it on their march to the capital.

Which wine region of France lends its name to the sparkling wine it makes?

Champagne, the region around Reims and Épernay in northeastern France, gives the sparkling wine its name; only wine made there under AOC rules, with a second fermentation in the bottle, may use it.

Which French designer popularised the 'little black dress' in the 1920s?

Coco Chanel showed a plain black dress in Vogue in 1926, when black was reserved mainly for mourning; the magazine dubbed it 'Chanel's Ford', a dress for everyone, like the Model T.

Which mountain on the Franco-Italian border is the highest peak in the Alps?

Mont Blanc means 'white mountain': its summit is a permanent dome of ice, and glaciers such as the Mer de Glace flow down from it toward the Chamonix valley.

On which island was Napoleon Bonaparte born in 1769, to a family of Italian origin?

Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769, barely a year after Genoa ceded the island to France; born a little earlier, the future emperor would not have been French.

Which empress did Napoleon crown at his 1804 coronation, moments after crowning himself?

Joséphine knelt before Napoleon, who had just set the crown on his own head, and he crowned her himself; David's vast painting of the ceremony in Notre-Dame shows exactly that moment.

Which Paris gallery of Impressionist masterpieces occupies a former railway station?

The Musée d'Orsay opened in 1986 in the Gare d'Orsay, a grand station of 1900 that changes in rail technology soon made obsolete; in 1970 it narrowly escaped demolition for a hotel.

The Tour de France was first organised in 1903 for what commercial purpose?

To sell more newspapers was the whole idea: the sports daily L'Auto, forerunner of today's L'Équipe, launched the race to win a circulation war, and its sales soared while its rival Le Vélo soon went out of business.

Because of the shape of its mainland, France is commonly nicknamed what?

The Hexagon suits the mainland's six-sided outline, three sides of coast and three of land borders; in French, 'l'Hexagone' is everyday shorthand for mainland France.

Which Norman port city was rebuilt in concrete by Auguste Perret after 1944 bombing?

Le Havre was largely destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing during the battle to free Normandy; Auguste Perret's team rebuilt it in concrete, and UNESCO listed the new centre in 2005.

In 2022 UNESCO added the know-how of which French food to its Intangible Heritage list?

The baguette's know-how joined UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2022; the listing notes it has just four ingredients, flour, water, salt and yeast or leaven, yet every baker's loaf differs.

The croissant was inspired by the kipferl, a crescent pastry from which country?

Austria's kipferl reached Paris in the late 1830s, when the Austrian August Zang opened a bakery on the rue de Richelieu; French bakers later remade his crescent in flaky, buttery dough.

The forty members of which French body, founded in 1635, are nicknamed 'the immortals'?

The Académie française, keeper of the official French dictionary, calls its forty members 'immortals', yet the body itself was abolished in 1793 during the Revolution and only later restored.

Which tidal island in Normandy is topped by a medieval Benedictine abbey?

Mont-Saint-Michel's Benedictine abbey dates from 966; after the Revolution it was turned into a prison, which closed only in 1863, before being restored as a monument.

Which part of Notre-Dame de Paris collapsed in the 2019 fire, five years before the cathedral reopened?

The spire, a 19th-century addition of oak sheathed in lead, came down in flames on 15 April 2019 along with most of the roof; the bell towers, rose windows and great organ survived.

Which French scientist gave his name to the process of heating milk and wine to kill bacteria?

Louis Pasteur developed pasteurisation in the 1860s, first to stop wine spoiling; in 1885 he also gave the first rabies vaccine to nine-year-old Joseph Meister, who survived a rabid dog's bites.

Marie Curie named the first element she and Pierre discovered after which country?

Polonium, discovered in 1898, was named for Poland, her homeland, which was then partitioned and had no independent state; in 1906 she became the first woman professor at the University of Paris.

The Palace of Versailles began life as what kind of building for Louis XIII?

A hunting lodge was how Versailles began under Louis XIII; his son Louis XIV turned it into a palace and moved the court and government there in 1682, and the Revolution drove the royal family out in 1789.

Which player scored two headed goals in France's 3–0 win over Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final?

Zinedine Zidane headed in two first-half corners at the Stade de France on 12 July 1998, and Emmanuel Petit added a third in injury time for France's first world title.

Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 in which French city?

Joan of Arc was burned in Rouen on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen, after a pro-English church court convicted her of heresy; a retrial overturned the verdict in 1456.

The Bayeux Tapestry, nearly 70 metres long, tells the story of which event?

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman Conquest of England, from Harold's oath to William through the Battle of Hastings in 1066; despite its name it is wool embroidery on linen, not a woven tapestry.

What top prize does the Cannes Film Festival hand out?

The Palme d'Or was first awarded in 1955, to the American film Marty; jeweller Lucienne Lazon designed it around the palm that appears on the coat of arms of Cannes.

The French Revolution is generally said to have ended in 1799 with which event?

The coup of 18 Brumaire is named for its date in the Revolutionary calendar, 9 November 1799; it handed power to three provisional consuls, and one of them soon ruled France alone.

Which language of southern France was the tongue of the medieval troubadours?

Occitan is the 'langue d'oc', named for oc, its word for yes; northern French said oïl instead, the ancestor of today's oui.

The stadium hosting the French Open is named after a Frenchman famous in which field?

Aviation made Roland Garros famous: in 1913 he became the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Mediterranean, and the stadium built in 1928 was named in memory of the airman, killed in 1918.

King Philip II began the Louvre in the late 12th century as what?

Philip II (Philippe Auguste) built the Louvre around 1190 as a fortress guarding Paris against attack from the west; parts of its medieval moat and keep survive beneath the museum, whose glass pyramid opened in 1989.

Champagne is made almost entirely from Chardonnay plus which two other grapes?

Pinot noir and Pinot meunier are both black grapes, yet most Champagne is white: the juice is kept clear of the skins, and a wine made only from them is called 'blanc de noirs', white from blacks.

Charles de Gaulle famously asked how anyone could govern a country with 246 varieties of what?

Cheese was de Gaulle's image for a country too divided to govern: he asked the question in exasperation at France's endless political quarrels.

Why does Obelix have permanent superhuman strength in Asterix?

He fell into the magic potion as a baby: Obelix tumbled into Getafix's cauldron, so the effect never wears off, and he is forbidden to drink any more for fear of what it might do.

In 1791 the metre was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to what?

The metre was set at one ten-millionth of the quarter-meridian from the equator to the North Pole through Paris; Delambre and Méchain spent 1792–1798 measuring the arc between Dunkirk and Barcelona to fix it.

Which five-man executive governed France from 1795 until 1799?

The Directory took its name from its five directors; to stop any one of them gathering too much power, one director, chosen by lot, had to be replaced every year.

The five D-Day landing sectors were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and which other?

Juno was the Canadian beach: its first wave took heavy casualties, yet the Canadians held the shore by nightfall. Overlord and Neptune named the operation itself, Mulberry its artificial harbours.

France's TGV opened to the public in 1981 running between the capital and which city?

Lyon was the first TGV destination in September 1981; the train had been designed around gas turbines until the 1973 oil crisis pushed its makers to switch to electric power.

The art movement Impressionism takes its name from a painting by which artist?

Claude Monet's 'Impression, Sunrise' (1872) gave the movement its name after critic Louis Leroy mocked the title in his review of the group's first exhibition in 1874.

Louis XIV, who became king at four and reigned for 72 years, is known by which nickname?

The Sun King took the sun, symbol of Apollo, as his personal emblem early in his reign; a keen dancer, he performed in court ballets himself.

Which overseas region of France hosts Europe's main rocket launch site?

French Guiana hosts the spaceport at Kourou because it lies only about 500 km north of the equator, where Earth's spin gives rockets an extra push toward orbit.

France holds one of the five permanent seats on which international body?

The UN Security Council's permanent seats went to the leading Allied powers when the UN was founded in 1945, after the Second World War; each of the five holds a veto over its decisions.

Which tiny country is bordered by France on three sides and the Mediterranean on the fourth?

Monaco charges its residents no income tax, which so angered France in the early 1960s that a standoff ended in a deal: French citizens who settle there pay tax at French rates.

Which ancient people founded the port of Marseille around 600 BC?

The Greeks who founded it as Massalia were Ionians from Phocaea, in what is now Turkey; the colony grew into the main Greek trading post of the western Mediterranean.

Which Frankish king, reigning from 481, was the first to unite all the Franks?

Clovis I united the Frankish tribes under one king; by the traditional account he vowed to convert if he beat the Alamanni at Tolbiac, and Bishop Remigius later baptised him at Reims.

When the Carolingian line ended in 987, which noble was elected king of the Franks?

Hugh Capet founded the Capetian dynasty; eight centuries later the revolutionaries who put Louis XVI on trial addressed the deposed king as plain 'Citizen Louis Capet'.

During the Revolution, most of France's new departments were named after what?

Rivers and mountains gave names such as Jura, Var and Allier: the deputies wanted to wipe out the identity of the old provinces, so their historic names were kept off the new map.

Which energy source supplies most of France's electricity, about two-thirds of it in 2023?

Nuclear power dominates because of a decision taken in 1974, just after the first oil shock: France chose to build reactors fast to cut its dependence on imported fuel.

Which French president opened the Channel Tunnel alongside Queen Elizabeth II in 1994?

François Mitterrand and Elizabeth II opened it on 6 May 1994, more than a century after an 1880s dig was abandoned over British fears that a tunnel would be an invasion route.

Which viaduct in southern France, taller than the Eiffel Tower, carries a motorway over the Tarn valley?

The Millau Viaduct was built to end the summer traffic jams in the valley town of Millau; engineer Michel Virlogeux and architect Norman Foster gave it masts that reach 343 metres.

Which cave in the Dordogne, found by teenagers in 1940, is famed for its prehistoric paintings of animals?

Lascaux drew so many visitors after the war that the paintings began to deteriorate; the cave was closed to the public in 1963, and tourists now see a replica nearby.

The Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct bridge, carried water to which city?

Nîmes was fed by an aqueduct about 50 km long, which crossed the river on the Pont du Gard; centuries later a local cloth, 'serge de Nîmes', was shortened to denim.

From 1309 to 1376 a run of popes lived in which city of present-day France instead of Rome?

Avignon was home to a whole line of popes, all of them French; the city itself stayed papal property for centuries afterwards and was annexed to France only in 1791, during the Revolution.

Which artist did Paris police question over the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre?

Pablo Picasso was brought in after his friend, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, was arrested; both were cleared, and the real thief, former Louvre worker Vincenzo Peruggia, was caught in 1913.

Which brothers, paper-makers from Annonay, launched the first manned hot-air balloon flight in 1783?

The Montgolfier brothers sent up farm animals at Versailles in September 1783 before risking people; that November their balloon carried Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes over the capital.

France conceived the Statue of Liberty as a gift for which American anniversary?

The centenary of independence fell in 1876, but only the torch-bearing arm was ready to show in Philadelphia that year; the finished statue was not dedicated until October 1886.

The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned in 1806 to celebrate which victory?

Austerlitz, won in December 1805, moved Napoleon to order the arch the next year, but he never saw it finished: it was completed only in 1836, fifteen years after his death.

How old was Louis Braille when he first presented his reading system to his peers in 1824?

Louis Braille was fifteen: born in January 1809 and blinded at three, he adapted Charles Barbier's military 'night writing' into a compact six-dot code, presented in 1824, that even covered music notation.

By what method did France carry out its last execution, in 1977?

The guillotine, France's method of execution since the Revolution, fell for the last time in September 1977 on the murderer Hamida Djandoubi; the death penalty was abolished four years later.

Alfred Dreyfus, wrongfully convicted of treason in 1894, was sent to which penal colony?

Devil's Island held Dreyfus in near-total isolation from 1895 to 1899; he was pardoned that year, but had to wait until 1906 for a civilian court to clear his name.

The Paris Commune was crushed in May 1871 during a period remembered by what name?

The 'Bloody Week' (semaine sanglante) of 21–28 May 1871 saw Versailles government troops retake Paris from the Commune, proclaimed after the National Guard's rising of 18 March; thousands of Communards were shot.

Which marshal headed the collaborationist French State at Vichy from 1940 to 1944?

Philippe Pétain, a national hero of the First World War, took over the government on 16 June 1940 when Paul Reynaud resigned rather than seek an armistice, then ruled from Vichy until 1944.

The Maginot Line was named after André Maginot, who held which post?

André Maginot, in his second spell as Minister of War, won backing in 1929 for the fortifications that bear his name; in 1940 the Germans simply went round them through Belgium.

Which king signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, granting rights to France's Huguenots?

Henry IV, himself a former Huguenot who converted to Catholicism in 1593, signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598; his grandson Louis XIV revoked it in 1685, prompting a mass Huguenot exodus.

Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the Revolution, was born in which city?

Marie Antoinette was born at the Hofburg in Vienna in 1755, the fifteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa, and at fourteen was married to the future Louis XVI to cement an alliance between the two crowns.

Which battle of 1916 raged for some 300 days around a garrison town on the River Meuse?

Verdun held because one road stayed open: trucks ran day and night along the 'Voie Sacrée', the Sacred Way, carrying men and shells from Bar-le-Duc to the front.

Which author of The Stranger won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature aged just 44?

Albert Camus dedicated his Nobel speech to Louis Germain, the primary-school teacher who had steered him toward a scholarship; little more than two years later he was killed in a car crash, aged 46.

Under which pen name was the writer François-Marie Arouet far better known?

Arouet took the name Voltaire in 1718, after eleven months in the Bastille for satirical verses about the Regent; his 1759 satire Candide became his most famous work.

Which French novella, translated into hundreds of languages, is among the best-selling books ever published?

The Little Prince was written in wartime exile and first published in New York in 1943; its author, the pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, vanished on a reconnaissance flight the following year.

By what name is the playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who died after a 1673 show, known?

Molière, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in 1622, collapsed on stage playing the hypochondriac Argan in his own The Imaginary Invalid on 17 February 1673 and died hours later of a tuberculosis haemorrhage.

Which signature song did Édith Piaf write the lyrics to in 1945, shortly after the German occupation of France ended?

'La Vie en rose', literally 'life in pink', became the signature of the street singer whom nightclub owner Louis Leplée had discovered in 1935 and billed as 'La Môme Piaf', the little sparrow.

The electronic duo Daft Punk famously made their public appearances disguised as what?

Robots were the public faces of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who took their name from a British review that dismissed their earlier rock band Darlin' as 'a daft punky thrash'.

The Michelin Guide was launched in 1900 by a company that made what?

Tyres were the point: with fewer than 3,000 cars in France in 1900, brothers Édouard and André Michelin published the guide to get people driving more, and so wearing out more rubber.

Which city, home of Airbus's main offices, is nicknamed 'La Ville rose' for its pink brick?

Toulouse owes the nickname to the pinkish terracotta brick of its old buildings; its flying history is older than Airbus, since Concorde made its first flight from there in March 1969.

Which national park lies partly within the boundaries of Marseille?

Calanques National Park's sea cliffs hide the Cosquer Cave, whose Stone Age art lies behind an entrance 37 metres underwater, drowned when sea levels rose after the last Ice Age.

The 'Port of the Moon', a UNESCO site since 2007, is the historic centre of which city?

Bordeaux's 'Port of the Moon' takes its name from the crescent bend of the Garonne through the city; its 18th-century riverfront, including the Place de la Bourse, earned UNESCO listing in 2007.

Nice only became part of France in 1860, ceded by which kingdom?

Piedmont-Sardinia handed over Nice and Savoy under the 1860 Treaty of Turin, the price of Napoleon III's help in uniting Italy; a popular vote then ratified the transfer.

Which French overseas territory lies just off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada?

Saint Pierre and Miquelon, about 25 km off Newfoundland, boomed during US Prohibition as a warehouse for liquor bound for American smugglers, then slumped again when the ban ended in 1933.

Which island became France's 101st department in 2011 after voting to remain with France?

Mayotte, in the Comoros archipelago, voted in 1974 and 1976 to stay French when the other islands chose independence; a 2009 referendum made it a department on 31 March 2011 and an EU outermost region in 2014.

The Dune of Pilat, Europe's tallest sand dune, rises beside which body of water?

The Atlantic Ocean's winds keep the dune on the move: it creeps inland year by year, slowly burying the pine forest, roads and even houses behind it.

Thanks to an overseas region in South America, France's longest land border is with which country?

Brazil faces France across the Oyapock river; a bridge between the two was finished in 2011 but stood unused until 2017, waiting for Brazil's border posts to be built.

Roquefort is made from the milk of which animal?

Sheep's milk is the rule for Roquefort, and so are the caves: by law only rounds ripened in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, where its blue mould thrives, may carry the name.

Which French philosopher tried to refuse the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Jean-Paul Sartre declined the 1964 prize, saying a writer should not let himself be turned into an institution; the Swedish Academy named him laureate regardless.

Which sculptor's The Thinker and The Kiss began as figures for the unfinished Gates of Hell?

Auguste Rodin was commissioned in 1880 to make the Gates of Hell as the entrance to a decorative-arts museum that was never built; he kept reworking its figures until his death in 1917.

Bizet died three months after the 1875 premiere of which opera, convinced it had bombed?

Carmen shocked its first audiences at the Opéra-Comique in March 1875, and Bizet died three months later convinced he had written a failure; within a decade it was acclaimed around the world.

Which chemist, who named oxygen and hydrogen as elements, was guillotined in 1794?

Antoine Lavoisier, who named oxygen and hydrogen and showed water was their compound, was guillotined on 8 May 1794, aged 50, as a former tax farmer accused of adulterating tobacco.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, the first opening ceremony held outside a stadium, how did the teams parade?

By boat on the Seine: organisers first planned for some 600,000 spectators along the river, but security fears cut the crowd to about half that.

Which Frenchman co-founded the International Olympic Committee and became its second head?

Pierre de Coubertin founded the IOC in Paris in June 1894 and succeeded Demetrius Vikelas as its president in 1896; he drew inspiration from English public-school sport and William Penny Brookes's Much Wenlock games.

The Citroën 2CV was designed to cross a ploughed field carrying what without breakage?

Pierre Boulanger's 1930s brief demanded a car that could carry a basket of eggs across a ploughed field unbroken; the 2CV, produced from 1948 to 1990, answered it with soft interconnected suspension and a canvas roll-back roof.

Which French town became a pilgrimage site after a 14-year-old girl reported visions there in 1858?

Lourdes drew the crowds after Bernadette Soubirous reported eighteen apparitions in a grotto; to escape the attention she entered a convent in Nevers in 1866 and stayed there until her death.

The Carnac stones, more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones, are in which region?

Brittany gave archaeology the word itself: 'menhir' comes from Breton words meaning 'long stone', and Carnac's rows of them were raised in the Neolithic, long before the Celts arrived.

Which king, Leonardo da Vinci's last patron, commissioned the Château de Chambord in 1519?

Francis I never saw Chambord finished: work begun in 1519 went on under his son Henry II, and its double-spiral staircase is often credited to Leonardo's ideas.

Architect Viollet-le-Duc restored the medieval citadel of which fortified city in the 19th century?

Carcassonne's walled Cité had been left to decay once it stopped being a frontier stronghold; Viollet-le-Duc's long restoration is itself one reason UNESCO made it a World Heritage site in 1997.

How many prisoners were inside the Bastille when the crowd stormed it in 1789?

Only seven prisoners were inside: four forgers, two men held as insane and the Comte de Solages, jailed at his family's request; the prison was already slated for demolition but stood as a symbol of royal abuse.

In January 1871, what was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles?

The German Empire was proclaimed on 18 January 1871, with Prussia's Wilhelm I as Emperor, beneath Le Brun's ceiling paintings glorifying Louis XIV's wars; the Franco-Prussian War ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt that May.

The 1962 Évian Accords ended France's war in which territory?

Algeria was no ordinary colony: since 1848 it had been ruled as part of France itself, divided into departments, which made letting go far harder; the accords of March 1962 led to independence that July.

Which novelist's open letter 'J'Accuse' reignited the Dreyfus affair in 1898?

Émile Zola's letter ran on the front page of the Paris daily L'Aurore; convicted of libel for it, he fled to England to avoid prison.

Bic's first product sold under its own name, in 1950, was what?

A ballpoint pen, the Bic Cristal, came first: Marcel Bich bought László Bíró's patent, used Swiss watchmaking tools to shape the tiny ball tip, and dropped the 'h' from his name for the brand.

Which bird became a symbol of France because the Latin word 'gallus' also meant an inhabitant of Gaul?

The rooster owes its role to a medieval play on words between 'Gallus' and 'gallus'. It now serves as a mascot at football and rugby matches, and gave Le Coq Sportif its logo.

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who opposed the death penalty yet gave his name to the guillotine, practised which profession?

Physician Guillotin only proposed that executions be made quick and painless. The prototype was designed by another doctor, a surgeon named Louis.

Counting its overseas territories, France spans more of what than any other country in the world?

Time zones number 12 on French soil, or 13 with its Antarctic claim. They run from Tahiti, ten hours behind UTC, to Wallis and Futuna, twelve hours ahead.

Which garment did engineer Louis Réard unveil in Paris in 1946, naming it after a nuclear test site?

The bikini took its name from Bikini Atoll, site of a US nuclear test four days earlier. No fashion model would wear it, so Réard hired Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer from the Casino de Paris.

Which medical instrument did the French doctor René Laennec invent in 1816, first as a rolled tube of paper?

The stethoscope spared Laennec from pressing his ear to a young woman's chest, and the paper tube carried heart sounds more clearly. Laennec, who carved his own flutes, then built it in wood.

In France, French toast is called 'pain perdu', a name that translates into English as what?

Lost bread is the literal meaning: the dish rescues stale slices that would otherwise be thrown away. English cooks were already writing recipes for 'pain perdu' in the 15th century.

On 1 April, French children try to stick a paper cut-out of which creature on people's backs?

A fish gives the prank its name: an April fool in France is a 'poisson d'avril', or April fish. A poet was already using the phrase in 1508.

Which radio distress call did a Croydon Airport officer coin from the French for 'help me'?

Mayday echoes "m'aider", and it may be short for "venez m'aider". Radio officer Frederick Mockford picked it because so many Croydon flights went to Le Bourget.

The Eiffel Tower was built as the centrepiece of which 1889 event marking the centenary of the Revolution?

A world's fair, the Exposition Universelle, needed a showpiece, and the tower was due to be dismantled in 1909. Its usefulness for radio telegraphy saved it.

Which upside-down caramelised tart is named after two sisters who ran a hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron?

Tarte Tatin is said to have begun as a mistake in the 1880s, when Stéphanie Tatin baked a fruit tart the wrong way up and served it anyway. It became her hotel's signature dish.

In which city's cathedral were the kings of France traditionally crowned, Charles VII among them in 1429?

Reims lay in Burgundian-held territory, so the dauphin marched there with Joan of Arc and an army before he could be crowned. The cathedral's last coronation was that of Charles X in 1825.

Which 1415 battle saw an outnumbered English army, mostly longbowmen, defeat the French on Saint Crispin's Day?

Agincourt takes its name from Azincourt, the village in northern France beside the battlefield. Archers made up nearly 80 percent of the English king's army.

Which territory did France sell to the United States in 1803 for $15 million, nearly doubling the young country's size?

Louisiana then meant about 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi. The price worked out at less than three cents an acre.

Which 1815 battle in present-day Belgium ended the Hundred Days, the French emperor's return from exile?

Waterloo was, the Duke of Wellington said, 'the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life'. His allies were three Prussian corps under Marshal Blücher.

Which King of the Franks was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day 800?

Charlemagne is called the 'Father of Europe' by many historians. Yet his biographer Einhard records that he only tried to learn to write late in life.

From which city did Charles de Gaulle broadcast his 18 June 1940 appeal urging the French to fight on?

London's BBC aired the four-minute speech, but few people in France heard it and the recording was not kept. A second appeal four days later reached far more listeners.

Which coin was first struck in 1360 to pay the ransom of France's captured King John II?

The franc showed the freed king on horseback and became known as the 'franc à cheval'. Its name is traced both to 'franc', meaning free, and to the coin's Latin legend 'Francorum Rex'.

Which month of France's Revolutionary calendar names both the 1794 coup against Robespierre and a creamy lobster dish?

Thermidor was the calendar's eleventh month, and its ninth day fell on 27 July 1794. The lobster recipe is said to be named after an 1891 play, Thermidor, by Victorien Sardou.

Which Gallic chieftain united the tribes against Julius Caesar before surrendering at Alesia in 52 BC?

Vercingetorix was imprisoned in Rome for six years, then executed after Caesar's triumph in 46 BC. Earlier he had beaten the Romans at Gergovia, his birthplace.

Which royal house ruled France from 1589 until the Revolution and returned to the throne in 1814?

Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbon Street in New Orleans were both named for the dynasty, and bourbon whiskey took its name from one of them. Which one remains uncertain.

Which Burgundy city names a mustard that took its modern form in 1856, when verjuice replaced vinegar?

Dijon mustard was first served in 1336 at the table of King Philip VI. Verjuice, the ingredient that Jean Naigeon swapped in, is the acidic juice of unripe grapes.

Calvados, the famous brandy of Normandy, is distilled mainly from the fermented juice of which fruit?

Apples are pressed into cider before distilling, and some producers add pears. Normandy had a guild for cider distillation as early as 1606.

Which soft Normandy cheese, shipped in a wooden box, was issued to French troops in the First World War?

Camembert was reportedly first made in 1791 by a Normandy farmer, Marie Harel. A purpose-made wooden box later let it travel as far as America, where it became very popular.

Beaujolais nouveau, a red wine sold just weeks after harvest, is released on the third Thursday of which month?

November's third Thursday became the uniform release date in 1985. Producers had built the wine's fame on a race to get the first bottles to Paris.

Which author of Les Misérables spent 15 years of political exile on the Channel Island of Guernsey?

Victor Hugo set his novel Toilers of the Sea on Guernsey. Its local word for octopus, 'pieuvre', entered the French language through the book.

Which Paris museum of Impressionist art is housed in a Beaux-Arts railway station completed in 1900?

Musée d'Orsay kept the great clock of the old Gare d'Orsay in its main hall. It holds the world's largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces.

Which French composer wrote Boléro in 1928 as a ballet score for the dancer Ida Rubinstein?

Maurice Ravel built Boléro over an unchanging rhythm played 169 times on the snare drum. Rubinstein had first asked him only to orchestrate piano pieces by Albéniz.

Which 2001 film stars Audrey Tautou as a shy Montmartre waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her?

Amélie works at the Café des 2 Moulins, staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wrote the film with Guillaume Laurant.

Which Paris cabaret, opened in 1889 at the foot of Montmartre, is known as the birthplace of the modern can-can?

Moulin Rouge wears a landmark red windmill on its roof. It was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia.

Which French thinker, not yet 19, built a mechanical calculator in 1642 to ease his father's endless tax sums?

Blaise Pascal's machine could add and subtract and became known as the Pascaline. The SI unit of pressure is also named after him.

Which French scholar published his breakthrough in reading Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822, working from the Rosetta Stone?

Jean-François Champollion showed that the script mixed phonetic and ideographic signs. As a young man he already read Coptic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic.

Which French naval officer co-invented the Aqua-Lung and filmed the oceans from his research ship Calypso?

Jacques Cousteau's Aqua-Lung was the first successful open-circuit scuba set, and it let him shoot some of the first underwater documentaries. His ship was named after a sea nymph.

Which Frenchman's 1839 photographic process was bought by the government and presented as a gift 'free to the world'?

Louis Daguerre gave up his rights in exchange for a lifetime pension. Before photography he was a celebrated theatre designer and the inventor of the diorama.

Which stage magician turned filmmaker made A Trip to the Moon in 1902 and later sold toys at a Paris station?

Georges Méliès bought the Théâtre Robert-Houdin to stage his illusions before turning to film. In 1926 a magazine tracked him down at a sweet and toy stand in the Gare Montparnasse.

Which French football official, FIFA's president for 33 years, gave his name to the original World Cup trophy?

Jules Rimet pushed for the first World Cup, held in 1930. The trophy later named after him was stolen from a public exhibition four months before the 1966 tournament in England.

Which physicist first set a long pendulum swinging in Paris in 1851 to give simple proof that the Earth rotates?

Léon Foucault got the idea from a thin rod on a lathe that kept vibrating in the same plane while the lathe turned. A year later he made the point again with a gyroscope.

At the Tour de France, the white jersey with red polka dots is awarded to the best what?

Climber rankings began in 1933, but the polka dots only arrived in 1975. The sponsor, Chocolat Poulain, wanted the jersey to stand out in the peloton.

Which French online service, launched nationwide in 1982, let users book trains and chat from a phone-line terminal?

Minitel terminals were given out free, partly so that the phone company could print fewer directories. The service was only switched off on 30 June 2012.

Which architect designed the glass pyramid that became the Louvre's main entrance in 1989?

I. M. Pei's design was attacked at first as clashing with the palace's Renaissance style. The pyramid stands 21.6 metres tall and is made of 673 glass panes.

Which domed Paris monument, begun as a church to Saint Genevieve, holds the tombs of Rousseau and Marie Curie?

The Panthéon was ordered by Louis XV, who vowed in 1744 to build a new church if he recovered from an illness. Neither he nor his architect, Soufflot, lived to see it finished.

Which cardinal, Louis XIII's chief adviser, founded the Académie française and is the villain of The Three Musketeers?

Richelieu became a cardinal in 1622 and head of the king's government two years later, and his red robes earned him the nickname the Red Eminence. Alexandre Dumas made him a villain in 1844.

Which Florence-born queen, mother of three French kings, was blamed for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572?

Catherine de' Medici gained sweeping powers as regent for her ten-year-old son Charles IX. Thousands of Huguenots were killed in the massacre.

Which duchess was queen of France, then queen of England, and mother of Richard the Lionheart?

Eleanor of Aquitaine had her marriage to Louis VII annulled in 1152, after fifteen years without a male heir. She remarried the same year, to the duke who became England's king.

Which 1954 battle in Vietnam ended in a French surrender after a two-month siege and the loss of Indochina?

Dien Bien Phu fell after the Viet Minh hauled heavy artillery up the rear slopes of the surrounding mountains. The Geneva Accords were signed ten weeks later.

Which French diplomat developed the Suez Canal, then failed in the 1880s to dig a sea-level canal across Panama?

Ferdinand de Lesseps saw his Panama scheme devastated by malaria, yellow fever and money troubles. His Egyptian waterway had been officially opened in 1869.

Which novelist's seven-volume In Search of Lost Time includes a famous episode about a madeleine cake?

Marcel Proust saw the first volume, Swann's Way, rejected by a number of publishers in 1913. The last three volumes existed only in draft form when he died.

Which château, given by a king to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, stands on arches across the River Cher?

Chenonceau got its arched bridge after 1555, when Diane commissioned Philibert de l'Orme to join the château to the opposite bank. A gallery was built on top in the 1570s.

Which French sugar colony, nicknamed the Pearl of the Antilles, won independence as Haiti after a slave revolution?

Saint-Domingue was the richest French colony in the West Indies. The uprising was planned at a ceremony at Bois Caïman in 1791, and the last French troops withdrew in late 1803.

Which French city has hosted the world's oldest active endurance car race, run over 24 hours, since 1923?

Le Mans stages the race on the Circuit de la Sarthe, which mixes closed public roads with dedicated track. With the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 it forms motorsport's Triple Crown.

The Catacombs of Paris were created in the 1780s inside which kind of abandoned underground works?

Stone quarries took in the bones from late 1785, when nightly processions of covered wagons began emptying the city's overflowing cemeteries. Collapsing walls around one graveyard had forced the issue.