France, officially the French Republic is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023.

France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country’s largest city and main cultural and commercial center; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.