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Travel and Tourism in France
Travel alerts, currency, climate, transit, health, and safety information for visitors to France.
Practical Information
Travel alert status, currency, climate, and transit details.
- Travel Alert Status
- Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
- Time Difference
- UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time) time zone note: applies to metropolitan France only; for its overseas regions the time difference is UTC-4 for Guadeloupe and Martinique, UTC-3 for French Guiana, UTC+3 for Mayotte, and UTC+4 for Reunion
- Currency
- .885
- Climate
- The west and north of France experience cool winters and mild summers, while southern France and Corsica have a Mediterranean climate with hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation is frequent all year. The average yearly rainfall in Paris for the last 30 years is 26 inches.
- Language(s) Spoken
- French (official) 100%, declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish, Occitan, Picard); note - overseas departments: French, Creole patois, Mahorian (a Swahili dialect)
- Ethnic Groups
- Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African (Algerian, Moroccan, Tunisian), Indochinese, Basque minorities
- National Holiday
- Fete de la Federation, 14 July (1790); note - although often incorrectly referred to as Bastille Day, the celebration actually commemorates the holiday held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille (on 14 July 1789) and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy; other names for the holiday are Fete Nationale (National Holiday) and quatorze juillet (14th of July)
- Geographic Coordinates
- Metropolitan France: 46 00 N, 2 00 E French Guiana: 4 00 N, 53 00 W Guadeloupe: 16 15 N, 61 35 W Martinique: 14 40 N, 61 00 W Mayotte: 12 50 S, 45 10 E Reunion: 21 06 S, 55 36 E
- Location
- Metropolitan France: Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel, between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the United Kingdom; bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain French Guiana: Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Brazil and Suriname Guadeloupe: Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Puerto Rico Martinique: Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago Mayotte: Southern Indian Ocean, an island in the Mozambique Channel, about halfway between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique Reunion: Southern Africa, an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar
- Airports
- 473
Destinations
Regions and cities, top sights, national parks, UNESCO sites, and festivals for visitors.
Paris — The City of Light
No city on Earth has inspired more art, literature, philosophy, fashion, revolution, romance, or aspiration than Paris. The French capital occupies a bend in the Seine River roughly four hundred kilometers from its mouth at the English Channel, and it has been the center of one of the world's great civilizations for more than two thousand years. The city was founded by a Celtic tribe called the Parisii on the island now known as the Île de la Cité, and it was already an important Roman settlement — Lutetia Parisiorum — when Julius Caesar mentioned it in his accounts of the Gallic Wars. From those modest origins on a river island, Paris grew to become the capital of the Frankish kings, the seat of the medieval French monarchy, the intellectual center of the Catholic world, the stage for revolutions that changed the course of history, and the cultural capital of the modern Western world.
Today Paris is a city of approximately two million people within the city limits and more than twelve million in the greater metropolitan area — the Île-de-France region — making it by far the largest urban agglomeration in France and one of the largest in Europe.
Health and Safety
Medical facilities, vaccinations, disease risk, and sanitation conditions.
Medical care is comparable to that found in the United States. In an emergency, dial 15 to connect to emergency medical services. You can also dial the Europe-wide emergency response number 112 to reach an operator for all kinds of emergency services (similar to the U.S. 911 system). Non-French speakers may experience a delay while an English speaker is located. For non-emergency medical assistance in France, you may refer to this list of medical professionals.