Technically speaking, "France" includes a number of overseas departments and territories (known in French as the DOM-TOMs), including Tahiti in the Pacific and French Guyana in South America. This guide however is concerned with Metropolitan France, which means continental France, together with the offshore islands, including Corsica.

France is a republic; the head of the executive is the President, elected by universal suffrage, currently Nicolas Sarkozy. The President determines policy with the aid of his Council of Ministers (Conseil des ministres). Ministers cannot sit in parliament, and if an elected member of parliament (député) is appointed minister, he or she has to hand over parliamentary duties to his / her deputy (adjoint). Since each elected member has a deputy, by-elections are unusual in France.
Parliament: The lower and principal house of parliament is the Assemblée nationale, or national assembly; the second chamber is the Sénat or Senate. Députés (members of parliament) are elected to the National Assembly by universal suffrage, in general elections (élections législatives) that take place every five years. Senators are elected by an electoral college of "grand electors", who are mostly other local elected representatives.
The electoral system for presidential and parliamentary elections involves two rounds; a candidate can be elected on the first round by obtaining an absolute majority of votes cast. The second round is a runoff between the leading two candidates from round one (presidential election), or two or more candidates (parliamentary elections).

Metropolitan France is administered as 22 regions, 96 "départements" or departments, and some 36,000 "communes".

Each region is administered by a Regional council (Conseil régional), and each department is administered by a county council (Conseil Général). The central government is represented in each department and region by a Prefect (préfet), with powers over the police and public security. The Prefect's other main role is to make sure that local authorities administer their area in compliance with national law.

Prefects are appointed by the President, regional councils are elected by universal suffrage every six years, involving a complex two-round semi-proportional voting system.

Departmental councils, conseils généraux, are elected by universal suffrage every six years, in elections known as canton elections (élections cantonales). Communes are run by municipal councils (conseils municipaux) elected every six years by universal suffrage.

Surface area: 547,030 sq km, of which 545,630 sq km of land and 1,400 sq km of rivers and lakes.

This is about double the surface area of the United Kingdom, and just over four times the surface area of England.

Basic geographic facts:
Length of land border; 2889 km. Neighbouring countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain, Andorra.
Length of coastline: 4,668 km
Highest elevation: the peak of Mont Blanc, 4,807 metres or 15,782 ft.
Arable farmland: 33.5% of the total surface area.

Demographics / Population statistics

Population: 62,150,775 total estimated population of Metropolitan France, mid 2008
Population growth rate: 0.57% (2008 est.)
Birth rate: 12.73 births per 1000 (2008 estimate)
Gender ratio: Average ratio 0.93 males per female (though 1.05 males per female in the under 15 age group).
Life expectancy at birth: Average: 80.2 years (males: 77.7 years, females: 84.2 years – 2008 estimate.) -
Compare with UK 79.0, Germany 79.1, Netherlands 79.2, Switzerland 81.3, USA 77.9, Belgium 77.8 (Source UNDP)
Population density: 110 people per sq km
This is just less than the EU average of 112 /km², and less than half the density of the UK (246 p/km²)