Culture

The culture of France is diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the influence of recent immigration. France has played an important worldwide role for centuries as a cultural centre, with Paris as a world center of high culture.

Marianne

Marianne is a symbol of the French Republic. She is an allegorical figure of liberty and the Republic and first appeared at the time of the French Revolution. The earliest representations of Marianne are of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap. Anti-revolutionaries of the time derisively called her La Gueuse (the Commoner). It is believed that revolutionaries from the South of France adopted the Phrygian cap as it symbolised liberty, having been worn by freed slaves in both Greece and Rome. Mediterranean seamen and convicts manning the galleys also wore a similar type of cap.

Under the Third Republic, statues, and especially busts, of Marianne began to proliferate, particularly in town halls. She was represented in several different manners, depending on whether the aim was to emphasise her revolutionary nature or her 'wisdom'. Over time, the Phrygian cap was felt to be too seditious, and was replaced by a diadem or a crown. She also features on everyday articles such as postage stamps and coins. In recent times, famous French women have been used as the model for those busts. Recent ones include Sophie Marceau, and Laetitia Casta.

Literature and Poetry

The French literature tracks its origins to the Middle Ages. French was not yet a uniform language but was divided into several oil dialects. Each writer then used his own orthography and grammar. It is in the 18th and 19th centuries that French literature and poetry reached its pinnacle, with witers such as Voltaire, Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Many stories were also written for children in French, Charles Perrault had been most productive and wrote stories such as: 'Hop o' My Thumb, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Bluebeard'. The 19th century saw some of the most famous French stories from authors such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne, including The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Symbolist poetry was a strong movement of the French poetry of the time with artists such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé.

The 20th century saw French writers such as Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera), Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Albert Camus.

Sport

Popular sports in France include basketball, football (soccer), handball and rugby union. France has hosted events such as the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. France also hosts the annual Tour de France, the most famous and prestigious road bicycle race in the world. France is also famous for its 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car endurance race held in the Sarthe department.

Both the national football team and the national rugby team are nicknamed 'Les Bleus' in reference to the team's shirt colour as well as the national French tricolour flag. The football team is regarded as one of the most skilful teams in the world with one FIFA World Cup victory in 1998 and two European Championships in 1984 and 2000. The top national club competition is the Ligue 1.

Rugby union is particularly strong in the southwest of France. The national rugby team have competed at every Rugby World Cup, and take part in the annual Six Nations Championship. Although the French rugby team has never won a World Cup, it has won eight grand slams in the Six Nations Championship.

The most played sport in France is Pétanque. The social form of the sport of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France. The category Sport Competition of Pétanque is played by about 480,000 persons licenced with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports féderation in France. It has to be noted that Pétanque is mostly played in the southern part of the country, and the game is not considered as a sport by many northern Frenchmen.