The capital city of France is Paris and the population this year is 65,630,692. France has many religions some of them are Catholic 85%, Islam 10%, Protestant 2% and Judaism 1%. The language they speak is French and France is a Republic, which means that it does not have a monarchy. The head of state is the President and the head of government is the Prime Minister. The currency used in France is the Euro. France has an area of 220,668 square miles and is located on the western edge of the European continent. It shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg in the north, Germany and Switzerland to the east, Italy to the south-east and Spain to the south- west.

France is famous for its designer clothing and the French like to wear fashionable clothes and designer accessories such as handbags, shoes and jewellery. France has cold winters and can snow, so people need to protect themselves from the cold so they wear warm jumpers, coats, gloves, hats, scarves and boots. In summer it can be quite hot so they wear lighter clothes.

The French are polite people and greet every one by using Madame or Monsieur. First names are only used for greeting friends or family. The French greet people by kissing on the left cheek once and then kissing them on the right cheek or by shaking hands.

Images of Imports and Exports

France has many small and medium businesses that have been successful exporters. One example is Loccitane En Provence. Product and Manufacture Loccitane En Provence make perfume, facial products e.g., Makeup, creams, hand lotions, soap, body washes, Men toiletries such as shaving creams, shampoos, body washes etc

Loccitane En Provence products are made in Provence, France, Ingredients are made from France and many other countries all around the world such as Italy. Distrubtion and export countries Loccitane exports many products to many countries all around the world such as Italy, Egypt, Australia, Canada, Belgium and Japan to name a few.

Environmental Considerations At Loccitane they are committed to reducing the environment impact of our actions and products. The paper and cardboards they use only comes from sustainable forest which means they will not cut a tree down if it will take a long time to grow back. When they bleach the paper they don't use chlorine. They limit the use of outer packaging which means if they sell a bottle they don't then package it in an outer box. They also put recycling labels on all of their packaging which will reduce waste and landfill. They work closely with the Farm Bureau and Natural Region Park to make sure they are not over-exploiting a plant. If a plant is in danger in it's natural environment they will grow it in a cultivated environment rather than taking it from it's natural environment.

Community programs Since 2006 the Loccitane foundation support programs chooses one item to sell and after the company gets back the money they spent making the item the profit goes to support eye health projects in developing countries like India and Bangladesh. This year the chosen product is Solidarity soap and the money raised will go to Burkina Faso which is in the centre-west of Africa. They also support Aide and Action which focus on education for women in Burkina Faso, Entrepreneurs de Monde which is a non profit organisation which helps poor families in developing countries to develop small businesses by giving them money to start and training them.

Loccitane was founded in 1976 by Oliver Buassan and the first Loccitane store was opened in Today it is sold in over 90 countries. In 2012 it has 1,053 stores world wide and made a profit of 124, Euros. In the United States alone Loccitane employs more than 800 people, In the United Kingdom alone employs more than 200 people and in Australia more than 200 people.

France has a total land area of 547,030 sq km. Western Australia is 4 times bigger than France. NSW has a total land area of 2358 sq km.