Geography of France

• Lowest point: Étang de Lavalduc, Bouches-du-Rhône -10 m
• Highest point: Mont Blanc 4,808 m
  See also: Evolution of highest point of France

• Arable land: 33.40%
• Permanent crops: 1.83%
• Other: 64.77% (2007)

Irrigated land: 26,420 km² (2007)

Total renewable water resources: 211 km³ (2011)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): 31.62 km³/yr (19%/71%/10%) (512.1 m³/yr per capita) (2009)

Coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc, uranium, antimony, arsenic, potash, feldspar, fluorspar, gypsum, timber, fish, gold, clay, petroleum

Flooding, avalanches, midwinter windstorms, drought, forest fires in the south near the Mediterranean

The region that now comprises France consisted of open grassland during the Pleistocene Ice Age. France gradually became forested as the glaciers retreated starting in 10,000 BC, but clearing of these primeval forests began in Neolithic times. These forests were still fairly extensive until the medieval era.

In prehistoric times, France was home to large predatory animals such as wolves and brown bears, as well as herbivores such as elk. The larger fauna have disappeared outside the Pyrenees Mountains where bears live as a protected species. Smaller animals include martens, wild pigs, foxes, weasels, bats, rodents, rabbits, and assorted birds.

By the 15th century, France had largely been denuded of its forests and was forced to rely on Scandinavia and their North American colonies for lumber. Significant remaining forested areas are in the Gascony region and north in the Alsace-Ardennes area. The Ardennes Forest was the scene of extensive fighting in both world wars.

The upper central part of this region is dominated by the Paris Basin, which consists of a layered sequence of sedimentary rocks. Fertile soils over much of the area make good agricultural land. The Normandy coast to the upper left is characterized by high, chalk cliffs, while the Brittany coast (the peninsula to the left) is highly indented where deep valleys were drowned by the sea, and the Biscay coast to the southwest is marked by flat, sandy beaches.

• 
  Forest in Sollières-Sardières (Natura 2000 site).
• 
  Calanques National Park in Bouches-du-Rhône
• 
  Mont Blanc, the highest summit in Western Europe
• 
  Étang de Lavalduc, the lowest point in France

Regions and departments of Metropolitan France in 2016.

France has several levels of internal divisions. The first-level administrative division of Integral France is regions. Besides this the French Republic has sovereignty over several other territories, with various administrative levels.

• Metropolitan (i.e. European) France is divided into 12 régions and 1 territorial collectivity, Corsica. However, Corsica is referred to as a region in common speech. These regions are subdivided into 96 départements, which are further divided into 332 arrondissements, which are further divided into 3,879 cantons, which are further divided into 36,568 communes (as of 1/1/2004).

• Five overseas regions (régions d'outre-mer, or ROM): Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion, with identical status to metropolitan regions. Each of these overseas regions also being an overseas département (département d'outre-mer, or DOM), with the same status as a département of metropolitan France. This double structure (région/département) is new, due to the recent extension of the regional scheme to the overseas départements, and may soon transform into a single structure, with the merger of the regional and departmental assemblies. Another proposed change is that new départements are created such as in the case of Réunion, where it has been proposed to create a second département in the south of the island, with the région of Réunion above these two départements.

• Four overseas collectivities (collectivités d'outre-mer, or COM): Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and Wallis and Futuna.
• One overseas "country" (pays d'outre-mer, or POM): French Polynesia. In 2003 it became an overseas collectivity (or COM). Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of overseas country inside the Republic (or POM), but without legal modification of its status.
• One sui generis collectivity (collectivité sui generis): New Caledonia, whose status is unique in the French Republic.
• One overseas territory (territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM): the French Southern and Antarctic Lands divided into 5 districts: Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands, Île Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul, Adélie Land, and the Scattered islands (Banc du Geyser, Bassas da India, Europa, Juan de Nova, Glorioso, and Tromelin).
• One uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico which belongs directly to the central State public land and is administered by the high-commissioner of the French Republic in French Polynesia: Clipperton.

• Land boundaries:
  • Total: 3,966.2 kilometres (2,464.5 mi)
  • 2,751 kilometres (1,709 mi) (metropolitan), 1,205 kilometres (749 mi) (French Guiana) 10.2 kilometres (6.3 mi) (Saint Martin)
• Border countries:
  • Andorra 55 kilometres (34 mi), Belgium 556 kilometres (345 mi), Germany 418 kilometres (260 mi), Italy 476 kilometres (296 mi), Luxembourg 69 kilometres (43 mi), Monaco 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), Spain 646 kilometres (401 mi), Switzerland 525 kilometres (326 mi) (metropolitan)
  • Brazil 649 kilometres (403 mi), Suriname 556 kilometres (345 mi), 1,183 kilometres (735 mi) (French Guiana)
  • Sint Maarten 10.2 kilometres (6.3 mi) (Saint Martin)
• Coastline: 3,427 kilometres (2,129 mi) (metropolitan), 378 kilometres (235 mi) (French Guiana), 306 kilometres (190 mi) (Guadeloupe), 350 kilometres (220 mi) (Martinique), 207 kilometres (129 mi) (Réunion)
• Maritime claims:
  • Territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi)
  • Contiguous zone: 24 nmi (44.4 km; 27.6 mi)
  • Exclusive economic zone: 334,604 km² (129,191.3 sq mi) only in Europe. 11,691,000 km² (4,513,920.3 sq mi) including all overseas territories. The 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) does not apply to the Mediterranean Sea
  • Continental shelf: 200 metres (660 ft) depth or to the depth of exploitation

• 
  The lands making up the French Republic, shown at the same geographic scale.
• 
  French Guiana
• 
  The exclusive economic zones of France

• Northernmost point — Bray-Dunes, Nord at 51°05′N 2°32′E
• Southernmost point — Puig de Comanegra, Lamanère, Pyrénées-Orientales at 42°20′N 2°31′E
• Westernmost point — Pointe de Corsen, Plouarzel, Finistère at 48°24′N 4°47′W
• Easternmost point — Lauterbourg, Bas Rhin at 48°58′N 8°13′E

• Northernmost point — Bray-Dunes, Nord at 51°05′N 2°32′E
• Southernmost point — Îles Lavezzi (off Corsica), Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud at 41°20′N 9°15′E
• Westernmost point — Isle of Ushant (off Brittany), Finistère at 48°27′N 5°08′W
• Easternmost point — San-Giuliano (near Cervione), Haute-Corse at 42°17′N 9°33′E

• Northernmost point — Bray-Dunes, Nord at 51°05′N 2°32′E
• Westernmost point — Pointe-Noire, Guadeloupe at 16°16′N 61°48′W
• Easternmost point — Sainte-Rose, Réunion at 21°11′S 55°50′E

• Northernmost point : Bray-Dunes, Nord at 51°05′N 2°32′E
• Southernmost point : îles de Boynes, Kerguelen Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Lands at 50°01′S 68°52′E
• Westernmost point : Toloke, Futuna, Wallis and Futuna at 14°42′S 178°33′W
• Easternmost point : Hunter Island, New Caledonia at 22°31′S 172°6′E