In November 2010, French gastronomy was added by UNESCO to its lists of the world's 'intangible cultural heritage'.
France is the number one tourist destination in the world. In 2007, 81.9 million foreign tourists visited France. Spain comes second (58.5 million in 2006) and the United States come third (51.1 million in 2006).
Some of the most famous attractions in Paris, are the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Another one is Mont Saint Michel, in Normandy.
A European Disneyland is located in a suburb east of Paris. The resort opened in 1992 and is also a popular tourist destination in Europe.
Finland
Finland (Finnish: "Suomi") is a country in Northern Europe and is a member state of the European Union. Finland is one of the Nordic countries and is also part of Fennoscandia. Finland is located between the 60th and 70th latitudes North. Its neighbours are Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east and Estonia to the south, beyond the sea called Gulf of Finland. Most of western and southern coast is on the shore of the Baltic Sea.
The capital of Finland is Helsinki; the second largest city is Tampere. The official currency of the country is the euro (EUR); before 2002 it was the markka, the Finnish mark (FIM). The president of Finland is Sauli Niinistö. 5.5 million people live in Finland. Finnish and Swedish both are the official languages of Finland; the most spoken languages is Finnish, mother tongue of about 90% of the population. Swedish is spoken by the Swedish speaking minority of Finland, called the Finnish Swedes, who make up 5% of the total population. Finland became independent of Russia on 6 December 1917.
The most important cities and towns in Finland are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Pori.
Finland is a highly industrialised First World country. The most important Finnish industrial products are paper, and steel products such as machines and electronics. Nokia (the mobile company) is originally a company of Finland, named after a small town called Nokia.
Finland has been top of the list of least corrupt countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index more times than any other country.
The people of Finland are called Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue. About six percent of Finns have the Swedish language as their mother tongue. They live mostly in the western part of Finland and on Åland (Finnish Ahvenanmaa)
Finns also study mandatory English and Swedish in school. Most Finns work either in services (that is: shops, banks, offices or businesses) or in factories. Finns often like saunas and nature. Many Finnish families have summer cottages, small houses where they go to relax on their summer holidays. The most important festivals that Finnish people celebrate are Midsummer and Christmas.
The most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey, skiing, track and field and association football (soccer). Finns have also won events in swimming, motor sports and gymnastics.
There is a group of a few thousand Samis (also called Lapps) in the most northern part of Finland, called Lapland. Most of the Samis live in Norway and Sweden. Many Sami people farm reindeers. Originally, Samis were hunter-gatherers. In the past the Sami were nomads, but nowadays they live in regular houses.
Very few people in Finland are from other countries. In 2016 about 4% of residents were born in another country.
Most of Finland is covered by pine forest. The swan, which was considered holy long ago, is the national bird of Finland. Wood is the most important natural resource of Finland. It is estimated that up to one-third of all wood resources of the European Union are in Finland.
The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The largest animal is the elk, a type of moose, which is a member of the deer family.
There are hundreds of rivers and thousands of fresh water lakes. Fishing is a popular sport. It is estimated there are almost 180,000 lakes in Finland.
Many islands in the Baltic Sea belong to Finland, too. Thousands of islands are part of the Åland archipelago. Tourists from all over the world come to see the fells and the northern lights in Lapland.
The highest mountain of Finland is Halti, which is 1328 meters high. The largest lake is Saimaa, 4,400 square kilometres. The longest river of Finland is Tornionjoki. The largest river (by watershed) is Kemijoki, 552 kilometres long.
The weather in Finland varies widely by season. Summer usually lasts from May to early September, and temperatures can reach up to +35 °C. Autumns are dark and rainy. Winter snow usually begins to fall in Helsinki in early December (in Lapland it can fall as early as October) and in the winter the temperature can drop to -30 °C. Winter usually lasts to mid-March, when the snow melts in Helsinki (in Lapland the snow usually doesn't melt until early May), and Spring lasts till late May. Spring can be erratic, and the weather can change from frost to sunshine within a matter of days. The famed Northern Lights are common in Lapland.
People first came to Finland 10,000 years ago. That was just after an ice age, after a glacier that covered the ground had receded.
Some think the first people in Finland already spoke a language similar to the Finnish language that is spoken today. It is known that an early form of the Finnish language was spoken in Finland in the Iron Age. (The Iron Age in Finland was 2,500–800 years ago).
The first residents in Finland hunted animals, as "hunter-gatherers". Some people started to farm crops about 5,200 years ago. Farming slowly became more and more popular and became the major way of life until the modern age.
The ancient Finns were pagans. The most important god of the Finnish pantheon was Ukko. He was a god of sky and thunder, much like Odin, another Scandinavian god-king. These powers were common among the pagan god kings in pantheons ranging from the Finnish Ukko, to the Scandinavian/Germanic/Saxon Odin, all the way east to Zeus of the Greeks and Jupiter of the Romans.
Around a thousand years ago, when most of Europe was adopting Christianity, Finland also began following Christianity. During the Reformation of Christianity in the 16th century, most Finns became Protestants. Some pagan practices still remain amongst the now Christian Finns, such as bear worship.
From the Middle Ages Finland was a part of Sweden. Then, in the year 1809, Russia took Finland from Sweden. Finland was a part of Russia, but after a short period of time it became autonomous. The Finns essentially controlled Finland, though the Tsar was in control officially. Finns could create their own laws and had their own currency, (called the "markka"), their own stamps and own customs. However, Finland did not have its own army.
During the 1905 Russian Revolution, in the Grand Duchy of Finland:
the Social Democrats organised the general strike of 1905 (). The Red Guards were formed. On , Russian artillerymen and military engineers rose to rebellion in the fortress of Sveaborg (later called Suomenlinna), Helsinki. The Finnish Red Guards supported the Sveaborg Rebellion with a general strike, but the mutiny was quelled by loyal troops and ships of the Baltic Fleet within 60 hours.
On 6 December 1917, Finland became independent, which meant that it no longer was a part of Russia. There was a communist revolution in Russia and after 1922 Russia was a part of the Soviet Union. There were communists in Finland too, who tried to create a revolution in Finland
This attempt at revolution caused the Finnish civil war. The communists lost the civil war, and Finland did not change its old capitalist system