Fun Facts About France

France is a Western European country famous for monuments like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, sophisticated cuisine and fashion. This article shares interesting facts about France, the largest country in the EU.

The French Eat 30,000 Tonnes of Snails

While eating snails sounds yucky for many people around the world, they are a delicacy in French cuisine. According to Reuters, French people eat over 30,000 tonnes of escargot every year. Two-thirds of the snails eaten in France come from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Still on snails, in France, live snails must have a full ticket to ride in the high-speed trains. And it’s not just snails, any domesticated animal under 5kg is considered a paying passenger.

You Can Marry a Dead Person

The French law is full of surprises, some very shocking, for example, the law that allows people to marry the dead. That means, even if your spouse dies, you can still exchange vows as long as you have enough proof that the deceased, while alive, had the intention of marrying you. The latest posthumous wedding in France was in 2017, and interestingly, the wedding ceremony was attended by former president Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

The Oldest Person in the World

While there are tales in the bible of people who lived for hundreds of years, the fully authenticated age of the oldest human during our times is 122 years and 164 days. This was Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman born in 1875 and died in 1997. She witnessed the opening of the Eiffel Tower, met Vincent Van Gogh in her youth, and survived the two World Wars.

Those are three interesting facts about France. Did you also know that the world’s first face transplant and heart transplant took place in France? Another interesting fact is that in France, it’s illegal for couples to kiss on train platforms.

Written by Rebecka