Paris, France
“The City of Lights and Love” is more commonly known as Paris, France. Located in Western Europe, it’s the vacation destination of many travelers. Due to its location, Paris has mild weather all year round.
French, the official language, is the first language of 88% of the population. Most of those who speak minority languages also speak French, as the minority languages are given no legal recognition. 3% of the population speaks German dialects, predominantly in the eastern provinces of Alsace-Lorraine and Moselle. Flemish is spoken by around 90,000 people in the north-east, which is 0.2% of the French population. Around 1m people near the Italian border, roughly 1.7% of the population, speaks Italian. France is a country where freedom of religion and freedom of thought are guaranteed by virtue of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Republic is based on the principle of laïcité (or "freedom of conscience") enforced by the 1880s Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. Roman Catholicism, the religion of a majority of French people, is no longer the state religion that it was before the 1789 Revolution and throughout the various, non-republican regimes of the 19th century (the Restoration, the July Monarchy and the Second French Empire).
Major religions in France include the Catholic Church, Islam, various Protestant churches, Hinduism, Judaism, Russian Orthodoxy, Armenian Christianity, and Sikhism amongst others, making it a multi confessional country. While millions in France continue to attend religious services regularly, the overall level of observance is considerably lower than in the past. As the capital city of France, the city is home to numerous government buildings, but it is also home to quaint cobblestone paved streets and rich historical landmarks. One of the most infamous landmarks in Paris is the Eiffel Tower. Each year, the Eiffel Tower has a...