France isn't just about Cannes and Nice and Nantes. It's also about Paris - the city of lovers. Shakti Samanta's An Evening in Paris with Shammi Kapoor in the lead, immortalised the city (not that it needed any help!) for Bollywood and since then the quaint buildings, the Effiel Tower and the Arc De Triumph have been among Bollywood's favourite haunts for those romantic numbers.
Most recently the one to fall prey to the charms of this lovely city was Kunal Kohli who shot part of his Hum Tum in Paris as his heroine (Rani Mukherji) and hero (Saif Ali Khan) meet up there after a long gap. The rest of the film was shot in New York. But that's another story.
For the record, producer Vashu Bhagnani (of Biwi No. 1 and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan fame) has just returned from Lyon and Chamonix (tiny, hidden places closes to the Swiss border) in France after shooting for his latest film, Vaada.
Need we say more?
About France
The borders of modern France closely match those of the ancient territory of Gaul, inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. Gaul was conquered by the Romans in the first century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted Romance speech and culture.
Christianity also took root in the second and third centuries AD. Gaul's eastern frontiers along the Rhine were overrun by Germanic tribes in the fourth century AD, principally the Franks, from which the ancient name of "Francie" derived, modern name "France" derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris (see now Île-de-France).
Although the French monarchy is often dated to the 5th century, France's continuous existence as a separate entity begins with the 9th-century division of Charlemagne's Frankish empire into an eastern and a western part. The eastern part can be regarded the beginnings of what is now Germany, the western part that of France.
{{/usCountry}}Although the French monarchy is often dated to the 5th century, France's continuous existence as a separate entity begins with the 9th-century division of Charlemagne's Frankish empire into an eastern and a western part. The eastern part can be regarded the beginnings of what is now Germany, the western part that of France.
{{/usCountry}}Charlemagne's descendants ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. His descendants, starting with the Capetian dynasty, ruled France until 1792, when the French Revolution established a Republic, in a period of increasingly radical change that began in 1789.
Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the republic in 1799, making himself Emperor. His armies engaged in several wars across Europe, conquered many countries and established new kingdoms with Napoleon's family members at the helm. Following his defeat in 1815, monarchial rule was restored to France, which was then legislatively abolished and followed by a Second Republic.
The second republic ended when the late Emperor's nephew, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected President and proclaimed a Second Empire. Less ambitious than his uncle, the second Napoleon was also ultimately unseated, and republican rule returned for a third time.
Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France suffered extensive losses in its empire wealth, manpower, and rank as a dominant nation-state. Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy (known as the Fifth Republic) that has not succumbed to the instabilities experienced in earlier more parliamentary regimes.
In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of the Euro in January 1999.