Population: 68,374,591

Much of the population is concentrated in the north and southeast; although there are many urban agglomerations throughout the country, Paris is by far the largest city, with Lyon ranked a distant second.

Area: 551,695 km²

slightly more than four times the size of Georgia; slightly less than the size of Texas

Largest West European nation; most major French rivers -- the Meuse, Seine, Loire, Charente, Dordogne, and Garonne -- flow northward or westward into the Atlantic Ocean, only the Rhone flows southward into the Mediterranean Sea.