2. France (in French, France), officially the French Republic
(République française), is a sovereign country, a member of the
European Union, whose form of government is the semi-
presidential republic. Territorially it includes metropolitan France
and overseas France, being in turn the largest country in the
European Union. Its territory, which includes overseas regions or
dependent Territories. Extends over a total area of 675 417 km².1 In
2017 the country had 67.1 million inhabitants (65 million in the
metropolitan departments and 2.1 million in overseas
departments) .6
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3. The territory of France, and its metropolitan or continental part, 7 is located in
Western Europe. Where it borders, to the south, with the Mediterranean Sea and
Monaco (4.4 km); to the southwest, with Spain (623 km), Andorra (56.6 km) and the
Cantabrian Sea; to the west, with the Atlantic Ocean; to the north, with the English
Channel, United Kingdom (22.6 m, in the middle of the underwater tunnel that
connects them), the North Sea and Belgium (620 km), and to the east, with
Luxembourg (73 km), Germany (451 km), Switzerland (573 km) and Italy (488 km). Its
European island territory includes the island of Corsica, in the western
Mediterranean, and various coastal archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean.
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