France

In France, secondary education is in two stages:

• Collèges (French pronunciation: [kɔlɛʒ]) cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14.
• Lycées (French pronunciation: [lise]) provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between the ages of 15 and 19 (although some lycées host higher education courses like CPGE or BTS). Pupils are prepared for the baccalauréat (French pronunciation: [bakaloʁea]; baccalaureate, colloquially known as bac, previously bachot), which can lead to higher education studies or directly to professional life. There are three main types of baccalauréat: the baccalauréat général, baccalauréat technologique and baccalauréat professionnel.

Var (French: [vaʁ] ; Occitan: [ˈbaɾ]) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is bordered on the east by the Alpes-Maritimes department; to the west by Bouches-du-Rhône; to the north of the river Verdon by the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department; and to the south by the Mediterranean Sea. It had a population of 1,076,711 in 2019.

The Var department takes its name from the river Var, which flowed along its eastern boundary, until the boundary was moved in 1860 and the department is no longer associated with the river. It is part of the French Riviera, a major touristic area of the country.

In France, an overseas collectivity (French: collectivité d'outre-mer, abbreviated as COM) is a first-order administrative division, on the same level as its regions, but have a semi-autonomous status. The COMs include some former French overseas colonies and other overseas entities with a particular status, all of which became COMs by constitutional reform on 28 March 2003. The COMs differ from overseas regions and overseas departments, which have the same status as metropolitan France but are located outside Europe.As integral parts of France, overseas collectivities are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council. Though some are outside the European Union, all can vote to elect members of the European Parliament (MEPs). (All of France became one multi-member EU constituency in 2019.) The Pacific COMs use the CFP franc, a currency pegged to the euro, whereas the Atlantic COMs use the euro itself. As of 31 March 2011, there were five COMs:

• French Polynesia became a COM in 2003. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the designation of overseas country inside the Republic (French: pays d'outre-mer au sein de la République, or POM), but without legal modification of its status. French Polynesia has a great degree of autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia (Le président de la Polynésie française) and its additional designation as a pays d'outre-mer. The legislature is the Assembly of French Polynesia since 2004.
• Saint Barthélemy, an island in the Lesser Antilles. St. Barthelemy was separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007. It has a territorial council and executive council, and in 2012 ceased to be part of the European Union.
• Saint Martin, the northern part of the island of Saint Martin in the Lesser Antilles. St. Martin was separated from the overseas department of Guadeloupe in 2007. It has a territorial council and executive council, and with separation remained a part of the European Union.
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It has a territorial council. It is the last remaining part of New France to be under French rule.
• Wallis and Futuna, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean has a high administrator and territorial assembly.

France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions.

Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Franks (r. 507–511), as the first king of France. However, most historians today consider that such a kingdom did not begin until the establishment of West Francia, after the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century.

The Avignon Papacy (Occitan: Papat d'Avinhon; French: Papauté d'Avignon) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by agents of Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip pressured a deadlocked conclave to elect the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy (cf. Italian cattività avignonese, i.e. "Avignonese captivity").

A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all French, and all under the influence of the French Crown. In 1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, arriving in January 1377. After Gregory's death in 1378, deteriorating relations between his successor Urban VI and a faction of cardinals gave rise to the Western Schism. This started a second line of Avignon popes, subsequently regarded as illegitimate. The last Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France. After five years besieged by the French, he fled to Perpignan in 1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance.

Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a Gallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in eastern France, western Switzerland, and northwestern Italy.

Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighbouring Romance dialects (the langues d'oïl and the langues d'oc, in France, as well as Rhaeto-Romance in Switzerland and Italy).

Lake Geneva is a deep lake on the north side of the Alps, shared between Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe and the largest on the course of the Rhône. Sixty percent (345.31 km or 133.32 sq mi) of the lake belongs to Switzerland (the cantons of Vaud, Geneva and Valais) and forty percent (234.71 km or 90.62 sq mi) to France (the department of Haute-Savoie).

The Gulf of Lion or Gulf of Lions is a wide embayment of the Mediterranean coastline of Catalonia in Spain with Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence in France, extending from Begur in the west to Toulon in the east.

The chief port on the gulf is Marseille. Toulon is another important port. The fishing industry in the gulf is based on hake (Merluccius merluccius), being bottom-trawled, long-lined and gill-netted and currently declining from overfishing.

Population without double counting is an English translation of the French phrase Population sans doubles comptes.

In France, for the purposes of the census, the INSEE has defined several population indicators that allow people who live in more than one place to be counted in each place, to study and keep count of population movement. So each commune in France does not have only one figure for the population, but several; for example students may be counted both where they study and where they live when not studying. A parallel may be drawn to English laws that allow students to register and vote in local elections in more than one place.

In France, a subprefecture (French: sous-préfecture) is the commune which is the administrative centre of a departmental arrondissement that does not contain the prefecture for its department. The term also applies to the building that houses the administrative headquarters for an arrondissement.

The civil servant in charge of a subprefecture is the subprefect, assisted by a general secretary. Between May 1982 and February 1988, subprefects were known instead by the title Deputy Commissioner of the Republic (commissaire adjoint de la République). Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a prefecture, the general secretary to the prefect carries out duties equivalent to those of the subprefect.