France was a country whose metropolitan territory was located in Western Europe and that also comprised various overseas islands and territories located in other continents. Metropolitan France extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It was often referred to as L’Hexagone (The “Hexagon”) because of the geometric shape of its territory. France was a unitary semi-presidential republic with its main ideals expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

France was the largest country in the European Union and the second largest in Europe, France has been one of the world's foremost powers for many centuries.

[source: wikipedia]

And now it is gone...
