Car Rental France

Language and Communication:

French, the official language, is spoken by the great majority of people in France. In addition, regional languages remain in some areas. For example, some Breton is spoken in Brittany, Basque and Catalan are spoken in the Pyrenees mountain region, Provençal is spoken in parts of Provence, Flemish is spoken in Flanders, and German is spoken in Alsace and Lorraine. The German dialect spoken in Alsace is called Alsatian.

The French postal, telegraph, and telephone systems are state-owned, although the telephone and post systems are under autonomous management. Around 579 telephones per 1,000 people were in use in 1999. Radio and television services are conducted by independent, publicly financed organizations, as well as by private commercial operators. Three state-run television channels were in operation in the mid-1990s, along with satellite and cable services. About 55 million radios and some 35 million television sets were in use in 1997.

France has117 daily newspapers, with a total circulation of about 2.5 million (1996). Sales of national dailies have fallen dramatically throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The most influential newspapers are published in Paris. These include Le Monde (circulation 307,000), Le Figaro (380,000), France-Soir (200,000), and Le Parisien (431,000). The country's leading periodicals include Paris-Match (circulation 690,000), L'Express (544,750), Le Canard Enchaîné (520,000), and Le Nouvel Observateur (324,200).