Ge­og­ra­phy of France facts

King of France. Louis IX (1214 – 1270) is the only canonised king of France, mostly due to his support and participation in the crusades. There are many places named after him, including the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and both the state and city of San Luis Potosí in Mexico.

In South America. The Guiana Space Centre is a French and European spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana since 1968. The location was chosen as it fulfils the two major geographical requirements of such a site: it is quite close to the equator, so that the spinning earth can impart some extra velocity to the rockets for free when launched eastward, and it has open sea to the east, so that lower stages of rockets and debris from launch failures cannot fall on human habitations.

New Caledonia, located east of Australia is almost twice as large as Corsica. New Caledonia used to be a penal colony. From the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia, among them many Communards arrested after the failed Paris Commune.

In Paris. The Arc du Carrousel stands west of the Louvre, not far from the more famous Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. It was originally surmounted by the famous horses of Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice, which had been captured in 1798 by Napoleon. In 1815, following the Battle of Waterloo, Quadriga returned to Venice and the arc was topped with a copy.

In Lyon. With 190 member countries, it is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations by member states.