Here are some amazing things you may not know about France – Part 1

France is one of my favorite places to travel to, always showing itself new and fascinating, timeless and stylish, liberal and paradoxical Here are some amazing things you may not know about France we’d like to share with you:

Guess what the most visited country in the world is: you bet it! It’s France. In 2012, 82 million people crossed its borders for pleasure. Imagine such thriving tourist industry!

Raising honorable children is a great virtue, no doubt. But you are actually honored by a medal in the French state.

You really might want to rent a car in Paris knowing a very curious and fascinating fact: there was only one Stop sign in all of Paris until 2012! If you were thinking that you might encounter more blocking points now, you couldn’t be more wrong: as a matter of fact, even that sign has disappeared in the meantime!

Here’s a freaky French fact: you can actually marry a dead person in France! Posthumous marriages are only legal in France of all of Europe (similar practices being also observed in Sudan and China). To get a license to marry your lost loved one, you need to be able to produce some form of proof that the deceased had intended to marry you.

France is beautiful, but also somewhat “depressed”. Actually, it’s statistically the most depressed country in the world if you stop to think that 1 out of 5 people has experienced at least one depression episode. But are they really the worst when it comes to this aspect or are they actually only sincere and open about such issues?

During World War II, The Mosque of Paris helped persecuted Jews escape the Nazis by giving them false ID cards.

Does this sound a little bit absurd? Once upon a time, there were no license places on cars. France was the one that adopted them first!