ABSTRACT
France, situated in the extreme west of Europe, comprises an area of 550,000 km2 with a population of 56 million inhabitants. The country is divided into 22 regions, 96 metropolitan departments and 36,000 communes (towns). The European coastline is 6000 km long, facing four seas or oceans with different characteristics. Also included are four overseas departments and several overseas territories, mainly islands and archipelagos, located in the intertropical area of the three main oceans. These are important because they each have an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), particularly in the South Pacific Ocean between French Polynesia and New Caledonia.
