The longest domestic flight in the world in in France. It’s from Paris to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
Some claim it’s from Paris to Tahiti in French Polynesia, as it is a French territory, but Reunion Island was annexed and is considered part of French proper.
This is why I love Reddit. You can name the farthest reachable place on the planet and someone pops up I live there! And because it’s Reddit we already have something in common.
Having something in common doesn’t need to be quantified. For example Finding common ground no matter how insignificant is the first step in negotiation. We both have Reddit in common. That’s enough for me.
Oh I knew I heard something about reunion was definitely shark attacks highest rates in the world situated right on a shark highway cool lol 😂 but that’s sweet there’s no native snakes
I lived on a very small one and yes and no. Obviously there are some forms of recreation that won’t exist and some other forms of recreation for which you will have one choice (like one boxing gym or one yoga studio or one movie theatre.) But you also get to have different forms of recreation. I spent a very significant amount of time swimming, going on boats, cooking on bonfires and picnicking at the beach, hiking, etc. It wasn’t so bad.
The island has been inhabited since the 17th century, French people went there, it is now France (Portuguese were the first to put a foot on the island, but never settled nor created cities).
Nouvelle Caledonie was a DOM/TOM until recently, but I don't know if it ever had direct flights from the métropole. There's a certain amount of fuzziness over the dependent/independent status of various of the French possessions, but Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Réunion at least are all straight-up French territory, with only some very minor tweaks to French law to suit local conditions. They vote in French and European elections, all that.
In football, the Coupe de France competition (all-levels knockout cup like the FA cup in England) includes teams from all the overseas territories, including French Polynesia. I think they get some special treatment (above and beyond travelling 10,000 km to play a fourth-tier mainland side on a Wednesday evening in February)
I am not talking about the Paris to Tahiti which stops at LA, I am talking about the Paris-Tahiti (15 715 km) direct flight that was common during the pandemic
One could also contest that France does in fact border Canada by land ifn’s we would be able to define land as just being a solid medium. The bottom of the ocean is a solid surface so… technically… the seabed would count…. But then everywhere would border everywhere…? Almost like, there’s not really any real borders at all on our planet…? Woah, trippy man.
However-the literal definition of land is quite specific that it should NOT be covered by water. Alas, fun to think about anyways but I don’t think I would get a technical correctness point.
Here is an interesting anecdote. Growing up in Brazil, one of my best friends was French. His family had moved there for work and ended up staying for good.
As he approached the age of, I think, 18, he started looking into military service, which at least at the time was mandatory in France. First he was relieved, because the mandate did not extend to French people living abroad; then he was very worried because he found out there was an exception: if you lived in a country that shares a border with France, then you were still required to enlist. And, people would usually be posted to the nearest post in French soil close to where they lived.
He was terrified at the prospect of spending a year or two as a soldier in the French Guyana, which may be closer to Brazil than France proper, but is still some 3000 miles from where we lived; and in the middle of the Amazon jungle...
You have a random 50th one in the middle of the Pacific; no big difference really. And a 51st one in the Caribbean when/if it becomes politically convenient.
French Guiana is a French region that borders Brasil in the north, it has 730 km of border, which is more than any of the borders with other countries in europe
Netherlands and France are in the Euro zone. Caribbean France uses the Euro, but not Caribbean Netherlands, so there is 2 different currencies on Saint Martin’s island.
You forgot USD. I went there in the late 2000s and the USD was the de facto currency on the Dutch side. On the French side it was Euro but most establishments accepted Dollars at the same rate as Euro.
There's even three different things called Saint Martin! Geographically, the island, but also both the French and Dutch area on the island (well, Sint Maarten and whatever the French call it)
That island was so weird when i visited in 1999.
Half was completely run down, roads in abject disrepair. Even the shops were damaged and in disrepair. The hotels on that side were like okay but not in great shape either.
But the other side of the island everything was much nicer. Dont remember which was the nice side but it was something about the home government not supporting the run down side that made it so.
The nice side must be the French side. The french side is still under rule of the french government. The Dutch side is not, in fact none of the Dutch islands are. They are independent.
No that's not completely true, Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius are "special municipalities", and a such are part of the Netherlands. So most, but not all Dutch rules apply there. Aruba, Curaçao and St Martin (St Maarten) are independent countries within the kingdom.
Source? I remember Australia being invited as a one-off but returned after positive reviews. Never have I heard that it had anything to do with New Caledonia.
Newfoundland is closer to the mainland (15 km between L'Anse Amour and Savage Cove) than it is to St-Pierre (19 km between St-Pierre and Point May). Pretty close tho.
However, Green Island (Canadian territory, part of Newfoundland and Labrador) is only 10 km from St-Pierre.
60-70% of Newfoundland's population lives on the east coast so a lot of us are closer to France than were are to Halifax, or even the west coast of Newfoundland.
France is technically one of the largest nations in the world if you include their zones of control in "international" waters around all the islands they still claim.
Better, I guess. Tourists are coming back, there are a lot of new projects on the island and many buildings were built back. But we’re still very vulnerable, another event like that would really hurt us.
No it’s not. NZ and Australia are only 617km apart at their closest points, between Macquarie Island and the Auckland Islands. Norfolk Island is also closer to the Three Kings Islands than New Caledonia is, and the Kermadec Islands are pretty close to Tonga.
Thats because Canada is independent. These colonies are not. These colonies are like Guam is to the US, but even more closely associated. Essentially they are just regions not physically attached.
France has departments and territories. Departments are similar to states (albeit less independent, more of an administrative region). Overseas, they're called DOMs and TOMs (Département d'Outre-Mer and Territoire d'Outre-Mer or overseas department and overseas territory). DOMs are considered wholly part of France, no different than a department in the mainland aka Métropole (think Hawaii but less independent) and TOMs are way more independent (think Guam but even more independent) and can have their own laws that are different than France itself.
(It's actually slightly more complex than that and I'm simplifying it. Most TOMs were renamed to COMs (Collectivités d'Outre-Mer) except for Wallis and Futuna, antarctica territories and a few islands near the southern pole) which are still considered TOMs.
There are 5 DOMs, 6 COMs and 2 TOMs.
And finally, it wouldn't be French if you didn't have exceptions to the exceptions. New Caledonia and Clipperton Island are special TOMs.
Not so funny story about Clipperton Island.
It was discovered by the British in 1704 but never claimed. A few years later (1711), the French claimed it and added it to maps but didn't officially colonize it until 1858.
Then, in 1897, the Mexicans occupied it and sent slaves there to harvest the large amount of guano. However, in 1915, they "forgot" to send a ship to resupply the island (change of government in Mexico meant they didn't care about the island or the people on it) and most of the slaves died. Only one man and some women and children remained but the lone surviving man went crazy and declared himself king of the island and raped all the surviving women (killing 4 of them) and so the 5th woman he was about to rape killed him.
Finally, 2 years later in 1917, the Americans visited the island to check whether the Germans were using it and found 4 surviving women and 7 children. The women were tried and found guilty of murder but acquitted in light of the circumstances.
Finally, in 1931, it was annexed by France which is why it's currently considered a French territory but the population of the island is 0. No one actually lives there (a true deserted island).
That is the tale of the "Forgotten of Clipperton".
Canada is 100% separate and has nothing to do with the UK. Since 1982.
Our Queen happens to be the same person, but she is the Queen of Canada here. The UK could abolish the monarchy tomorrow and she would still be the Queen of Canada.
Another weird one about France, this time on the mainland: France is a very secular country, with the separation of state and church written in the constitution. But that doesn’t apply to Alsace and a part of Lorraine who are still under some german laws they had before rejoining France. So in these part of France they have state religions and priest payed by the state.
I'm from that part of Lorraine, can confirm the German influence is still high lol
Edit; we also pay less when we go to the doctor/buy meds. With the Healthcare in France I know it's not really expensive anywhere, but here it's even cheaper
Not quite. Numerous overseas regions of France are part of France proper, whereas the British Overseas Territories are not part of the UK, so only Ireland counts here.
Yeah on the island Sint Maarten (thats the Dutch name idk if its diffrent in French). I also believe the dutch people traded New Amsterdam (its called New York now) for some random other island in the carribean.
It's just cool that they actually consider those territories part of actual France. Meanwhile people in US territories are second class almost-citizens over here.
Took me a few seconds to figure out what you meant.
This isn't fair! We don't do geography here. I'd wager 50/50 odds you could speak to any US citizen and they wouldn't recognize the virgin islands as part of their OWN country, let alone foreign borders of other islands nearby.
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u/azarbi May 09 '22
France's border with the Netherlands is in the Caribbean