The overseas departments are former colonies outside France that now enjoy a status similar to European or metropolitan France.
They can be considered to be a part of France (and the EU), rather than dependent territories and each of them is a region at the same time. Beyond these there are also three "overseas territories" (French: territoires d'outre-mer, or TOM), French Polynesia (987), Wallis and Futuna (986) and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, that do not have this status.
Furthermore there are three separate overseas collectivities: New Caledonia - which used to be a TOM (988), Saint Pierre and Miquelon (975) and Mayotte (976).
Finally, France maintains control over a number of small islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
France possesses a large variety of landscapes, ranging from coastal plains in the north and west, where France borders the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, to the mountain ranges in the south (the Pyrenees) and the southeast (the Alps), of which the latter contains the highest point of Europe, the Mont Blanc at 4810 m.
In between are found other elevated regions such as the Massif Central[?] or the Vosges mountains and extensive river basins such as those of the Loire River, the Rhone River, the Garonne and Seine.
France's economy combines modern capitalistic methods with extensive, but declining, government intervention.
The government retains considerable influence over key segments of each sector, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms.
It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s.
The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Telecom, in Air France, and in the insurance, banking, and defense industries.
Meanwhile, large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Western Europe.
France joined 11 other EU members to launch the euro on January 1, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002.
The official language is French, with several local languages (Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch (Flemish), German (Alsatian), Occitan), but the French government and school system had discouraged the use of any them until recently. The regional languages are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national.
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