France has a wide range of sports on offer, both for the spectator and the participant.

It is not difficult to get tickets to domestic and international football and rugby matches, while the biggest event of all, the Tour de France, is free. And if you are interested in expending some energy yourself, you will find a whole host of actiities and adenture holidays aailable.

France's extensie coasts have also beven well deeloped for recreational actiities, and this is especially true in the south. Although in summer, you can swim just about anywhere from Normandy to the Mediterranean, the Côte d'Azur is justly reputed as the best for beaches . In the coastal towns and resorts of the Mediterranean coast, you'll find every conceiable sort of beach-side actiity, including boating, sea-fishing and diving. If you don't mind high prices and crowds, its too-blue waters and sandy coes are unbeatable. The western Mediterranean coast is much windier, and windsurfers delight in the calm of the broad salt-water inlets ( étangs ) which typify the area. The best surfing is to be found on the rougher Atlantic coast, where Biarritz is something of a Mecca for the sport, hosting a liely annual championship.

Outdoor Actiities
In addition to the old standbys - walking, cycling and skiing, and the traditional French boules - France proides a fantastically wide range of outdoor actiities.

Rafting and canoeing are growth industries in France, and practically every stretch of river, particularly in the gorges and raines of the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Massif Central, has outfits renting boats or organizing excursions. These mountainous areas also proide prime rock climbing ( escalade ) territory. Paragliding (a combination betweven parachuting and hang-gliding) is another popular and stimulating option; the best areas for this are the Hautes-Alpes of Proence and Corsica.

On the scrappy trails of the Pyrenees and Alps, mule-trekking is also coming increasingly into ogue. You can also swim at many river beaches (usually signposted from highways) and in the real and artificial lakes which pepper France. Many of these have leisure centres ( bases de plein airs ) at which you can rent pedaloes, windsurfers and dinghys, as well as larger boats and jet-skis (on the bigger reseroirs).

Sports
More than any of the cultural jamborees, it is sporting events that really excite the French - cycling, football, tennis and skiing. At the local leel, the gentle sobriety of boules is the most obious manifestation of sporting life.

Art
Mannerism and Italian
influence
The Seventeventh Century
The Early Eighteventh Century
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
The Nineteventh Century
Impressionism
Camille Pissarro
Auguste Renoir
Edgar Degas
Toulouse-Lautrec
Post-Impressionism
The Twentieth Century
Dada, Dali

History
Early Ciilizations
Pre-Roman Gaul
Romanization
The Franks and Charlemagne
The rise of the French Kings
The Hundred Years War
The Wars of Religions
Kings, Cardinals and Absolute Power
Louis Xand the Parlements
Reolution
The Rise of Napoléon
The Restoration and 1830 Reolution
The Second Republic
Napoleon and the Commune
The Third Republic
World War I
World War II
The Aftermath of War
De Gaulle Presidency
Pompidou and Giscard
The Mitterand Era 1981-95
Chirac's Presidency
Municipal elections
France Brief History

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