Like the cultures of most regions of the world, the French culture is
greatly influence by geographical and economic characteristics of the
country. For example, France's fertile soil has played a large role in the
country's reputation as a world culinary centre. The country's extensive
coastal areas on the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel, and Mediterranean
Sea, have played a significant role in making shipping and fishing
important parts of the country's economy. These factors combined with a
relatively less dense population[1] enabled France to become a wealthy
country from the Middle Ages onwards. Although most of this wealth before
the French Revolution in 1789 was concentrated in the crown, a significant
wealthy class had also developed in France. The French monarchs in the
16th, 17th, and 18th centuries (like the papacy in Rome) used part of their
wealth to patronize art and artists on a large scale. This attracted many
of Europe's talented artists to Paris, making it the Mecca' of art and
gave rise to a rich French culture. Wealth also resulted in the creation of
a leisure class, which had both the time and the means for developing
elegance in dress, manners, furnishings, and architecture. ("France,"
A world minus French culture would be deprived of one of the world's
most varied literature noted for its profound examination of human society
and the individual's place within society. There would be no literary
movements in the world called dada, surrealism, existentialism, theater of
the absurd, the new novel, and postmodernismâ€"all 20th century literary
styles led by French artists. We would be unaware of the innovative and
enlightening works of the great French poets such as Franzois Villon[2] and
Arthur Rimbaud,[3] influential philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau
and Voltaireâ€"whose writings in the Age of Enlightenment' ins...