Flag of France

Facts, history and meaning about the flag of France

France is located in Europe.

The official ISO 3166 code for France is:

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France's flag is a tricolor with vertical fields in blue, white and red. The flag is often called Le Tricolore, because of the three dominant colors.

The flag was a major symbol during the French Revolution and was officially adopted on February 15, 1749, by the National Convention.

On the earliest version of the flag, the colors ran horizontally. To avoid confusing the flag of France with the flag of the Netherlands, the flag changed to have vertical fields instead. Since the flag was somewhat invisible out at sea, the red and blue colors were switched, in order to make the red end up where the blue color would normally appear. The reason was because it could be confused with the flag of the Netherlands, once again.

The flag quickly came to be seen as a symbol of freedom and has had a great influence on flags in other countries. The flag oddly disappeared for some time after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, but was reintroduced in the 1830s. The flag is also used as a state emblem since France lacks an official state weapon.

The French National Anthem is called The Marseillaise (La Marseillaise in French).

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