France was a country in mainland Europe, located on Earth. French was a language which originated in this country.

Supposed Earthonomics expert Mr Copper mistakenly referred to the country as "Great France" of "Europey" along with "Great Germany". The Tenth Doctor corrected him, clarifying that "only Britain [was] great." (TV: Voyage of the Damned)

Geography[]

The Channel Islands were originally attached to mainland Europe via southern France in the distant past before they were broken away by the movement of tectonic plates over millions of years. Dragged by the forces of nature, they eventually settled in the English Channel. Britain and France disputed the ownership of the islands for centuries. The main islands were Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark, along with other smaller islands which were largely ignored and forgotten about by the average Briton or Frenchman, including the southernmost island, L'Ithe, where a Silurian shelter was located. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)

Time zone[]

The French time zone was one hour ahead of GMT, the time zone of the United Kingdom, (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) two hours behind Moscow and seven hours behind China. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)

History[]

Early history[]

France was located in the same region as Gaul. The Thirteenth Doctor, Graham O'Brien, Yasmin Khan and Ryan Sinclair visited Gaul in 451, during the wars between the Roman Empire and the invading Huns. (PROSE: Combat Magicks)

Born in 742, Charlemagne, or Charles I of France, ruled the Frankish Empire for 46 years until his death in 814, uniting Western and Central Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. His reign saw a renaissance in European culture: architecture, art, literature and music all flourished, while Medieval Latin developed as Europe's first common language. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac ^[+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2008).)

11th century[]

Following the defeat of Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the First Monk claimed that claims over France went on for "years and years", and that if Harold remained king with the help of the Monk's meddling with time, there would be peace. (TV: "Checkmate")

12th century[]

Philippe Auguste was the King of France who laid the cornerstone for the Louvre in the 12th century — witnessed by one of the first five incarnations of the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)

He was the enemy of his English counterpart Richard the Lionheart. While Richard was fighting in the Third Crusade in the Holy Land in 1190, his brother John planned to usurp his throne and trade with Philip of France. (TV: The Crusade)

13th century[]

In 1215, the Fifth Doctor observed that, had the Tremas Master been successful in preventing King John of England from signing the Magna Carta, the Barons would have potentially deposed him in favour of King Phillip of France. (TV: The King's Demons)

In 1242, the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield visited France. (PROSE: Sanctuary)

14th century[]

The Second Doctor, Zoe Heriot, and Jamie McCrimmon visited a church in France during the 14th century, where they found it temporally linked to 1918. (AUDIO: The Iron Maid)

In the late 14th century, Queen Isabella, the wife of King Richard II of England, was born in France. She returned to her native country after her husband's death in 1400. (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale)

16th century[]

In 1555, France was at war with Spain. Francois de Noailles, Bishop of Dax and the brother of the French ambassador to England, secretly supported Reverend Thomas Smith's plot to remove Queen Mary I from power. He believed that having her half-sister Elizabeth on the English throne would mean England would ally with France instead of Spain. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)

In August 1572, the First Doctor and Steven Taylor visited Paris and were present for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. (TV: The Massacre)

17th century[]

In 1626, the Fifth Doctor, Peri Brown and Erimem visited France. At that time, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham smuggled an English army into the country to take Paris. (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)

In 1688, the deposed King James II of England, his wife Mary of Modena and their son James Stuart went into exile in France. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)

18th century[]

In the 18th century, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour, lived in France and was a lover of King Louis XV. She died in Versailles after receiving several visits from the Tenth Doctor. The Doctor described France to Mickey Smith as "a different planet", referring to the different attitudes of its people from those of Great Britain. (TV: The Girl in the Fireplace) Even more shocking, from Rose Tyler's perspective, Madame de Pompadour (who was the King's lover) got along with the Queen.

In 1746, the Second Doctor suggested the country as a destination for some Scottish refugees, during the Jacobite rebellion. (TV: The Highlanders)

In the 1750s, France fought across Europe against England and Scotland, bound by the Act of Union, in the Seven Years' War, which a Slitheen disguised as Sir Edward Scott Cameron would describe as a prequel to World War I and "a glorious affair" that "spanned continents" and "consumed countless lives." (AUDIO: Death on the Mile)

Louis XV notably gave away both New France and the Austrian Netherlands. Most historians believed that Louis XV damaged had France's power and discredited the monarchy to the point that it led to the French Revolution just fifteen years after his death in 1774. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)

The Tenth Doctor attempted to take Donna Noble to Blackpool but they instead arrived in the French Riviera in the 1780s. (AUDIO: Death and the Queen)

Louis XVI was executed in 1793, forever changing the political landscape of France and beginning the Reign of Terror, in which revoltionaries guillotined suspected enemies of the state in their thousands. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)

In July 1794, the First Doctor, Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright visited France during the French Revolution. Maximilien Robespierre led France during this period of its history. Robespierre was overthrown in a plot orchestrated by Paul Barras and Napoléon Bonaparte. (TV: The Reign of Terror)

19th century[]

In 1804, the First Doctor and Dodo Chaplet visited France in an alternate timeline. By this year, Napoleon was Emperor of France. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask)

Following his defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon finally abandoned his plans to invade England and turned his attention towards the Russians and the Austrians, marching his armies east and defeating them at Austerlitz. He invaded Spain and Portugal, defeated the Prussians and entered Berlin in a string of victories which lasted for years.

Over-extending himself, Napoleon made what the Second Doctor described as a "disastrous attempt" to invade Russia. (PROSE: World Game) Facing England, Russia, Prussia, Austria, with Spain and Portugal in perpetual revolt, Napoleon found himself surrounded. The Allies marched on Paris. Talleyrand quickly changed sides again and negotiated peace, with Napoleon abdicating in 1814. (PROSE: World Game) That year, Napoleon was exiled. Ultimately, Napoleon returned from exile the following year. (COMIC: The Doctor and the Nurse)

In 1848, King Louis-Philippe abdicated. Napoleon III returned from exile and was elected President of France. He served as president until 1852, when he declared himself Emperor of the Second French Empire. (PROSE: World Game)

Prior to the 1860s, France fought with the British against the Chinese Empire in the Opium Wars. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)

In 1870, France suffered a devastating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War against Prussia. Emperor Napoleon III was ousted and the Third French Republic was proclaimed as a result. (PROSE: World Game)

In 1871, the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield visited France. (PROSE: Set Piece)

In 1879, Rose-the-Cat piloted the TARDIS to Paris, where she found a mouse. (COMIC: A Rose by Any Other Name)

In 1884, the Seventh Doctor, Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester visited France. (PROSE: The Death of Art)

In 1890, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond visited Auvers-sur-Oise. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)

During this century, French dressing styles were fashionable in England. (COMIC: Unearthly Things)

20th century[]

In 1919, a peace conference was held after World War I in Versailles. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) The Treaty of Versailles established the post-war settlement. (PROSE: Just War, Players, AUDIO: The Wanderer, The Alchemists)

In 1937, the Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kapoor visited France. (PROSE: History 101)

Nazi Germany occupied most of France by August 1940. (AUDIO: Their Finest Hour) The Doctor visited this occupied France, during both his second and eighth incarnations. (AUDIO: Resistance, The Scapegoat) The south of France, location of the Vichy regime, was occupied in 1943, leading members of the French Resistance, Allied forces and sympathisers and civilians to attempt to cross the Pyrenees into neutral Spain. (AUDIO: Resistance)

In 1944, France was liberated from Nazi occupation after the Normandy landings on 6 June. (PROSE: The Taint; AUDIO: State of Emergency) Following the liberation, the first thing that the Free French Army did was create a memorial to Joan of Arc. (AUDIO: State of Emergency) Celebrations took place in villages across the country. (AUDIO: Scorched Earth)

The French franc was the currency of France for most of the 20th century. (PROSE: History 101)

The first case outside England of the Silurian virus from Wenley Moor was reported in Paris. Thankfully, it was at that time the Third Doctor developed an antidote for the virus, which was soon used to stop the pandemic. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)

In 1979, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II visited Paris. (TV: City of Death)

21st century[]

In 2007, when Cybermen from Pete's World invaded the main universe, appearing all over Earth, an army of Cybermen appeared in Paris. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

At 8:40AM GMT/9:40 AM French time on a Wednesday in September 2009, fifteen RTAs were noted by Torchwood Three to have occurred in France as a result of the 456 compelling every human child across Earth to suddenly stop and proclaim their message: "we are coming." (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)

In 2011, Night Dragon Haulage regularly shipped goods to France. (TV: The Curse of Clyde Langer)

By 2050, France appeared to be under the jurisdiction of the Department, which was secretly led by a Korven from the far future known as Lomax. The Department operated the Mortainian mines, presumably located in Mortain, France. (TV: Lost Library of Ukko)

After the Myloki conflict of 2066-2068, France collapsed into civil war. (PROSE: The Indestructible Man)

Later history[]

In the 22nd century, the Wronsdehj conquered France, along with the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Italy and Poland. They were eventually defeated by the Fourth Doctor and Romana I. (PROSE: Life from Lifelessness)

Alternate timelines[]

In the Game of Napoleon and Wellington, in which Napoléon Bonaparte's French Empire prevailed in the Napoleonic Wars, it evolved into a World Empire which counted the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain among its conquered nations. The Empire collapsed upon Napoleon's death, after which the conquered countries were discreetly encouraged by the Players to "revert to type", splitting up into separate mini-states, with the United Kingdom splitting into the separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Wales. (PROSE: World Game)

In the history in which the Ironsides were never discovered by the Eleventh Doctor, the Germans turned their forces against the Soviet Union after being defeated by the Ironsides in the Battle of Britain, long before the summer of 1942. Whilst German efforts were diverted elsewhere, the Ironsides landed on the Normandy beaches, traveling along the seabed of the English Channel to avoid detection. The ensuing conflict was brief as soon the three Ironsides were marching across France, clearing a path for the liberation of the towns along their way by British soldiers. The enemy's guns could not penetrate the Ironsides' defenses and their speed and mobility meant that the Nazis had to retreat to Germany to prepare a final defense, allowing the Russians to spread across Eastern Europe at the other end of the Allied pincer movement. (PROSE: The Ironside Advance)

In parallel worlds[]

In a a parallel world, France closed its borders to refugees forced to vacate southern England after a replica of the Titanic crashed into London. (TV: Turn Left)

Other references[]

While undercover at the Pharm, "Samantha Jones" claimed France among the places she had visited. (TV: Reset)