The culture of France and of the French people has been shaped by geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and groups. The capital of France, Paris, is famous for its high culture and world-renowned arts firstly in Europe in the nineteenth century and today, worldwide. In modern days now whenever people mention about France, they will think of the arts, cinema, fashion and cuisine. French culture today is rather complicated as it is marked both by great regional and socioeconomic differences and by strong unifying tendencies.
Firstly, we will look at the definition of ‘French culture’ for both the past and present. In the past, French culture refers to a specific geographic region where the people are of common ethnicity and religion. However, even before the late nineteenth century, France was largely a mix of local customs and regional differences that the aims of the French Revolution had only begun to work against. Today's France remains a nation of numerous indigenous and foreign languages, of multiple ethnicities and religions.
In the past, the powerful internal forces such as the French educational system, mandatory military service, state linguistic and cultural policies had try to create a French culture identity despite of the vast mix of regional differences. However despite the French Revolution effort, France today still remains marked by social class and by important regional differences in culture.
In recent years, to fight the loss of regional diversity, many social forces in France have promoted forms of multiculturalism but due to the French taking great pride in its national identity and fear that its culture will be threatened by American cultural hegemony, the idea is hard to accept.
However the last 50 years have shown that the interracial blending of some native French and newcomers stands as a vibrant and boasted feature of French culture, from popular music to movies and literature. Therefore, alongside mixing of populations, exists also a cultural blending that is present in France today.
