France
France has long been a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts Europe's 4th largest number of cultural UNESCO (United nations educational scientific and cultural organization) World Heritage Sites. France has a population of 66,736,000 people.
It is a developed country with the world's 6th largest economy and in terms of aggregate household wealth, France ranks 4th in the world.
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It is French tradition to welcome foreign students from all across the world. Since the Middle Ages, and the birth of La Sorbonne - the first French University which was founded more than 800 years ago - students from all across Europe have traveled to France to study.
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Strasbourg
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The capital of the Grand Est region and also the official seat of the European Parliament. The metropolitan area of Strasbourg has almost 769,000 inhabitants and it is located close to the German frontier.
Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, which was the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre.
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Strasbourg is immersed in the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, the city has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries and a crossroad of French and German intellectual traditions.
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Today, the city is known as the Christmas capital in Europe: it was in Strasbourg in 1570 that the very first edition of the oldest Christmas market in Europe took place called the "Christkindelsmärik".
