- published: 05 Jul 2010
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France (English i/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
Nika Roza Danilova (born April 11, 1989), better known by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer-songwriter. Having released three EPs and three full-length albums, combining electronic, industrial, classical, goth, and experimental rock influences, she received generally positive reviews and was regarded as one of the names to watch out for in 2011.
Nika Roza Danilova was raised in Merrill, Wisconsin, on over 100 acres of forest. "I was delusional as a kid; I never spent a lot of time around other people my own age except for my brother, who's a year older," she remembered. Speaking of her childhood's harsh realities, she remembered the climate ("The cold is unbelievable. I try not to complain") and general wilderness, the lack of TV or internet. "When you live around a lot of people in a city and that synthesized stimulation, you can get lost in that's the hustle and bustle. When you grow up in the country you have nothing to stimulate you but what you seek," she said. Some of Danilova's later goth sensibilities might have come from the impressions of her early childhood when she was exposed to a hunter's environment and a survivalist's worldview. "My dad was a hunter so there would constantly be animal parts all over the place. He'd be out in the forest and bring back deer heads hoping that animals would eat the flesh and leave a skull. But it wouldn't happen. There would just be a deer head hanging from a tree branch you could literally bump into", she remembered. "Our milk was from the neighbor's cow. I am not a country bumpkin but this is how we live. We ate deer and pheasant and venison and all this meat that my dad would go out and kill", she added.