More than 250 million people speak French around the world.

You probably know it as the language of poetry, art and romance, but here are some French facts you might not be so familiar with.

French is pretty popular across the globe.

Some of the countries it's spoken in are Belgium, Switzerland,

Monaco, Haiti, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad,

Comoros, the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger,

Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, Madagascar, Vanuatu, Canada, Luxembourg, and, uh... France as well.

French is one of the most popular languages to learn, especially in the UK.

It is close to English in many ways, and I'm not just talking about geography here.

France and England have a lot of history.

Thanks to our trading, our shared culture and a few wars as well, a lot of French has found its way into the English language.

Some linguists estimate that up to half of modern English words are derived from French.

If you've ever been to a 'restaurant' or 'cafe' to order an 'omelette', or some 'bacon', and 'sausages' as part of your traditional English fry-up, you should know that all of those words are French in their origin.

Other common English words you might not realise are taken from French are 'rectangle, 'magician', and 'money'.

As well as being easy for English speakers to learn, French is also very useful.

It is the official government language of around 30 countries, and is used by dozens of international organisations like the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and the Arab League.

'L'amour est la poésie des sens.'

Sounds good, doesn't it?

French is the language of love.

Or rather, it is a Romance language - that's 'Romance' with a capital R. Along with Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian, French is called a Romance language because it is a descendant of the common Latin spoken by Romans.

French: it's useful, romantic and not all that different from English.

It truly is a language that can take you all around the world.

Bon voyage!