France is one of the most culturally significant countries in Europe, and one of the most ancient. It is bordered by the English Channel (La Manche) to the north, the Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay to the west, and the Mediterranean sea to the south. Its natural land frontiers are the Pyrenees along the Spanish border in the south west, the Jura Mountains and the Alps bordering Switzerland and Italy in the east and south east and the River Rhine, which is part of the border with Germany in the north east. The historic provinces of France, abolished at the time of the French Revolution (1789), mirrored its natural geographic regions. Of these the most important for Ruskin were in the north and north east, Normandy and Picardy. His record of the Norman architecture of Rouen, Falaise, Avranches, Mont St Michel, Bayeux, Caen and Honfleur in the former and Abbeville and Amiens in the latter, made in 1848, form the basis of The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849). See also Ruskin and France.