No One Expects the French Foreign Legion! Quiz

Answer: England

Whilst Catherine of Braganza is generally seen as the person who introduced tea drinking into the British court in 1662 (she was married to King Charles II at the time) it was not a common beverage amongst the general population for some time because it was too expensive.

This changed in the 18th century as a result of a rapid increase in tea smuggling and, as a consequence, so did its popularity. The problem for the British was that the Chinese had a monopoly on tea and they needed to find a way to break this. Plants were smuggled out of China and it was Arthur Campbell who began his experiments in growing the stock in the Darjeeling area of India.

By the late 19th century the consumption of tea in the England had become commonplace.

Answer: Italy

The Capitoline Wolf is a sculpture that captures the legend of the founding of Rome. Made from bronze it is a representation of a she-wolf suckling the young twins Romulus and Remus after she'd rescued them from the Tiber River. The wolf has long been a symbol of both Italy and Rome and it was poignantly used by their former leader, Benito Mussolini, when he was promoting himself as the founder and father of the "New Rome".

It was the symbolic mascot for Italy when they hosted the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome. Representations of the Capitoline Wolf can be seen in a number of cities around the globe, in particular Romania, and these are generally used to reflect the Latin heritage of their people. Quite a number of these wolves may have also been presented to certain cities as gifts by the Italian government.

Answer: The Netherlands

In Lisse in the Netherlands is one of the world's largest gardens, boasting over seven million bulbs planted across its 32 hectares (79 acres). These are the famous Keukenhof Gardens, sometimes called the "Garden of Europe". It was the Mayor of Lisse who proposed that the estate be converted into a massive garden.

His idea was to provide a forum for gardeners from across Europe to showcase their new hybrid plants each year. The side benefit here was that it would provide an exporting boost for the country.

It is obviously working as the Dutch are the world's leading exporters of flowers.

Answer: France

Cognac is a brandy which carries the name of the town in which it is produced. There are a range of stringent requirements that the liquor must meet before it can be labelled a genuine cognac. These include being made from a specific "Ugni blanc" grape, being distilled twice in copper pot stills and then being aged for two years in French oak barrels from Limousin.

Despite being an icon of France, ironically, the French have not taken to it. Scotch whiskey appears to be the drink of choice and only three per cent of the local cognac is consumed in France, the rest is exported.

Answer: Ukraine

The Tryzub, or trident, is the national coat of arms of Ukraine. It was adopted as a national symbol in 1918 in, what was then, the Ukrainian's People Republic. By 1921, under the Treaty of Riga, the country had become a founding member of the Soviet Union.

In the lead up to this they had abandoned the trident in favour of the hammer and sickle over a rising sun. The trident as their national symbol was officially endorsed by their parliament in 1992. The history of the Tryzub can be traced back to the early Rurik dynasty, around 862 AD, where the symbol has been a part of the family's seal. Since then the trident has also been seen on coins that were minted for Vladimir the Great (980 AD), the bricks of the Church of the Tithes in Kiyiv and a number of other cathedrals', castles and palaces.

Answer: Poland

Mickiewicz was a poet. Think of what Shakespeare may mean to Great Britain or what Homer meant to the Greeks and you have an understanding of what Mickiewicz is to the Poles. He is a cultural icon that speaks of the very essence of all things Polish. Born in 1798 he was a poet of the Romantic era, a prolific writer and an avid columnist, held in high esteem as a patriot and a visionary as well as being an ardent political activist. Yes he had his dark sides such as dabbling in the spiritual world but antics such as these were rigorously suppressed to ensure that he maintained a squeaky clean public image. "Pan Tadeusz", published in 1834, an epic poem that blends pathos, irony, lyricism and realism in telling the tale that spans five days in the lives of Lithuanian gentry as the spectre of Napoleon marches on their nation.

The publication is treasured as the national epic of Poland.

Answer: Spain

What began as a simple roadside advertisement in 1956 has now become one of the symbols of Spanish culture. The Osborne Bull is a black silhouette of the beast and it was planted at various sites across Spain to advertise Veteran Brandy, a product of the Osborne Group.

In 1994, in a bid to cut down roadside distractions to reduce the country's road toll, the Traffic Department of Spain ordered that the bulls be taken down. This caused a massive uproar, especially in Andalucia where the local government declared that the bull was a part of the region's heritage. Spanish courts have since recognised the bull as a cultural symbol and declared that the bulls could remain, provided that it was only in silhouette and it did not carry any advertisement.

Answer: Scotland

There was a period when Lallans was a term used to describe the Scots language as a whole. Both Robert Louis Stevenson, in his poem "The Maker of Posterity", and Robert Burns, "The Epistle to William Simson", used the term in this manner. Nowadays there is a movement away from this with Lallans being interpreted as covering the dialects in just the central and southern areas of Scotland.

The dialects in the north and eastern areas are referred to as Doric.

Answer: Germany

The white grape Riesling originated in the Rhine region of Germany and is known as the "King of Grapes". Revered for its pure fruit flavours, its versatility and its diversity of styles, for hundreds of years this has widely been acknowledged as the best of the white wine grapes.

It is one of those rare grapes that can be used to produce wines that are totally dry all the way through to those that are serenely sweet. In Germany the Riesling will ripen at the end of September right through to the end of November.

The season can extend to January for the late harvesting.

Answer: Russia

The title Matryoshka means "little matron" and the dolls are a set that gradually decrease in size and nest within each other. They're also known as "Babushka dolls", meaning Grandmother dolls. The outer woman is the senior doll, generally a woman in traditional garb, but the inner dolls can be either gender, while the last is viewed as an infant.

The dolls were the creation of Vasily Zvyozdochkin and Sergey Malyutin in 1890 while they were under the employ of a wealthy industrialist named Savva Mamontov.

It was Mamontov's wife who, ten years later, entered the dolls into the Exposition Universelle that was being held in Paris. It was here that the dolls won international acclaim when they were rewarded with a bronze medallion.