France’s national flag is the vertical blue-white-red tricolor adopted during the French Revolution.
The tricolor emerged in 1789, when the colors of Paris—blue and red—were combined with the traditional royal color white. The arrangement was later standardized as blue at the hoist, followed by white and red at the fly. The flag became a powerful emblem of the French Republic and revolutionary political change.
France briefly used other arrangements during its history, including the white royal flag before the Revolution and a plain white flag during the Restoration. The modern tricolor was definitively restored in 1830 and remains the national flag of the French Republic.
Russia also uses white, blue and red, but its bands are horizontal and ordered white-blue-red. Romania and Chad use blue-yellow-red, making the exact colors and order decisive.