Five times the size of France, covering 2,345,400 square kilometres and stretching from the Gulf of Guinea in the west to the Great Lakes in the east, from the Sudanese savannas of the north to the Copperbelt in the south, the DRC is a patchwork of landscapes and peoples, thought to have been inhabited for over three million years. And then there is the stately river Congo, an inescapable symbol of national unity.

This is a country on the scale of a continent, and it is well worth exploring. From above, its opulent green surface offers a fascinating pageant, in which coffee plantations alternate with fields of wheat, orchards, forests, savannas to gladden the hearts of botanists and, north-east of Lake Kivu, the most impressive of all the world's volcanic regions: the Virungas. The climate there is hot and humid but − astonishingly in these equatorial latitudes − the Ruwenzori mountain range is permanently snow-capped! The contrast between the DRC's unusually varied and abundant mineral resources and its sad and troubled history has  caused it to be referred to as a geological scandal, but it also boasts an extraordinarily rich cultural heritage. In October 2012, its capital, Kinshasa, one of Africa's biggest cities, hosted the Sommet de la Francophonie meeting of French-speaking nations.