The French love Spain... or so say the findings, released today, of a survey carried out by a market research company.

According to the survey, 72% of French people surveyed said "Spain is the country they love". The study, released by the French Embassy in Spain, also reveals that 66% of Spanish are drawn to the Gallic country, 76% rate the countries' bilateral relations as "excellent" and 61% say relations have improved over the past 20 years.

The survey was carried out on 13,000 people from twelve countries between 15th and 19th December last year. More than a thousand of those surveyed were Spanish, and almost as many were French.

It is worth noting that the survey was carried out before Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador, winner of the 2010 Tour de France, was found guilty of doping charges, a ruling that sparked off a major controversy between Spain and its neighbour, when Canal Plus France launched an attack on several top-ranking Spanish sports stars via a satirical puppet programme, ultimately dragging the political leaders of both countries into the debate.

Although 72% of the French surveyed said they "love" Spain, 21% said they did not like the country at all.  If Spain is the country that the French claim to love most, their next favourite turns out to be Germany (63% say they like this country), followed by the United States (62%), Japan (53%) and Brazil (52%).

The survey says Spanish affection for France is "real", with 47% of Spaniards surveyed saying they would have liked to live in France and 48% saying they wanted to work in the neighbouring country.

53% of Spaniards surveyed said they liked the French motto: "Liberty, equality and fraternity", but only 48% said they would link the country closely with human rights. 44% of Spaniards placed France among the five world powers, and more than half believe that the infrastructure and public services work "well or very well." 70% of Spaniards feel that state education is good in France.

68% of Spaniards felt France was a leader in the fashion sector, but that percentage dropped to 60% with regard to international cuisine. However, the lowest percentages were recorded in the sectors related to technology and innovation which garnered less than 20% of Spanish support, and cinema which was rated by only 7% of those surveyed.