[krajzeg]

The 400 system is the grads or gradians, indeed originating from the French revolution.

Nowadays I don't think they're used as the principal unit in any country. Wikipedia does mention it gets some use in specialized fields such as surveying, mining and geology.

[gfv]

They are used indirectly through distance. At the time, the meter was defined as one ten millionth of the distance between the north pole and equator through the Paris meridian. That means that the meter corresponds to 1/100000 of a grad of latitude -- which is better read as "a kilometre is 1/100 of a grad".

This is symmetrical to the nautical mile, which is one minute of arc.