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French wine production in 2021 is due to fall to a 'historically low' volume, down by as much as 30 percent, due to unusual sharp spring frosts and rainfall, the country's agriculture ministry has announced.

Luce Douady, 16, a French award-winning climber and who was regarded as a future adult star in the discipline, has died after a fall reported to be of about 150 metres, for reasons not yet explained, from an approach path to mountainous terrain near Grenoble in south-eastt France.  

The number of unemployed in France fell in the final quarter of 2019, down by 1.7% on the third quarter to total 3.309 million people, according to labour ministry figures released on Monday.

The number of registered unemployed in France fell to 8.5% of the active population in the second quarter of the year, the lowest in 11 years, but remained well above that of Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, at around 5%.

France's jobless rate fell in the last quarter of 2018 to 8.8 percent of the active population, down from 9.1 percent in the previous quarter, the country's national statistics office INSEE announced on Thursday. 

The French agriculture ministry estimates that the country's total wine production this year will fall to about 36.9 million hectolitres, or 4.9 billion bottles, down by almost 20 percent on last year due essentially to spring frosts and summer storms, with the Bordeaux region worst-affected.

The French agriculture ministry has warned that this year's wine production in France may fall by as much as 8 million hectolitres compared to 2016, to what it said would be a 'historically low' total of 37.6 million hectolitres, because of severe frosts in the spring.

Category 'A' unemployed fell by just more than 19,000, or 0.5%, month-on-month in July to total 3.5 million, following a fall in jobless numbers in the 2nd quarter.

Nightly stays of foreign tourists were down 8.5% in 2nd quarter, and those by French tourists down 2.5%, with terrorism, bad weather and strike chaos cited as cause.

Second quarter figures show jobless rate in mainland France and overseas territories fell to 9.9%, down for all categories and most notably the young.

Renowned stuntman Tancrede Melet accidentally fell 98ft while holding onto a hot air balloonin in southern France. 

The interest trim on the popular account from 1% to 0.75% follows a Bank of France recommendation citing annual inflation of just 0.3%.

Recovering to nearly 400,000 after the crisis, annual housing starts fell to 330,000 last year and are set to slump to 300,000 or below this year.

French national statistics office INSEE reports an unemployment rate of 10.2% during the fourth quarter of 2013, representing a fall of 0.1%.

The number of people registered as jobless in France fell by 20,500 in October - or by 0.6% - to a total of 3.275 million.