Former prime minister and now conservative presidential election candidate François Fillon is under increasing pressure to prove that his British-born wife Penelope did actually complete work as a parliamentary assistant to him for which, reported weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, she was paid a total of 500,000 euros from parliamentary funds.
Vivarte, which controls iconic French shoe shop chain André, but also clothing stores Naf Naf , Kookaï and Chevignon and which employs around 17,000 people, has put the brands up for sale, citing debts to investment fund investors.
Utility giant EDF has agreed a compensation deal for the closure, now planned for 2018, of the almost 40-year-old power station at Fessenheim, close to the border with Germany in eastern France and built in an area vulnerable to earthquakes and above one of Europe's biggest underground water reservoirs.
After feminist organisations in France led a campaign of protest against the invitation to the French-Polish director, who is wanted in the US for having sex with a minor in 1977, to preside the annual César cinema awards, the 83-year-old said he was stepping down from the role.
A new windscreen sticker scheme called Crit'Air which all vehicles must display and which grades them according to age and fuel type was introduced for the first time in a temporary ban of most-polluting categories from the French capital which is witnessing a particularly high level of pollution this week.
Following the death of the suspect who was due to stand trial this month for the fatal shootings of three women in the Paris Kurdish Information Centre four years ago, all court proceedings have now been closed.
Kevin Guiavarch, 24, was arrested for suspected terrorist activities following his extradition to France from Turkey where he reportedly surrendered himself claiming he was 'repentant' after joining the Islamic State group in Syria.
Former education minister Benoît Hamon, who left the socialist government led by prime minister Manuel Valls citing his opposition to its austerity policies, came ahead of Valls in the first of the two-round Socialist Party primaries to choose its candidate for next spring's presidential elections, with a final play-off between the two due in the final round next Sunday.
Fewer voters took part in the first round of socialist primaries to choose a presidential election candidate than in the last contest in 2011, numbering 1 million at the end of the afternoon across 70% of polling stations.
The far-right Front National party leader, who is standing as candidate in this spring's presidential elections in France, met in Germany with far-right leaders from across Europe, claiming that Brexit would “set the dominos falling" across the continent.
