Category Archives: Paris

Gérard Depardieu appears in Paris court for trial on sexual assault charges

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Actor is expected to testify on Tuesday over allegations by two women who worked with him on 2021 film

The French actor Gérard Depardieu has appeared in court in France on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021.

Depardieu, 76, dressed in a black suit and trainers with his grey hair swept back, arrived at the Paris criminal court amid a large police presence. Dozens of protesters had gathered outside the courthouse and shouted: “Victims, we believe you; rapists, we see you.”

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Gérard Depardieu to appear in Paris court over sexual assault allegations

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Actor, 76, denies claims made by assistant director and set designer who worked with him on Les Volets Verts

Gérard Depardieu will become the most high-profile French person to stand trial on #MeToo abuse allegations when he appears in a Paris court on Monday.

The actor, a titan of French cinema with more than 200 films and television series to his name, is accused of sexually assaulting two women during a film shoot in 2021.

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Mutiny brews in French bookshops over Hachette owner’s media grip

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Booksellers take stand against influence of conservative billionaire by limiting orders of his company’s books and placing them on lower shelves

A conservative Catholic billionaire and media owner is facing an independent bookshop rebellion in France over his influence in the publishing world.

Dozens of independent booksellers are trying to counter the growing influence of Vincent Bolloré, whose vast cultural empire includes television, radio, the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche, and also, since 2023, the biggest book publishing and distribution conglomerate in France, Hachette Livre.

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Skin in the game: mink coat at ethical fashion show fuels sustainability debate

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Eco-concerns upturn moral battle over fur as quiet luxury gives way to ‘boom boom’ looks at Paris fashion week

Gabriela Hearst is an ethical fashion designer, with sustainability at the heart of her brand. And she wants to sell you a mink coat.

Hearst’s Paris fashion week show included a coat, jacket and stole made from vintage real fur. “We bought all these old mink coats in Italy, and pieced them together,” she said after her show.

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Visitors flock to Paris’s Pompidou Centre before it closes for renovations

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Art lovers catch last glimpse of prestigious art collection before gallery shuts for five years for major revamp

Visitors from around the world have been flocking to the Pompidou Centre in Paris this weekend, seizing the last opportunity to enjoy Europe’s largest temple of modern and contemporary art before it closes its doors for a five-year overhaul.

In one of the most complex closures of its kind, the task of removing the museum’s 2,000-strong permanent collection will start on Monday. The Pompidou’s Chagalls, Giacomettis and myriad other treasures will be relocated to other sites in Paris and museums elsewhere in France and around the world.

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Paris trials dedicated car-sharing lane on its notoriously congested ring road

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Busiest urban motorway in Europe restricted mainly to vehicles carrying at least two people during rush-hour

Authorities in Paris have created a dedicated car-sharing lane during rush-hour on its notorious ring road as part of efforts to reduce congestion and pollution on one of Europe’s busiest motorways.

Paris city hall began the trial scheme on Monday, restricting the outside lane of the périphérique to passenger vehicles carrying at least two people from 7am to 10.30am and 4pm to 8pm. The lane will also be available to public transport, taxis, the emergency services and vehicles used by disabled people.

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Nicolas Sarkozy fitted with electronic tag after losing corruption appeal

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Former French president was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 after he had left office

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was fitted with an electronic tag on Friday after losing his appeal against his conviction for corruption and influence peddling.

He will be required to remain at his Paris home between 8pm and 8am, but has been given a special dispensation to be outside until 9.30pm for three days a week when attending a separate trial on charges – that he denies – of accepting millions in illegal campaign funds from the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

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Louvre’s decision to move Mona Lisa is a misguided act of snobbery

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Crowds give life to the Paris museum and the painting is a silent, compelling mystery at the heart of the hubbub

What a wonderful headache for a museum to have. The Louvre in Paris gets so many visitors it is taking drastic measures to cope, which include moving its most famous treasure to a dedicated space where fans can visit without entering the main museum at all. It will no longer suck the oxygen from other art.

Nearly 9 million visitors a year stream through the Louvre and it’s believed 80% of them are looking for Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, better known as La Gioconde, better still as the Mona Lisa.

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Visiting leaky, crowded Louvre is ‘physical ordeal’, museum’s boss says

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In leaked memo to culture minister, Laurence des Cars sounds alarm over state of Paris art gallery

Visiting the Louvre has become a “physical ordeal” as the throngs of tourists, leaks and substandard catering take a toll on the world’s most-visited museum, its director has said in a leaked memo.

The document, written by Laurence des Cars for the French culture minister, Rachida Dati, but leaked to the media on Thursday, sounded the alarm over the state of the Paris museum.

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French minister warns of ‘threat from within’ on Charlie Hebdo attack anniversary

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Comments by Bruno Retailleau, who is known for his hardline views, comes as country marks decade since attack that killed 12 people

The threat of a terrorist attack on France is being fuelled by social media and has never been greater, the country’s interior minister has said, 10 years after gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

Speaking on the anniversary of the massacre at the paper’s offices, Bruno Retailleau said French intelligence had foiled nine planned attacks last year – three targeting the Olympic Games – and the country “could be hit tomorrow”.

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Jocelyne Wildenstein, socialite known for extreme cat-like plastic surgery, dies at 84

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Known as ‘one of the jet set’s most outrageous characters’, Wildenstein died in Paris hotel aged 84

The Swiss socialite and cosmetic surgery aficionado Jocelyne Wildenstein, sometimes known as “Catwoman” due to her extensive plastic surgery, has died, her partner said on Wednesday.

“It is with heavy heart and with great sadness that Mr Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiancée and longtime companion, Jocelyne Wildenstein,” the fashion designer said in an English-language statement sent to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

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It’s the best of times for Notre Dame, but the worst of times for the French PM

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It seems Michel Barnier’s experience of negotiating Brexit with the British was no match for the bitter rivalry of French politics

When Emmanuel Macron welcomes world leaders to the reopening of Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral this weekend, after fire damaged it five years ago, he might have hoped it would serve as a metaphor for people from all backgrounds coming together to prevent a hallowed edifice collapsing.

Instead, it is likely the French government itself will have fallen by Wednesday evening, with voters’ trust of politicians and the political process in charred ruins.

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Defence firm Thales faces bribery and corruption investigation

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UK Serious Fraud Office and French equivalent ‘will pursue every avenue’ in allegations against Paris-based company

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating suspected bribery and corruption at Thales Group, a multinational aerospace and defence electronics contractor.

The company, which is headquartered in Paris and has a UK subsidiary employing more than 7,000 staff, is known in defence circles for its varied businesses, which include making missiles and launchers, supplying sonar systems for the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines and designing the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

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Fans clash at football match between France and Israel

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Skirmish quickly quashed by security guards at stadium as riot police is deployed at ‘high-risk’ game

A skirmish involving Israel fans broke out in the stands of the Stade de France during a tense match between Israel and France’s men’s football teams, but a heavy police presence ensured a repeat of the serious violence in Amsterdam was avoided.

The game had been designated as “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism witnessed in the Netherlands before and after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.

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Paris prosecutor seeks jail and public office ban for Marine Le Pen

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Request in embezzlement trial threatens to undermine National Rally’s efforts to polish image before 2027 polls

A Paris prosecutor has requested a five-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office for the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, at a trial in which she and 24 others are accused of embezzling EU funds.

The trial, which comes almost a decade after initial investigations started, threatens to undermine her National Rally (RN) party’s efforts to polish its image before the 2027 presidential election, which many believe she could win.

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Macron to visit Notre Dame Cathedral before reopening after 2019 fire

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French president to give ‘republican and secular’ speech outside monument days before it reopens to public

As firefighters doused the embers of the blaze that threatened to destroy Notre Dame Cathedral on 16 April 2019, Emmanuel Macron promised the church would be restored “more beautiful than ever” within five years.

In two weeks, the French president will visit the monument that has been returned to its former glory with the help of millions in donations and hundreds of specialist artisans using age-old skills.

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Paris drivers warned of fines as city begins limiting traffic in parts of centre

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Three-month ‘educational phase’ begins for scheme it is hoped will reduce through-traffic and improve air quality

Paris authorities have begun limiting traffic in a large zone of the city centre, with police alerting drivers that they are now banned from driving through the French capital’s central four arrondissements and risk a fine if they do so after next spring.

The so-called “limited traffic zone” (ZTL), home to about 100,000 people and 11,000 businesses, is part of a broader push by the socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to restrict traffic and encourage cycling and public transport use across the car-clogged city.

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Eight go on trial over beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in Paris

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History teacher stabbed and decapitated near his school in a Paris suburb in 2020 in case that shocked France

Eight people have gone on trial in Paris for their alleged role in events leading to the beheading of the history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a case that horrified France and heightened fears of terrorist attacks on schools.

Paty, 47, was stabbed and then decapitated near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radicalised 18-year-old who arrived in France aged six with his Chechen parents and had been granted asylum.

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Four wounded after axe used in fight on Paris suburban train

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Source says one person’s hand was severed in altercation involving several people at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station

Four teenagers were wounded, two of them seriously, after an axe was used during a fight on a suburban train outside Paris, French police sources have said.

One of the victims, all aged 16 or 17, had a hand cut off and another had their skull split open. The main suspect in the incident was later arrested.

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‘Bodies were dropped down quarry shafts’: secrets of millions buried in Paris catacombs come to light

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Researchers hope to uncover how people died and how diseases have developed over 1,000 years

Deep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are ­buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have ­developed over the centuries.

In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and ­doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 ­million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th.

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