PARIS — Lest one fear the end of France’s centuries of culinary panache, Unesco officials on Tuesday enshrined the “gastronomic meal of the French” as part of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity,” alongside Azerbaijani carpet...

The French government will consider changes to details of its pension reform proposals but will not back down from the basic plan to raise the retirement age, top advisers to President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday. Trade unions plan nationwide...

French police raided the Paris home of L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt on Wednesday, a local prosecutor told CNN. Investigators have been looking into Bettencourt’s finances for weeks after allegations of secret, possibly illegal...

France was set to repatriate nearly 140 more Roma on Friday, a day after scores were flown back to Romania under a controversial crackdown ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Immigration Minister Eric Besson said in Washington that 139 more Roma...

The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the “Mona Lisa.” French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum’s Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the “Mona...

The law – the first of its kind – means that partners who make such insults or threats of physical violence faces up to three years in prison and a €75,000 (£60,000) fine. French magistrates have slammed the new legislation as...

The 21-year old will go before a judge on Friday, a court official said. Police arrested him at a train station in Seine-Saint-Denis, near the northern Paris suburb of La Corneuve, where Sarkozy made an unannounced visit on Thursday.

Two French hostages seized in the Central African Republic on 22 November have been freed in neighbouring Darfur, the French foreign minister says. Bernard Kouchner was quoted by news agency AFP as saying the pair, who worked for the Triangle charity,...

Al Qaeda’s north African wing has threatened to kill a French hostage unless four of its members are released within 20 days. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) made its demand in a statement dated Sunday, said the Washington-based...

A French politician has refused to resign over comments that he enjoyed paying for “young boys” in Thailand. Frederic Mitterrand, 62, the culture minister, denied that passages of his book, The Bad Life, described sexual encounters with...