French police took a top general into custody last week as part of an ongoing probe into potential bribery among the selection committee for the country’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honour. Investigations centre on possible payoffs for awards including expensive meals, holidays and thousands of euros in cash.

The head of the Eiffel Tower is set to step down in the wake of a controversy sparked by the removal of female workers during a private visit of the Paris landmark by members of the Hindu sect BAPS, which triggered a staff walkout earlier this month and sparked outrage in France.

French presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen on Tuesday denounced an attempt to "derail" her Élysée Palace run after a media report accused the head of her far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, of making ant-Semitic comments in 2013. Le Pen said Bardella, who is tipped to be prime minister if she wins the presidency, had her "total confidence".

French teenagers on Tuesday clashed with police as they kept up a blockade of high schools in cities across the country to demand better conditions and more teacher hirings. The escalating standoff came as unions staged a day of demonstrations against a cost-cutting budget drafted by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's embattled government.

France's largest wildfire since 1949 has been declared extinguished more than two months after it broke out in southwestern Gironde, forcing the evacuation of around 224,000 people and covering the city of Bordeaux with a thick plume of smoke. The blaze was put under control on August 1, but continued to smoulder underground for weeks.

Kemi Seba, a controversial African activist known for his virulent anti-Western stance, has been arrested in Paris, a source close to the case told AFP Tuesday.

Christian Boltanski, one of France's top contemporary artists whose multimedia works probed the meaning of mortality and memory, has died aged 76, a former museum director told AFP on Sunday.

While the extension of France’s health pass and other new anti-Covid 19 measures announced by President Emmanuel Macron Monday night are yet to be hammered out in detail, what’s certain is that a full-throttled return to a normal life of frequenting café terraces, restaurants, cinemas, theatres and other culture and leisure activities will now hinge on having a pass sanitaire (or health pass).

France's new military programming law increases the country's defence budget to 2 percent of GDP by 2025. It's an investment in the modernisation of equipment, but also in the training of soldiers. The aim is to teach soldiers to face an army at least as well equipped as that of France in a context of global rearmament. Our reporters Fadile Bhayat, Mandi Heshmati and Caroline Grandjean followed French troops during a "high-intensity" training exercise.

A long-running family feud between Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo and his daughter took a new twist on Tuesday after judges dismissed a claim by Sylvie Uderzo that her father was mentally frail and being exploited.