Paris has launched a new kind of tourist guide: not a guide for tourists, but a guide to different types of tourists.

Two wheels is the ideal way to travel the back roads, writes Trish Murphy.

A train carrying hundreds of passengers derailed and crashed into a station outside Paris on the eve of a major holiday weekend.

Three stylish women, frequent visitors to France, share their favourite Parisian haunts.

When Francois Hollande became France's leader, it was with the insistence that he was a man of the people, who despised patriotic pomp and shunned the splendours of the Elysee Palace and its use as a political prop.

Fire has ravaged a Qatari-owned 17th-century mansion in the heart of Paris.

The French are increasingly shunning the traditional baguette, opting instead for cereal at breakfast, biscuits at tea time and pasta and rice dinners.

The Eiffel Tower's lifts have ground to a halt as an industrial dispute over security and working conditions brought workers at the Paris monument out on strike.

Step into the catacombs and find a fascinatingly grisly scene, writes Trudy Lefeber.

Funded by the European Union to the tune of $140 million, a deft bit of reinvention has turned France's drug and crime epicentre into the nation's Capital of Culture. Jenna Hand goes along for the ride.

Of all European countries, you might have thought, France would have taken gay marriage in its stride.

A 21-year-old man arrested on suspicion of stabbing a French soldier in the neck in Paris was flagged to French intelligence months ago over fears that he had been radicalised, it was claimed.

Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau were pronounced "spouses" at their wedding.

Julia Shallcrass discovers Topdeck bus tours provide the swiftest way to see Europe and make new friends.

A 48-year-old divorced Briton locked in a bitter custody battle has confessed that he killed his two young children by slitting their throats in Lille, France.

What's in store for Paris's iconic Hotel de Crillon? Samuel Muston takes the long view.

Eurostar's latest service takes you straight to the heart of foodie France. Andy Lynes climbs aboard.

Gay marriage has been legalised by Parliament - but it is still banned by most of New Zealand's 10 main religions, a new Herald survey shows.

The no-holds-barred sex appeal for Anthony Vaccarello is not for the faint-hearted. The third Belgian designer to show on Paris fashion week's first day served up a black-and-white ode to the early '80s in a show that featured micro skirts, chainmail, a lot of skin and lashings of sensual leather. Strong retro shoulders, asymmetrical, diagonally cut skirts, upturned lapels and cowl collars set the fashion time dial firmly back to the era of the New Romantics. This was fused with the innate sexiness of his variations on the Little Black Dress. The best look was a black kimono-style top, which billowed in great contrast to the tight, bright shiny black mini. Subtle this was not, but then, subtle isn't glam-loving Vaccarello's thing.

Paris fashion week kicked off with a bold, “masculine'' collection for women in neutral colours by experimental South Korean designer Moon Young Hee. The Paris-based designer sent out an eye-catching collection of voluminous trousers, ruffle-covered tops and floor-length skirts. A master of layering, known for her fluid, feminine designs, she limited herself to a restrained palette of black, white, grey and ecru.