France's Loire Valley was the unlikely last home of an Italian Renaissance genius, writes P.K. Stowers.

Designer Cedric Charlier, is steadily reinvigorating the famous French label Cacharel which is now available here.

Want to know what you've missed? Check out the news in photos from around the world.

French director Jean Becker talks to Peter Calder about the art of keeping it simple.

The battle between the heiress to the cosmetics empire and her estranged daughter has re-erupted.

Are NZ's top rugby players bashing each other to pulp just in time for the World Cup?, asks Peter Bills.

The contrast between soaring architecture and grubby public places is part of the unique charm of Paris, writes Jim Eagles.

Leaders of the 'real' and 'virtual' worlds will meet, en masse, for the first time in northern France today.

Dating right back to the Greek and Roman gods, wine has always been part of religious culture.

Could this year's G8 summit, in the French seaside resort of Deauville, break with tradition?

A New Zealander working on superyachts during his OE has died in a French hospital after a light-hearted stunt went wrong. Brendon Pyle, 28, suffered head injuries and a punctured lung after falling while riding a rubbish bin...

Winger Joe Rokocoko will join fellow All Black Neemia Tialata at French Top 14 rugby club Bayonne after the World Cup.

The whole incredible farce of Carl Hayman's non-season at French Top 14 club Toulon is finally at an end.

The wife of disgraced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a celebrity in France herself, is standing by her husband.