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Sabotage on rail lines in France: many TGVs to south-east cancelled
Separate fires on high-speed line near Lyon has crippled services
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Britons ordered to leave France over bad first year of work lose court appeal
Order was upheld despite their Dordogne gîte business now doing better. They say they have ‘absolutely nothing to go back to in the UK’.
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Carpenter who helped rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral allowed to marry there
Special permission was granted as private weddings are not normally permitted at the Paris landmark
Church buys Brittany town's 'controversial' statue
8m monument will be moved a few metres but will still be visible to the public
The Catholic Church has agreed to buy a controversial 8m statue of Pope John Paul II for €20,000 from a Morbihan town following a court ruling.
As reported in October 2017, France’s top administrative court the Conseil d’Etat ruled that a cross had to be removed from the statue in Ploërmel as it breaks France's 1905 law of separation of Church and State.
The rest of the statue, including an arch over the figure of the Pope, could remain in place, the court ruled.
On Thursday, Ploërmel council agreed to sell the bronze monument, which has stood in a public carpark for 12 years after being donated to the town by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, to the diocese of Vannes.
Once the sale has gone through, the statue will be moved a matter of metres, at the Church's expense, to the adjoining grounds of a Catholic private college, where it will remain visible to the public.
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