France.fr down until late August

FRANCE'S flagship website, which crashed within hours of launching last week, will remain unavailable until at least the end of August.

The government says it is switching to a more reliable web host and carrying out a series of checks to work out what went wrong and ensure the site is stable when it launches for the second time.

France.fr went live on Bastille Day, promising information about France in five languages: French, English, German, Italian and Spanish.

The site's aim was to promote the country to tourists, investors and students and provide residents with practical information about all elements of life in France.

Some 65,000 people visited the website in the 16 hours that it was available online.

According to Les Echos, France.fr has already cost €862,705 - a figure that will grow further now that the repairs need to be made.