Blog Masonry Fullwidth

France shows off tallest bridge

The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high – taller even than the country’s Eiffel Tower.

The bridge, which opens to traffic on Thursday, was built to clear summer traffic jams around the town.

The BBC’s Paris correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, says the bridge is one of the most breathtaking ever built.

She says that with its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.

‘Delicacy of a butterfly’

Seven slender piers support the roadway, rising into seven graceful pylons bound to the bridge with what look like cobwebs of steel, our correspondent says.

French Film Director Philippe De Broca Dies at 71

PARIS (Reuters) – French film director Philippe de Broca, who made his name in the 1960s with comedies starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, has died at the age of 71 from cancer.

“French cinema has lost one of its most talented contributors,” President Jacques Chirac said in a tribute on Saturday.

De Broca started in film in the 1950s as an assistant to legendary directors Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut.

He became successful with the adventure films “Cartouche” (“Swords of Blood”) and “L’Homme de Rio” (“That Man from Rio”), which started a lifelong working relationship with Belmondo.

France bewildered by All Blacks' show of brilliance

THERE were so many significant periods in and after this remarkable game, one that nobody who was in the Stade de France will forget for a long time, that it is hard to know which were the most significant.

Perhaps it was the 103 seconds of continuous rugby with which the All Blacks began, setting an agenda for a furiously fast and physical contest that ended in France’s secondheaviest defeat at home.

Or perhaps it was the minutes at the end when the New Zealand players greeted their victory as if they had won the World Cup. They fell into one another’s arms before moving around the field to acknowledge their supporters in a way that past All Black teams, containing taciturn, modest men, would have eschewed.

Sarkozy takes over Chirac party

He replaces Mr Chirac’s ally, Alain Juppe, who was found guilty in a party financing scandal.

Mr Sarkozy is widely expected to use the post to build up support for a presidential run in 2007 against Mr Chirac, his former mentor.

He won the party leadership ballot comfortably, with 85% of the vote.

The 49-year-old, seen as one of France’s most popular politicians, will give up his ministerial post on Monday to take up the party chairman post.

Mr Sarkozy’s election prompted cheering from thousands of supporters at the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) congress outside Paris.

In a televised acceptance speech, Mr Sarkozy said he would use his new role to shake up France with reform.