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Unusual

A marathon with wine and 4 other unusual sporting events in France

The Marathon du Médoc, sometimes called the longest race in the world, features 23 wine stops, orchestras, oysters and steak over 43 kilometres

France’s oldest GP - aged 97

At 97, Dr Christian Chenay is France’s oldest practising GP. He still works two days a week and does not even wear glasses.

UFO spotted repeatedly in the sky above southern France

The object was seen by people in Montpellier, Perpignan and Andorra. The local weather service has compiled a video of the different sightings

magazine

Around the lighthouses of France in just 19 hours

Connexion reader Geoff Scott has seen more of France than most. He flew over almost every French lighthouse – in a light aircraft

France has world’s only chapel dedicated to rugby

Did you know? The only chapel dedicated to rugby in the world is at Larrivière-Saint-Savin in the Landes.

French engineer creates flying motorbike

Is it a bike, is it a plane? It’s both!

Hauts-de-France’s charbonnay wine from a slagheap

A new white wine made from grapes grown on the side of a coalmine slag heap in the north of France has gone on sale.

French family tragedy revealed in hidden love letters

A chance find of a cache of 100-year-old letters during home renovations has revealed a World War One love story.

Message in a bottle's 9 years to reach France from US

American university student's 'mind blown' after he receives response to letter he threw into sea as a 10 year old

R2- DOUBLED – 2 in French strip club?

Robots do the Full Monty in strip club and put the chip in Chippendales

France targets first catapult tournament

France’s first catapult championships will take place in a town in the Var next month.

What’s on in France - October 2019

Our pick of what to do, where to go and what to see in France. This month: mushroom season is back, so are chestnuts, shrimps or apple festivals. And a lot more of course...

Train on platform 5 is the 7.32 for Hollywood

Playing with trains or going to the cinema? It could be any little boy’s dream dilemma but Philippe Laylle has managed to combine the two into a full-time job.

Unmasked: the mystery plant-namers of Toulouse

Mysterious botanists who have been identifying wild plants and writing their names on a city’s streets have been unmasked.

Is it a boat? Is it a bus? No, it’s the Tatihou ferry!

It is not a boat but an amphibious vehicle that serves as the ferry for the island of Tatihou, off the coast of Normandy.

What’s on in France - July 2019

Our pick of what to do, where to go and what to see in France. This month,a theatre festival in an iconic city, the Tour de France of course, a frogs' festival and much more….

New pupils flocking to school to keep class open

Children at one rural school are used to seeing sheep in the nearby mountains, but not in their playground... until now.

Decipher Breton rock riddle and win €2,000

More than 2,000 emails from around the world have flooded in after a mairie requested help to solve a riddle carved on a seaside granite bolder.

French retiree crosses Atlantic in a tiny barrel

A veteran adventurer has crossed the Atlantic in a barrel powered only by wind and water currents to reach his destination of the Caribbean sea after four months of travel.

Life in France can be sweet – if pricey – on houseboat

Living on a converted barge moored on the Seine was at one time probably the cheapest address in the Paris area.

Scaling France’s model gardens down to size

Jacques Hennequin believes he is the only garden model-maker in France. Here, he tells The Connexion all about his unusual job...

Fencers feel the force with light sabres

Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker have inspired a growing official sport in France that has won fans worldwide, with a light sabre fencing match seen in 22 countries.

France Sun King’s marble to be delivered...

... after 350-year wait

SNCF banks on sheep to keep grass trim

Two sheep have been installed next to a railway line in the heart of Paris so they can keep the grass banks tidy.

There is a replica of Colmar... in Malaysia

Did you know?

Secret gift of village healers

To outsiders, the French can seem obsessed with illness, if not borderline hypochondriac.

B&B with WW1 garden trench

Some people joke about living on the front line. When Avril Williams says that, she means it literally.

2km of string winds its way into art

Each of the pictures above is made up of two kilometres of string wound around hundreds of tiny pins – and the idea has led to a new business.

Care homes prove perfect venues for orchestra practice

An orchestra has found a novel solution to the problem of finding rehearsal venues.

Argentine town created by Aveyron adventurers

Did you know? Pigüé is a town in Argentina, south-west of Buenos Aires which would never have existed had it not been for a group of 180 people from the Aveyron who decided to set up home there in 1884.

Secret history of buildings - February 2019

The very big secret history of France’s smallest commune - Jane Hanks tells the remarkable history of the tiny Gironde village that was the birthplace and occasional home of royalty

It’s tourism, Jim – but not as you may know it...

Every edition we assess an emerging aspect of French zeitgeist. This month: Jane Hanks learns about the lengths tourism firms go to in order to give their customers much more than sun, sea, and sand...

Veteran crossing the Atlantic... in a barrel

An intrepid pensioner is crossing the Atlantic in a “barrel” – powered only by wind and currents.

Frenchman, 72, finds American brother from GI dad

A retired American has told Connexion of the moving moment he and the French brother he never knew he had met for the first time – on Omaha Beach where their GI father landed on D-Day.

French postie’s ideal palace has the X-facteur

A French postman’s stonework story is set to find a new audience, says Samantha David

What lies beneath these French subterranean sites

Away from the prehistoric caves that lure visitors in their droves, France has plenty of lesser-known underground sites to explore. Samantha David selects some of her favourites