Title contenders Pogacar, Vingegaard eye Yellow Jersey
05/07/2025
French cognac brands sales to China fell 70%
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05/07/2025
Seine reopens to Paris swimmers after century-long ban
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05/07/2025
Pogacar and Vingegaard looking to repeat their victory at the Tour de France
France
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Riders gear up for Tour de France 2025 opener in Lille
France
05/07/2025
French police may be allowed to intercept boats offshore
France
05/07/2025
2025 Tour de France sets off in Lille, with Tadej Pogacar a firm favourite
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France 24
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Van der Poel powers into Tour de France lead
The victory saw the Dutch rider take the lead in the overall standings after depriving Pogacar of his 100th career win as around 30 riders broke away in the final 2km. It was a second Tour de France stage win for Van der Poel, who took the yellow jersey from his teammate Jasper Philipsen, the winner of Saturday's opening stage for Alpecin. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard seemed at ease as he crossed the line in third with Frenchman Romain Gregoire fourth and his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe fifth. The race got going as Pogacar and Vingegaard tested each other over the final 20km with three short, sharp climbs on narrow roads. That struggle blew up a peloton that had been largely sedate until then. Heavy rain left giant puddles at the tiny start town of Lauwin Planque as the 182 riders set off on the 209km run towards the coastal port. Regional police estimated that one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day of action, but the rain dissuaded that kind of turnout on Sunday. Monday's third stage is a 178km flat run to Dunkirk, where a mass bunch sprint is expected unless the peloton gets splintered by winds as it did on stage one. French team Cofidis had to scramble Sunday morning as they had 11 bikes stolen from a team truck during the night.
France 24
8 hours ago
- France 24
The Seine closes for a day due to bad weather in Paris.
06:34 05/07/2025 Tour de France gets under way on home soil for first time in five years France 05/07/2025 Title contenders Pogacar, Vingegaard eye Yellow Jersey France 05/07/2025 French cognac brands sales to China fell 70% France 05/07/2025 Seine reopens to Paris swimmers after century-long ban France 05/07/2025 Pogacar and Vingegaard looking to repeat their victory at the Tour de France France 05/07/2025 Riders gear up for Tour de France 2025 opener in Lille France 05/07/2025 French police may be allowed to intercept boats offshore France 05/07/2025 2025 Tour de France sets off in Lille, with Tadej Pogacar a firm favourite France
France 24
12 hours ago
- France 24
'Brilliant artist': Provocateur Demna takes on slumping Gucci
The 44-year-old, who fled the war-wracked Georgian region of Abkhazia as a child and dropped his surname "Gvasalia" in 2021, will bow out with a last show for Balenciaga on Wednesday before switching to Gucci -- both firms owned by France's luxury giant Kering. "Demna's contribution to the industry, to Balenciaga, and to the group's success has been tremendous," Kering chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault said at the time. "His creative power is exactly what Gucci needs." Investors were not so convinced and shares in Kering, which counts on Gucci as its main profit generator, fell around 12 percent on the day of the announcement before slumping even further. Other more established and mainstream designers from Hedi Slimane, Maria Grazia Chiuri or Pierpaolo Piccioli had been linked to the vacancy. Some analysts have questioned whether Demna's recipe for success at Balenciaga -- which leant heavily on provocative, streetwear-influenced design and showmanship -- can be replicated at the more classic Italian house. "He is iconoclast and ironic, which is good to attract attention toward a small brand like Balenciaga," Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at the Bernstein brokerage, wrote afterwards. "However, we are not sure the strategy would work as well for a bigger brand." - 'Absolutely uncompromising' - Demna's final show for Balenciaga will take place on Wednesday during Haute Couture fashion week in Paris and he will join the Italian label the very next day. During a decade at the Spanish-born but Paris-based brand, he drove sales and attention sharply higher with a mix of headline-grabbing creations as well as personal publicity -- not always positive. He achieved notoriety with his $2,000 "Ikea" bag, a luxury leather version of the 99-cent original. He followed it up with an $1,800 garbage bag -- the so-called "trash pouch" -- in a show in March 2022 that was dedicated to Ukrainian refugees. Other daring designs included a head-to-toe black shroud that US reality television star Kim Kardashian -- a personal friend -- wore to the Met Gala in 2021. A-list celebrity endorsements have been plentiful, but have not always worked out. Kanye West —- Kardashian's ex and another friend -- opened Balenciaga's show in October 2022 shortly before the first of several anti-Semitic outbursts, and the group had to cut ties with the rapper. Demna's lowest point came in February 2023 when he was forced to apologise for an ad campaign that appeared to reference child abuse and had underage models in what looked like bondage gear. He has plenty of fans among Gen Z tastemakers, however. "I've always gravitated toward Balenciaga, because I love Demna's vision," British pop sensation Charli XCX told British Vogue last year. "He feels like he's speaking his own language, which is absolutely uncompromising, and to me, that's what makes a brilliant artist." - 'Aggression and darkness' - Annual sales at Balenciaga were estimated to be $350 million when he arrived and had surged to about $2 billion in 2022, according to GQ magazine. Gucci's fortunes have headed in the other direction: they slid 23 percent last year, prompting Kering to fire creative director Sabato de Sarno after only two years in the job. Demna is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in Belgium and went on to work at Maison Margiela and Vuitton. He co-founded the label Vetements with his brother in 2014, a year before he was named to the top job at Balenciaga. For many years, his childhood trauma fleeing pro-Russian separatists in his homeland affected his work, but he told Vanity Fair in 2021 that counselling, meditation and exercise had helped exorcise some demons. "Fashion used to feel like a battle for me. That is why there was a lot of aggression and darkness in what I did. Today I feel at peace with the system," he said. © 2025 AFP
