Migrants try to board a truck at Ouistreham ferry port in the hope of reaching the UK on September 12, 2018 in Ouistreham, France. After the clamp down at Calais many young migrants are seeking out new routes to the United Kingdom as stowaways on vehicles making the channel crossing by ferry from French ports. The migrants, of mostly African origin, camp out on the roadside and woodland areas as the authorities prevent the setting up of any camps. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A Ukrainian dancer of the Kyiv City Ballet company stretches prior to a performance at the Theatre de Chatelet, in Paris, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. The Kyiv City Ballet danced to a full house in Paris for the last show of a French tour that has left the company stranded after the war broke out in Ukraine. They described being physically and emotionally exhausted. Being given the opportunity to train and dance was for many a chance to focus on something other than the war. (Photo by Thibault Camus/AP Photo)

Toyota's driver Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar (R) and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel of France compete during the prologue of the Dakar 2023 by the Red Sea in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, on December 31, 2022. Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom and his co-driver Emil Bergkvist of Sweden won the prologue ahead of French driver Sebastien Loeb and Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin. (Photo by Franck Fife/AFP Photo)

Protesters throw fireworks at riot police during clashes in Nanterre, near Paris, France, 29 June 2023. Violence broke out after police fatally shot a 17-year-old during a traffic stop in Nanterre on 27 June 2023. According to the French interior minister, 31 people were arrested with 2,000 officers being deployed to prevent further violence. (Photo by Yoan Valat/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A giant chrome brushed aluminium skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) dinosaur , made by French sculptor and painter Philippe Pasqua, stands at the pier of riverboat company Bateaux-Mouches in Paris, with the Eiffel tower in the background.

When a French politician remarked that a monument should be raised in honour of American independence at a dinner party in 1865 he probably didn't imagine that the result would become an international icon of freedom. ...

An inflatable snake hovers during a performance by the French street theater company Plasticiens Volants on September 4, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The spectale, featuring gigantic flying inflatable fairy-tale creatures and performers on stilts and in costume was a part of celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the Kurfuerstendamm, known locally as the Ku'damm, a shopping boulevard. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

French sculptor Pierre Matter was born in 1964. “A mystical child, then a tormented teenager, he studied mathematics half-heartedly. It was only logical that he headed naturally, though initially in an erratic manner, for the mysterious universe of artistic creation. His slow progression in this field led him to try out many kinds of expression and material, from oil to gouache to ink, from comic strips to canvas, and also bas-relief in stone.”