France's foreign ministry on Thursday summoned the Turkish ambassador to Paris over Ankara's air and ground offensive into Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria, a diplomatic source said.

Firefighters said Friday they have extinguished a huge blaze that broke out at a chemical factory in northern France and forced authorities to close schools and warn of pollution risks for the river Seine.

Former French president Jacques Chirac, a colossal figure in France's politics for three decades, has died at the age of 86, his family told AFP on Thursday.

More than 7,000 police officers are to be deployed for rallies in Paris on Saturday over fears that yellow vest protesters and their radical, anarchist "black blocs" could try to infiltrate a march against climate change in the French capital.

At her home in Roubaix, a former industrial centre in northern France that is now the country's poorest city, Magdalene Deleporte is making her own deodorant.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for easing tensions with Russia as top French ministers met their counterparts in Moscow on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Saturday that "trade tensions are bad for everyone," after US President Donald Trump imposed fresh tariffs on China and warned again that French wines could be targeted.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected to visit Paris and meet with his counterpart and the French president on Friday, state news agency IRNA reported.

More than 500 firefighters have been deployed to battle a blaze that has already destroyed 900 hectares of pine forest in southern France, the fire service said on Thursday.

France's President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday about the situation in Libya calling for a ceasefire "very soon" between the warring sides, the French presidency said.