President Emmanuel Macron said French schools will close for at least three weeks as part of new national restrictions to fight rising COVID cases.
President Macron said that schools would move to remote learning from next week.
Lockdown restrictions introduced in 16 areas of France earlier this month will also be extended across the country.
All non-essential shops are to close from Saturday and there will be a ban on travelling more than 10km (six miles) from home without good reason.
The country is facing a peak of over 5,000 people in intensive care.
France has so far reported more than 4.6 million cases of coronavirus and 95,495 COVID-related deaths.
Details later…
