According to French newspaper La Tribune, Apple plans to build a 7700 square foot, two-level store underneath Le Louvre's pyramid. There's a shopping gallery underneath the world-famous museum, which attracts 8.7 million visitors each year and is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, according to La Tribune.

Quite a grand location for what will be France's first official Apple Store.

We've got no details on when construction will begin or when the store will open, so we'll ask any TUAW readers in Paris to keep their eyes peeled for us.

Thanks for the tip, Tim!

Macworld is reporting that Apple will not attend the Apple Expo in France this year. This year's expo is scheduled to take place on September 17 - 20. An Apple spokesperson was quoted by Macworld saying, "Apple is participating in fewer trade shows every year, because often there are better ways for us to reach our customers."

Macworld notes that this was the same excuse given by Apple when they decided not to attend the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow. Apple has, however, started using their Cupertino campus to host several special announcements including last year's iMac announcement and the recent iPhone SDK announcement.

The news comes from reader tips to French tech site PCInpact, though Orange apparently has no official statement yet.

We can just add this to the number of other 3G iPhone rumors that have been swirling as of late.

[via CrunchGear]

Here's some good news for people in Switzerland, Spain, Poland who are awaiting iPhones. According to Fortune, all three countries may sell them soon.

Earlier this week, Le Matin Online reported (linked page is in French) that Swisscom will be the official iPhone carrier for Switzerland. Coincidentally, Apple is rumored to be opening an Apple Store in Zürich in July of this year (we first heard rumors of a Zürich store in 2006).

Likewise, France Telecom stated their intention to extend coverage to "...more than just two countries" via their CFO Gervais Pellissier. As the largest European countries that still lack a carrier, Poland and Spain are obviously attractive to France Telecom.

In related news, French iPhone customers can expect no immediate changes, as France Telecom intends to remain the country's exclusive carrier for the next two years.

To all the TUAW readers in Switzerland, Spain and Poland ... we've got our fingers crossed for you! Let us know if you hear anything from your local news outlets.

After selling 30,000 iPhones in the first five days, Orange reports this week that 70,000 iPhones were purchased in the first month. Nearly half (48%) went to new Orange customers, and 3,500 were sold unlocked.

I'm a bit surprised that the number of unlocked phones sold isn't higher. Plus, if Orange sold 30,000 in the first five days and an additional 40,000 over the following three weeks, than that's a significant drop in sales. Having gone on sale just before the holidays (November 29th), I thought sales would have been more consistent.

It will be interesting to hear what numbers Steve shares at Macworld.

When the iPhone became available in France on November 29th, the French said, "Oui."

According to a report at Reuters, Orange has sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days . As Fortune points out, that's nearly 1 iPhone for every 2,000 Frenchmen. Compare that to the 270,000 iPhones sold in the United States' opening weekend (or about 1 for every 1,111 Americans), and it's clear that the iPhone is a hit in France.

What's more, 17 percent of Orange France stores sold out of iPhones in the first 21 hours. It should also be noted that France shoppers can purchase iPhones without a contract that ties them to a single carrier.

Thanks, Eddie!

Reader Guglielmo sent word that the first four French iPhone ads hit the airwaves today (also viewable at apple.com/fr in a wide selection of resolutions). The ads end with the tag screen of a November 29th on-sale date for the French model.

Unfortunately I don't speak French, so I can't comment on the ad scripts, but as far as I can tell they hew fairly close to the original US versions, subbing in Le Monde for the NY Times and other culturally appropriate substiutions. I do think that "un pâle imitation d'internet" is a pretty awesome phrase, though. You can compare the German and UK ads at their respective pages.

Thanks Guglielmo

In what's been nothing but a busy news day for our favorite Cupertino-based company, Apple has announced that the iPhone is, at last, France-bound. Whilst there's no mention of tariffs, the handset will cost €399, and will be available to purchase, croissants and beret optional, from Thursday November 29th.

Bienvenue a la famille iPhone, notre amis Français!

It's official: Orange has the iPhone in France.

France Telecom, Orange's parent company, says they won't subsidize the iPhone, but also didn't say anything about price, according to CNN Money. They also didn't give a release date other than November-- the UK and Germany are getting it on 9th November, so it should be close to that point.

Reader Samuel, who sent us this French article (all I know is "sacrebleu," sorry), also notes that Apple seems to be signing with the national operators in each country, so the prediction for Italy is TIM, Belgium is predicted Belgacom (although reader Jelle says he saw the iPhone on Base's website, so who knows), KPN in the Netherlands, and so on.

I'm clueless about French wireless providers-- is Orange good? Does this deal have you Francophiles saying oui or no?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Portions of France's copyright law that initially were going to force Apple to open the iTMS + iPod economy for interoperability have now been ruled as unconstitutional. In fact, these provisions have taken almost a complete 180, and they now provide for fining anyone who is caught reverse-engineering DRM in the name of interoperability. Going even further, small fines of 150 euros ($191) for uploading music and 38 euros ($48.50) for downloading it have been replace by steep criminal charges and multiple years of prison time, as well as fines of 500,000 euros ($638,200) - at least that's better than the 'up to $150,000/song' that we have here in the U.S.

Whether you consider this a win or a loss for the digital music industry, let's try to keep any resulting discussion civilized boys and girls.

[via CNET]

It sounds like those DefectiveByDesign guys were simply in the wrong place, but at the right time: Sweden has joined forces with Denmark and Norway to add fuel to the fire of pressuring Apple into opening up its FairPlay iTMS DRM system. A quote from a Swedish Consumer Agency spokeswoman dubs the iTMS ToS flat-out "illegal", and all three countries are threatening to take the case to their respective market courts.

DRM debates aside (which have been raging here over the last couple of posts), my money is on some music industry lobbyists making all this go away, as we saw when France tried this.

[via Engadget]

A couple of weeks ago, Apple retail watchdog site ifoAppleStore reported that two Apple retail locations may be in the works for France, one for 2007 and one for 2008 (citing VP of Apple Europe Pascal Cagni as the source). This time, they're pointing to French Mac site MacGeneration, which describes a new contract that Apple has entered into with Apple authorized resellers in France. Specifically, the contract would prevent them from using the words "Apple" or "Mac" in relation to their own stores ("Apple Authorized Reseller" would be known as "Premium Provider," for instance).

Let the rumor mongering begin.

[Via ifoAppleStore]

Update: TUAW reader hfvienna points out that this same restriction against authorized resellers may happen in Austria as well. Thanks for the tip, hfvienna.

ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple may have two retail locations in the works for France, one this year and another in 2007. They don't provide a lot of details (or a referring link) at this time, but it's noted that VP of Apple Europe Pascal Cagni mentioned to French newspaper Presse Océan that a French Apple Store was likely in 2006, with a second location probable for next year. These would represent France's first and second Apple Stores, respectively.

Apple Expo 2006, the Apple shindig in Paris, has started accepting registration. If you plan on being in Paris between September 12 - 16th you should check it out. I mean, there isn't that much to do in Paris anyway, so you might as well hang out with some other Macheads.

Thanks, Nik.

Well, not really but Apple did tell Reuters that France's proposed law (which was recently passed by part of France's parliament) that would force the compnay to make iTunes purchased music play on MP3 players other than the iPod is little more than state approved piracy.

With a slight bit of snark Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris said, "iPod sales will likely increase as users freely upload their iPods with 'interoperable' music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind."

Tell us how you really feel, Apple.

There has been some speculation that Apple would likely pull out of the French market rather than abide by this law, since the market isn't that valuable.

[via iLounge.]