A SOMBRE-looking Emmanuel Macron joined Russian president Vladimir Putin and actress Salma Hayek at a funeral service for Jacques Chirac in France.

Hailed as a "great Frenchman" by President Macron, Chirac was given full military honours as past and current world leaders gathered today in Paris to pay their respects.

A mainstay of French politics over four decades, Chirac served as Paris mayor, a lawmaker, prime minister and France's president from 1995 to 2007.

The last French head of state to complete two terms in office, Chirac died last week at 86.

Known for championing the nation's sense of its own grandeur and opposing the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Chirac is remembered fondly despite political failures and a 2011 corruption conviction from actions during his nearly two decades as mayor of Paris.

During his presidency, he was a consummate global diplomat.

"SUPER LIAR"

But he failed to reform the French economy or defuse tensions between police and minority youths, which exploded into riots across France in 2005.

Once nicknamed "Super Liar," Chirac's popularity soared after he left office.

Thousands of mourners paid him tribute to him on Sunday at Les Invalides, where his body lay in state on the eve of today's memorial service.

Chirac's coffin, draped in the French flag, rested at the front of the Saint Sulpice church in Paris after being driven in a procession escorted by police motorcyclists along streets lined by thousands of Parisians.

Among those attending were actress and producer Salma Hayek and her French billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault.

Source: Read Full Article