It is now a criminal offence to insult the French flag or national anthem.

BBC: French MPs pass tough anti-crime law

Embryologists in the past spent a lot of time worrying about something they called the French flag problem.

ECONOMIST: Genetic engineering

One features the silhouette of a man sporting the colours of the German flag, the second those of the French flag.

BBC: Dane bans tourists over Iraq

In Berlin the French flag will fly beside that of Germany.

BBC: Europe: A week of speeches and symbolism

The tribunal in Paris awarded the assets on the condition the shipping company operated under the French flag and Eurotunnel leased the ships to a workers' co-operative.

BBC: SeaFrance ferry

Their idealised version of this question was to ask how two signal chemicals, starting from opposite ends of an embryo, could result in a pattern that looked like the French flag (ie, three different coloured vertical stripes).

ECONOMIST: Genetic engineering