Frances Mayes

Two Vie de France restaurants in Orange County are expected to be franchised to an employee of the parent company, who is also expected to develop two other restaurants in the area, the firm said Wednesday. The full-service restaurants and bakeries in South Coast Plaza and Koll Center Irvine are the subject of negotiations expected to be completed in several weeks, said Vie de France President Richard M. Tolbert. The McLean, Va.

France Telecom could announce an agreement by Tuesday to buy Orange, Britain's third-largest mobile phone company, for as much as $45 billion, people familiar with the companies said. France Telecom, which has been in exclusive talks with Orange's owner, Vodafone AirTouch, might pay about two-thirds of the price in cash, assume about $9 billion of debt and pay the remainder in stock, the sources said.

With peace talks deadlocked, Yugoslav troops closed in on a strategic mountain ridge in Kosovo on Wednesday, leaving hopes fading for a solution to the war in the Serbian province. Serbian negotiators in Paris are refusing to discuss deployment of 28,000 NATO soldiers to enforce any deal and demanded about 20 changes to a draft political accord giving ethnic Albanians in the province more autonomy, foreign mediators said. Ethnic Albanians are set to sign the deal.

WE took the family to Paris for Christmas. It was the first time my husband and I wondered whether the five of us could do such a trip again. It wasn't because of Paris, which was gorgeous and child-friendly, or the fact that we were traveling with 2-month-old Darby. Portable and pleasant, she slept through both plane rides and did not complain about being nursed in the Louvre or on the Pont Neuf.

Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy called a U.S.-European Community deal on farm trade unacceptable Saturday, but he urged angry farmers to remain calm and indicated he is willing to negotiate. France's hard-line stance against the agreement has isolated it from its EC partners, who agreed to the farm subsidy reductions Friday. The 12-member EC fears that the dispute could escalate into a transatlantic trade war that would harm everyone.

Rising from the heart of Paris, the underground metro A4 line breaks into sunlight just west of Vincennes, as the urban sprawl gives way to green soccer fields and small villages. In short order, a billboard featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse appears among hamburger and clothing advertisements, the first clue to what lies at the end of the line.

1992 threatens to become the year of Europe's deconstruction. January, 1993, will bring a single European Market. By then there may well have been a collapse of the European Community's plans for monetary union and for further political and security integration. The next four weeks will be decisive. On Sept. 20, the French public votes in a referendum to accept or reject the Maastricht Treaty on further European union. If the French vote no-- and they may--unification is finished.

France's conservative government said Wednesday that it will seek to impose strict controls on artificial impregnation, including a requirement that infertile couples have the consent of the sperm donor and a judge's permission before receiving an embryo implant. The government was spurred by a growing national debate this week following the birth of twins to a 59-year-old, post-menopausal British woman, who received an embryo implant at an Italian clinic.

In a bid to harness what backers say could be a nearly limitless source of clean electric power, an international consortium Tuesday chose France as the site for an experimental fusion reactor that will aim to replicate how the sun creates energy. The planned $13-billion project is one of the most prestigious and expensive international scientific efforts ever launched. But critics say the technological hurdles to be overcome are so vast that the money could be better spent in other ways.

The killing of more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 was an act of genocide. The Holocaust was a fact. Yet Americans are free to deny the reality of either — or make outlandish assertions of all kinds — without facing punishment by the state. Residents of France will be denied that privilege if its parliament adopts a wrong-headed bill to criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide. On Thursday the lower house of France's parliament will debate a bill that would punish those who deny the genocide with a year in prison and a $58,000 fine.