France's highest court has declared the country's first gay marriage unlawful and annulled the union between the two men.

The court ruled Tuesday that "under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman."

Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married in June 2004 in the town of Begles. Earlier court rulings have declared the wedding invalid.

The couple's attorney says parliament should decide whether to recognize gay marriage and not the courts.

A new star is rising on the French Left, propelled by pedal power, loathing of Ségolène Royal and the conviction that the French love affair with Nicolas Sarkozy cannot last.

Bertrand Delanoë, 56, the popular mayor of Paris, has the small matter of his own re-election to contend with next Spring. No matter. His friends and allies are convinced that only he can rescue the divided and quarrelsome Parti Socialiste from a permanent takeover by the defeated but unbowed presidential candidate, Mme Royal.

M. Delanoë made the first, clear statement of his own national ambitions this week with a biting attack on both Mme Royal and President Sarkozy in an article in Le Monde before the Socialist party summer school opens in La Rochelle tomorrow.

He accused Mme Royal's failed election campaign of being a triumph of "marketing" over "substance and values" and even over "ethics". He dismissed the recent history of the Parti Socialiste as a "soap opera". This was also a thinly disguised attack on the party leader, François Hollande, whose romantic split with Mme Royal after a 25-year unmarried partnership has dominated the post-election manoeuvring on the Left.