Dumas remains to be reinterred in the Pantheon

The remains of swashbuckling French author Alexandre Dumas have been exhumed and will be reinterred in the resting place of France's heroes, the Pantheon in Paris.

The coffin containing his body has been dug up at the cemetery in his home town of Villers-Cotterets, 96km northeast of Paris, and will be taken to the nearby Monte-Cristo castle, which belonged to Dumas, before going on to Paris.

The grandson of a Haitian slave and a Norman nobleman, Dumas was born exactly 200 years ago.

His two most famous works - The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers - are among the most-translated books in the world.