PARIS (AP) — The Latest on French rocker Johnny Hallyday's funeral (all times local):

12 p.m.

The hearse carrying the coffin of French rocker Johnny Hallyday is rolling slowly down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris in an unusually elaborate ceremony to bid farewell to the man often dubbed the French Elvis.

National television followed the funeral procession past his home in a Paris suburb to Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe. Dozens of police motorcycles and police vans surrounded the hearse, and fans lined the route, many dressed to emulate his flashy, rebellious style.

Hundreds of motorcyclists are accompanying the procession, in a nod to Hallyday's lifelong passion for motorcycles and biker image, with his ubiquitous leather jackets and numerous tattoos.

Hallyday's death Wednesday at age 74 after fighting lung cancer unleashed emotion across the French-speaking world.

8:10 a.m.

France is bidding farewell to its biggest rock star, honoring Johnny Hallyday with an exceptional funeral procession down the Champs-Elysees, a presidential speech and a parade of motorcyclists — all under intense security.

Few figures in French history have earned such an elaborate send-off. It was ordered by President Emmanuel Macron, a Hallyday fan himself.

Hallyday's death Wednesday at age 74 after fighting lung cancer unleashed emotion across the country, where the man sometimes dubbed the French Elvis had been an icon for more than half a century.

Paris police expect hundreds of thousands of fans as the procession moves from his home in a Paris suburb to Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe monument and down the Champs-Elysees.

Macron is expected to speak at the funeral ceremony at Madeleine Church.