PARIS (AFP) - The funeral of French twin brothers, the faces of a famed 1980s science TV programme who later won notoriety for their cosmetic surgery, was held in Paris Monday (Jan 10) after the pair died within a week of each other from Covid-19.

Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff died aged 72 over the new year, having earlier refused the coronavirus vaccination and fallen ill around December 15.

Hundreds of people attended the service in the vast Madeleine church in central Paris, which also hosted the funeral of beloved superstar rocker Johnny Hallyday in 2017.

Prominent guests included former minister Luc Ferry and singer Francis Lalanne, a leading voice of the anti-vaccination movement.

The identical twins shot to fame as the heartthrob presenters of the hit 1980s science show Temps X on the country's TF1 channel, before carving out careers as amateur and often controversial science writers.

The order of mass bore a photo of the twins with their famous slogan "Nothing is impossible in the universe!"

"It's destiny. They couldn't be separated for long," Igor's ex-wife Amelie de Bourbon-Parme had said of their deaths last week.

Instantly recognisable in France and a favourite in the country's glossy celebrity magazines, they more recently claimed to have taken part in the creation of Bitcoin.

The brothers became well-known in international cryptocurrency circles and a subject of mockery, largely thanks to an online meme and conspiracy theory that they controlled the markets.

Igor announced earlier this year that they planned to launch their own currency, "Exocoin".

The brothers denied having had plastic surgery to explain their transformed looks, but admitted to having undergone "experimentations" which gave them their extreme high cheek bones, as well as large lips and pronounced chins.

"We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials," they said in 2010.

The pair will be buried at a private ceremony Wednesday in the village of Saint-Lary in southwestern France, where they were born.