Roared on by the home crowd, French brother and sister Lucie and Simon Chevrel won the pas-de-deux event.

The annual Paris leg got off to a dramatic start with several vaulters taking unexpected tumbles from their horses in the first round, making the second vital for securing World Cup points.

Derks, the favourite coming into the event in the French capital, secured top spot in the women's event with a final score of 8.164 with her creative clown routine.

The German, who finished fourth individually at this year's FEI World Vaulting Championships for Seniors in Le Mans in France, is currently ranked world number two and is aiming to win her first FEI World Cup Vaulting title.

Switzerland’s Pascale Wagner took second place with a score of 7.579 and finished in front of wildcard Manon Noel of France whose ice-themed freestyle routine scored 7.522 in front of her home crowd.

Isabel Fiala of Austria replicated her performance from the Madrid qualifier, falling from her horse in the first round to finish fifth on 6.573.

In the men's competition Taillez produced two outstanding performances to take the title on home soil with 8.547 points.

His artistic dance freestyle received plaudits from three of the four judges, who marked his technical elements highly.

"This is the first time I’ve scored a 9.4 for artistic, which is very cool," said Taillez.

"My horse was really good as usual - we know each other 100 per cent, so it’s always a pleasure."

Following his win in Madrid, Switzerland's Lukas Heppler continued his convincing start to his World Cup campaign as he finished second on 7.662.

Balázs Bence of Hungary recovered from having to improvise to the wrong music, which ultimately impacted his artistic score, to finish in third on 7.579.

France's Vincent Haennel, the silver medallist in Le Mans, finished fourth on 7.461.

In the pas-de-deux pairs competition, the Chevrel duo fell off their horse twice during their breathtaking performances.

Despite two premature finishes, their Adam and Eve routine still proved enough to take the title on a score of 6.707.

Zoe Maruccio and Syra Schmid of Switzerland suffered an arduous first round, falling multiple times, but showed great resilience to put on a much improved second performance to score 5.654.

FEI World Cup Vaulting action will now take a short break before heading to the Austrian city of Salzburg for the third leg on December 8 and 9.