PARIS (Reuters) - The French arm of collapsed British travel firm Thomas Cook TCG.L said on Tuesday it was asking the French commercial court of Nanterre for creditor protection.

Thomas Cook France will hold a meeting of its works council on Thursday about a plan to declare insolvency and to start a recovery procedure, the statement said.

Several potential buyers from the tourism sector have expressed an interest for Thomas Cook France, which has 780 staff and revenue of 425 million euros, it added.

Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers were stranded on Monday by the collapse of the world's oldest travel firm Thomas Cook TCG.L, sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.