Wrong. There was a training pictorial of Francois back in FLEX in 1996 where Francois was 290 lbs with a visible christmas-tree. He competed at 250 lbs because he went for lines and conditioning, which IMO was a mistake: he lost fullness and gained little in terms of added definition and density. Francois should have competed around 270 lbs.
SUCKMYMUSCLE
Wrong again, post the pic of him at 290 with visible X-mas tree, and Francois didn't compete at 250 due to lines, because he was a blocky mofo, even Lee Haney said this when Francois won the 1995 Arnold. Haney said that Flex should have won because his lines, and that Francois was too blocky.
I remember a training article on Francois where he was talking about his PLing background, and the famous leg press pic. There is a black and white pic of him doing a lat spread, but no where does it say he was 290. I think you came up with that weight.
Francois added weight little by little, since he won the 94 NOC, the 90s was about quality and conditioning, him at 270 would have looked terrible, due to his blockiness. And he was already being surpassed by Flex (224) and Ronnie.
