In early 20th-century France, knife grinding was a vital yet grueling trade, requiring long hours and careful precision. In the town of Thiers—famed as the heart of French cutlery production—knife grinders developed a peculiar and practical technique to end…
Nestled in northeastern France, Alsace is a region steeped in a rich and complex history, often serving as a cultural crossroads between France and Germany. This unique position is reflected in its hearty cuisine, charming villages, and distinctive traditio…
In the 1920s, there existed a Parisian cabaret with a hellish theme known as Cabaret de L'Enfer. Established in 1892 near Montmartre in Paris, this unique venue featured an entrance resembling the gaping jaws of a Leviathan, symbolizing damnation. This i…
The Brittany region of France is renowned for its picturesque countryside, stunning coastline, and rich history. Its unique blend of Celtic and Gallo-Roman cultures has been attracting visitors for centuries. These vintage photos from Claude Lacourarie’…
These fascinating color photographs capture street scenes of Paris in the 1960s. In 1958, Charles de Gaulle formed a new government and the Fifth Republic was born. During the ten years that de Gaulle occupied the presidency, France and Paris experienced ra…
These images were taken in German-occupied Paris by André Zucca for the German propaganda magazine Signal using rare Agfacolor film supplied by the Wehrmacht. The shots depict fashionable young women and commuters mixed with German soldiers on the bustling …
Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and one of the most prestigious seaside resorts in all of France. As the closest seaside resort to Paris, the city and its region of the Côte Fleurie (Flowery Coast) has long been home to French hig…
These photos, taken by Eugène Atget, document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. Atget took up photography in the late 1880s and supplied studies for painters, architects, and stage designers.…
These pictures show Les Halles, Paris' former fresh food market, which sprawled haphazardly over the center of the city and was known as "the Belly of Paris." Once alive with the cries of fruit-sellers, fish-vendors, butchers, and florists, the scent of bri…
A publicity stunt dreamed up by newspapermen, the first Tour de France saw a rag-tag bunch of cyclists waved off from outside a bar on the outskirts of Paris in 1903. Rapidly the Tour expanded into a race will legendary champions, a set of iconic leader’s …
France became dominant in the high fashion (couture or haute couture) industry by the end of the 19th century through the establishment of the great couturier houses. The technology started to redefine Western society in many ways and this continued int…
These color photos document life in the French army during World War One, and the destruction of towns and villages caused by German shelling. The pictures were taken by Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville using the photochrom technique and brought home the…
Paris in the 19th century was as notorious for its noxious odors as it was for revolutionary riots. The streets overflowed with rubbish and horse dung, and anyone caught short in the open simply relieved themselves where they stood. To remedy this, city…
In the late nineteenth century, the photography of criminals became as standardized as anthropological photography, largely because of the work of Paris police official Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914). Son of Louis Adolphe Bertillon, a well-known anthrop…
This extraordinary accident occurred on October 22, 1895 at Montparnasse, then known as Gare de l’Ouest. The drive of the express train from Granville to Paris, hoping to make up time for its 131 passengers, increased the train’s speed and the air brake fai…
By the first week of September 1914, the Germans had come within thirty kilometers of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. The French and British armies were engaged in fierce fighting with the Germans in the First Battle of the Marne which repelled the G…
These colored photos by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont will take you back through time to see how Paris looked in 1923. The vivid images are produced using the autochrome technique in which the plates are covered in microscopic red, green and blue colored pot…
The 1889 World Fair in Paris was symbolically important, since the year 1889 marked the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution, and the Fair was announced as a celebration of the event. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The most f…
In 1950, Coca-Cola decided to start a big marketing campaign targeting the drink to the people of France. The LIFE magazine photographer Mark Kauffman was there to photograph the genuine reactions of French people trying the drink for the first time. …
In 1902, a French manufacturer released a set of trading cards designed by artist Albert Bergeret that imagined the "women of the future" (original: Les Femmes de l’Avenir). These cards depict various, imagined occupations that would have seemed fantast…