Paris Picture Overlays

It is already one of the world’s most iconic cities, but this incredible collection shows how much Paris has changed over the course of the past century. The collection, by French photographer Julien Knez, shows Paris in the 1940s against a backdrop of how the same places look today. Knez says he put the striking collection together to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the city’s liberation from Nazi control in August 1944. Pictures featured include Place de la Bastille, which gained notoriety as a focal point of the French Revolution, as well as various streets in and around the French capital, including Rue de la Huchette and Place Saint-Michel. Pictures from 1944 show different places being guarded by Nazi soldiers and survivors of bomb attacks picking through rubble, a stark contrast to a scene of relative serenity in the modern day. Here: President De Gaulle on the Champ Elysees, with the Arc De Triomphe in the background.

Rue De Mail in the 1940s.

Paris opera house in the 1940s.

Building on the Champs Elysees in the 1940s.

Pulling up the road in St Michel, Paris.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the 1940s.

The Eiffel Tower in 1940.

Paris opera house in the 1940s.

A tank at Notre Dame Cathedral in the 1940s. (Photo by Julien Knez/Caters News)

Notre Dame Cathedral in the 1940s.

Rue de Rivoli in the 1940s.

Soldiers outside the Hotel De Ville in the 1940s.

Place de la Republique in the 1940s.

A burning car in St Michel in Paris in the 1940s.

Children pose for the camera on Avenue Mozart, Paris, in the 1940s.

President De Gaulle at the Hotel De Ville.

Place de la Concorde in the 1940s.

A couple embrace in Tuilleries, Paris, in the 1940s.

Soldiers outside the Louvre in the 1940s.

Surrendering soldiers in the Rue de Castiglione.

Place de la Concorde in the 1940s.

Place de la Concorde in the 1940s.