Vintage French Lottery Posters From Between the 1930s and ’50s
King Francis I of France, inspired by Italian lotteries, established the first French lottery, the Loterie Royale, in 1539 to aid state finances, but it failed due to high ticket costs and opposition from affluent social classes. Continue reading »
Egg-citing Adventures on Wheels: The Hilarious Saga of L’Œuf électrique, the Egg-shaped Speedster!
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and feast your eyes on the incredible marvel of the past, the one and only L’Œuf électrique (The Electric Egg)! It’s not just a cyclecar; it’s an electric adventure on wheels designed way back in 1938, a time when the world was still trying to figure out what exactly a cyclecar should be. Continue reading »
Art on Wheels: Exploring the Captivating World of 1890s French Bicycle Posters
Throughout history, bicycles have played a significant role in shaping transportation and inspiring a sense of freedom. While the first functioning two-wheeler is often credited to a German inventor in 1817, it was the French who truly embraced and popularized this revolutionary mode of transport in the 1860s, giving it the name “bicycle.” The French not only fell in love with bicycles for their practicality but also recognized their cultural and literary significance, intertwining them with themes of freedom and adventure in their literature. Continue reading »
Introducing La Modiste Universelle, a Fashion Magazine with Original Hat Designs From the 19th Century
La Modiste Universelle, established in 1876, was a prominent illustrated magazine for women’s fashion. Printed on high-quality paper and adorned with watercolor, it presented four unique hat designs every month. The publication was a part of Société des Journals de Mode, which included other prominent magazines like Le Moniteur de la Mode and La France Elegante. It had a vast distribution network, ensuring its readership spanned across borders. Continue reading »
Basically Alone We Are All: The Superb Embroidered Artworks by Cléa Lala
French artist Cléa Lala creates provocative mixed-media artworks combining embroidery and illustration. Continue reading »
Amazing Color Photographs Capture Sun Bathers on the Beach in Cannes, France in 1948
Cannes, resort city of the French Riviera, in Alpes-Maritimes department, Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region, southeastern France. It lies southwest of Nice. Continue reading »
Antonin Personnaz’s Autochrome Dreams Of Early 20th Century France
Between 1907 and 1914, art collector Antonin Personnaz (1854 – 31 December 1936) took autochrome pictures of France’s Oise Valley. His dreamy, impressionist-style photographs call to mind the work of the artists he knew, like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Albert Lebourg and Jean-François Raffaelli, Camille Pissarro and Paul Gachet. Continue reading »
Atmospheric Photographs of France in the 1940s Through a German Soldier’s Lens
In 1940, France was invaded and quickly defeated by Nazi Germany. France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone in the southeast and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern French metropolitan territory (two-fifths of pre-war metropolitan France) and the French empire, which included the two protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco, and French Algeria; the Vichy government, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled the unoccupied territory. Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London. Continue reading »
March 31, 1889: The Eiffel Tower Is Opened
The Eiffel Tower was built to be the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris. Construction was started by Gustave Eiffel’s company in January 1887 and completed in March 1889. Continue reading »
Fears of Eros, Dreams of Thanatos: Sensual Illustrations by Alex Varenne
Alex Varenne (29 August 1939 – 19 October 2020) is a French comic book artist, master of erotic drawing and plastic arts. Unfortunately, Varenne has been dead for two years, but his legacy lives on – the Frenchman’s illustrations and comics are so gentle and powerful that they can without exaggeration be included in the list of European cultural classics. Continue reading »
Vintage Photos of Vanessa Paradis in the 1980s
Vanessa Paradis (born 22 December 1972) is a French singer, model, and actress. She was a teen pop sensation in her native France in the 1980s. At the age of 14 she recorded a pop single about a Paris taxi driver, titled “Joe le Taxi,” which spent eleven weeks at at the number one spot in France and became an international smash hit as well. Continue reading »
A Collection of Incredible Rare Color Photographs of France in World War I
Serving in the French Army, photographer Fernand Cuville (1887–1927) continued the autochromists’ tradition of recording the world around them in great detail. These color photographs were taken by Cuville in 1917. His photos capture French soldiers in everyday situations, including cleaning their clothes and eating lunch. They also show war’s destruction in scenes of crumbling buildings and ruined landscapes. Continue reading »
Candid Photographs Captured Prostitution Scenes in Paris in 1966
Prostitution in Paris, both street prostitution and prostitution from dedicated facilities has a long history but also its own modernity in the French capital. Prostitutes are mostly women but also include transgender people and men. Continue reading »
Awesome Illustrations About Women by Majéon
Majéon is an artist from Montpellier, in the south of France. Her artistic work revolves around women and highlights the place they hold in our society. They are present in her creations since the beginning. Through the characters she depicts, she talks about the women who “helps us to grow up, the ones who change our lives and leave it a trace”. Continue reading »
Amazing Rare Photographs of the Montparnasse Train Wreck in 1895
Roger Viollet/Getty Images
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 failed. Continue reading »
Stunning Black and White Photographs Captured the Spirit of Early 20th Century Athletics
My nanny Dudu, 40, on rue Cortambert in Paris, 1904.
Jacques Henri Lartigue/Ministère de la Culture-France/AAJHL
Jacques Henri Lartigue was fascinated by the ascent of sport in the early 20th century as a fashionable pastime for the middle classes, and was himself a keen sportsman. Lartigue’s entirely unposed photographs, presented album-style in this gorgeous, luxurious and delightful volume, capture both the joyous exuberance of amateur sports––racing, skiing, tennis, gymnastics, hang gliding––and the particular character of its popularity in the first half of the 20th century. Continue reading »
Paris in Vivid Color Images by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, 1923
Paris as seen from the church of Saint Gervais.
Jules Gervais-Courtellemont/National Geographic Creative/Corbis
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 potato starch grains (about four million per square inch). Continue reading »
This Optical Illusion Is the Most Beautiful Street Artwork in France
An impressive trompe-l-oeil fresco painted in the coastal city of Boulogne-Sur-Mer was recently crowned France’s most beautiful street artwork for 2020. Continue reading »
When Paris Was Protected with Sandbags and Masking Tape, 1914-1918
Arc de Triomphe.
Biblioteque Nationale de France
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 Germans. Still, Parish remained uncomfortably close to the front lines for much of the Great War. Continue reading »
How To Recognise Clouds – The International Cloud Atlas, 1896
The Atlas international des Nuages (International Cloud Atlas; Internationaler Wolkenatlas) was published in Paris, France, by Gauthier-Villars et fils in 1896. This pictorial atlas contained 14 illustrations on 14 printed color plates. A mix of photographs (chromotypographs) and pantings, the text was in English, French, and German. Continue reading »
Artist Replaces Famous Parisian Monuments with Iconic Pop Culture Characters
French artist Benoit Lapray worked in collaboration with studio 95 Magenta and Emmanuelle Vonck Lugand to create this fantastic project that replaces famous Parisian monuments with iconic pop culture characters. Continue reading »
“Poetic Dance in Nature”: The Pastel and Romantic Universe of The Photographer Alexandre Delamadeleine
Alexandre Delamadeleine is a French photographer who captures nature. His gallery is filled with delicate images reflecting everyday moments and travel memories. Continue reading »
Gorgeous Portrait Photos of Carla Bruni as a Fashion Model in the 1980s and ’90s
Born 1967 in Turin, Italy and moved to France at the age of seven, Carla Bruni was a model from 1987 to 1997 before taking up a career in music. She wrote several songs for Julien Clerc that were featured on his 2000 album, Si j’étais elle. Continue reading »
Photographer Paolo Pettigiani Captures Stunning Infrared Landscapes of French Alps
Italian photographer and artistic director Paolo Pettigiani, based in Turin, has just unveiled a new part of his “Infraland” project. Continue reading »
Fabulous Cover Photos of La Vie Parisienne in 1927
La Vie Parisienne (the Parisian life) was a French weekly magazine founded in Paris in 1863 and was published without interruption until 1970. It was popular at the start of the 20th century. Continue reading »
