Vintage Photos Capture Scenes at the Paris Motor Show in 1948

The Paris Motor Show is a biennial auto show held during October in Paris. It is one of the most important motor shows, with new productions and concept car debuts. The 35th show in 1948 was held at the Grand Palais in the Champ-Élysées, also featuring the first exhibition of a 2CV Citroën. Let’s take a brief look at the show through these 13 beautiful color photos:

A 2CV Citroën was being put on the stand at the 35th Paris Motor Show at the Grand Palais, October 1948. Photo by Keystone-France.

Displaying of the new Renault car on the 35th Paris Motor Show, at Grand Palais, October 1948. Photo by Keystone-France.

Cars on exhibition at the Paris Motor Show, held at the Grand Palais, October 1948. Photo by Roger Viollet.

The first exhibition of a 2CV Citroën during the Paris Motor Show in the Grand Palais, October 1948. Photo by AFP.

Cars on exhibition at the Paris Motor Show, held at the Grand Palais, October 1948. Photo by Roger Viollet.

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Incredibly Beautiful Vintage Photos of a Two-Mile-Long Moving Sidewalk That Was Built for the 1900 World's Fair in Paris

In 1900, if you were lucky enough to have a ticket such as this one—and almost fifty million people did—you were in for an astounding treat. Paris and France went all out to make the Paris Universal Exposition the biggest and best yet anywhere in the world.

As everyone is aware, the Exposition grounds occupy certain parks and esplanades in the very heart of the city, so that anyone who makes the circuit on the rolling sidewalk views not only the wonders of the Exposition, but likewise considerable portions of some of the most attractive localities in Paris. The whole of the Champ de Mars has been devoted to Exposition purposes, also the Esplanade des Invalides, the Trocadero Park, the space around the Eiffel Tower, and other similar localities; while intervening between these, or adjoining them, are numerous solidly built blocks of residences or business houses. These conditions add materially to the variety and interest of the scene. No city has a better location to insure the artistic perfection of a great world’s exposition than Paris.

The rolling platform, trottoir roulant, is the special contrivance. It is not a detached structure like a railway train, arriving at and passing certain points at stated times. In the moving sidewalk there is no break. In engineers’ language, it is an “endless floor” raised thirty feet above the level of the ground, ever and ever gliding along the four sides of the square—a wooden serpent with its tail in its mouth. It is about two and a quarter miles in length. There are ten entries to it and as many exits from it, distributed over the river face, along the Champ de Mars and the Invalides. It never stops for passengers; you step on or off as you do on or off a 'bus in motion, but with the important difference that the rolling platform is only two inches above the level of your shoe soles, and that its rate of motion is slower.

The Paris sidewalk solves multi-speed problems by having two sidewalks; you first step onto the narrower, slower sidewalk and then transfer to the faster one. It solves the handrail problem by not having one; there are posts you can hang on to, but most people seem to be ignoring them.

The outer platform the one next to it moves at the rate of about two and one-half miles per hour, while the one at the top moves at twice this rate of speed. This arrangement, together with the balancing posts stationed conveniently along the margins of the platforms, enables visitors to step from one to the other with the utmost ease and safety, and at the same time to regulate their progress according to their wishes.

Today the idea of a moving sidewalk does not seem at all novel. As we rush through airports wishing the moving sidewalks would go faster or as we travel on them in the Paris Métro—particularly that very long stretch in the Montparnasse station—we might pause to think of a time when they were novel, and if you got it just right, actually enjoyable.

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Flying Through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1919

For the occasion of the victory parade on the Champs Élysées on 14 July 1919, marking the end of hostilities in World War I, the military command ordered the airmen to participate “on foot” – like the infantry. This was a provocation to the pilots, who regarded themselves as “heroes of the air”.

At a meeting in the Fouquet bar on the Champs Élysées, a group of aviators decided to address this affront by selecting one of them to fly through the Arc de Triomphe during the parade. The choice fell on Jean Navarre, who had 12 air victories and was considered to be an ace among the fighter pilots. However, Navarre was killed in a practice flight on 10 July. With 500 flying hours, Charles Godefroy volunteered for the task. With his close companion, the journalist Jacques Mortane, he inspected the Arc de Triomphe several times to examine the air route and the air currents; then he began to practice at the bridge over the Small Rhône at Miramas.

Charles Godefroy flying his plane, “Bébé” through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1919. (Photo by Jacques Mortane)

On 7 August 1919, three weeks after the victory parade, under cover of secrecy and dressed in his warrant officer uniform, Charles Godefroy took off at 7:20 a.m. from the airfield of Villacoublay in a Nieuport 27 sesquiplane. He reached the Porte Maillot shortly thereafter. Coming from the west, he circled the Arc de Triomphe twice and began his approach along the Avenue de la Grande-Armée. He gathered speed and forced the plane down and through the Arc. He did not have much clearance – the width of the Arc is 14.50 m (47.6 ft), not much more than his aircraft’s wingspan of 8.21 m (26.9 ft). He passed at a low level over a tram in which passengers threw themselves to the ground, and many passers-by ran away frightened.

Godefroy then flew over the Place de la Concorde and returned to the airfield, where his mechanic checked over the engine. No one at the airfield had taken any notice of the flight, which had lasted half an hour.

When the story broke the next day (August 8, 1919), authorities were livid. The military and political leaders were quick to react. Their primary fear was that other pilots would attempt to repeat Godefroy’s feat — they were wrong, of course, because once it had been done, few others felt it would be worth the risk. Jacques Mortane’s movie cameras both worked perfectly and he had the film of a lifetime, yet when he approached the theaters, authorities learned of the film’s existence. They banned its showing, fearing that it might incite others.

Godefroy attempted to keep his participation secret, but eventually, he was found out. Nonetheless, to avoid a public flogging and trial, authorities only issued him a warning. He received no disciplinary action. Even if he was never punished, Godefroy would give up on flying permanently. He returned to his wine business at Aubervilliers and lived out the remainder of his life in relative anonymity.

Stunning Black and White Photos of a Very Young Brigitte Bardot Dancing in a Rehearsal Studio

What was it about French film stars that made them such perfect models for ballerina-inspired fashion? In the 1950s and ’60s the vogue manifested itself in Brigitte Bardot, whose inimitable French style never failed to deliver elegance and carefree chic. Bardot was the first foreign-language-speaking star to attain major international success and her films were pivotal in establishing a global market for foreign cinema.

When Bardot moves through film space, her classical ballet training is evident in her regal carriage and dance style. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and the classic dancer’s wardrobe of leotards, Alice bands, ballerina skirts, and ballet flats often appeared throughout her films and daily ensembles. What began as an anti-establishment look early in her career progressed into a glamorous, tailored flair that remains influential today. The pale make-up and bouffant hairstyle was the perfect counterpart to her mixture of passion and drifting insouciance.

Bardot provided the first celebrity endorsement of the luxury shoe brand Repetto when she asked Rose Repetto to make her a dance slipper she could wear on the unpredictable streets of everyday life. The ravishing results can be seen in the photo of her draped over a Simca at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. That same festival was the backdrop to the iconic image of her creating a spectacle as she swirled her ballerina skirt for photographers. For a woman who reportedly once said, “I absolutely loathe luxury. It is the one thing I cannot stand,” she had some pretty high-end taste in ballet flats, and the delicious ‘BB’ style was named in her honour.

Bardot’s films often featured dance sequences that utilised her training as a ballerina. In Naughty Girl, a very young, impish Bardot performs in numerous highly charged ballet routines. The wanton mambo dance scene in And God Created Woman shows off her grace and rhythm and maddeningly seductive caprice. In A Very Private Affair, Bardot does a jazzy number that perfectly encapsulates the liberated spirit that was later treated with tragic intensity in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt (Le Mépris).

Bardot was first and foremost a sex symbol, an over-ripe beauty whose acting abilities were surpassed by her enthralling screen presence, controversial personal life and the lasting legacy she left on style. As a purveyor of ballet-fashion, she remains unrivalled.

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25 Fascinating Photos Capture Street Scenes of Paris in 1980

French photographer Marc Laroche took these fascinating photos that show a beautiful Paris in April 1980.

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Wonderful Paris in the Mid-1970s Through an American Traveler’s Lens

These amazing photos were taken by huebner family photos that shows wonderful Paris street scenes when he made a trip to Europe in January 1977.

France. Paris. Children playing field hockey near the Eiffel Tower

France. Paris street scenes

France. Paris. Arénes de Lutèce

France. Paris. Butcher's stall on Place Monge

France. Paris. Église Saint-François-Xavier

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Vintage Photographs of 12-Year-Old Brigitte Bardot in Mrs. Bourgat’s Ballet Class, Paris in 1946

Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28,1934 into a wealthy Parisian family. Her father, Louis Bardot, was an industrialist, but also, importantly, a poet and an amateur filmmaker; her mother, Anne-Marie, was a beautiful society woman who was keen on fashion and ballet.

Bardot, for her part, would have liked to be a dancer or a model. Her ballet training was valuable in more ways than one. For a start it gave Bardot her distinctive, graceful posture and walk. She was evidently gifted, winning a prize at the Conservatoire in 1948.

One of her teachers was Boris Kniaseff, a Russian émigré who had devised special exercises for dancers, designed to develop their muscles while keeping their legs slim. Bardot was one of his best pupils – he also taught Leslie Caron. However, although, like many little girls, Bardot had dreamt of becoming a ballerina, she abandoned ballet quickly, after one engagement on the transatlantic liner De Grasse in 1950.

Below are some of black and white photographs of Brigitte Bardot taken by Boris Lipnitzki while attending in Mrs. Bourgat’s ballet class on the Rue Spontini, Paris in 1946.

(Photos by Boris Lipnitzki)

Le Fox-Terrier Au Pont des Arts by Robert Doisneau, 1953

“Nowadays people’s visual imagination is so much more sophisticated, so much more developed, particularly in young people, that now you can make an image which just slightly suggests something, they can make of it what they will.” – Robert Doisneau

These hilarious photographs of a painter at the Pont des Arts were taken by the great French photographer Robert Doisneau in 1953. During his long career, his poetic approach to street photography recorded French everyday life in often playful and surreal images. Always charmed by his subjects, he enjoyed finding amusing juxtapositions or oddities of human nature.

Doisneau initially studied engraving and lithography at the École Estienne in Paris to learn the crafts involved in the book trade, but claimed that the streets of the working class neighborhood of Gentilly provided his most important schooling. When he was sixteen he took up amateur photography but was reportedly so shy that he started photographing cobble-stones before progressing to children and then adults.

“People like my photos because they see in them what they would see if they stopped rushing about and took the time to enjoy the city,” Robert Doisneau used to say. It is very true, however, perhaps surprisingly, his most famous picture was staged.

The Photo Was Posed, But the Kiss Was Real: The Story Behind the Most Famous Kiss Photo by Robert Doisneau in 1950

Although not as iconic as Alfred Eisenstaedt’s the sailor kiss on the V-E Day, Robert Doisneau’s Le Baiser de l’Hotel de Ville (The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville or Kiss at City Hall) taken on a Parisian street in 1950, is considered one of the most romantic and popular photos ever taken. Although Doisneau worked in Paris as a street photographer and stole many an intimate moment of Parisian couples, this classic shot was staged.

Le baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville by Robert Doisneau (1950)

After the picture appeared in the LIFE magazine series it lay forgotten for 31 years until a publisher called Doisneau asking to make a poster of the The Kiss shot. The poster was a huge hit, and soon posters and postcards were sold all over the world. The image brought Doisneau fame but it also brought a lot of headaches too. Since the success of the poster, many couples have come forward claiming to be the couple in the picture. Doisneau was not threatened by the claims, as he knew he had used models to pose for the kiss. “All these people who see themselves in the picture,” Doisneau said in a interview with Le Monde, “I found it charming.”

Still, he greeted the claims with gentleness. His daughter Annette Doisneau, who worked as an assistant for Robert, remembers meeting one of the couples with her father. Even though he knew that their claim was false, “He said nothing,” she said. “I asked him why he hadn’t told them the truth. He said he didn’t want to shatter their dream.” Not denying the claims would cost Robert dearly. In 1993 Denise and Jean-Louis Lavergne took him to court claiming that they were the couple in the picture and demanding compensation for “taking the picture without their knowledge,” because under French law an individual owns the rights to their own likeness. The court action forced Doisneau to reveal that he posed the shot using Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud, lovers whom he had just seen kissing, but had not photographed initially because of his natural reserve; he approached them and asked if they would repeat the kiss. He won the court case against the Lavergnes. In a 1992 interview, Doisneau said: “I would have never dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate.”

The couple in The Kiss were Françoise Delbart, 20, and Jacques Carteaud, 23, both aspiring actors. In 2005 Françoise Bornet (née Delbart) stated that, “He told us we were charming, and asked if we could kiss again for the camera. We didn’t mind. We were used to kissing. We were doing it all the time then, it was delicious. Monsieur Doisneau was adorable, very low key, very relaxed.” They posed at the Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and finally the Hôtel de Ville.

The photograph was published in 12 June 1950, issue of LIFE. The relationship between Delbart and Carteaud only lasted for nine months. Even though they are forever linked in the picture as one of the most romantic couples they didn’t stay in touch. “I now think of it as a picture that should never really have existed,” Ms. Bornet said. She added maybe with regret: “The photo was posed. But the kiss was real.” Delbart continued her acting career, but Carteaud gave up acting to become a wine producer.

Carteaud recognized himself and Bornet in the widely distributed poster but never thought to say anything about it. In 1993, a friend sent him articles in the French press about the photograph and he decided to come out of the wilderness. “I recognized Francoise and me in the photo,” he said. “Without any doubt, it’s us. I remember it as a time when I called her ‘my little pussycat’ and we were great lovers.”

Françoise Bornet, in 2005, with a print of the Doisneau photograph in which she appears. (Photo: Eric Feferberg/Getty Images)

In 2005 Françoise Bornet sold the original print of the photograph, bearing Doisneau’s signature and stamp, as part of the payment for her “work”, at an auction via the Paris auctioneers Artcurial Briest-Poulain-Le Fur for €155,000, more than 10 times what it was expected to fetch. A surprised Mrs. Bornet told the French media that she would use the proceeds to set up a film production company with her husband.

A Day at the Halles of Paris in 1968 Through Beautiful Kodachrome Photos

Les Halles was Paris's central fresh food market. It was demolished in 1971 and replaced by the Forum des Halles, a modern shopping mall built largely underground and directly connected to the massive RER and métro transit hub of Châtelet-Les-Halles.

A major reconstruction of the mall was undertaken in 2010, and the new version of the Forum des Halles was inaugurated in 2018. The 2.5 hectare Canopée was opened on 5 April 2016. In 2017, the Forum des Halles was the second most visited shopping mall in the Paris region with 42 million visitors.

Before being demolished, here is what everyday life of the Les Halles looked like in 1968.

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The Extending Mini-Skirts in Paris in the Mid-1960s

The miniskirt was introduced in 1965 at the fashion show of French designer André Courreges. He felt that the design of women’s clothes was not keeping up with the modern trends of the 1950s and 1960s and wanted to introduce a look that was modern, streamlined, and easy. His miniskirts were A-line skirts, narrow at the waist and wider at the hem, that ended four inches above the knee.

The audience at Courreges’s show greeted his new designs in shocked silence, but it would not be long before fashion critics and women themselves embraced the exciting modern look. Meanwhile, in London, fashion designer Mary Quant also began to sell a new look for the modern woman. In 1955 Quant had opened a London boutique called Bazaar in which she sold designer clothes that could be worn by the average person, not just fashion models. Shortly after Courreges had revealed his line of clothes, Quant introduced her own miniskirt, a tightly fitted skirt with an even shorter hemline, up to the middle of the thigh.

Over the years minis kept getting shorter, becoming the micromini and even the micro-micro. The average woman did not wear the most extreme styles, but the miniskirt did begin a trend of shorter skirts and a freer, more relaxed style for women. Rather than being expected to keep themselves covered up, modern women of the 1960s were presented in a style that was bold, sexy, and fun.

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