Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The belle époque launched art nouveau architecture, a whole field of artistic 'isms' from
impressionism onwards, and advances in science and engineering, including the construc-
tion of the first metro line (1900). World Exhibitions were held in the capital in 1889 (show-
casing the Eiffel Tower) and 1901 (in the purpose-built Petit Palais). The Paris of nightclubs
and artistic cafes made its first appearance around this time, and Montmartre became a mag-
net for artists, writers, pimps and prostitutes.
But all was not well in the republic. France was consumed with a desire for revenge after
its defeat by Germany, and was looking for scapegoats. The so-called Dreyfus Affair began
in 1894 when a Jewish army captain named Alfred Dreyfus was accused of betraying milit-
ary secrets to Germany; he was then court-martialled and sentenced to life imprisonment on
Devil's Island. Liberal politicians and writers succeeded in having the case reopened despite
bitter opposition from the army command, right-wing politicians and many Catholic groups
- and Dreyfus was vindicated in 1900. This resulted in more rigorous civilian control of the
military and, in 1905, the legal separation of the church and the state. When he died in 1935
Dreyfus was laid to rest in the Cimetière de Montparnasse.
WWII & Occupation
Two days after the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, Britain and France de-
clared war on Germany. For the first nine months Parisians joked about
le drôle de guerre
-
what Britons called 'the phoney war' - in which nothing happened. But the battle for France
began in earnest in May 1940 and by 14 June France had capitulated. Paris was occupied,
and almost half the population fled the city by car, bicycle or on foot. The British expedi-
tionary force sent to help the French barely managed to avoid capture by retreating to
Dunkirk, described so vividly in Ian McEwan's
Atonement
(2001), and crossing the English
Channel in small boats. The Maginot Line, a supposedly impregnable wall of fortifications
along the Franco-German border, had proved useless - the German armoured divisions
simply outflanked it by going through Belgium.
The Germans divided France into two: a zone under direct German rule (along the west-
ern coast and the north, including Paris); and a puppet state based in the spa town of Vichy
and led by General Philippe Pétain, the ageing WWI hero of the Battle of Verdun. Pétain's
collaborationist government and French police forces in German-occupied areas (including
Paris), helped the Nazis round up 160,000 French Jews and others for deportation to con-
centration and extermination camps in Germany and Poland.
After the fall of Paris, General Charles de Gaulle, France's undersecretary of war, fled to
London. He set up a French government-in-exile and established the Forces Françaises
