Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Eiffel Tower is completed in time for the opening of the Exposition Universelle
(World Exhibition) but is vilified in the press and on the street as the 'metal asparagus'
- or worse.
1914
Germany and Austria-Hungary declare war on Russia and France. German troops
reach the River Marne 15km east of Paris and the government moves to Bordeaux.
1918
An armistice ending WWI signed 82km northeast of Paris returns Alsace and Lorraine;
of the eight million French called to arms, 1.3 million die and another million are
crippled.
1920s
Paris sparkles as centre of the avant-garde with its newfound liberalism, cutting-edge
nightlife and painters pushing into new fields of art like cubism and surrealism.
1940
After over 10 months of le drôle de guerre(phoney war), Germany launches the battle
for France, and the four-year occupation of Paris under direct German rule begins.
25 August 1944
Spearheaded by Free French units, Allied forces liberate Paris and the city escapes de-
struction, despite Hitler's orders that it be torched; the war in Europe will end nine
months later.
1949
Simone de Beauvoir publishes her ground-breaking and very influential study Le
Deuxième Sexe(The Second Sex) just four years after French women win the right to
vote.
1958
De Gaulle returns to power after more than a dozen years in opposition, to form the
Fifth Republic.
1962
