Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Poverty to Prosperity
Broken and battered from the war, France
was forced to turn to the USA for loans as
part of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.
Slowly, under the government of the French
war hero Charles de Gaulle, the economy
began to recover and France began to re-
build its shattered infrastructure. The debilit-
ating Algerian War of Independence
(1954-62) and the subsequent loss of its
colonies seriously weakened de Gaulle's
government, however, and following wide-
spread student protests in 1968 and a gener-
al strike by 10 million workers, De Gaulle was
forced to resign from office in 1969. He died
the following year.
Subsequent French presidents Georges
Pompidou (in power from 1969 to 1974) and
Giscard d'Estaing (1974-81) were instru-
mental in the increasing political and eco-
nomic integration of Europe, a process that
had begun with the formation of the EEC
(European Economic Community) in 1957,
and continued under François Mitterand with
the enlarged EU (European Union) in 1991.
During Mitterand's time in office, France abol-
ished the death penalty, legalised homosexu-
ality, gave workers five weeks' holiday and guaranteed the right to retire at 60.
In 1995 Mitterand was succeeded by the maverick socialist Jacques Chirac, who
was re-elected in 2002. Chirac's attempts at reform led to widespread strikes and
social unrest, while his opposition to the Iraq war alienated the US administration
(and famously lead to the rebranding of French fries as Freedom fries).
History Museums
2 MUSÉE NATIONAL DU MOYEN
AGE (
CLICK HERE
)
3 MUSÉE DE LA TAPISSERIE DE
BAYEUX (
CLICK HERE
)
President Bling-Bling
Following Chirac's retirement, the media-savvy Nicolas Sarkozy was elected presid-
ent in 2007, bringing a more personality-driven, American-style approach to French
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