What was Paris like after World War One?

Question

Hey,i tried searching but didn't find much.I basically need to find information[creditable sources, aka no wikipedia, or some joe schmoe] on the life,culture,events,etc in Paris, France following World War One.

Im going to guess i cant find much on the topic since the Germans never did reach Paris so maybe nothing. But I need to find info for my essay on 'Paris After WW1'

Answer 1

Paris did experience during WWI the occasional bombardment from German zeppelins and the giant "Paris-Geschütz" long-distance artillery gun.

"In the inter-war period Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic communities and its nightlife. The city became a gathering place of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway."

"The city emerged into an energetic but restless interwar period, enlivened by the arrival of glamorous émigrés such as Josephine Baker. It was a troubled political period, however, especially when the Great Depression hit Paris. Extreme right- and left-wing parties flourished, and on 1934-02-05 a mob of Fascist and other far-rightists attempted to storm the National Assembly in a botched coup attempt. In the ensuing violence, fifteen people were killed and another 1,500 wounded. In response, the Socialists and Communists united to form a Popular Front, which took power in 1936 but fell only a year later."

"Further international exhibitions (1878, 1889, 1900, and 1937) were the occasions for the building of monuments such as the Trocadéro (1878), the Eiffel Tower (1889), and the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, with the Alexandre III Bridge (1900), and for the reconstruction of the Trocadéro as the Chaillot Palace (1937). The Métro was constructed, commerce and industry annexed formerly residential districts, and the ever-expanding population overflowed the old limits of Paris. Louis-Philippe's fortifications were abolished by a law of April 1919."

"Peace returned, and attempts were made to correct some of the urban problems. The fortifications had become anachronistic – they had proved useless before the cannons - and from 1919 onwards they were removed. In their place was built the first route encircling Paris, known as the boulevard “des Maréchaux” because it was given the names of Marshals of the Empire for the length of its route around the city. It was not finished by 1939. Paris became a city open towards the surrounding suburbs."

"Between 1927 and 1934, the first important attempt was made to construct low-cost housing for moderate rent in the city and, above all, in the immediate periphery."

"During this period, the architect Le Corbusier, a great admirer of the work of Haussmann , tried to modify the plan for the city. Firstly, by the Plan Voisin and later, in 1937. He wanted to demolish the centre of Paris to establish a great motorway axis North-South/East-West. Sixty-story tower blocks would have housed the Parisians. The districts of Marais and Temple would have been demolished, except for a few churches! These ideas, though they seem like ravings, were presented seriously at that time. They showed a new concept of “the city” and an almost pathological obsession for modernisation."