Portrait of George Brummell (1778 -1840), known as Beau Brummell • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In London in 1815, two events caused a sensation:the British victory at Waterloo and the eccentric ties of George Brummell. As Virginia Woolf writes, empires like Napoleons could rise and fall; Beau Brummell, un
Oscar wilde photographed by Napoleon Sarony in 1882 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS “The love that dares not speak its name, […] it is for it that I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is pure, it is the noblest form of affection. It was with this plea that Irish writer Oscar Wilde made history, i
Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg on his deathbed, 1889 • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS On November 21, 1916, the death of François-Joseph Ist marked the end of an era. The old emperor had been the protagonist and the witness of almost 70 years of European history, from the revolution of 1848 until the First W
The grand ceremonial staircase leading to the performance hall, salons and foyers of the Paris Opera • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS In September 1909, the Parisian newspaper Le Gaulois publishes the first episode of a soap opera entitled The Phantom of the Opera . The author, Gaston Leroux, who had not yet
Engraving representing the use of the new measures (litre, kilo and meter). By L.F. Labrousse, 1795 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS While traveling through France on the eve of the Revolution, the British agronomist Arthur Young was stunned by the incredible diversity of measurements he encountered on his w
View of the glass roof in the garden of De Gaulles birthplace, in Lille • PHOTOS:MNCDG / CD59 / SERVICE DE PRESSE We do not necessarily remember Charles de Gaulle that he was born at 9, rue Princesse in Lille… Except in the capital of Flanders! Classified as a “Historic Monument” in 1990, his bi
Jules Michelet photographed by Nadar around 1855-1856 1. He is a great writer An “authentic genius and high-class prose writer. The judgment that Jean-Paul Sartre pronounces on Michelet in What is literature? is laudatory. The philosopher is not the only one to consider that the historian should
Le Poilu victorious, by Eugène Benet (1863-1942). Civray, France • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In the 1920s, the mourning of the communes will materialize in the form of various monuments. In 2013, the Goncourt prize was awarded to Goodbye up there, a burlesque and dizzying novel, one of whose themes is w
Georges Clemenceau, photographed by Nadar • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS As soon as he entered politics in the noise of the guns of the Franco-Prussian war, Georges Clemenceau played with the verb with great power, both in his articles for La Justice then from L’Aurore , at the time of the Dreyfus Affair, a
Destruction of the city of Brest during a bombardment in 1940-1941 • 3EME OEILL In Brest, plankton tells part of the story of the 20th century. These microorganisms that live in suspension in seawater were indeed modified after the Second World War, and toxic species developed. Scientists from I
Portrait of Mona Lisa, known as the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci. Around 1503-1506. Louvre Museum, Paris • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo hangs – under very high surveillance – in room 711 of the Denon wing of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Bett
Convicts are executed with the guillotine during the French Revolution. Vintage engraving. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS “The deputy Guillotin / In medicine / Very expert and very clever, / Made a machine / To purge the French body / Of all the people with projects / It’s the guillotine, oh ford! / Its the
The Lady with the Lamp, or Florence Nightingale at Scutari, 1854. Lithograph after a work by Henrietta Rae. Circa 1891. • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS A pale light flickers in the darkness of the hospital ward, that of the Turkish lantern that a young woman in her thirties, with chestnut hair and green eye
When 20-year-olds called embarked in Marseilles bound for Algeria (from 1956), they had no idea what awaited them. At the time, we talked about events. We dont officially speak of the Algerian war until 1999. When, many months later, these soldiers returned on leave, they found that Algeria was far
Scene of popular jubilation after the proclamation of the independence of Algeria on July 3, 1962 • BRIDGEMAN IMAGES Negotiations between belligerents began in Switzerland in 1961. On March 18, 1962, representatives of the French government and those of the Provisional Government of the Algerian
On February 23, 2022, Ukrainian tanks park near the front line with the self-declared pro-Russian breakaway state Donetsk Peoples Republic. • EYEPRESS NEWS/SHUTTERSTOCK/SIPA Ukraine shares a dual ethnic heritage with Russia, dating back to the interbreeding of Slavic and Varangian cultures, and
Platypus (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus), or more commonly known as the platypus. Illustration from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 1897 • ISTOCKPHOTO When the first Europeans settled in Australia at the end of the 18th century, they are amazed by the wildlife inhabiting the continent. The animals tha
The glass roof of the intendants courtyard at the Hôtel de la Marine, in Paris • CENTER DES MONUMENTS NATIONAUX/ PRESS SERVICE After four years of major works and improvements, the Hôtel de la Marine, located on Place de la Concorde in Paris, has reopened its doors to the public. He can thus imm
First page of the original manuscript of the Edict of Nantes, kept at the National Archives (Paris) • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS The Edict of Nantes, signed by Henri IV in 1598, granted Protestants a regime of limited tolerance. This was not the first such edict. In 1563, at the end of a year of civil war
The Casino (Il ridotto). By Pietro Longhi. Eighteenth century. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Few objects come in such a vast palette as masks, which can be worn on the top, bottom or the whole of the face, and are used to perform religious ceremonies, to embellish festive occasions,
The Templars or Order of the Temple was founded in 1128 during the Council of Troyes by Hugo Peyens and Geoffrey de Saint-Omer. The purpose of the Order was to protect pilgrims who came to Jerusalem. She later took part in battles and built a network of financial aid to European kings, feudal lords
The Industrial Revolution was a process of great social and economic transformations that began in England in the 18th century. The industrial mode of production spread across much of the Northern Hemisphere throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Producing goods became cheaper and more acces
Absolutist State is a political regime that emerged at the end of the Middle Ages. Also called Absolutism is characterized by concentrating power and authority in the king and few collaborators. In this type of government, the king is totally identified with the State, that is, there is no differe
William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a British Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator. He is best known for the mutiny he suffered aboard the Bounty. After this, he was appointed governor of New South Wales where his administration was at the origin of an insurrection, the R