Ephemeride guide

Paris, September 8: Joan of Arc's failed bid to retake the capital, during which she was wounded.

On September 8, 1429, a few weeks after guiding Charles VII to his coronation at Reims, Joan of Arc faced the walls of Paris. Her aim: bring the capital back under the king’s obedience. The assault concentrated on the Saint-Honoré Gate, near today’s André-Malraux Square. After hours of fighting, Joan was wounded in the thigh and the royal army had to retreat. Paris would not be retaken for another seven years.

This day in Paris history: Farm animals soar in a hot-air balloon at Versailles

Long before the first human flights, three unlikely passengers served as the Montgolfier brothers’ guinea pigs. In Versailles, on September 19, 1783, a sheep, a duck, and a rooster took to the air before Louis XVI and the court, in a decisive experiment in the history of ballooning.

On this day in Paris, September 18: the founding of the Paris Fire Brigade battalion

A deadly blaze at an imperial ball reshapes how emergency services are organized in the capital. On September 18, 1811, Napoleon I handed firefighting to a professional military unit: the Paris Fire Battalion, the ancestor of today’s BSPP.

On this day in Paris, September 16: The astonishing burglary of the Crown Jewels.

In September 1792, the treasure of the kings of France vanishes almost entirely from the Garde-Meuble, today the Hôtel de la Marine. Several bands of thieves take advantage of the revolutionary chaos to pull off one of the most spectacular burglaries in Parisian history.

On this date in Paris: The Publicis drugstore attack in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

On September 15, 1974, a grenade exploded in the Saint-Germain drugstore, killing 2 people and wounding 34 others. The attack was blamed on the revolutionary terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos.

On this day in Paris: Olympe de Gouges publishes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman

On September 14, 1791, Olympe de Gouges published in Paris a text radical for its time: the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. In 17 articles, she demands full and complete equality between the sexes.

September 13 in Paris: When Place Royale Became Place des Vosges

On September 13, 1800, one of Paris’s best-known squares was given the name it still bears today: Place des Vosges. Yet not a single famous Vosgian native ever lived there, and the Marais’ landscape has nothing in common with the Vosges Mountains in the east. So, where does it get its name?

On this day in Paris, September 12: The birth of Maurice Chevalier in Ménilmontant.

On September 12, 1888, in Ménilmontant, a boy was born who would become one of France's most famous figures of his era. Maurice Chevalier, a child of popular Paris, would leave the neighborhood cabarets to conquer the Folies Bergère and then Hollywood. His smile, his Parisian accent, and his famous boater would eventually, abroad, help shape a certain image of France.

On this day in Paris, September 11: The consecration of the Saint Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral.

On September 11, 1861, Paris unveiled one of its most singular religious buildings: the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Since it became a cathedral, it has stood as a key landmark in the history of Russians in Paris, frequented by the likes of Turgenev, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Tarkovsky.

On this day in Paris, September 7: Guillaume Apollinaire arrested in the Mona Lisa theft case.

On September 7, 1911, Guillaume Apollinaire is arrested in Paris and taken to La Santé prison. For two weeks, police have been hunting for the Mona Lisa, mysteriously removed from the Louvre. The poet did not steal the Leonardo da Vinci canvas, but his links to Géry Pieret, involved in several museum thefts, place him at the center of an inquiry that will also reach his friend Pablo Picasso.

Éphéméride du 3 septembre à Paris : On September 3 in Paris, the adoption of France's first constitution in its history

On September 3, 1791, the National Constituent Assembly in Paris approves the first written constitution in France’s history. Two years after the Revolution began, the text ends absolute monarchy and sets up a constitutional monarchy in which sovereignty now resides with the Nation. A political revolution on paper, but its delicate balance would last barely more than a year.

On this day in Paris: the premiere of Molière's The Miser at the Palais-Royal

On September 9, 1668, Molière stepped onto the stage at the Palais-Royal Theatre to present The Miser, his new five-act prose comedy in which he himself portrays Harpagon. While it would go on to become one of the most famous plays in French theatre, The Miser did not immediately win over Parisian audiences.

This day in Paris history: Victor Hugo's return to Paris after 19 years in exile

On September 5, 1870, Victor Hugo returned to Paris after nearly 19 years in exile. Arriving from Brussels at 10 p.m. at Gare du Nord, the day after the proclamation of the Republic, the writer finds a huge crowd waiting to greet him. The discreet homecoming he had hoped for takes on the air of a popular triumph, as the Prussian armies were already marching toward the capital.

Ephemeris of September 2 in Paris: The September Massacres

On September 2, 1792, the Sans-Culottes broke into Paris prisons and massacred a thousand inmates suspected of being counter-revolutionaries and in favor of the King's return.

Ephemeris for September 1st in Paris: The founding of the Sorbonne

On September 1, 1257, the Sorbonne was founded by Robert de Sorbon, chaplain and confessor to King Louis IX. Initially dedicated to destitute students, the school quickly became Europe's leading cultural and scientific center, thanks to the quality and wealth of its teaching.

August 11 in Paris: the 1999 total solar eclipse, here’s what happened.

Le 11 août 1999, in Paris and across France, the Moon completely obscured the Sun for just under three minutes. It was the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century, and of the second millennium as well. A look back at that extraordinary day, in anticipation of the nearly total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026.

On this day in history: the cornerstone of the Arc de Triomphe was laid in Paris.

On August 15, 1806, the first stone of the Arc de Triomphe was laid, erected by order of Napoleon I to perpetuate the memory of the victories of the French armies. Here is the story of the moment that gave birth to one of Paris’s symbols.

The theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in 1911: here's the story

On August 22, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa disappeared from the Musée du Louvre, under the noses of the guards. It was a shock. It would be another two years before Mona Lisa's smile could be seen again in sunny Florence.

Ephemeris of August 19 in Paris: The Liberation of Paris, we tell you about it

From August 19 to 25, 1944, Paris was finally liberated from German occupation. It was the triumph of the Allies and fighting France, and the establishment of General de Gaulle as leader of a liberated and victorious France.

Ephemeris of September 28 in Paris: Fire at Le Printemps department store

On the morning of September 28, 1921, forty years after the first blaze, the Le Printemps department store was struck by a fire that ravaged the interior of the second building under construction.