10, 50 and 100 years ago in France – November 2019

NOVEMBER 2009: Slow to switch on

The government announced ambitious plans for two million people to be driving electric cars in France by 2020.

However, by 2018 there were only 32,203 all-electric cars registered. 

Including all-electric vans and plug-in hybrids, the total of electric vehicles registered in France in 2018 still only reached 53,745.

The Ministry of Health announced plans to employ shocking pictures, highlighting health damage caused by smoking, on cigarette packets in France.

This was eight years after Canada became the first country to use the technique in 2001.The UK started the images in 2008 and was one of the first European countries to introduce them.

NOVEMBER 1969: Big kick-off for women

The city of Reims saw the birth of women’s football in France and the country’s first female club, Le Football Club Féminin Rémois, played its debut match. The game was also the first women’s football match to be held in Paris, at the Jean-Bouin Stadium.

Later the same month, the club was absorbed into the Stade de Reims as its women’s section, which still exists today. Le Football Club Féminin Rémois came about after an advert was published requesting a women’s football team to play a match at the annual fair in Reims.

The players enjoyed themselves so much that they asked their coach to make the team permanent. From its creation, the team did not lose a game in France until 1975.

NOVEMBER 1919: Brass-necked gold haul

Guards patrolling the Louvre discovered that an oriental antiquities display case had been smashed and a 2,000-year- old gold necklace taken.

The theft perplexed police as the necklace was not particularly valuable and priceless pieces were untouched nearby.

Days later, the piece was returned by the young thief’s father. No reason for the theft was given.

Eight years before, former Louvre worker Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa after disguising himself as a museum employee. He was caught after contacting a Florence gallery two years later. He said he did it as a patriotic act as he was Italian, but the painting was a gift from the artist to French king Francois 1.