Before Paris found its va-va-voom! Beautiful images illustrate French capital as it transformed from shabby to chic

By TARYN KAUR PEDLER, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 12:35, 8 June 2026 | Updated: 12:40, 8 June 2026 A series of images from 1970s Paris has captured how the French capital has transformed from a shabby, rundown city to a chic metropolis. A beautiful photo exhibition of amateur snapshots taken around five decades ago shows streets filled with roadworks, open construction sites and ramshackle kiosks. From June 1, the Paris City Historical Library has displayed a selection of 100,000 colour and monochrome pictures taken by 15,000 photographers across each of the 1,755 sections of the capital. The striking images show bustling streets filled with grubby school children and shopkeepers sweeping away filth from their storefronts. They show a city plastered with political posters, ruled by cars, and being torn apart and rebuilt at the same time. It is a far cry from how Paris is perceived now, with its high-end fashion retailers lining the streets and ornate patisseries. In one picture from the collection, a street lined with wooden boards, bridging a large and hazardous gap between the pavement and the road on Rue de la Paix, can be seen. Several photographs showed battered cars being towed off the streetsides, with many surrounding walls covered in graffiti and other signs of wear. In one image, a tiny tin bus is seen collecting locals from a cobbled street Images from 1970s Paris have shown pavements lined with wooden boards amid roadwords One image captured schoolchildren walking along a road next to a construction site Walls were seen covered in graffiti and litter lines the streets  A shopkeeper is pictured sweeping away filth with a wooden broom  In one, a tiny tin bus is seen collecting locals from a cobbled street.  Another shows a pair of grimy yellow gas pumps standing side-by-side.  Placed on the ground in front are a plastic watering can and bucket, appearing to have been left out carelessly on the matted grassy ground by workers. 'These amateur photographers cast a tender and attentive eye over the elderly,' Juliette Eyméoud, the exhibition curator, said.  Bérengère de l'Épine, an archivist with the library, said that the photographs seemed fresh and presented 'a cinematographic edge that gives us a view of a Paris that is at once familiar and deliciously out of step'.  The collection lets the viewer 'explore a city in motion in all its diversity: small businesses, top tourist spots, working-class neighbourhoods, new housing estates and wasteland', she wrote.  The images from the 70s came after the huge May 1968 student revolt, which saw parts of Paris bulldozed under the instructions of the modernising president Georges Pompidou. Gentrification was just beginning in the working-class areas of the northeast, where many lived in near-slum conditions, with shared lavatories and bathrooms. In the spring of 1970, large parts of Paris were being demolished and rebuilt, while entire neighbourhoods were disappearing. So the city and the French retailer Fédération Nationale d'Achats des Cadres (FNAC) launched a contest for Paris photographers to document everything before it was gone. Each participant drew a square of the 1,755 areas by lottery and was assigned to photograph whatever was inside it, including streets, facades, and ordinary moments.  Grubby children are pictured playing in front of a contuction area  A newly-wed couple hold hands while taking in the sight of Paris's famous Eiffel tower A car is seen seemingly broken down on a cobbled Paris street A pair of grimy yellow gas pumps standing side-by-side on matted grass The images a far cry from how Paris is perceived now, with its high-end fashion retailers lining the streets and ornate patisseries The collection of images, from the 70s, came after the huge May 1968 student revolt, which saw parts of Paris bulldozed under the instructions of the modernising president Georges Pompidou The roads appeared jammed with cars  Two men work on a car in the street as a passerby stops to take a glance  On April 25, 1970, some 15,000 amateur photographers showed up at the Halles de Baltard to register. More than two-thirds of them were under the age of thirty.  The original rules of the competition required participants to surrender all rights to their photographs.  Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most celebrated photographers in the world and a member of the jury, resigned in protest.  Professional photography unions condemned the terms, the city of Paris withdrew its sponsorship, the FNAC rewrote the rules to respect copyright, and the contest went ahead. The result was 30,000 colour slides and 70,000 black-and-white prints - around 100,000 images of a Paris that has since partly vanished.  The entire archive is now held at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (Historical Library of the City of Paris), and the full collection has been digitised.  An exhibition drawn from the archive runs from June 1 to October 7, 2026. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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