Paris is burning.
Liberté.

France has done this before.

237 years of Parisians taking the streets.

1789

The Bastille falls

Parisians storm the royal fortress on July 14. The revolution begins and France never forgets the date.

1793

Heads roll

Louis XVI goes to the guillotine. The people decide who rules.

1830

Liberty leads the people

Three days of barricades topple Charles X. Delacroix paints Marianne raising the flag over the bodies.

1848

The second republic

Paris rises again. The king flees, the republic is proclaimed from the Hôtel de Ville.

1871

The Commune

Paris governs itself for 72 days behind barricades of cobblestones, before the bloody week.

1968

May 68

Students and workers shut the country down. Under the cobblestones, the beach.

2018

Yellow vests

Every Saturday, the Champs-Élysées burn. The Arc de Triomphe gets tagged.

2026

Paris is burning

Gen Z takes the streets. The story writes itself again. Liberté.

Historical images: Wikimedia Commons (public domain / CC BY-SA, see original files).