All through the ages, quite a few French girls needed to endure and overcome overwhelming adversities to typically obtain easy rights that we right now take without any consideration.
Some are well-known and written in historical past books, whereas for others, I needed to dig deep to find and acknowledge their achievements.
Some French girls needed to lay down their lives for freedom, struggling agonizing deaths.
Some grew to become well-known via their perseverance in sports activities, the humanities, the sciences, academia, girls’s rights, or simply being drop-dead beautiful. Some others simply grew to become controversial, despised, and notorious.
However no matter they did to put their mark upon this earth, I imagine they should be remembered for what they have been.
Heroines or villains, right here is my checklist of well-known French girls. Some you’ll know, whereas others you might have by no means heard of them and could shock you with what they achieved. Identical to they shocked me.
Well-known French Girls
1. Simone de Beauvoir
Regarded by many because the mom of feminism and the fashionable girls’s motion, this controversial author and thinker put the cat amongst the pigeons by advocating “open relationships” and creating the idea of the altering nature of gender.
Born in Paris in 1908, she practiced what she preached, dwelling in an “open relationship” with fellow French thinker/playwright Jean-Paul Sartre, whom she met in 1929.
She engaged in quite a few affairs exterior her relationship with him, and this way of life suited him completely, too, as he regarded himself as a modern-day Casanova. Nonetheless, his seems to be didn’t fairly match his aspirations.
Simone revealed many works, none extra controversial than her 1949 1000-page e-book “The Second Intercourse,” which was characterised as “x-rated” by some critics and banned by the Vatican. It’s now thought to be one of the crucial vital works on girls’s rights.
Simone by no means married or shared a house with Jean-Pal Sartre however maintained their open relationship for 51 years till he died in 1980.
She died in 1986, they usually lastly obtained to be collectively, sharing a grave within the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.
Whereas seen as outright scandalous then, Simone described her relationship with Sartre as her most excellent achievement.
2. Coco Chanel
Born in 1883, shedding her mom on the tender age of 11 years and deserted by her father, Gabrielle Chanel, was to beat poverty, changing into the creator of 1 the most iconic trend manufacturers in historical past, making her one of many most celebrated personalities of France.
She earned her nickname of Coco from the 1878 romantic French music Qui qu’a vu Coco, which she sang within the cafes of Paris earlier than she broke out into the style trade, and, as they are saying within the classics, the remainder is historical past.
Opening her first retailer in the course of WW1, her elegant designs quickly took the style world by storm, ending the age of uncomfortable corsets and lengthy cage-like petticoats of the 19th century.
This French designer’s unbelievable skills allowed her to enterprise into creating timeless trend clothes and equipment, probably the most well-known being that bag, the little black costume, worn by Audrey Hepburn within the 1961 Hollywood basic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and, after all, her signature fragrance, Chanel No.5, which girls adore to today.
Considered one of her well-known designs was the intense pink go well with Jackie Kennedy wore on the day her husband was assassinated in November 1963.
Sadly, not all about Coco Chanel was glitz and glamour. Throughout WW2, she lived within the Ritz Resort in Paris, hanging a romantic relationship with a German intelligence officer, and information after the conflict revealed that Coco had been a German operative.
Considered one of her missions was to convey a message to Churchill to barter a peace treaty with the German military.
After the conflict, she fled to Switzerland to keep away from costs of collaborating with the German military. Nonetheless, many imagine that she escaped prosecution due solely to the intervention of her pal, Winston Churchill.
However, she stays among the many most celebrated French girls in historical past.
3. Josephine Baker
Additionally born into poverty in 1906, Josephine Baker was an American-born French-naturalised singer, dancer, and actress who took Paris by storm throughout the “roaring twenties” performing her distinctive erotic dances within the Théâtre des Champs Elysées to packed audiences.
The truth that she wore virtually nothing various synthetic bananas and a necklace catapulted her right into a famous person throughout France.
She quickly conquered Europe, including drama to her already sensual routine by typically performing along with her pet cheetah, Chiquita, which regularly escaped into the orchestra pit, sending musicians in terror.
She was the primary black girl to star in a significant movie in 1927 and have become often known as the “Bronze Venus,” “Black Pearl,” and the “Creole Goddess.”
Her private life was additionally crammed with drama and pleasure. Married at 13 and once more at 15 years of age, she ended up being married 4 occasions and had a number of sexual affairs, a few of which have been with girls.
Throughout WW2, she grew to become an operative for the Allies, utilizing her charms, delivering secret paperwork hid in her underwear, and incomes a number of medals of honor.
She supported civil rights actions post-war and refused to carry out to segregated audiences. She influenced many stars, together with Grace Kelly, who provided her refuge and monetary help when she grew to become bankrupt.
Josephine Baker died of a stroke in Paris in 1975, and her funeral was attended by 20,000 mourners and filled with celebrities. She is buried on the Monaco Cemetery.
She is honored around the globe to today, with Beyonce repeating her “banana dance” in Manhattan in 2006 and taking her rightful place in our checklist of well-known French girls.
4. Brigitte Bardot
What can one say about one of the crucial lovely, desired, and sexiest girls on this planet that hasn’t been stated already?
French actress, singer, supermodel, and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot stands as one of the crucial iconic French girls who ever lived, being idolized by idols and who was as soon as described by President Charles de Gaulle as “a French export as worthwhile as Renault vehicles!”
Born in Paris in 1934, she started performing earlier than 18 years outdated and shortly grew to become the intercourse image of the Fifties, 60s, and Seventies.
By the point she retired, she had starred in 47 movies, recorded 60 songs, impressed many different celebrities, had songs written about her, and was awarded the Legion of Honor.
She posed nude for Playboy journal for her 40th birthday, making that publication a collector’s treasure to today.
As we’ve come to count on from many of the world’s lovely folks, she was married a minimum of 4 occasions, with quite a few amorous affairs sprinkled in between.
At all times in search of ardour and, in her phrases, “that’s why I used to be typically untrue.”
5. Marie Antoinette
Perhaps for the improper causes, however Marie Antoinette takes her spot among the many most well-known girls from France regardless of shedding her head throughout the French Revolution.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Marie Antoinette was the youngest daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his spouse, Empress Maria Theresa, ruler of the Hapsburg Empire.
At simply 14, she married the grandson of Louis XV of France, changing into queen of France 5 years later when her husband ascended to the throne as Louis XVI.
Residing a lifetime of reckless opulence, she quickly grew to become unpopular with the native inhabitants struggling poverty and distress.
Spending extravagantly on trend, décor, and luxuries whereas France’s economic system was descending right into a disaster, she was rumored to have plastered the partitions of her chateau in Versailles with diamonds and gold.
Throughout the Flour Warfare in 1775, she enquired why the folks have been rioting, and when instructed that they couldn’t afford bread, she was rumored to have made her notorious quote, “Allow them to eat cake.”
We’ll by no means know whether or not that was true or not, however we do be taught that she grew to become more and more despised, and lots of blamed her for the nation’s dire financial state of affairs, resulting in the French Revolution in 1789.
Throughout the bloodiest interval in French historical past, often known as the “reign of terror, “ Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have been tried and sentenced to dying and executed by guillotine at Place de la Concorde, thus ending the French Monarchy.
6. Jeanne D’Arc
The story of Jeanne D’Arc is certainly one of excessive bravery and unyielding religion, triumph and tragedy, and divine supernatural forces that stay unexplained right now.
Often known as Joan of Arc, this 16-year-old peasant woman, claiming to have been guided by visions of the Archangel Michael, satisfied Charles to permit her to guide the French military towards the English, whom Charles’s father had earlier handed the French throne.
Prophesies circulating for years that an armored maiden would one-day rescue France could have contributed to Charles’s agreeing to nominate Jeanne D’Arc to go his military.
Using her horse into battle in full armor and waving her banner, she lifted the spirit of her troops, defeating the English within the Battle of Orleans and liberating the besieged metropolis.
The rejuvenated French military pursued the English, reaching one other victory and opening the street to Reims, the place Charles was ultimately topped king with Jeanne D’Arc at his facet.
Thought to be the savior of France, her world was to return crashing down after a number of defeats the place she was captured and handed to the English.
Tried and convicted for heresy and being underneath the management of demonic visions, she was burned on the stake. Her final want was to view a crucifix in her dying moments.
One was introduced and held in entrance of her face till the flames engulfed her, dying an agonizing dying. She was barely 19 years outdated.
Fifteen years later, a court docket overturned the responsible verdict, and ever since, Jeanne D’Arc has been celebrated as a martyr and is a nationwide image of France. Twenty-two years after her dying, the English have been lastly expelled from France.
In 1920, Pope Benedict XV canonized Jean D’Arc, and her feast day is well known annually on 30th Could – the day of her execution.
A very exceptional lifetime of a peasant woman changing into one of the crucial honored French girls ever.
7. Simone Veil
Having survived the Holocaust earlier than she was 18 years outdated, Simone Veil was destined to change into one of the crucial revered girls from France, serving in lots of esteemed positions, together with France’s Well being Minister and being the primary feminine President of the European Parliament.
She will even be remembered as selling girls’s rights and their entry to contraception, in addition to her decided battle to legalize abortion in 1975 – a legislation that grew to become recognized in France because the Veil Act.
She achieved all that in her time period as Well being Minister. Her progressive views are a shock, contemplating she was a center-right wing political social gathering member.
Throughout the closing 12 months of WW2, her total household was arrested by the German military. Her dad and mom and two siblings perished, however Simone and her one sister, Denise, managed to outlive till the focus camps have been liberated in April 1945.
Her traumatic experiences in Auschwitz and Belsen as a toddler performed an enormous function in her want to unify Europe, a trigger she labored tirelessly to realize all through her life.
Among the many many awards she obtained was changing into an honorary dame and receiving the very best order (grand cross) of the Legion of Honor.
Simone died on the ripe outdated age of 90 and was given a nationwide ceremony and full army honors at Les Invalides and buried subsequent to her husband on the Montparnasse Cemetery.
In 2018, she and her husband reburied on the Panthéon, which is reserved for icons in French historical past.
8. Marie Curie (naturalized French)
Born Marya Skłodowska in Warsaw in 1867, she devoted her life to serving to others by changing into a pioneer in science and radioactivity specifically, a time period she and her French husband, Pierre, have been the primary to make use of.
They found radium and polonium, named after her native nation, which was to kill her via overexposure to the lethal aspect ultimately. She was to obtain two Nobel Prizes, one for physics and one for chemistry.
Throughout WW1, she created and delivered lots of of X-ray machines to discipline hospitals, stopping many amputations and aiding medical doctors and wounded troopers immensely.
She achieved quite a few scientific breakthroughs throughout her life, changing into one of the crucial influential scientists and celebrated French girls of all time. She was extremely revered by none aside from Albert Einstein.
Marie Curie died in 1934 on the age of 66 from radiation publicity, and her physique was so radioactive that she needed to be buried twice.
Hers and her husband’s stays have been interred on the Panthéon in Paris, sealed in lead-lined caskets.
9. Catherine Deneuve
Acclaimed actress, singer, mannequin, and movie producer Catherine Deneuve is especially revered for her elegant magnificence.
Changing Mireille Mathieu as Marianne, France’s nationwide image of liberty, and being the face of Chanel No. 5 throughout the Seventies, she is taken into account one of the crucial lovely French girls ever.
Born in 1943, she started her performing profession at 12, showing in over 120 movies, from romantic comedies, crime thrillers, dramas, and musicals to horror motion pictures. She even portrayed a bisexual vampire alongside David Bowie and Susan Sarandon.
She has obtained nominations for Academy and Bafta awards and received many different performing awards.
As a mannequin, she despatched gross sales of Playboy journal hovering when she appeared nude in 1963 and 1965 publications.
Though being married solely as soon as to photographer David Bailey, she has lived with a number of high-profile celebrities, together with producer Roger Vadim and Italian actor and heartthrob Marcello Mastroianni.
Between these superstars, she has additionally dated quite a few well-known personalities, like John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, Franco Nero, Burt Reynolds, and Roman Polanski.
As Rod as soon as stated, “Some guys have all of the luck.” It was just lately claimed that she had been romantically concerned with legendary singer Johnny Hallyday since 1961 till he died in 2017.
Catherine Deneuve nonetheless lives in Paris, and regardless of being 80 years outdated, she stays as elegant as ever, rightfully incomes her spot on our checklist of well-known French girls.
10. Catherine De Medici
Born into the highly effective and influential Medici household in Florence in 1519, Catherine had an eventful childhood.
Orphaned earlier than she was a month outdated, her grandmother first raised her and a 12 months later by her aunt, after which by her uncle, Pope Clement VII, till she was taken hostage at 9 years outdated and despatched to a convent and ultimately to Rome. What a childhood!
The Pope organized her marriage to Prince Henry, Duke of Orléans, who would later change into King of France. They have been each 14 years outdated.
To chop an extended story quick, after Henry’s dying some 26 years later, Catherine was made regent and granted sweeping powers, which she used ruthlessly to maintain her household on the throne in any respect prices.
Her life and the reigns of her three sons have been fraught with fixed battle, wars, dying, and destruction.
She was blamed for the persecution and dying of hundreds of French Protestants, together with the notorious St Batholomew’s Day Bloodbath, throughout the Wars of Faith throughout the late sixteenth century.
She had been known as the “Sinister Queen” and the “Black Queen”. She died most likely of pleurisy at 69, and the Medici genes nonetheless exist amongst a lot of Europe’s royal households.
11. Edith Piaf
One other iconic persona of France with a tragic upbringing and an much more tragic life was Edith Piaf, who had a novel voice that made her one of the crucial recognizable artists on this planet.
Born in 1915 and deserted by her mom at start, she spent the primary few months of her life along with her maternal grandmother till she was taken to her paternal grandmother when her father enlisted within the French military throughout WW1.
She spent the subsequent few years dwelling in a brothel in Normandy, owned by her grandmother, and was largely cared for by prostitutes.
If that was not sufficient hardship for a kid to endure, she was blind between the ages of three and 7.
She was rumored to have been miraculously cured after endeavor a spiritual pilgrimage paid for by the prostitutes.
First carried out within the streets of Paris along with her acrobat father till she was found by a nightclub proprietor who had her singing to mesmerized audiences in a black costume, which grew to become her signature apparel.
She quickly grew to become often known as the “Little Sparrow”. She was tiny, simply 4 foot 8 inches tall, and weighed a mere 90 kilos. The remainder is historical past.
Performing internationally, she rose to be one of the crucial iconic French girls of the 20th century, inspiring and launching many artists’ careers, together with that of one other French icon, Charles Aznavour.
Among the many numerous French songs she graced along with her expressive voice, “Le Vie en Rose” stays her signature music to today.
Struggling liver most cancers, “the little sparrow” slipped right into a coma and died in 1963 on the premature age of simply 47.
Her funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners, bringing the streets of Paris to a standstill. She shares a grave along with her father and her closing husband, Theo Sarapo, on the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
12. Saint Genevieve
Born round 420 AD, a number of miles from the middle of Paris, Genevieve displayed robust non secular convictions from an early age, changing into a nun at 15 and dedicating her life to the Lord and serving to others.
She practiced what she preached and was quickly famous for her beneficiant deeds of charity. She is usually depicted holding out a loaf of bread in many non secular work and sculptures.
She claimed to have had quite a few prophetic visions and was rumored to have predicted the invasion of the Huns.
When Attila the Hun did invade, she led a prayer marathon, convincing the native inhabitants to not flee as God would shield them.
Attila selected to assault Orléans as a substitute, the place he was defeated, elevating the recognition of the visionary nun.
This act of religion helped her acquire the belief of many leaders, together with Germanic King Childeric I, who had besieged town in 464 AD.
She persuaded him to launch many prisoners by accumulating meals and performing as a messenger between the besieged metropolis and the King. Such was her affect on this mighty army chief.
She even obtained him to construct a church over the tomb of St Dennis, the French patron Saint.
Saint Genevieve died round 500 AD and was buried within the Church of Holy Apostles, now often known as the Church of Saint Genevieve.
Throughout the French Revolution, her stays have been burned, and her relics have been moved to the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
Having influenced influential leaders throughout her life, Saint Genevieve is the Saint we have to pray to for leaders of any nation.
With the world’s state of affairs proper now, I assume she has been receiving quite a lot of prayers these days.
13. Romy Schneider
Though German/Austrian by start, Romy Schneider made her profession primarily in France and is usually thought of one of the crucial revered and beautiful personalities.
Born in Vienna in 1938, the 12 months Germany annexed Austria to actor dad and mom, Romy was impressed to change into an actress and began her movie profession in Germany when she was barely 15.
After showing in a number of German movies, she labored with Alain Delon, fell in love with the French heartthrob, and moved to France. They have been engaged in 1959.
Her profession blossomed with quite a few French, European, and Hollywood movies, working with a few of the largest names within the trade.
Schneider and Delon divorced in 1963 however continued their friendship and labored collectively in a number of extra movies.
She married a German director and had a son who was tragically killed in a freak accident aged simply 14, which led her to extreme ingesting.
She had a number of amorous affairs with notable movie personalities, later marrying for the third time, however that didn’t final too lengthy.
It was later revealed that Romy had had sexual relationships with girls as effectively, together with her good pal, Simone Signoret.
On the 29th Could 1982, Romy Schneider was discovered lifeless in her Paris condominium. The reason for dying was cardiac arrest. She was not even 44 years outdated.
14. Vanessa Paradis
Born close to Paris in 1972, Vanessa was found at a neighborhood tv expertise present when she was seven years outdated, but it surely took one other 5 years earlier than she launched her first music.
Though it didn’t change into a success, it paved the way in which for her subsequent music, “Joe le taxi,” which hit No. 1 in France, catapulting her into stardom in 1987 at simply 14.
Since then, she has launched six different albums containing many hits and labored with a number of music icons like Lenny Kravitz, whom she additionally dated.
Breaking into the movie trade and starring in over 30 movies, she labored alongside superstars, together with acclaimed veteran actors Jen-Paul Belmondo, Gerrard Depardieu, and Alain Delon. Her performing profession resulted in numerous nominations and awards.
Her beautiful basic magnificence made her the face of the Chanel model, showing in lots of adverts, together with the enduring “birdcage” industrial, and has been featured on the covers of over 300 magazines.
Turning down Kelvin Klein, she not directly launched Kate Moss’s profession.
Throughout her profession, she has dated a number of high-profile celebs, together with having a 14-year relationship with Johnny Depp, with whom she had two kids, certainly one of which being Lilly-Rose Depp, a splitting picture of her mother and a most acclaimed actress and supermodel.
Being one of the crucial iconic French girls of all time and a useful asset to France, Vanessa Paradis was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest honor.
15. Marion Cotillard
Mimicking Greta Garbo in her bed room as a toddler, Marion Cotillard was destined for the stage and to change into one of the crucial well-known French girls of contemporary occasions.
Born in Paris in 1975, she made her display screen debut on the age of seven, and after that appeared in lots of French, European, and Hollywood movies and tv packages, enjoying alongside distinguished identify actors, receiving quite a few nominations and awards.
Her skills and dedication to her occupation led her to be forged as the enduring Edith Piaf within the blockbuster movie “Le Vie en Rose”, for which she obtained an Oscar, a César, and a BAFTA award.
From then on, her profession blossomed additional, being forged in over 60 movies performing alongside mega stars the likes of Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Meryl Streep, to call a number of.
Her performances earned her quite a few awards, and she or he has grossed near $4 billion thus far.
Marion Cotillard can be a dedicated philanthropist and environmentalist, being a spokesperson for Greenpeace.
She can be an achieved musician, having launched a number of singles and carried out on a number of movie soundtracks.
She has been the face of Dior and Chanel No. 5 fragrance and has appeared on the covers of lots of of magazines internationally.
Her contributions to the humanities and France have additionally earned her the very best French accolade, named a Knight of the Legion of Honor. It doesn’t get greater than this.
16. Cecile Debray
Born in 1966, Cecile’s ardour for the humanities started as a toddler whereas strolling via the galleries of the Louvre along with her mom on Saturday afternoons.
That ignited the will to someday work in a museum. A want that may change into a actuality, making her one of the crucial educated and revered specialists within the arts.
She studied historical past and the historical past of artwork at varied universities in Paris and Montreal.
Appointed as curator, scientific advisor, and director of varied museums, together with the Nationwide Museum of Trendy-Artwork Middle Pompidou, all through her profession, she is a famend specialist in Henri Matisse and Picasso, designing exhibitions around the globe.
In her hectic life, she manages to lecture on the historical past of artwork on the Ecole du Louvre, one of the crucial prestigious establishments in France and has revealed numerous papers on varied iconic artists and their works throughout all disciplines of artwork.
Revered by artwork historians internationally and being an mental of notice, she is at present the Director of the Musée de l’Orangerie, located subsequent to the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
17. Marion Rousse
Born in 1991 in Saint-Saulve in northern France, biking will need to have run deep within the genes of Marion Rousse, who had a minimum of three skilled biking cousins.
Persevering with in the identical vein, she grew up watching the world-famous Tour de France race on tv and being impressed to take up the game herself.
This led to her successful the Nationwide French Street Race title in 2012.
Additionally working as a sports activities pundit for Eurosport and French Tv in addition to holding a job on the Etampes City Corridor simply south of Paris, she was pressured to retire from biking on the untimely age of simply 25 to focus on her tv profession.
After serving as deputy director of Tour de la Provence, she was appointed director of the Tour de France Femmes.
Christian Prudhomme, the Director of the Tour de France, described her as “the very best ambassador of this sport,” since then, she has promoted biking and impressed younger women to take up the game.
Marion Rousse married fellow bike owner and Tour de France stage winner Tony Gallopin in 2014, however they divorced in 2019.
Two months later, she introduced her relationship with one other skilled bike owner, Julian Alaphilippe, and that they have been anticipating a toddler. Their son was born in 2021.
18. Suzanne Borel
Born to a distinguished household in Toulon in 1904, at a time when diplomatic positions and most different jobs have been reserved for males solely, Suzanne Borel was going to be the one who would break these shackles and antiquated guidelines.
Armed with a level in philosophy and having traveled to numerous French colonies in 1928, her mom despatched her a newspaper clip stating {that a} decree had been issued permitting girls to write down the doorway examination for a diplomatic profession.
She succeeded the second time round and was employed within the International Ministry. Nonetheless, she was nonetheless restricted to particular departments and compelled to signal a doc allowing her to work solely in Paris.
She didn’t see that as an impediment however a “half-open door” to sneak via.
Throughout WW2, she joined the French Resistance and went into hiding to keep away from being arrested by the German military.
After the conflict, she continued to work tirelessly till she was lastly rewarded by being appointed to the personal workplace of the International Minister, George Bidault, whom she later married.
Suzanne Borel didn’t see herself as a feminist however as somebody who believed in equity and that ladies have been simply as succesful as males and must be afforded the identical alternatives.
By sneaking via the “half-open door,” she had, in reality, paved the way in which for girls to observe.
For her perseverance and achievements, Suzanne was honored with the Légion d’Honneur, Croix de Guerre, Médaille de la Résistance, and the Medal of Freedom.
She died in 1991, aged 91, after publishing her autobiography titled, you guessed it, “By way of the Half-Open Door”.
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