This Saturday, March 8, is International Women’s Rights Day. To mark the occasion, we took to the streets of Paris to pay tribute to some of the women who have left their mark on history. Strong, committed and feminists before their time, they’ve all left their mark on the capital – and much more besides. Follow us on a stroll in the footsteps of these female figures who continue to inspire theworld today.
From the Conciergerie to the Pantheon
We start our stroll at the Conciergerie, where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned for 76 days in 1793. Her fate was sealed in advance: opposed to the Revolution, the queen had sought to convince Louis XVI to flee abroad, betraying her country. She was executed on the Place de la Révolution, where we’ll be passing next…
📍 La Conciergerie – 2 boulevard du Palais, 75001 Paris
Direction the Sorbonne, where Marie Curie became the first woman professor in 1906. Winning the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for their discovery of radioactivity, she revolutionized science. In 1911, she went on to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on her own, isolating a gram of radium. She thus paved the way for nuclear research and medical radiology.
📍 The Sorbonne – 1 rue Victor Cousin, 75005 Paris
The Pantheon, where Marie Curie became the first woman to be inducted on her own merits. But she is not the only female figure to be enshrined in the Pantheon. Germaine Tillion, Resistance fighter, ethnologist and human rights activist, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Resistance fighter and activist, Simone Veil and Joséphine Baker, black woman and artist.
📍 Le Panthéon – Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris
From Café de Flore to Place de la Concorde
We continue our stroll to the Café de Flore, Simone de Beauvoir‘s former HQ. With her and Jean-Paul Sartre, the place became an inspiring meeting place for artists. A philosopher and novelist, Simone de Beauvoir is also a major figure in feminism. An avant-garde thinker, she shook things up with her essay Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex), from which the famous quote is taken: “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”.
📍 Café de Flore – 172 boulevard Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris
On to the Assemblée Nationale, where Simone Veil changed French history. On November 26, 1974, Simone Veil, then Minister of Health, defended voluntary interruption of pregnancy (abortion) before an almost exclusively male assembly. The law authorizing abortion was subsequently promulgated on January 17, 1975: only 50 years ago! Simone Veil was also the first woman to preside over the European Parliament, in 1979.
📍 Assemblée Nationale – 33 quai d’Orsay, 75007 Paris
We now arrive at Place de la Concorde, formerly Place de la Révolution, where Marie-Antoinette was beheaded on November 3, 1793. Just after her, another female figure was executed: Olympe de Gouges. She was one of the first French feminists, and wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens, one of the great founding texts of modern feminism.
📍 Place de la Concorde – 75008 Paris
From the Chanel boutique to Place Colette
It’s impossible to talk about the women who have left their mark on Paris without mentioning Coco Chanel! A visionary designer and couturier, she liberated women’s bodies with more comfortable silhouettes. Her modern looks, liberated from the shackles of the past and infused with masculine accents, forged a style that has become timeless. Don’t miss the Chanel boutique on rue Cambon, a symbol of her influence.
📍 Chanel boutique – 31 rue Cambon, 75001 Paris
Finally, we end our stroll around the Palais Royal with Place Colette, in the heart of the 1ᵉʳ arrondissement. An iconic author, Colette revolutionized literature with her unique style and groundbreaking 20th-century subjects. This profoundly free woman defended sexual identity, abortion and violence against women.
📍 Place Colette – rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris