Exposition « C'était Paris en 1970 »

Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP)

The Bibliothèque historique invites you to a new exhibition drawn from its photographic collection « C'était Paris en 1970 ». Immerse yourself in the Paris of the 1970s through photographs taken by amateurs of the time. Heatwave: exceptional opening hours during yellow and red alerts, feel free to check our website here! From 1 June to 7 October 2026, the Bibliothèque historique devotes an exhibition to the photographic collection « C'était Paris en 1970 », born from the competition of the same name. In spring 1970, the Ville de Paris and the Fnac launched a major competition with the stated aim of building up as precise and complete a photographic archive of the capital as possible. For the occasion, Paris was divided into 1,755 virtual squares measuring 250 by 250 metres; each square could be drawn by lot by an amateur photographer who would then carry out a photo report on it. The Bibliothèque historique was chosen to receive the competition's rich output, gathered within a few weeks: 30,000 colour slides and 70,000 black-and-white prints. The exhibition celebrates this plentiful, instructive and moving collection, at once nostalgic for the 1960s and a herald of Seventies modernity. It invites visitors to immerse themselves in these visual archives, witnesses to a Paris that has partly disappeared: streets where children skip rope and freely play cops and robbers, where old folk gather on a bench for a game of belote, where you meet pétanque players in every square and vacant lot. A city ruled by the car under the watchful eye of the "contractuels" (parking wardens), beneath which a maze of underground passages houses the Métro and the young RER lines. A city under construction, all demolition, building and restructuring, where people worried about expropriation just as in Haussmann's day. A city, finally, where news and politics could be read in the printed press, distributed everywhere, and on the walls, covered with posters and graffiti. Alongside exhibition reprints, the public will have access to the entire digitised photograph collection and will thus be able to wander through the capital's various neighbourhoods. An immersive installation will allow visitors to view a selection of slides under conditions comparable to those used in the 1970s. Free admission, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Guided tours by reservation: Ticketing: Guided tour of the exhibition "C'était Paris en 1970" - Billetweb

Source: Paris Open Data ↗