page_title: Paris in World War I
section_title: Daily Life
hierarchical_section_title: Paris in World War I / Daily Life
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Maximilien Luce, La Gare de l'Est sous la neige, 1917. Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu à Mantes-la-Jolie (exposition 1917 au Centre Pompidou-Metz)
context_page_description: Parisians entered the First World War in August 1914 on a wave of patriotic fervor, but within a few weeks Paris was close to the front lines and bombarded by German aircraft and artillery. The Parisians endured food shortages, rationing, and an epidemic of influenza, but morale remained high until near the end of the war. With the departure of young men to the front lines, women took a much greater place in the work force. The city also saw a large influx of immigrants who came to work in the defense factories. The end of the war on November 11, 1918 saw huge celebrations on the boulevards of Paris.
context_section_description: The Parisians gradually adjusted to the life of a city at war. Avenue de l'Allemagne was renamed Avenue Jean-Jaurés, and the Rue de Berlin became the Rue de Liège. The Grand Palais was converted to a military hospital. After a brief interruption, the theaters of Paris reopened, presenting plays with patriotic themes, and the cafés-concerts, which offered music, food and dancing, were crowded.
  As it became evident that the war would be long, the government began to take over the system of food distribution in the city. A law of October 1915 allowed the state to requisition wheat and other grains at a price fixed by the government. In 1916, the controls were extended to milk, sugar and eggs. A Ministry of Food Supply was created in 1917 to better control the distribution, and to tax the food products to limit consumption. In May 1916, sugar was taxed at 1.3 francs per kilo, while margarine, which had largely replaced extremely-scarce butter, was taxed from 2.70 to 3.10 francs per kilo. A standard loaf of bread, called the pain national ("national bread"), was introduced in June 29, 1916; it was made with a more rustic flour than the traditional Parisian white loaf. Restrictions were tightened even further on February 25, 1917, with the requirement that only a single type of loaf of bread could be sold; it weighed seven hundred grams, was eighty centimeters long, and was sold twenty-four hours after it was baked. Special breads and brioches were forbidden. Other food staples were also rationed; the municipal council provided a ration of 135 grams of potatoes per day per person to poor families. 
  Reliable sources of electricity and heat for the city population was another urgent need; the major coal mines of northern France were to the north behind the German lines. The problem was especially urgent during the bitterly cold winter of 1916-17, when temperatures fell to seven degrees below zero Celsius. The municipality reserved supplies of coal for the elderly, the unemployed, and the families of mobilized soldiers; they were permitted a fifty kilogram sack of coal every forty days for a payment of 4.75 francs. Shortages of coal also limited the generation of electricity, and sometimes the tram lines could not operate for lack of power.
  As men were drafted into the army, women frequently took their place, first as teachers and ticket clerks on the metro and tramways, then for factory working. By 1916, they were driving streetcars; on June 1, 1917, the first women mail carriers began delivering letters in the 10th and 17th arrondissements. Parisian fashions were modified for the benefit of working women; skirts were made shorter, and corsets were made less tight. New words entered the French language: a factrice for a woman postman; a conductrice for a woman tram driver, and a munitionnette for a woman working in a munitions factory. The first business school for women, the Ècole de Haute Enseignement Commercial, opened on December 2, 1915.
  While the government stressed efficiency and the maximization of supplies for the army, the working class was largely committed to a traditional sense of consumer rights, whereby it was the duty of the government to provide the basic food, housing and fuel for the city. There was also a sense that hoarding and profiteering were evils that citizens should organize to combat.
caption: The Gare de l'Est during snowfall (1917)
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