During World War I, the French built a “fake Paris”

15 Jun 2021

During World War I, the French built a “fake Paris”

During World War I, the French built a “fake Paris”The period of the beginning of the 20th century in Paris was known as "Belle Epoch" in Paris. This literally means "the beautiful era". During this period, Paris was famous for its culture, art, paintings, and beauty. But in 1917, the city was on high alert as it looked like Germany might attack. So, the French authority, to save the beautiful city Paris from damage, built a "fake Paris".

This was the time of World War I and the Germans were becoming very aggressive.  Hence, they started sending zeppelin airships stealthily into the France territory during nighttime. Moreover, they were trying to attack civilian cities. The Parisians could smell the danger and they were determined to face it bravely.

Parisians stacked up sandbags preparing for the raids and taped up the windows of small shops, often creating designs that are truly works of art. But bomb threats and increased attacks were troubling them. They wanted to protect Paris from this damage.

So, in the beginning, a wild idea came into the mind of the authorities. They thought to build a duplicate Paris outside the city. They wanted to fool the Germans into dropping the destructive weapons there. This would ensure that only a few things would get damaged.

In those days, armies did not use radars that much. So, pilots were flying the planes by sight only. Hence when they saw the fake Paris, they couldn't make out that it was fake. An Italian engineer also helped the architects to work on this grand scheme.

However, World War I ended before the fake city was finished. Both the real Paris and the fake one escaped significant damage. The fake version has long since disappeared, though photos of it remain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bhb3e8Bmq4

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