Les Parisiennes: leur vie, leurs amours, leurs combats, 1939-1949

1940, the Germans occupy Paris, a city emptied of men. Coco Chanel closes her boutique and settles in the Ritz. Irene Nemirovsky understands that it is too late to escape her destiny and begins work on her masterpiece, Suite francaise. Germaine Tillion takes part in the beginnings of the Resistance and Simone de Beauvoir acts as if nothing had happened while social life is in full swing around Josee de Chambrun and Corinne Luchaire. At 19 years old, Simone Signoret has no other choice but to work for her family’s lives and Rose Valland, powerless, refuses to assist with the pillage of museums. From cabaret scenes at the Drancy camp to concierge lodges and queues in front of shops, not to mention brothels, the lives of 20 million French women were turned upside down by history. Everything seems to have been said about the period of the Occupation and the years that followed it, but no one had ever mentioned them from the point of view of women. Anne Sebba gives them back their voice in this vast human fresco. [translated from author]