Do you have a permit for those pants?

Someone (who may even be reading this right now) shared this interesting little tid bit with me last week:

COURTESY OF Paris Daily Photo (Posted by Eric Tenin)

(which is a superb little blog that you all should check out, daily.. as the name states of course!) 

This woman is a dangerous outlaw, can you guess why? No, she did not rob a bank and put all the money in her purse(!), she simply wears pants and this, ladies and gentlemen, in France is forbidden! Yep. In November 1799, a law was passed saying that all women willing to "dress like a man" should first go to the Police and ask for a written permission! The sad part is that even though in 1892 et 1909 two very liberal laws allowing women to wear pants "under certain conditions" (horse or bicycle riding) were passed, it is still officially forbidden for women to "dress like a man"! Recently a few people from the Paris council asked that the law be removed, but the authorities replied that they were more urgent matters than this. Which is true, as, as you can guess, nowadays this law is no longer applied!

Even a week later I still wonder what would happen if they started to enforce this law throughout the city. I know there are lots of really random old laws that still exist out there .... for example .... 


In Athens, Greece, a driver's license can be taken away if the driver is thought to be either "poorly dressed" or "unbathed... In Florida it is illegal to fart in a public place after 6PM on Thursdays... In Switzerland it is illegal for a man to relieve himself standing up after 10PM... In Massachusetts it is illegal for a woman to be on top during sexual activity and it is illegal to go to bed without first having a bath... In the UK ith the exception of carrots, most goods may not be sold on Sunday... But back to the pants.


I found this law particularly interesting - in the months before I moved over to Paris I stressed on an almost daily basis on what I was going to pack for clothing, what was ok to wear, what was stylish enough, what was too "American" and what was just plain old not allowed in Paris... In all of my Google searches about  fashion and what was hot at the time (the time being almost 5 months ago.. can you believe that one... because it feels like yesterday. TANGENT.. oops) this law never popped up.